When we begin to see a pattern develop of a certain type of vehicle appearing for sale with some regularity, I always check to see if the seller is a vendor that’s dabbling in one genre of car or truck. Sure enough, after profiling an awfully honest GMC 3100, my feelings of deja vu for this latest farm truck find were confirmed. Apparently, the seller has a lock on heavily-patina’d farm trucks from the Midwest, and his latest find is a lovely 1952 Ford F3 listed here on eBay with bidding over $2K and no reserve.
The seller claims the truck retains all-original sheet metal, which is impressive for any vehicle designed to receive only crude repairs when cosmetic blights appear. The weathered exterior seems to be this seller’s calling card, and it works well on old farm trucks like this. The classic F3 lines with its boxy fenders and toothy grill are impossible to mistake for another marque, and it’s great to see the tailgate and hubcaps still present (although the former isn’t original to the truck).
Some cracks are noted in the fenders, but no rust like most of them tend to do where the fenders meet the body. The seller also claims the bed has no rust, nor do the running boards. The F3 comes with the desirable flathead V8 and the seller confirms that when hooked up to power, it will try and slowly turn over. It hasn’t run in 10 years, so some amount of due diligence is needed before attempting to fire it up. On a positive note, the seller says it holds coolant and has no major leaks.
The one photo of the seat in the eBay gallery shows a bench that will need re-upholstery, but that’s to be expected for a truck of this vintage and condition. A new windshield is also needed, or you could live with and see how long you can escape the local vehicle inspection warden. The dash is a simple affair with no signs of alteration or damage, and aside from an upholstery job and new glass, there’s not much I’d change inside or out. We’ll be waiting for the next farm truck this seller digs up.
Another Sweetgrass special. Looks like another good unit to snap up. Lots of work to do but you could see if you could get this running and actually use it as a truck while you fix it up. Engine looks like either a period Ford Rebuilt or it could’ve been yanked out of a ’52-’53 passenger car. Both engines were orange while the original truck engine would’ve been red. Starting around ’52 this model started to fade away from the Sweetgrass region as the farms grew and the tonners gave way to larger trucks. But I still like the tonners. I remember as a kid, a couple of these were actually used as a family car on Sundays. If it was summer you could put the bigger kids in the back but in the winter I saw the mom and dad and four kids all wedged into that small cab. Well, I’d better get onto something else because I’m liable to do something that my wife won’t approve of. That truck is just too close to home…
This is a Canadian built truck from Western Canada. The engine has a Donaldson air cleaner and the longer oil filter canister unique to Canadian trucks. U.S. built trucks may have red engines but Canadian built trucks had green for 1952. This seller specializes in finding old trucks in Western Canada.
Wow, this body is in great shape. My 1952 1/2 ton has better paint but the fenders and box are in bad shape, lots of rust and dings but in the summer it is my daily driver and still hauls a load. I am not a fan of the bigger trucks but this one could be a real workhorse as you said, geomechs, get it roadworthy and put it to work.