Slick 60's

New member here, found this site while researching the unibody Fords. Last week I looked at a '61 short box custom cab with the big back window. 223 six backed up to a three-speed column shift. Sounds like a cool little ride. It's got almost all of the typical unibody rust, which doesn't faze me since I've done fab for close to 20 years. The only area of concern are the torque boxes. Every vehicle I've ever owned has been a full frame RWD, so I've never dealt with unibody stuff. That being the case I'm not really sure what they're there for, except for a way to add rigidity to the front of the box. Do they also provide a mounting point?

Of course I looked at the truck before reading much about the torque boxes, so I didn't note the condition. Any help would be very much appreciated! -Marc.

Welcome from Oregon....probably wont be any useful to slick information that isn't known and shared on the site......

Welcome from N.W. Ohio. There's a lot of uni info on this site.

Marc:

But just to clarify, these trucks picked up the nickname "Unibody", I believe the ford literature calls them Integral Cab, or something to that effect, but if you get down on your knees & look underneath, you will discover there is a ladder frame under them, just like the conventional cab models of the same years.
Once you repair the rust on torque boxes, if it's keeping you awake at night, and you can find a donor conventional cab donor truck to harvest the rear cab mounts off of, you can add them on your frame, along with a set of new rubber cab mounts, and IIRC, the bolt holes are already there!

Cheers!
James

SouthSideVintage wrote:New member here, found this site while researching the unibody Fords. Last week I looked at a '61 short box custom cab with the big back window. 223 six backed up to a three-speed column shift. Sounds like a cool little ride. It's got almost all of the typical unibody rust, which doesn't faze me since I've done fab for close to 20 years. The only area of concern are the torque boxes. Every vehicle I've ever owned has been a full frame RWD, so I've never dealt with unibody stuff. That being the case I'm not really sure what they're there for, except for a way to add rigidity to the front of the box. Do they also provide a mounting point?

Of course I looked at the truck before reading much about the torque boxes, so I didn't note the condition. Any help would be very much appreciated! -Marc.

welcome from West Virginia!! although it is a "unibody" it still has a regular frame under it.. the torque box is there to give rigidity to the area behind the doors to keep the body from twisting... if you have fab work skills, this area shouldn't concern you...

Welcome. The torque box is not too bad to repair. I replace the whole thing in my truck. Had a local machine shop brake a one piece out of 16 gauge steel. Went a little heavy on the gauge but didn't figure it would hurt.