Here’s what the truck looked like when I bought it. Most of the engineering for the tilt cab & dump bed were completed. It needed to have everything gone through as it was just mocked up and most everything was either loose or not completely finished. I felt very lucky to be bestowed with this special truck that my friend Lundahl Morris had put together.
This is what makes this truck so special. The “Swiss Army Knife” of the Forward Control world! It really draws interest because you can really see the inner workings of the truck close-up. Unfortunately, since you can see everything, the cosmetic restoration of the truck is quite the undertaking. It runs the stock FC-150 drivetrain and has the added amenities of a PTO Koenig front winch, a rear PTO with a drum pulley, and a Warn Overdrive.
After getting the truck running and stopping my next step was building the Oak stakes for the Stakebed. All new metal uprights also had to be made.
One problem with the truck was that even though both the cab & bed were painted green, they were different shades that didn’t complement each other. My plan was to keep the cab color and paint the bed, gas tank, and battery box black along with the vertical stakes on the bed. Here I am stripping down the bed.
Here is the bed with the wood stripped off. You can see the difference in the colors a little better here.