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1956 Ford F-100 Panel Van I bought my F-100 panel van at a swap meet in Northern California in 2000. It was built at the Richmond Virginia plant & looked as though it had been in California since then. I shipped it in 2005 via John Reid so it’s been a 5-year build time to this point! It was pretty straight, had a pair of front wings that had been changed at some time, as they were different colours under the light grey primered finish. I suspect this was done at the same time as slight damage to the right hand frame horn & slam panel got roughly straighten after a bump. Thanks to Bruce Smith for a great job sorting out the afore mentioned slam panel. There was one small patch of rust on the whole vehicle. The front suspension is Jaguar JX series 2/3 with vented discs & four pot caliphs. I was lucky to get a new left hand drive steering rack though in retrospect I should have converted it to right hand drive as acute left hand junctions as difficult due to restricted rear vision. I even had a spare speedometer cowl from a donor pick up in “Memory Lane” in LA. The Jaguar cross member fitted very easily with almost no modification. I added a full plate of 3-mm mild steel to the base of the cross member as I feel it is a potential weak spot. The standard rubber mounts were used & the dampers replaced with new Monroe/Jaguar units. Bolt in towers were used to provide top mount for them. The steering rack connects to the “Ididt” tilt column via stainless steel Borgeson U.J.s & a custom made stainless steel “DD”. I am changing this to a Jaguar sliding link, which appears to have replaced the old double UJ system as I feel it will work better with the rubber cross-member mounts. The rear suspension is based on an 8” Ford axle again from “Memory Lane” currently fitted with a 3.54:1 diff ratio from the Northern  swap meet. The jury is still out on this one as the truck feels as though it could use a higher gear at the moment. That could change when I start towing the load-lugger. I still have the 3:1 gear set’ which was original fitted to the axle. 2” lowered reversed eye springs locate the axle but I have fitted air bags & an on board compressor for fully loaded conditions. A supposedly dedicated rear anti-roll bar kit took about a month of after hours  work to fit. I finished up changing all the linkage & re-designing all the mounting brackets to get it to fit the available space & work properly. The standard prop shaft was refitted after I had changed the rear UJ for a special one that fits the 8” diff yoke. Dave Hicks of “Bugseys” did the bodywork & painted the finish body in Toyota Island Green. I have a pair of Recaro seats and a centre consul that has been reworked to fit between the seats. I am not sure how I will finish the rear interior though there is a removable grill between the front seats and the load area to stop us getting killed by the stock! The heater is a large English Smiths unit of unknown type with the original F-100 front panel chrome plated and fitted. You can not see them in the photo but I fitted a pair of central heating bleed valves into the pipe work feeding the heater at their highest point to ensure that there is no  air in the system. The glove box in the dash board was rebuilt with a new inning, door springs and rubber bumpers and an LED light added. More LED interior lamps were added to the “A” post kick panels for increased night time use. They are controlled by door switches and give a nice white light. A pair of our F-100 door pockets was added in place of the door access panels. The windscreen washer pump was fitted into the right hand “A” post though it may be moved up behind the dash to improve its performance. The left hand “A” post area contains the heavy duty Jaguar/Lucas two speed wiper motor, it could do with a change of gear wheel as the wiper arcs are a bit too wide. The spaces either side of the rear wheel  arches are put to use with the front pair housing motors for a dead locking system. The offside rear has an onboard compressor fitted the supply the rear suspension over load air bags. There is a take off to supply compressed air for pumping up tyres or air beds. The nearside compartment houses tools and a heavy duty jack. The upper rear inner sides will at some stage probably be fitted with wood panels & copious sound deadening. A lot of work was done under the van with a 2.25” diameter stainless steel exhaust system fitted using a pair of front pipes joined together with a special “Y” type header junction.  An Edelbrock “R. P. M. stainless steel oval silencer was used in the main pipe suspended out side of the chassis rails and all joints were made using our triangular flanges. The inner running board panels hide the system from the side and allow it to sit high up out of harms way. Due to the changes to the rear suspension and the adding of a very heavy towing hitch a new spare wheel carrier was constructed, which had to have a complicated lever system to allow it to be wound down enough to get the wheel out and still be operated by a wheel nut spanner though the base of the rear door slam panel. The cylinder heads have just been overhauled with a 3 angle valve seat job, reconditioned exhaust valve guides and all the top end gaskets changed. To be continued...

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