Slick 60's

I posted these to the Slick60s Facebook group a couple days ago, and thought I'd also start a thread here to share with those of you who don't visit there.



This '62 F100 wrongbed has been parked next to the local school forever. I've driven by it almost every day for more than 20 years, and though I know the owner, I've never asked him about it. Well, my father-in-law bought it the other day, apparently just for the steel wheels, which will replace the aftermarket wheels on his '63 unibed....and wants to just give me the truck, after he pulls the wheels and replaces them with the wheels/tires currently on his uni.

As I drove by it again a couple days ago I stopped for about two minutes and snapped a couple quick pics. (Would have done a few more, but we got our first snowstorm of the season last night and with 40 MPH winds it was COLD!) Seems to be a base model with a 223 and column-shift 3-speed, converted to floor shift. Though it looks good from the outside, it's got some pretty severe rot in the floor.



As you can see, the cab steps are almost non-existent (both sides) and the driver's door sagged 4 inches when I opened it...appears to be a broken lower hinge:

From what I understood, it was being driven until something broke in the steering column. They welded it but it didn't hold, so they parked it. I haven't looked at it yet, but I now understand it's the steering box that's shot.

Here are a few more shots:







Well, today my father-in-law brought the truck out to our place. It had a flat tire so it couldn't be rolled off the trailer, so we just hooked it to a tree and pulled the trailer out from under it.



Then we got it up on blocks and got the wheels/tires pulled. I noticed then that these steel wheels have the '66-up 'outie' style of hubcap, and it was the earlier 'innie' style of wheel that he needed, so I'm not sure what he's going to do. They'll still look more period-correct than the mags he's got on his uni now, but...oh well. He still said he's going to bring some wheels/tires to put back on it...kinda keeping my fingers crossed he brings his mags.



...and here's a shot of my new (to me) Slick alongside my '68 SWB 4x4 choptop project. My other '67 2WD SWB project is parked inside the barn.



At this point I'm not really sure what my plans are for this truck. It's actually very complete, so aside from replacing a steering box and a lower R/S door hinge, it could conceivably be driveable with very little effort. I'm kinda thinking this would just be a fun beater to occasionally go cruising in as-is. I'll definitely be going through all the fluids, brakes, etc. first, and since my eldest son has been wanting to learn to drive a stick, this just might be what he learns with.

While I'm very knowledgeable on bumpsides and dentsides, with this being the first pre-'67 truck I've owned, I'll be asking more than my share of stupid newb questions from you all in the coming days. Thanks in advance!

Looks like a great start for the hobby.. If you do the dual master cylinder, new brake lines, and whell slave cylinders you will NEVER regret it..and be so much safer... Its not even an expensive improvement either.

There is a lot of truck there and will probably drive / last forever once you get its steering fixed. Heaven knows if you run an old stock 6 you can probably pick up spare running motors for next to nothing.

The truck looks pretty good from the pics. Once tuned up it'd make a nice truck to bum around town in.

What are those black knobs on the dash for?

Just send the steering box out to RockAuto for rebuild. They did an awesome job on mine!

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 29&jsn=423



What are those round things on the dash where the radio would go?
I would suspect your cab mounts are bad. Just looking at the photos and you can see the front clip sinking down where it reaches the cab.

Well, it might LOOK like it's in decent shape, but take a look at the floorpans and cab mounts:

DRIVER'S SIDE:







PASSENGER SIDE:



As you can see, they're pretty bad. Even if I just drive it as-is, I'm going to have to do something with these problem areas. I doubt I'll go so far as to cut it all out and weld in new metal. For this, I'll probably just cut up a large road sign I have and shape it to fit across the floorboards and partially up the kick panel area on the inside and bolt it down. Yeah, I know...but this truck is nearing the end of it's life, and I've already got several other project trucks, so I'm just gonna do what absolutely has to be done.

ThinLizzy13 wrote:...What are those black knobs on the dash for?

Those are actually the radio controls! Between the knobs, on the back side of the dash, is the radio, but the receiver components aren't enclosed in a box...they're just out on what appears to be a flat piece of metal.





I wasn't able to get a decent pic of it with my phone, I'll try later with my good digital and a droplight. Anybody seen a radio like this before?

Oh...and as for the steering box: I'm not sure that's what it is now. I can actually pull the whole steering wheel and shaft out of the column! Well, not all the way out, as there wasn't room in the cab to slide it all the way out so I could examine the end of the shaft. I'm not sure if it became disconnected from the box or maybe the very end of the shaft broke off. How does the shaft connect to the steering box anyway?

FORDification wrote:For this, I'll probably just cut up a large road sign I have and shape it to fit across the floorboards and partially up the kick panel area on the inside and bolt it down. Yeah, I know...but this truck is nearing the end of it's life, and I've already got several other project trucks, so I'm just gonna do what absolutely has to be done.

I had a rusted out '82 I bought for next to nothing with rust exactly like that on the floor. Covered it up with a rivet gun and some spare sheet metal I had laying around. Whatever it takes to keep it going

I've never come across a radio like that. It's pretty neat though. It almost looks like instead of cutting a face for the radio, they just put the numbers on the knobs? Or maybe it's aftermarket?

As for the steering column I believe it's something funky. From what I've seen it almost looks like the steering shaft and steering box are supposed to be one unit - "steering shaft and worm assembly"

Sounds like the shaft snapped off from the weight of the sinking cab. Shaft is part of the box assembly. Attempted to replace my shaft with an LMC shaft. Found the tooth block was cut wrong. Returned to lmc and repaired my bearing races on my shaft.

You may be able to use a 68 column tube with lower shaft bearing, and add a universal joint where the shaft snapped. The time consuming part is adding the double d flats to the shaft for u joint mounting.

It's definitely an older radio...it's got small vacuum tubes. One of them appeared to say 'Motorola' on it.

Yeah, I'm already running some redneck-repair ideas around in my mind on the cheapest and quickest way to reinforce the floorpan a little and raise it back up. I've got a lot of spare bumpside parts, so I'll figure something out by springtime. (Right now I don't have a shop, so it's gonna have to sit till warmer weather.)

Too bad, Keith.. check the parts threads here and on Facebook.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/485825684787362/ if you need approval there I'll be happy to do it.
I threw away a perfectly good steering box/column like you need when I went to rack and pinion , I am sure there are dozens if not hundreds more who have one.

Also member 6166 Junkyard Dog (just Tom) is a great source of parts and a well-respected member of this club for the duration.