sweet man. what are you using for paint on the chassis?

 

I used chassis saver by magnet paints. I used a quart and a pint. I think a quart was $35 and the pint was like $15. I brushed it on with foam brushes over the sandblasted metal. Turned out decent but the test is how well it holds up.

 

gotcha, yeah price sounds good but id be more interested in the durability. im gona have to do all this soon too lol. trucks looking good man

 

Looks great man. I completely understand about harsh winter environments. Keep up the good work.

 

I sorta made some progress tonight.



I'm gonna buy new bolts tomorrow and replace the radius arm cap bolts one at a time so they have new bolts and lock washers.



Obviously this is drooped from where it would be if it was all together with the coils in and weight on the front end but how does the pinion angle and all that look.

I'm just trying to make sure I put the c-bushings in right.

On one end of them it said Rear Bottom and on the other end it said like 4* offset front. I put the back one on with the rear bottom at the bottom obviously and the front one with the 4* offset on the bottom. These are the energy suspension poly bushings so if anyone has experience with them and could tell me if I did it right I would appreciate it.

I also am pretty sure that I'm gonna clean the cab floor all down to bare metal, patch the rest of the floor and then I'm gonna self etching primer it, scuff it and then spray U-Pol Raptor bed liner on it.

...and not to make this a ton longer....

My friends dad has a 75? F250 4x4 rotted to death with a rebuilt 390 with a broken off spark plug, 4spd, etc.. that I might be buying for $300. He wants it gone and I could make a few bucks off it.

I gotta figure out what motor to use for this thing before I waste money.
Build 400 w/ rebuilt short block with forged flat tops my friends dad will sell with heads for $300, Freshen 390 from f250, or 351w from 90's truck.

-Thanks
Justin

 

I figured this might warrant an update.



Managed to get the front axle sorta in haha, just gotta make sure I did everything right and finish some stuff up.







My fancy trac bar bracket, cut off my brace to the other side for potential oil pan clearance.



Trac bar angle, No that bolt is not permanent, I realize I might want to use the right size bolt and grade 8, I'm taking a wild guess but I figure I might wanna keep the trac bar connected while I'm going down the road.





Rough idea of pinion angle, I wouldn't figure I would have any front drive shaft issues.



General idea on castor angle, It looks alright and will be better once theirs decent weight on the front end.


If anyone sees anything that I did wrong or anything be sure to let me know, In this area it seems like leaf springs would be simpler to install and have setup correctly for sure.

 

I managed to get the knuckles on tonight and the old spindle bearings out of the spindles but I have a few questions.

I put the sleeve that came with each balljoint in a few threads, put the knuckle up through, installed and torqued the nut for the lower to 100ft lbs, torqued the sleeve for the upper to 50ft lbs, and then installed and torqued the upper nut to 100ft lbs and installed the cotter pin. Does this all sound correct?

Also for installing the spindle bearings is it alright to drive them in with a socket and is just the needles suppose to turn or the whole inside cage that holds the needles?

Thanks
-Justin

 

Not a huge amount of progress but I'm pretty close to having it on all 4 wheels.



Axles shafts cleaned up with new u-joints and a little self etching primer on the non grease meeting part. I also got the spindles all cleaned up with new spindle bearings.



The shiny spindles and the axle shaft primer, won't matter but for the minute it took to spray them it can't hurt.



New spindle bearings. Does the depth that they're in look right? They went in a lot better than the ones for my 95 and I didn't wanna beat the hell out of them.


----------

I was also wondering if anyone could show or tell me the clock rotation for the caliper brackets on the front axle? Aka what orientation they're suppose to be.

Also got my California shock mounts coming from ChaseTruck, suppose to be here this wednesday.

Thanks
-Justin

 

Just the needles turn. Torque sounds good to me

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

-------------------

My dad helped me out and brought the motor and transfer case to the front part of the garage today. Good thing because we're getting a foot of snow tonight.



Gonna clean the transfer case up a bit and put new gear oil in it. I'd like to reseal it but I don't know if it's beyond my skill level to tear it apart. Anyone ever resealed / regasketed one before?



Might tear into the motor a little tomorrow. I'm not really sure how far to go because it wouldn't make sense to spend a ton if I eventually go with the 400. Who knows

 

There aint many moving parts in a T Case. Ya should be able to do it easy. Get a manual and look at the pictures. Not much to them at all.

 

They really are easy. Here's a writeup that does a good job of walking you through it step-by-step:
Project Code Name "Double Agent"

 

I'll have to look into the walk throughs a bit more for the transfer case before I tear it all apart. Thanks for the links.

------------------------

Made a little progress tonight as long as everything is together right.



Didn't get the drivers side all together because I need to pickup a new inner wheel bearing seal, ruined the other one with my old hub.



Passenger side all together, just need to get the caliper and lockout.



Caliper bracket orientation. Did I install this right? Don't want to not be able to put my caliper on.


I also had to take out the grease fitting for the passenger side upper ball joint. It was a straight one and was hitting the u-joint cap and grease fitting. Anyone had this problem before? My friend's dad did before so based on what he said I'm just gonna get a 90* one and hopefully it won't hit.

-------------

I should have the seal I need tomorrow so hopefully it'll all be together and maybe even on all four wheels sitting on it's own weight!

 

Made it to a big point in the restoration. Still paranoid I'll have to go in and fix or redo something.



Front end all together except for lockouts and calipers.





Should be plenty high enough, I don't wanna tow trailers with something 10ft tall.
Think she'll sit level with everything in / on it?



Passenger side tire leaning a little, hopefully it's just from the concrete being uneven / not level.

As I said before though, I'm paranoid that I'm gonna have to do something stupid that involves tearing it all apart because something's wrong or messed up haha.


All Comments / Tips/ Advice appreciated as always.

-Justin

 

The transfer case isn't hard at all to take apart and reseal. In my opinion, if you did those hubs and axles, you can do the transfer case. As far as the grease fitting, I would just get the plug to put in there if the 90 degree one doesn't work. I know it will take a little bit longer to grease, but just throw in a spare grease fitting and a 5/16" wrench in the glove box for when you are going to grease the ball joints again. Hopefully it is just the ground and not a bent knuckle the reason for the passenger front tire being at that angle. That looks pretty steep, but they do sell offset ball joints if all else fails... it won't completely take care of the angle problem but it will a little. (not what I'd recommend for the time and effort you're putting into it). Was it angled like that before the teardown?

Great job on the build up! Enjoyin watchin your restoration, as I am currently restoring my 1977 f150 4x4 as well! I'm 21 and my grandpa gave it to me and is the original owner! Keep up the good work bud!