FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => Member Projects => Topic started by: thatdarncat on August 31, 2018, 03:21:48 PM
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My good friend Bradford and I grew up in Baudette Minnesota, right on the Canadian border. Bradford was born there, I moved up there with my family for my high school years. Recently Bradford and his son Alex were back in Baudette for a relative's wedding, and while there they drug home a new project. This 1970 F250 Crew Cab originally belonged to the CN ( Canadian National ) Railroad, and was FE powered. One of Bradford's brothers, Mark, owned it later, then parked it. Alex is now the new owner. Plans right now are just to get it running & driving again. When Bradford gets me the data plate info I'll post it here, and hopefully Alex will send away for the Marti report, I think it will be interesting, and we can post that later too. Bradford & Alex lurk on the forum here, hopefully they can add to this thread in the future as the project advances. Just for a little more on the history, Baudette Mn. is separated from Canada by the Rainy River, and right near Lake Of The Woods. The CN Railroad line enters Minnesota from the town of Rainy River Canada at Baudette, and runs through the U.S., under Lake Of The Woods, then reenters Canada at Warroad Mn. It is a much shorter route for the train to go under Lake Of The Woods and through the U.S. than to stay in Canada and go over Lake Of The Woods. There is a CN Railroad station in Baudette, although the CN closed it years ago, and it's now a museum. Here's some pictures of the truck, and a picture of the former train station in Baudette.
(https://s5.postimg.cc/kkquwlref/image.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.cc/9xx1r6yon/image.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.cc/vx3gee7t3/image.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.cc/ho3twh66v/image.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/nca4ndaj7/)
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that is a good looking truck , nice comparison between new and old , even have camper shells . why do all of the old train stations look so good ?
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Those are cool trucks and it looks to be 4 wheel drive too.
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Lurking I was and I finally succeeded in logging back in! I've known about the CN truck for a few years and had been trying to buy it from my uncle ever since I saw it. It was last registered in 1985 and was sitting in a field with a tree growing through the front end. Last weekend I was able to make a deal and we extracted it from the field. Plans for now are to just fix what's needed and get it driving again. I have a decent running 4 barrel 390 with C6 that came out of a 76 f250 that I scrapped out a few years ago that I plan to put in for the time being. I have a nice 1967 grille with brush guard that will be installed as well. It needs the usual cab mounts floor pans, core support, and inner fenders, some of which I have laying around, over all it's pretty rough but savable. I do plan on getting the Marti report, but was able to decipher some of the information on the data plate using the information on the fordification website. I know it's a 2x4 style side truck that came from the Ontario Canada plant, was built in June 1970, came with a 2 barrel 360 and c6 with a dana 60 4.10 listed as T.S. locking. The exterior color was left blank but the color in the door jams looks like calypso coral even though that color wasn't available on a truck until 1971. The DSO code is interesting and doesn't seem to match any of the listed locations. The model number and GVW also don't seem to match any of the listed options. I found a couple of old cab cards laying on the floor, the one from 1971 is still readable. I'll try to post updates as the project continues. Here are a couple pictures of where it was the first time we saw it, along with the cab card, and grille that I have set aside for it.
(https://s26.postimg.cc/gfyj50yh5/20150105_132438.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s26.postimg.cc/ars8e51uh/20150105_132349.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s26.postimg.cc/pkb6u1auh/20180901_214815.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s26.postimg.cc/shtwz7i09/20180830_184216.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Alex, glad you made it back to the forum. That's a cool old truck, not too many of those around...
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That's a neat bumpside! And rare one too! Will be keeping an eye on this thread.
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Last weekend I started cleaning and disassembling the cab. While cleaning it out, I found a couple little bits of paper that looked like what was once a build sheet, I also found a cool CN knife behind the rear seat! I started with removing the seats and gas tank, the front seat is in tough shape, the driver side is shreded down to the springs and the seat back is bent a bit. The rear seat is useable as is with a good cleaning, the vinyl is a little hard but will be ok for now. One of the rear seat belts was still wrapped in plastic and somewhat rolled up behind the seat. Then I looked up at the head liner above the rear seat and found some writing that says "What you looking up here for" I thought that was kind of funny. After removing the seat belts, door sill plates and rubber floor mats I pressure washed the inside of the cab. I found a nice clean hood on craigslist that was even the right color orange so I hopped in the 1968 F250 and picked it up for $50! I also managed to acquire a doner cab that has rust free factory cab mounts, along with some good firewall sections. Then a friend of mine was cleaning out his garage and gave me a nice bench seat out of a 90s ford truck, eventually I will fix the original seat, but this one is nice and will work for the time being. Throughout the week I started removing the front clip and placed an order for floor pans and inner rocker pannels. The inner rockers are pretty solid, but the top edge where the floor pan sits is gone in spots on the right side, left side isn't as bad. Today I finished removing the front clip, removed the heater box and the firewall insulation, Then pressure washed the front end and the rest of the underside of the truck. Some more rust was found in spots other than just the toe board above the floor pans, but the doner cab should have most of the needed patch sections. Next step is removing the cab mounts from the doner. Here are a few more pictures.
(https://s26.postimg.cc/sr23q65zd/20180903_155557.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s26.postimg.cc/vl593mnl5/20180903_155544.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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(https://s26.postimg.cc/klk1s1cll/20180902_204039.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Very very cool.
Popcorn out with drool.
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I've been slowly working on repairing the firewall and cab mounts. I haven't done a lot of body work so a lot of this is new to me and it's kind of slow going. I cut out the patch pannels I needed for the firewall along with the cab mounts. I sand blasted the mounts and firewall pieces then painted the insides of the cab mounts. I also recieved the floor pans and inner rockers, unfortunately the LMC inner rockers are wrong and look to fit 1973-1979 trucks but not even close to the 1967-1972s. The channel that the weather strip sits in is nearly a half inch taller then what it should be, and the rear where it kicks up has a protruding triangle stamping that should be flat. Unfortunately LMC is the only company to offer inner rockers so I'll either have to do a lot of cutting and welding on them, or see if I can salvage sections out of a rusty scrap truck I have. I really only needed a small section so I wasn't planning on using the entire pannel anyway. I decided to start on the slightly less rusty side, after I cut out the rusty firewall section and cab mount, I found some more rust by the floor vent where it meets the pinch weld seam. I cut out another patch section and welded it in. I sand blasted the inside of the air vent box and the pinch weld seems then primed and painted. I managed to get the firewall section fitted and welded in, but ran out of time tonight to get the cab mount welded in. Last week I ordered inner fenders, core support, and rubber cab mounts with hardware from Dennis Carpenter, so as soon as I get the cab fixed it should be ready for reassembly.
(https://i.postimg.cc/YSxhcT3Y/20180916_191935.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/HnFL4mYD/20180916_191845.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nhbzXnSq/20180923_183929.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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(https://i.postimg.cc/GtjC914x/20180930_191013.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Nice work! That rare cab is certainly worth the time.
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The driver side firewall section, floor pan, and cab mount are almost done. I cut the old floor pan out along with the rusty section of the inner rocker that the floor pan sits on, made a new inner rocker section and welded it in. The new floor pan didn't fit quite as nicely as I had hoped, but after some relief cuts and persuasion it didn't turn out too bad. I cut out the rotten cab mount frame bracket section and welded in a plate then cut a new hole. After pre fitting the cab mount a few times I ground down the welds on the outside of the floor pan, primed, seam sealed and painted. Tonight I finished grinding the rest of the welds, but I have a couple spots that I want to do some touch up welding on, then I'll start on the other side.
(https://i.postimg.cc/05VJ1GnC/20181008-202723.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9F4z36rW/20181012-232827.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nh54gb2t/20181031-063244.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/kgV8xYmY/20181028-120504.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/mZ8FKWZ6/20181028-142745.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/25D6V08Z/20181030-185623.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/C1bv9J9h/20181031-185327.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Wb79KM2j/20181101-193350.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Those are cool trucks. I have a 77 I'm currently building, and I've had a 66 and 70 before.
As much rust as that has, it's actually still pretty good as far as crewcabs go. Looks like the drip rails and roof skin are ok and those are the worst to repair and usually the first to start rusting! Cool project!
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Cool project....I had a 73 F-250 (FE) for many years.I sold it in 2000 when I bought my 7.3 F-250...I have heard the 73 is back in my old home town again and doing just fine...Great trucks.....
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Nice work man! The rust in the floor was way bad. The pic of the rotted cab perch surprised me too. That truck spent it's winters on some seriously salty roads!
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Neat project.
When I put a "new" cab on my 70 F100 about 30 yrs ago, I found the frame mounts in similar condition. The rubber was holding everything together. I didn't have a welder, so friend brought an old Hobart stick welder over and fixed up the frame mounts. I think bolted the southern cab on. Sure is easy working on.
My '69 I've had for 30 yrs, I did replace the front cab mounts. I pulled cab, set it on the rear wall in the garage on some carpet. I cut the spotwelds and pulled the mounts off. I had made a jig to relocate the holes in the right place. Once it was jigged back up, I was only able to pop rivet it all together and then seam seal it. I had no welder available back then. I've love to tear it all apart and do it up properly.
Don't have any pictures from back then, other then the trucks themselves.
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The passenger side is going good so far, I have the floor, cab mount, and rusty firewall sections cut out. The inner rocker pannel was rotten in a few places so I removed it to work on it. Unfortunately all of the 1967-1972 replacement inner rockers that I've found are re packaged 1973-1979 inner rockers which are similar in shape, but far from correct for 1967-1972s. I removed the inner rocker from the 1978 doner cab and cut it up to make patch sections. I cut the patch section out, welded it flush to the bottom of the weather strip channel, then cut the top off, cut a section off the bottom of the top piece and re welded the top back on to match the height of the original weather strip channel. The lower section of the doner rocker was shorter due to the weather strip channel being taller so I cut the bottom off the patch section, cut a larger bottom section from another area and weld it in. This was repeated in a few other places. The front door pillar section is another piece that had to be somewhat fabricated. Once again all of the pillar patch sections I could find were re packaged 73-79 pillars which aren't right either. I happened to have a 73-79 pillar pannel and ended up cutting the inner edge out, massaging it a bit, cutting the lip off, welding on a larger lip section, welded the patch in, rolled the edge to match and cut off the excess. The front of the door pillar also had some rust spots along with the air vent box. The passenger side cab mount bracket was also rotted in the same places as the driver side. Hopefully will be able to get the inner rocker in soon then on to the firewall and floor.
(https://i.postimg.cc/fL7CvLCw/20181104-003628.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/vT4jmgCH/20181111_182516.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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(https://i.postimg.cc/vTnJSXL6/20181120_205929.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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That cab looks like it was a touch on the ruff side! Looks like you've got it on the run tho, sheetmetal work looks good.
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Looking good. And I understand about the issue of patch panel availability, years ago it was even the same for cars like Mustangs, many of the panels were patterned on the '65-'66 cars, but marketed for all '65-'70's, meaning many had body lines or stiffening ribs in the wrong place, etc. Eventually companies started making more correct parts available. Of course tooling for these stampings are expensive, so many cars have no panels available, in which case you're learning valuable metal fabricating skills ;)
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I love those old crew cabs!
Kevin, how long did it take to dig that tunnel under lake of the woods? Why didn't they just go around it?
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I love those old crew cabs!
Kevin, how long did it take to dig that tunnel under lake of the woods? Why didn't they just go around it?
That is a very good question Joel. How did they keep the tunnel from flooding?
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I love those old crew cabs!
Kevin, how long did it take to dig that tunnel under lake of the woods? Why didn't they just go around it?
That is a very good question Joel. How did they keep the tunnel from flooding?
The “Tunnel” under Lake of the Woods was built in the ‘50’s during the Cold War at the same time the Air Force radar station was being built. It was a top secret project to allow our Canadian allies quick access across the continent to move large military equipment, similar to the US interstate highway system. Keeping the tunnel from flooding wasn’t an issue since Lake of the Woods is frozen 11 months of the year.
Most of this story is of course made up for the benefit of the Mopar guys whose global view is a bit warped anyway ;). The Air Force radar base is true though, anyone interested can read about it in this link:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudette_Air_Force_Station
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After WWII, also during the Cold War, the peat bogs just south of Lake of the Woods county and north of Red Lake were used for military bombing practice and cold weather testing, since the area is second only to Nevada for desolation, with only a stray moose to disturb.
Here's another interesting article on the history of Operation Woosh & Operation Deep Freeze.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/issues/2016/jan-feb/big-bog-SRA.html
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After WWII, also during the Cold War, the peat bogs just south of Lake of the Woods county and north of Red Lake were used for military bombing practice and cold weather testing, since the area is second only to Nevada for desolation, with only a stray moose to disturb.
Here's another interesting article on the history of Operation Woosh & Operation Deep Freeze.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/issues/2016/jan-feb/big-bog-SRA.html
They used a peat bog not far from my house for bombing practice in the 40 and 50s
My father remember seeing the dive bombers practicing. In the 70s they wanted to
drain the bog. After a while the guy driving the excavator thought he saw something
strange when emptying the bucket it was a 50 kg bomb :o they found out he had
dug up a few of them. Most of them just blanks made out of concrete and a steeltube
but at least one live one . The airforce came and searched the bog for bombs
Me and my friend thought long and hard how to get hold of a bomb ;D luckylie, i guess.
We dint managed to
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My fluid mechanics professor in college was a World War II Avenger dive bomber pilot. The Army Air Corps leased a big swath of land from a Texas rancher to set up his flight school's dive bombing range.
The pilots got tired of bombing the practice targets after awhile. They thought it was more fun to bomb the cattle watering holes! :o :o
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Passenger side is starting to look like something again. I still have to make a couple small firewall sections, then ill install the cab mount.
(https://i.postimg.cc/63cC0MjL/20181124_234912.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/CMvjn6fw/20181124_204525.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/wTjCYkP1/20181202_173500.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/JzQCcv7K/20181211_190419.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Nice progress Alex....Is the work being done at your dad's?
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Thanks! and yes, I'm working on the truck and my dad is working on his Torino next to it. I'm sure he will post some progress on his car at some point.
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Looking good Alex! Tell your dad to get his ass in gear on that Torino LOL!
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Great work Alex! Lots of fab work to bring this rusty truck back. The color is the CN Corporate colorapplied to all their vehicles and equipment. Although I don't know the name or code of this color I found mention on the 3rd page of this modeller's paint reference chart:
http://www.microscale.com/Floquil%20Color%20Chart.pdf
Keep us posted on your progress. Thanks, Val.
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Thanks for the complements! It's turning out better than I had expected. A couple weeks ago I purchased a 36" metal brake and a sheet of 18 gauge steel. I made the last missing piece of the firewall with the brake. To my surprise it was easier, and turned out better than I had expected for my first attempt at making a patch panel from scratch. I finished fixing the cab mount frame bracket, and welding and grinding on the floor pan. The cab mount is installed and the cab is finally sitting the way it should! The next step is replacing the outer floor supports and making a couple corner floor pieces above the supports, then I'll call the cab done for now.
Val406 thanks for the color information, I'll have to look into it some more. It's possible the paint code will be listed in the Marti report as well.
(https://i.postimg.cc/dVJgZcGF/20181215_214208.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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You have been busy!!.I have visions that the filing cabinets were once at Univac.People with serious faces and crew cuts using them to keep diabolical secrets from common folk.
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A little tip, try to avoid sharp corners on the patches you weld in
you gets less warping with a round corner. The shrinking tends to
concentrate at a sharp corner. Don't know English well enough to
explain why ::)
I'm not saying you have a lot of warping there just a friendly helpfull
tip