About the only thing cooler than pickup trucks from the 1950s are their covered cousins, the panel truck, which Ford claimed would “protect your cargo in style.” Here’s a 1949 Ford F-1 panel truck survivor that’s still earning its keep on a farm in Iowa. The seller shares that it’s been in his personal collection for five years and that he uses it mainly around his farm and for driving to local trout streams. How Americana is that? Currently located in Waukon, Iowa and for sale here on eBay, the panel truck’s top bid as of this writing was $2,950, which, no surprise, hasn’t met the seller’s reserve. The seller also includes an eight-minute video that shows him driving the old panel truck on gravel roads, starting it up and letting you see and hear the flathead V8, and finishes with a photo montage set to music. Another thank you for T.J. who spotting this one and sending it our way to feature.
Based on the photos and video and description, it’s definitely driver survivor quality that’s far from perfect, but it looks solid and straight and a good candidate to restore, modify, or enjoy as is with a little bit of work. Its current two-tone paint job of black and dark green is also driver quality but I’m not spotting rust or any major concerns. On the imperfection side, you can see the typical workhorse dents and bumps, plus the front bumper is bent down, some of the glass is cracked and getting milky, one taillight is busted, and there’s a mishmash of dog dish hubcaps on what are described as “usable farm-type tires.” It’ll need brake work as the seller confesses that “The brakes stop the truck okay but you have to pump them once to get a good pedal. It is fine for country driving like I use it for, but you would want to upgrade them if you are using it in a city/busy town driving.”
Inside the F-1 is your typical metal spartan cabin of the era that doesn’t look too bad for a 73-year-old truck. The seat will obviously need attention and should be reupholstered and the floors look solid (the driver’s side has had some work done on it). The seller states that the lights turn on, but the speedometer doesn’t work as well as some of the gauges that “come and go.”
“The flat head v8 starts right up and runs smooth. The 3 speed on the floor shifts great.” That’s how the seller describes the engine and transmission. Checking the numbers on the data plate photo, this F-1 did indeed leave the factory with a V8 and it looks to be original and not monkeyed with. In addition to the photos and video, the seller gives his phone number and says to call him with any questions. He also ended the ad description aptly by saying, “While not restored, this is a panel truck you can start to use and have fun with while you take it to whatever level you want.” I love this cool old survivor panel truck that may have hauled and delivered eggs, produce, or other farm food back in the day. If you happen to be the next lucky owner, what would you do with it? Keep it as is? Restore it? Modify it?
never modify
restore maybe
certainly preserve
First thing after getting the brakes done would be to add some wipers.
Didn’t see any in the video. You’ll need ’em here in Florida during the rainy season. One thing’s for sure, it
would never run out of uses around
our house.
That engine looks like it could be an earlier model. From what I remember, the ’49s had the water outlets near the front of the cylinder heads and the distributor on the right side at the front of the block.
I’ll bet if you adjusted the brake shoes or replaced them the original brakes would work just fine.
Crew chief thinks it would make a good grocery getter.
Wish I found this one 10 years earlier when my Ford Ranger quit after 225K miles. It quit then I quit.
That would make a nifty conversion van.
Someone’s made some underhood mods. There originally would have been a “posthole” distributor at the front of the passenger side cylinder head. And, the original heads had the thermostats and coolant outlets at the front, not at the center.
I think the PVC pipe fittings are NOS, though. ;-)
The ’48 Merc engine we put into my ’32 5 window looked identical to this engine. Could it be an overun of the ’48s into ’49 until they were gone?
Most definitely preserve any changes (err aah) modifications should be only to preserve the originality. It did come with straight clean surfaces so returning it to such condition with the original color would not be overly objectionable. I had a 49 PU that I did just that with retaining all of the original adornments (not many) and replacing the floor in the bed with distressed planks just sealed for preservation purposes. It looked good and looked its age you know LIKE ME and it ran as originally intended (not like me).
It’s interesting that I saw a lot more panels in the Jailbar models than I did in this version. Even the F-100 was more common. And I would like this one at my place. Lots of uses besides looking good.
Growing up as a border brat I got to see the offerings from both sides. The first Canadian versions of this body style used some 59AB engines before the 8BA was actually available. I saw quite a few ’48 F-47/M-47 trucks with the old front distributor but I never saw an F-1 with anything but an 8BA. Kind of interesting to see a 59 AB engine in this one. I guess that maybe you use whatever is available. If this came my way, I would be able to solve that problem rather quickly, and it would solve another problem I’ve got.
this is an earlier model V-8. 49 up had water outlets in the front of heads and distributor on the front of the right front cylinder head. Meaning 85 horse instead of 100,
VT house mate (’76?) had one. How many yrs did they make this thing (till ’60? ’56?)? I thoght he said his was a ’52? May B it was a dodge? Mmmm, dont get ol guys, it’s not just the body that ‘goes’~
I DO remember when standing on curb at the back, loadin dogs’n groceries, it sure seemed a long way to the ‘van’s top’. These guys arent small. Gimmie da sedan delivery most daze~
Yes, as geomecs said above, the engine shown is a 59-AB which was 85 HP. Possibly the end run at the assembly plant used the engine from the past models to fill an order. I pulled many of these out of older fords and put in the 8-BA for the 100 HP. If you could fine a Mercury of that year, they were 110 HP. Back then it was a very big improvement. Leon