Flat Rat: A Slammed1950 Ford COE Firetruck On Air

I know, I know, I said I’d post more of this 1950 Ford COE just over a week ago. My bad, I got a little distracted. I’ll reveal why soon. But, take these additional photos of my penance.

This truck, known as the Flat Rat hails from Keswick Ontario and was built by it’s owner Scott Badger (@keswickscott).

Scott has owned the truck cab about ten years now. Things really got going on the truck about five years ago, with significant progress being made during the pandemic.

From behind the tilt cab to where the custom four-link starts is most of a widened Chevy 3500 chassis. Forward of the front wheels is mostly factory Ford with signficant modifications done to make the steering work at the truck’s new height.

The motor is a 7.3L Powerstroke with a T4 turbo upgrade backed by an automatic transmission.

Scott managed to keep as much original as he could, but he did have to replace a bit of sheet metal here and on the cab. The new additions were sprayed by Scott in either white or red.

Scott and his son also made all 11 feet of the bed from scratch.

Nothing more than an English wheel and a Princess Auto bead roller was used in the bed construction.

In fact, the entire truck was built in a rather humble home garage. Proving once again that where there’s a will there’s a way when it comes to do-it-yourself fabrication. Something that certainly provided a bit of motivation for my own project.

The tailgate of the truck is actually a second COE front end that has been modified to create a tailgate. Scott filled the grill, made it hinge and took the Super Duty embossing from a late model ford.

“If this isn’t Super Duty I don’t know what is,” Scott said.