My favorite old truck body style!

[Power Hungry]

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved the old Ford C-Series body style. It would always crack me up as when looking at it from the front, it always seems to make a frowny face. -> <- You know the truck. They were used as firetrucks, garbage trucks, Roadway (Orange and Blue) delivery trucks, and many other applications.

Well, a couple years ago I was looking for one such monster and realized that they're getting harder to find. I mean, they stopped making them in 1990 (after an impressive 34 year run, I might add), so finding one in good condition after at least 25 years they stopped being made was getting tough.

One of the things that I realized was that many firetrucks came on the C-Series chassis, and that firetrucks are usually very well maintained... At least better than normal road trucks. Plus, they don't usually accumulate much mileage, just a fair amount of engine hours.

Thanks to govdeals.com, I was able to locate one on auction about 2 hours from my house that was in pretty good shape. This is "Penny". She is a 1979 FMC Pumper with minimal rust, 427 Big Block Ford engine, and a 5 Spd. Manual. I was pretty much the only bid on it and picked it up pretty cheap. It needed a little work, but that was fine. I had no problem handling that. As you can see from the photos, I did an in-frame overhaul and then added a few mods to perk things up a bit. And don't laugh about the tach on the dash. It was a temporary fix while I sent the factory tach out to be rebuilt.

Everything on the truck works (lights, pump, siren) and it's a blast to drive around town. It works well for Home Depot trips as the hose bed up top will hold 12 ft lengths of lumber or pipe without any issue. I redid the flooring, the headliner, and will be repainting the cob (inside and out) soon.

This is the first of 3 trucks I know own. I'll post up the others shortly.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

[cleatus12r]

I spent my junior-high and high school summers driving two of these carting 400-500 bushels of wheat from the field to a granary or town.

One was 361-powered and the other had a 292. What's really sad is that the 361-powered truck would run circles around the third truck with a 534.

[Power Hungry]

Originally Posted by cleatus12r

One was 361-powered and the other had a 292. What's really sad is that the 361-powered truck would run circles around the third truck with a 534.

The 534, while a mountain of a motor in regards to both displacement as well as physical size, really wasn't all that great. With a narrow powerband, it was really only good for exceptionally heavy loads where gearing could be utilized to take advantage of the 500 Ft. Lbs. of torque it made. Peak HP was really sad, though. That, and the fact that it only got about 4 MPG made it useful only for local deliveries as it had no reasonable driving range.

The FT Blocks (330, 361, & 391)were great workhorses. The FTs (basically a truck version of the FE), while not big on HP, were still solid engines and very prolific in the Ford truck lineup. They'd last virtually forever.

As for the Lincoln Y Blocks (279, 302, 317, & 332), those were great engines as well. While different from the Y Block used in the cars (272, 292 and 312, most notably), they were very deep skirted, solid engines that made good power for the displacements.

It's really cool what Ford was able to do with these trucks back in the day. They may not have been fast, but then nobody was really in a hurry anyway.

[cleatus12r]

Yeah, the 534s were gutless turds. I helped put this one together and install it. A 3126 Caterpillar would have been cheaper than rebuilding the gasser.

It amazed me that a 534" engine had exhaust ports the size of a 302 and that it had an intake manifold setup like a 7.3L and for transferring air AND fuel is HORRENDOUS.

Back in high school I built a ratty little 352 for a '74 F-100 I had. I had a 361 crankshaft laying around that I was going to machine to fit the FE front cover until I weighed it. That forged steel crank was 74 lbs. and the iron crank was 56 lbs. It didn't take me long to scratch that idea!

[Power Hungry]

Those forged cranks are beefy for sure, but they were also internally balanced whereas (I believe) the light duty FE blocks were externally balanced. That, combined with the fact that these were med/heavy duty engines and that explains the extra 20 Lbs. The balancers on the light duty were typically much bigger and heavier and the flywheels were weighted as well. In the end, I don't know if it saved anything sticking with the iron crank.

[cleatus12r]

I think the only real drawbacks to these trucks are the sloppy shifter linkage (the guy who engineered that was a genius) when they wear out and the 10.00x20 tires that are hard to find that go on the "Chicago Wobbler" tube-style Dayton wheels that suck really bad.

There are three of those things at work (although they're tubeless 9.75 and 8.25x22.5s) and two at home that are the 20's. I know shipping would kill you but do you want front disc brakes for that? I have an axle that'll go right in.

[MiguelsCar]

Driving a fire truck is one of my dreams. You did a job well done on maintaining and upgrading this truck.

[Power Hungry]

Thanks! The fact that it was a firetruck was actually a secondary benefit. I was actually just looking for a C-Series Ford truck, but as it turns out about the only way to find a decent one is as a firetruck. They are almost always well maintained and kept indoors. I really like that body style, and it is really cool having a firetruck of my own.