# My 1952 Ford F-1 Truck Project



## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

I'm going to share the details of my 52 Ford F-1 PU EV build. 









It had a great running flathead v8 under the hood. It was a monster, weighing, with "top-loader" transmission, something like 700 lbs. 










Wasn't easy getting it out. You can see the 13.5" motor in the background.










Going to a new home. The profits more than paid for an electric motor capable of 3x the HP and >5x the torque of the V8










Bunch of parts loaded in the back. 4/0 welding cable, 13x Odyssey AGMs (75ah, 60lbs), 6.7" motor (NOT going to be pushing the truck, lol)

And that is pretty much where I stand today. My plans;

1952 Ford F-1 PU (2650 lbs with original engine, per local scales)
13.5" GE Series wound motor (~350 lbs)
13x Odyssey AGM batteries @ 156v (11.7kwh)
Raptor 1200 Controller (1800 peak motor amps, 1200 peak battery amps)
...thinking about selling that and going Zilla 2k, mainly for computer interface
Direct drive to rear differential...stock at first, around 3.54:1...maybe moving to built ford 9" if/when it breaks
Has a solid front axle right now, drums all around. My options;
- Upgrade to front discs
- Upgrade to front IFS....mustang II based kits are common and readily available 
- Swap to a new chassis w/ IFS + discs
...I think I'm going to upgrade to front discs at first, keeping as much of the original truck intact as is possible.
...But, in order to handle the full HP of the motor, the original frame needs to be "boxed". Problem is, some frame flex is part of the original design. So in order to box the whole frame I'd need to swap the front to IFS.

I'm also seriously thinking about running either an AC, or SepEx (I have an 11" Ge SepEx) for regen braking and keeping everything original. That way it wouldn't much matter if I've got drums if 95% of my breaking is electrical. I would need strong regen for this option to make sense. Direct drive could potentially give way to a 5-speed s10 based setup, or a 2-speed powerglide based setup.


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

Sweet! That's going to be a classy old truck with the EV conversion. Quiet and smooth. Do the 13.5" and 11" GE motors have the same output shaft?


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

toddshotrods said:


> Sweet! That's going to be a classy old truck with the EV conversion. Quiet and smooth. Do the 13.5" and 11" GE motors have the same output shaft?


Yeah, they both use the same shaft. Very convenient.










Here they are in comparison. Can you tell which one is the 13.5"?


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

toddshotrods said:


> Sweet! That's going to be a classy old truck with the EV conversion. Quiet and smooth.


Thats the plan.

I forgot the coolest part of this whole project! Duh...

_*It came to me in a dream*_

I woke up, hopped on ebay motors, and didn't stop searching until I had found the truck I saw. The year, the color, the grill....all perfect. And that wooden bed....my favorite part


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

AmpEater said:


> Yeah, they both use the same shaft. Very convenient...Here they are in comparison. Can you tell which one is the 13.5"?


Cool. Is that the 11" GE next in line? That 13.5" is a monster!  WOW!

Is that a TransWarp 11? Why aren't you using it? Do you collect motors as a hobby?  Am I asking too many questions?


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## Woodsmith (Jun 5, 2008)

AmpEater said:


>


Looks like someone has a fetish!

Lovely truck.


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## DavidDymaxion (Dec 1, 2008)

Awesome looking truck! That looks like a good set of electric components, too.

Are you planning to race or do street legal transportation? That gear ratio gears the car for I'd guess around 100+ mph. You won't go that fast, but that is overgeared for taking off, and will put more stress on the motor and controller for taking off up a hill. One good thing about a Ford 9 inch is you can get many ratios for it. You can do a calculation using max rpm, gear ratio, and wheel size to make max rpm closer to the max speed you want.


AmpEater said:


> ... Direct drive to rear differential...stock at first, around 3.54:1...maybe moving to built ford 9" if/when it breaks ...


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

DavidDymaxion said:


> Awesome looking truck! That looks like a good set of electric components, too.
> 
> Are you planning to race or do street legal transportation? That gear ratio gears the car for I'd guess around 100+ mph. You won't go that fast, but that is overgeared for taking off, and will put more stress on the motor and controller for taking off up a hill. One good thing about a Ford 9 inch is you can get many ratios for it. You can do a calculation using max rpm, gear ratio, and wheel size to make max rpm closer to the max speed you want.


Wish I could decide. I keep going back and forth between building a v8-eating dragster and just building a cool old truck to cruise around town in. 

Your speed assumptions are based on a redline of 5000 or 6000 rpm. I'm sure my motor is capable of that, but its rated speed in its forklift application was something like 1000rpm-2000. I'm going to try to keep most of my driving in its intended rpm range. This is a luxury I can afford when I have 350 lbs of motor, I believe. I am going to need a ton of amps  ....it can actually do 500A continuously. 2000A brusts should be no issue....wish I could feed it 3000+ but netgain removed the whole "stackable" thing from their "warp-drive" controllers...a real shame...I would have purchased *at least* two 

Also right on with the Ford 9". I really like the idea of being able to get 5:1 or higher if I wanted. I'll likely pick a number based on the "feel" of 3.5:1


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

toddshotrods said:


> Cool. Is that the 11" GE next in line? That 13.5" is a monster!  WOW!


Yeah, it goes;

GE 13.5" Series, GE 11" SepEX, Netgain TransWarp 11" Series, Prestolite 9" Series, Advanced DC 6.7" Series, Leeson 5" PM, Crown 6.7" Series


toddshotrods said:


> Is that a TransWarp 11? Why aren't you using it?


I've got special plans for that. Gonna build something nobody has seen before....right up your alley even (replicating hot rod styling ques with EV components)

And you might notice a second vehicle in the motor pic.....




toddshotrods said:


> Do you collect motors as a hobby?  Am I asking too many questions?


I put my money where my mouth is  When I say electric is the way to go, I don't half-ass it 

And I like motors. Shiny, shiny motors.


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## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

Wow, I just asked if anyone has seen a 50's electric pickup and there you are! What a great choice too. I once had a great old 56 Ford pickup with a 351w transplant. So what do you suppose your truck weighs without that engine? I assume you are planning on more than the 13 batteries. I'll definitely be watching this build.


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## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

Wow, this is going to be a very cool EV!!



AmpEater said:


> And I like motors. Shiny, shiny motors.


Why would someone like a shiny motor?


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

^ I want one to put in my living room

Those are the Warp 11 HV, right? I really like the blower shrouds. 

Awesome


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## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

Yes, 11" HV but heavily modified.


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## Grant_NZ (May 28, 2008)

Nice, are they available yet?


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## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

Grant_NZ said:


> Nice, are they available yet?


This are custom motors for my projects and are not meant for the market.


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## AmpEater (Mar 10, 2008)

ngrimm said:


> Wow, I just asked if anyone has seen a 50's electric pickup and there you are! What a great choice too. I once had a great old 56 Ford pickup with a 351w transplant. So what do you suppose your truck weighs without that engine? I assume you are planning on more than the 13 batteries. I'll definitely be watching this build.


I'm a little younger than most guys driving 50's fords, and I'm definitely not a "classic car guru"....but I just couldn't think of a "cooler" 50's-60's truck to buy, money no object, if I had to. 

Not that I couldn't find a few others I wouldn't mind having. I feel like I absolutely stole this truck for the price I paid. I'm still trying to figure out "what's wrong with it". (I'm pretty sure the guy was a perfectionist.... there are certainly plenty of dings and slight misalignments that would drive you crazy if you wanted it to be "perfect")

I just think they add character. This thing has been around for almost 60 years after all! ...(still blows my mind....I see rust buckets not even 10-15 years old around here)

Weight should be about stock. Maybe a little less even. I'm probably actually going to use less batteries. There is ~780s lbs of AGM there. This truck doesn't have seat belts....I doubt I'm going to be maxing out the range on a regular basis. It's mostly for sunset cruises, sunday drives, etc. 30-40 miles is overkill. 

I've decided to move my >300 HP ambitions to another vehicle. One with a chassis built from the ground up to take it. I could build it to those levels certainly, but it would involve removing most of what makes this truck "classic" and just putting an old shell on a modern frame. 

Plus I have another vehicle, a 280z coupe, prepped and ready for a motor....so I'm gonna focus my abuse there.

I'm toying with the idea of making a purely electro-mechanical speed controller for the truck. Something that could have been built with 50's tech. An identical motor that will be pushing it could easily have been built in the same era as the truck as it is. Nothing new there. Same goes for lead acid batteries. The AGM configuartion might be new, but there is no reason it has to be.

I feel like it would really add to the whole "package" of a 50's EV if there was this constant mechanical orchestra of contactors working in concert with the changing whir of the motor as more voltage was requested, or regen activated. 

Some old-school needle gauges would look right at home on the dash.

Hmm.....


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## jackbauer (Jan 12, 2008)

Valve based controller


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## TigerNut (Dec 18, 2009)

Mechanical PWM:

Use a low voltage motor to spin a drum, on which you've pasted a triangular piece of copper foil. At one end of the drum, you'll have maybe 90% copper, and the other end zero. Then you have a movable brush that contacts the copper foil, and sliding the brush axially along the drum changes the duty cycle of the output signal. You can use that to control the drive motor. Bonus points for doing it with the drum spinning in a mercury bath.


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## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

Many of the vehicles from the '50's and '60's are lighter than most people expect. A good chunk of the weight they do pack is in the all iron engine. I think there are many excellent conversion choices in the classic American iron. As an added bonus, old cars don't have integrated electronics systems that go crazy when you pull the ICE.


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## Jasonbelec (Jul 15, 2010)

Cool. Just getting setup to do one of these myself. Keep posting your progress.


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