Finally doing some more work to her. I'm taking it hopefully next week to my buddy's shop so he can put the four speed in so it will at least be drive-able plus a whole long list of other items to be purchased when I get my taxes back!

 

Made some small progress today.

I took one door panel off two or three years ago to work on the door latch and honestly I have no clue where its at now so I'm going to take the other one off and sticker up the doors, I really like that look. I have the metal panel for this side.

I'm a bit of a sticker freak, here is some more I finally got around to putting on it, I think they sum up what the truck will be rather nicely!



I dug the old tail gate out of the shed, I was going to buy a new one but that is money that could be spent else where. This one isn't too bad for the look I'm going for, its got that used look but it will work. I'm missing one of the mounts, gotta get another one. I'm thinking of welding it up or something, I won't really want it to be functional and I want to loose the chains.



I also tossed a little primer on the dent in the fender where the wife hit it a few years ago. Since its been in and out it had started to get a little surface rust there so I wanted to kill it. It looks like crap, but it was like 28 degrees when I sprayed it, it will get the job done. Plenty of time for body work later on.

 

The old girls not happy about being out in the snow, but that will all change soon! Parts lists are being put together, orders soon to be placed!

 

Did a little tinkering, little figuring, and a little work tonight.

As far as figuring I'm trying to figure out a center console or some sort of dash extension. I've decided just to keep the bench seat, it looks good, and i'm old fashion, I like it. I've decided to build a center drop down piece on the dash to mount my cd player and eventually my ac/heat controls in. It will hang down from the piece you see below and then taper down as it goes to the floor to clear my foot and the gas pedal. Then at the bottom I'm gonna build in at least one cup holder on the floor and build it around the shifter(possibly) and stop it at the seat. I've have pictures of a basic idea I saw in another truck saved at work, I'll post them tomorrow.

I'm taking these gauges out, they will be in the dash.
Speaking of the shifter, I've though about ordering a Lokar, but I'm just going to keep this one, its what my uncle had in it, its a Hurst and already modified to fit, so I'm gonna keep it.


In this padded part, I'm going to mount a Moroso race car style switch panel with a push button start and switches I'll need for my fans, fuel, etc.
My old wiring is butchered so I figure the easiest way to simplify it is to basically start over with the engine side of the wiring. I've got an issue right now where when I pull the lights on driving down the road the engine dies, I have no idea what the cause of that is.

Check out this wiring!!

Don't get me wrong, not knocking it, when my uncle did this truck back in the sixties in the middle of no where north carolina you had to make work what you could make work. But I think I can use just a little modern technology and lessen the fire hazard!

My plan is to keep the key switch as the master power to the switch panel as a bit of added security, then the fuel and the ignition will have to be hit after that to crank it, so hopefully that will serve as a bit of an anti-theft. Plus the hole is in the dash so I want it to be functional. I don't want to smooth the whole because I'm trying to keep the original patina'd look in tact of my dash.

Also gonna up grade my cigarette lighter while I'm in there, hopefully I'll be running a lot of juice into my GPS riding the roads to shows!

As much as I love the patina of this old cluster I'm upgrading it with some modern auto meter gauges.


Here is another stray shot of that wiring I was talking about earlier.


When I originally started working on the truck back in '06 or '07 these yellow fog lights were the first things to go, I hated them. But now as I get a little older I realize how cool these puppies are! So I am going to get them cleaned up and hopefully they work, the wiring is cut(and was before I ever took them off) but hopefully I can add an extension to it and make them work. If nothing else I'll mount them for looks.



Does anyone know if they still sell the bulbs themselves? Do I replace the whole thing lens and all like a typical old style bulb?

I also started work on my box for the back.

The box had some sort of styrofoam in the bottom and the edges, I couldn't figure out what it was but I vacuumed most of it up, then I realized it must be some sort of foam sealer or something in the corners. So just to make the bottom of the box weather proof I shot some great stuff around the corners.



Now I know what your thinking, that looks horrible. But I'm going to line the inside of it with bedliner tomorrow night.

The hinges and some other spots on the box were pretty rusty so I decided to hopefully kill it with some rust treatment.

Before and after's, once it dries it turns it a dark color and its supposed to be good to go after that.





I'm going to scuff it down and shoot it in some good primer sealer tomorrow to protect the metal, then paint it. I'm thinking of maybe adding a period correct "Craftsman" sticker to make it look like a tool box. I may order a couple of cool vintage pad locks to use with it too.

 

This is what I'm talking about doing for my center console/dash extension. Well a more extended version of this, minus the extensions on the left and right.

 

Hadn't worked on it much over the past few days, long days at work make you lazy when you get home. Did do a little work last night.

I put the first coat of bedliner in my box, this Plastikote sprays really go and lays down nice. I'm gonna do another coat on it after this one drys good.




Got the outside of the box scuffed down, just gotta hit it with some cleaner and its ready to spray.



As for the paint I'm kind of going out on a limb and hoping my plans work out, if not, the box may be black in the end!
I found a plastikote color close to what I originally wanted to paint the truck, so I thought, hey this will be cool on that box! But after ordering three cans and test spraying one on something else its a little too purple for me even though its called a "red". So I've switched up my primer to a red to hopefully give it a little more redish tint. The plan is to prime it, paint it, and then hit it with a fine scuff pad to sand back down some of the "red" and make it look faded and old. Then I'm going to clear it. We will see how it works out!


Also in the early planning stages for my valve covers. As I mentioned before my uncle was a diehard Pontiac man, short of putting a Pontiac engine in this recreating a "Pontiac" is the next best thing I can do. They make Oldsmobile valve covers for SBC's, and a set of race looking Pontiac valve covers, but neither one fit the look I want. So I am going paint these valve covers(and the rest of the engine) Pontiac blue. I'm either going to add some old Pontiac decal's to them or maybe have them custom air brushed, haven't decided yet.

 

Got some primer on my box last night.

First coat.



Second coat and third coat.



Probably won't get to work on it tonight, but I hope to put some color on it over the weekend!

Also got a lead on a trade on my turbo 350 transmission for a 700R4 so hopefully that comes through!

 

Didn't get much work done over the weekend. I was going to go ahead and do my bed in bedliner but I realized it needed more prep work than I thought, plus I need to haul new parts to and old greasy parts back home from my buddy's shop so I'm just gonna wait. I did dig out my spare gear box though, been sitting under the shed for a few years but its been in the dry and feels great. So hopefully it will work for me! I've also got a spare front suspension I drug out in case I need any odd parts or pieces.



We dropped our ramp truck off at the shop Saturday to get a new master cylinder put on so hopefully as soon as its back I'll be able to haul her in so the work can really start!

 

Put the first coat of color on my box last night, happy with how its turning out, not near as purple on the box and with the rose colored primer under it. Still got a couple more coats to go.




Then I'm going with my plan of scuffing down the red/purple and hopefully sanding back into some of the primer and just a very little amount of the original metal in a spot or two, then clear the whole thing.

Also picked these up off ebay the other day, my driver side is broke and my passenger side probably isn't far from it. Door latch springs for those who don't know what they are.

 

Time to get fired back up on this! Going next week to get the tranny and steering gear box swapped out. Sorry all the pictures took a crap, the site I had them hosted on changed URL's and since this forum doesn't allow editing I can't get back into fix them! But there will be tons of new pictures coming very soon with progress I hope!

 

The "plan" is to have it ready to drive to Shades Of The Past in September. With a test run to the show I organize for JDRF on August 31st. But I figure that is a little bit of a stretch but we will see what happens. Still got a long way to go! Stay tuned for updates!

 

looks like she should go pretty good!

 

Welcome to the best old Ford truck site on the net. I rebuilt my front end and find it very drivable for my use, but the Toyota PS set up would be nice for city parking. It all depends on what you want. I'm anxious to follow your progress.

 

I thought about going PS but for now I'm going to go with the stock. I think once I get a good gear box in there and everything new along with some smaller tires on the front it should drive pretty good.

 

Progress!! Trying to finish up the two small project I had going on in my basement for it, gonna start a little body work on the truck maybe tomorrow before it goes to my buddies shop.

Looking at the box I painted for the back I just wasn't happy with how purple it was. So I took a shot in the dark with a can of Ford tractor red and it ended up working out pretty good.

Here it is before for a memory refresher.


I lightly sprayed one coat of red on, then dusted the whole thing with another very very light coat.


I think it added a nice tint to it. It also give it that old faded look between two colors that I wanted to I decided not to sand on it at all.
One more shot.


After that dried I clear coated it. Looks pretty good I think!


Gonna cover it with decals over the future anyway!

Shiney new chrome valve covers


Not any more! Project "Faux Pontiac" engine under way!