Alright, never been one for telling my own story but here goes...
I am 17. That might come as a shock to most of you but oh well. Anyway, this is the story of how I got my most recent (at the time of this post. I surely do intend on getting an actual big bolt one day...) acquisition.
About a month ago, give or take a few days, I threw up an ad on craigslist wanting to trade my 1941 Farmall H for a big bolt. I said it didn't need to run or drive, just needed to be decently complete. My intentions for a big bolt were to yank the original 235 or some such engine out and shoe-horn in a cummins with a 5 speed.
Suffice to say, that is not what happened. A few days go by as I stare at my email waiting for someone to email me when, while sitting in class, my smart (more like dumb) phone goes off with a electronic
ping indicating I had gotten an email.
So, after I was well out of the teacher's eye sight I opened my email and found something interesting.
A guy had emailed me asking if I would be interested in a 1948 Federal. I thought "Gee, I have never heard of a federal, wonder what it looks like..." So, I opened up google and typed in the truck and came up with about 6 different pictures. I'm sure you guys know that when google images only reports 6 pictures back on something, it is decently rare.
My curiosity piqued I decided to humor the guy and asked for pictures. At this time I actually had him on the phone and he said he would look for his photobucket account and send the links to me.
After only an hour of waiting another
ping goes off. I check the email and this is what I see...
the first sighting From that point on I was pretty much set on getting it. It was in extremely good shape with, supposedly, about 5k on it. Now I might not believe that at the speedo cable has been disconnected but oh well. Anyway, from all the pictures he showed me it was as complete as complete could get, along with all the paperwork that goes with it.
He goes on to tell me the sotry about how he got it. I said it has been owned by two people besides himself. Other then the original owner, a fire department in North Dakota of course. He said that the first owner had only driven it in parades and such in the 70s before being sold to another guy that had WAY to much stuff.
It sat from then on to about the early 90s when the fella died. At that point the guy I know bought it. He brought it home and also let it sit as he also had to many projects. Then, in 1997, the Grand Forks flood submerged the truck. The guy said it was one of the saddest sights he has seen, before or since.
He said at that point he had pretty much lost interest, figuring it was near unrestorable. He did of course take the time to drain all the fluids out of the engine, tranny and rear end to evacuate all the water and river contaminants from the truck.
About a week after the first phone call me and my grandfather took the hour and a half trip to the guys house and took a look see at it. Just looking at it and being able to physically touch it cemented my decision in my mind. It was going to be mine.
He then showed us all the paperwork that went with the truck, including the original manual and two titles... yes two. He told us the story about those as well but I figure it would be to boring and drawn out. The last words we said to each other that day were, "We will wait for a nice day to do the deal."
3 days later he emails me with pictures...
Loaded He then said that he was thinking the next sunday was as good a day as any.
He brought it over, towed behind a 70s Ford 7000 powered by a cat 3801. I laughed seeing it come down the road trailed by a massive cloud of smoke.
After the tractor took it's place on the trailer he handed by the paperwork and 4 buckets of parts along with a box of brake booster parts. It was a basket-case but I felt I was up to the challenge. Once he left, me and my dad pulled the truck back to where it sits now, languishing far behind the house.
The Federal The powerplant the "luxurious" interior 3 days later me and my grandfather tinkered with it enough and actually got it started, but without a working fuel system we couldn't really keep it running for long. But, for how long we did have it running I was able to check the transmission and rear end. They both work but are going to need new fluids as both are dry, at least as far as I know.
That leads us up to about where we are now other then the fact I was able to rig up the fuel pump and get it working...
It Runs!!! So, as an afterward I thank everyone for hosting such an awesome site and hope everyone has a great day/evening. Thanks everyone and see ya'll out on the forums!
-Austin
