New Toy 54 R100-update

When my truck was going through rebuild, I was very observant of bumpers on other vehicles. I knew I wouldn’t find a decent IHC replacement bumper, so sourcing one from a more common vehicle became my goal. I looked at early Broncos, F-100’s, Chevy’s of the ‘50’s, etc. trying to find the closest looking replacement. Once I noticed the curvature of the F-1 bumper looked like the curvature of my grill, I ordered an un-chromed one from NPD. The biggest difference is that the IHC bumper is different in three ways. 1: it’s longer by approx. 1 1/2” on each end. 2: It has design details lengthwise top and bottom that brings us to number 3: it’s taller than the F-1 bumper by approximately 1” and in order to fit it to my frame ends, it was necessary to modify the frame ends to make them fit inside the new bumper. A small pie shape piece needed to be removed from the top of each frame and the top flange then needed to be bent down and rewelded so that the frame end would then go inside the F-1 bumper. Holes in the F-1 bumper were welded closed and new holes drilled through the top flange of the bumper and aligned with the frame end to bolt it on. Once the fitment was good, the bumper went out to be chromed. I’m attaching a photo so you can see the end result. I’m certain there are other options, but this is what worked for me.

The close up is of a ‘55 I saw in a magazine and it looks like he did the same as I did.

Upon closer inspection, the bumper on the ‘55 looks closer to an F-100 type. There are holes for mounting a license tag and zooming in shows that there is a small offset or indentation in the bumper where the tag bolts on. That accommodation is also something to consider. We don’t have front license tags in Florida, but I know some other states do. It also appears he used two bolts per frame end and I used one per frame.

Upon closer inspection, the bumper on the ‘55 looks closer to an F-100 type. There are holes for mounting a license tag and zooming in shows that there is a small offset or indentation in the bumper where the tag bolts on. That accommodation is also something to consider. We don’t have front license tags in Florida, but I know some other states do. It also appears he used two bolts per frame end and I used one per frame.

WEW51,
Thanks for your input. I'm thinking to give the F1 bumper a try. I think with a mounting kit I can get it to work and only use single holes. The one that is on the truck now, although they only used two bolts on the top and two on the bottom, the frame and bumper has many holes in them (round and square). If the kit don't work, I bet I can get dexion to work.
We don't have front plates here in Arizona either.

By the way, I retired from the military (1985) in Satellite Beach FL. It's on the East coast line, across A1A, down from the Cape and Coco.

How interesting. Glad to meet a former Airman. The last assignment of my enlistment was at Patrick AFB. I was assigned to AFTAC and got out of the service at the end of April in 1974. Prior to that I was at Ft. Wainwright and Eilson AFB, Fairbanks, Alaska for 18 months. While at Patrick, I lived 2 miles south of the base in Satellite Beach along A1A. Small world.

Enjoy that IHC.

How interesting. Glad to meet a former Airman. The last assignment of my enlistment was at Patrick AFB. I was assigned to AFTAC and got out of the service at the end of April in 1974. Prior to that I was at Ft. Wainwright and Eilson AFB, Fairbanks, Alaska for 18 months. While at Patrick, I lived 2 miles south of the base in Satellite Beach along A1A. Small world.

Enjoy that IHC.

Wow, great. I too was at Patrick (AFCS) in the 2nd MOB and was deployed most of the time there, but lived in Satellite Beach housing. After I retired there, I was at the Cape watching the shuttle that blew up.
I think I'm going to try the F1 bumper, as it looks like the closes to what I want at this time. Meantime, since I've pulled the bumper and grill, I've discovered a lot of rust work to be done and I'm jumping on it now.

The grill (backside) was where I had to do a lot of work. The way it is fabricated causes mud and moisture to be trapped and create rust spots. It was fairly bad around the parking lights and the surface of the fenders where the grill attaches needed much attention, too. The ‘51 grill has those sheet metal vertical bars and horizontal bars and they all needed some massaging to straighten them back into shape.

The grill (backside) was where I had to do a lot of work. The way it is fabricated causes mud and moisture to be trapped and create rust spots. It was fairly bad around the parking lights and the surface of the fenders where the grill attaches needed much attention, too. The ‘51 grill has those sheet metal vertical bars and horizontal bars and they all needed some massaging to straighten them back into shape.

You're correct on the back side of the grill, as well as the turn signal housing. The good thing is that I have another grill that was going on my 55, but it's not ready for it to go back together yet. So, I'm going to use it and put it on the 54 and then repair the 54's grill for the 55.

Turn signal housing '54

Behind the grill is not really as bad as parts of the grill.

Front end

I also plan to rewire some of the wiring. You'll see it still has the cloth wrapped wiring in the front.

I found this website for the turn signal housing. It's not really costly at $55.00. Especially including hardware.

https://ihonly.com/product/front-turn-s ... ut-80-800/

FRONT TURN SIGNAL HOUSING SCOUT 80-800 & R-L SERIES PICKUP-METRO

Repop housing

My truck was the last one my grandfather owned. He let me have it in July 1974. At that point in time the parking lights didn’t work and I was at the IH dealer looking for replacements. The housings looked very similar to yours. The parts guy brought out what they had on the shelf and they were chrome rimmed, amber glass, Scout replacements. Except for the amber glass, they looked exactly like the truck units (in new condition, obviously). I don’t recall now if the trim ring on the truck was painted or chrome, but getting new chromed rims seemed like a big win. I’ve known about that swap for about 50 years now and it still amazes me! I think it also applies to other miscellaneous parts and pieces showing up on later models.

I replaced the OEM front turn signal boxes with what you see in the picture. The replacements are LED.