aa-fords.com

I have cut my bed boards 7 3/16 wide. I now need to cut groves for bed strips. Question - how far from the board edge is the grove. How wide and deep is the grove?

Page 28 of this link shows the groove for the platform bed which may be the same as you have.
https://aafordscom.ipage.com/aafords-pdf/185a.pdf

Bob

s147881 wrote: ↑

July 7th, 2018, 8:00 pm

I have cut my bed boards 7 3/16 wide. I now need to cut groves for bed strips. Question - how far from the board edge is the grove. How wide and deep is the grove?

Ford sold five different express bodies. My guess is you have the 89-A?

Your skid strips and side retainers should be used to determine grove location.The skid strips are attached with 5/16" bolts which go between boards. I suggest that you make a couple of test boards long enough to span a couple of the cross sills. Then use your skid strips with 5/16" bolts in place to mark where the groves need to be cut. The groves should be deep enough to allow the bottom of the skid strip to rest on the boards. The same type of process can be used to determine the grove location for the side retainers.

The outside-bottom of the side boards need to be trimmed at an arch to allow the boards to be flat.

Yes - 89A. Thanks - I have some extra boards so I will do a mock up.

Painted bottom of bed in prep for wood installation. IOLA swap the rest of this week. Will cut and install the sills. I have some dried ash I will use for sills and floor.


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Got the wood sills cut and installed today. Picked up a motor at IOLA that had new poured Babbitt mains and rods, bored .080. With fresh turned crank. Complete disassembled engine minus pistons. Only problem was that it had been sitting on bench for 20 years. Cleaned up good and mains and rods had .001 clearances - perfect. Swap meet price - 100 dollars.


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Remember the wood filler inside the #3 side panel support and reinforcement assembly (see photo). Without this filler, the floor boards will not lay flat.

I think this is the dimensions-



Is there wood blocks for frame spacers also?


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Thanks Neil - did not realize this had wood support in it. You don’t have any additional bolts for the mounting hardware - 1/2 - 13 x3 3/8?

bobmay1 wrote: ↑

July 16th, 2018, 12:37 pm

I think this is the dimensions Is there wood blocks for frame spacers also? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bobmay1 - Yes, those are the dimensions of the wood filler on the AAFords.com site. Installation hardware is covered at http://aafords.com/open-bodies/express- ... etails/#ih. Frame spacers are covered - the make up of the frame determines the frame spacer style (there were wood, rivet-on and sleeve styles)

s147881 wrote: ↑

July 16th, 2018, 12:41 pm

Thanks Neil - did not realize this had wood support in it. You don’t have any additional bolts for the mounting hardware - 1/2 - 13 x3 3/8?

s147881, I don't have any of the floor tie strap bolts. Modern day bolts can be used but will not have the 3/8 x 3/4 hex heads. These bolts would need to be machined to look correct (all of the bolt heads show).

Ok thanks

Good progress today - put bed on and rear fenders. Also started the engine for the first time. It ran good.


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I drove truck today at 50 mph for 11 miles. I measured temperatures on worm drive immediately after stopping. Front worm bearing measured on outside of case was 159 degrees f. Rear worm bearing area was 180 degrees f. Is this too warm/hot?

Sweet ride!! I think all is good..

Wife saved me today. Finished wiring and got headlights and tail light working. Took her for a ride. Truck started running really rough and smelled hot. I pulled over and looked in engine compartment for an issue - everything looked ok. My wife informed me that there was smoke coming from under truck. I rolled under and smoke was coming from tail light switch. I jumped in truck and put a little brake peddle down and she started running good and amp meter was no longer pegged out. Drove home and found brake switch completely burned up. I guess I should have spent the 7.50 for a new one. Wiring was hot but ok.


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