1928 Fargo Express panel/pickup?

[Jack Bennett]

Good morning from Lakewood, Washington.

Yesterday my buddy and I went down to Chehalis and brought home a 1928 Fargo Express panel which has sat for 73 years.

The truck is a goldmine for a guy like me who dotes on “stuff” to do, and now that it is home, I need to decide what direction that “stuff” will take.

The truck does not have a single scrap of wood which will not need replacing. The engine has sat open for, probably, over seven decades, and  looks to have the cylinders, which have been stored with the spark plugs removed, were filled  With dirty water.The engine is locked up tight and the transmission was removed and stored in the bed.

The wooden spokes of the wheels are questionable at best and may be too cracked and rotted to restore. The wheels are heavily rust pitted, and reusing them is also questionable.

The truck is missing its drive shaft and, what looks like, the rear of the transmission.

OK…..if you have the picture, my question is…..

Should I go ahead and remove the covering of the bed, which is literally falling apart, and work the project as a Fargo Express pickup truck?

Or, should I rebuild the upper bed cover as it was originally, and reconstruct the vehicle as a Fargo Express “Packet” panel truck?

No suggestion will be looked upon as being “un-do-able, and every one will be appreciated.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[30DodgePanel]

Excellent find, Jack.

 

My hope is it will remain a panel... anything different would be sacrilage in my view, although I am admittedly biased  

 

I'd also add, where have you ever seen one in the time any of us have been on this planet? I've never even read about a Packet panel being found let alone owning one.

 

Please keep it as original as possible.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by 30DodgePanel (see edit history)

[ArticiferTom]

The DBC book The Official Guide to DB and GB Trucks has some Fargo info .

[Jack Bennett]

18 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:

Excellent find, Jack.

 

My hope is it will remain a panel... anything different would be sacrilage in my view, although I am admittedly biased  

 

I'd also add, where have you ever seen one in the time any of us have been on this planet? I've never even read about a Packet panel being found let alone owning one.

 

Please keep it as original as possible.

 

 

Hi 30DodgePanel…..Yesterday I was outside getting things rearranged to accommodate my new boarder…..the 1928 Fargo Express Panel.

I am not tolerant of peddlers, either of politics, religion, services or products, and when the two youngish, mid 20’s, guys approached me and asked who maintained my house and grounds, I just brushed them off with a finger, index, not middle, point to the street.

One of the guys said “OK! They would leave, but, could he ask about my old cars”? 
The garage doors was open so that my 51 Plymouth and 23 Dodge Roadster was clearly visible, my 27 Willys Knight had been relocated to the driveway while I situated the Fargo behind where it sits under the car port, was sitting in the driveway nearby.

This put me in a weakened defensive position considering that, even if it was Satan himself, asking about my old cars, I’d have no choice but to answer.

Over the next hour we talked about the sleeve valve engine in the Willys, the Skinner vacuum tank and gravity fed fuel systems in the Dodge and Willys and some about the shoe box design of the 51 Plymouth.

And, it was only when the van, driven by a person I supposed to be their boss, pulled up on the street at my driveway’s end, began to shout, honk the horn and bang on the door with his palm, did they apologetically leave.

With that I returned to the task I’d previously started, and returned to making the Fargo comfortable in its new home.

But, my thoughts were changed from those I had before the guys interrupted me, which were focused on the amount of work it would take to even get the Fargo ambulatory, even with a tug, to “how very fortunate I was to have such interesting friends, and how very fortunate I was that they provided as much pleasure to simply look at them as it was to actually drive them.

The Fargo Express is a greatly challenged machine, and it may never move again under its own power…..considering that…..if it takes me the same 10 years to get it running as you’ve worked on your panel, I’ll be 90 years old, and possibly unable to drive it.

That said, I most probably will reconstruct it as a panel because that’s what it seems to like being, and I think having a 100 year old Fargo Express van, in 2028, will make for some pleasant viewing and well shared stories.

[Jack Bennett]

15 hours ago, ArticiferTom said:

The DBC book The Official Guide to DB and GB Trucks has some Fargo info .

Hi ArticiferTom………Over the past week I have busied myself at the task of clearing out the lengthy, and sometimes redundant, posts on the forums to which I subscribe.

That was said as a way of saying that I often talk to the point of tedium, and not everyone has the time and/or patience to endure my lengthy spiels and rants.

So, just be assured that I do appreciate your response, I sincerely appreciate the information, and I am only being so curt in my reply in a profound attempt to adhere to my new “brevity” policy.

 

[Jack Bennett]

19 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:

Excellent find, Jack.

 

My hope is it will remain a panel... anything different would be sacrilage in my view, although I am admittedly biased  

 

I'd also add, where have you ever seen one in the time any of us have been on this planet? I've never even read about a Packet panel being found let alone owning one.

 

Please keep it as original as possible.

 

 

Hi again 30DodgePanel. I borrowed these photos from the page of the forum specifically dedicated to old Plymouth, Dodge, Graham-Paige trucks.

These are trucks similar to packet panel which have been restored to be pickup trucks, rather than express delivery panels.

Were I 50 years younger, had financial resources and time I now have, and planned on keeping them for another 50 years, these are vehicles which sets a worthy goal for someone wishing to restore one.

I find it quite reasonable though, that I will forgo the niceties of the shiny chrome and furniture finished woodwork, and keep mine as close to stock as possible.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[stakeside]

Sure is a unique truck.

Looks like the existing wood will provide good patterns. You will have a lot work to get it done. 

[vintage1]

Another vote for keeping it original as possible. Either way it looks like a great project.

 

[Jack Bennett]

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, “If the value of a project vehicle is determined by the amount of “stuff” that needs to be done, the Fargo Express must be worth more than King Tut was.

I procrastinated, I debated and I hesitated because I did not want to pull the head to check and see if a bad bore was seizing the engine.

Common sense won out, I did pull the head, and the value of my Fargo just leaped into Dow Jones Industrial portfolios.

One cylinder had a spark plug installed, and the cylinder is clean and the valves look good. But the spark plug was a 22mm plug, rusted down to about 17mm, and frozen in its hole. 
A second spark plug hole appeared to be for a 17mm plug, but there was no plug in the hole. Actually, it was the metal base of a 22mm plug which was broken off, and the porcelain was missing.

The other four spark plugs were missing, and their holes nearly rusted closed.

I found five of the 6 cylinder bores and their valves covered by an inch or more of rust and really fine dirt. Amazingly, the head came off clean and the gasket looks good enough to reuse.