hey looks great to me. i'm like you started mine when i was 16 and i'll be 20 at austust's end, i hope to have it done by then... wish mine woulda been as solid as yours, i had to replace the whole body other than the tailgate a drivers fender. old trucks are just fun thou, they are in my blood now and you'll probly wind up the same way. "a ford truck nut" lol

 

Its looking good! I bet your having a blast!

 

Big progress, no pics yet. Got the electrical sorted out. To make a painful story really short, I had bad (hacked up) wiring, a starter pulling WAY too much current and fusing the contacts on the starter relay. And a bad alternator. And a bad Park/Neutral switch. Other than all of that, she starts and runs now.

Now that the motor is turning the tranny was making oil pressure so I got to see where the old cooler line was split and shooting oil everywhere. Off to the junkyard and found a great F100 that had a perfect set of tranny cooler lines. Got another alternator and life was good. Is 14.5..15V too high for charging the battery? The batt was pretty discharged from all the trys at starting over the weekend.

Then the thermostat would open, the top hose would get hotter than hell and nothing out of the bottom Cool as could be. All of a sudden I got bubbling steam in the overflow cooler and the thing bubbled and rattled like it was going to blow. After pumping out massive amounts of air, the bottom hose got hot. I think it was all just trapped air.

{Edit: That 'hotter than hell' and 'bubbling air' was a leaking head gasket pumping exhaust into the coolant. Retorqued everything to spec (twice) and got that problem to go away. }

Then I installed the fan controller kit and called it a day.

Hey guy! I have a running motor! It was a good weekend!

 

See if this link works. If it does the video (sorry it is sideways) is the first time this motor has turned over in 8 years. I love these Fords

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1498181205

 

Nice starter truck. Nothing extreme but it will get the job done. Good engine, although I would have put some efi manfiolds on that 300 at least if you weren't doing anything else to it.

 

New rear shocks and got paint and the first clearcoat on the bed. After we paint the whole thing we'll go back and wet sand and clear again. Lots of drips and errors in this paintjob, but I'm learning fast.


Painting under the deck is a pain in the ---. This is Eastwood Candy Apple Red before the clear.



Before and after




Puttin' the wood to it (so to speak). This is going to require a lot of fitting. Got the wood out of a junkyard. I'd have sanded it cleaner, but my son was in charge of wood sanding and this is what I got.



You guys talk about "20 footer" paint jobs. Paint that doesn't look bad from 20 feet. Well this is a 40 footer. Orange peel is good. Orange peel is nice. I'd better learn to love it, because I sure own a lot of it.

 

It's coming along nicely, thanks for sharing the pics .

 

BUILT NOT BOUGHT= orange peel is good to have. You guys are doing a great job.

 

Whats going on with the truck?
Are you chaseing girls?
Girls can ride in the truck to!
I have a 77, just wondering how you are progressing?
Thanks/Robert

 

Thats too cool...Orange peal is good with a little 800-1000 grit wet paper and alot of elbow grease!....Please tell me you didn't put the converter on the motor then put the tranny on, The pump wont be engaged and it will destroy the transmission!

 

Painted the hood, doors, fenders, and cab.


epoxy primer


If you could make a mistake, I've made it. Going to be LOTS of wet sanding. Parts of this thing look like a popcorn finish on a ceiling.

Just how in the heck are you supposed to clean a spray gun from 2 part epoxy or paint that doesn't dissolve in water, acetone, or paint thinner??

 

?? Yes, I put the converter on, filled it with ATF to the extent I could, then put the transmission on and stuck it back into the truck. Filled the trans the rest of the way. I've been driving it in the neighborhood. What did I do wrong? How else do you put it back together? Not being a smart a--, I don't know any other way to do it. What did I get wrong? Tranny builds pressure, I know it it driving fluid through the transmission cooler.

 

sweet, nice to see it coming along so fast..

 

I use "Lacquer Thinner" to clean my gun and stuff. The guys at the local collision supply house told me what to use (they are a wealth of knowledge). They said that I could find it cheaper at HD or Lowes than what they were selling it for. Here a gallon is about $20. I was also told that I could use it to thin the primer down a little. They also told me that I could use Dawn dish-washing soap in place of grease remover, and that I should also wipe everything down with the lacquer thinner before priming or painting. So far everything seems to be working out fine, here is a link if you want to see some pictures;
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...build-log.html

Oh, almost forgot. Your truck is looking good and coming along nicely. Keep up the good work.

 

When you put it together you are supposed to put the converter on the transmission first. When u put it on it should "fall" into the transmission 3 times, as there is 3 sets of splines that get lined up. I guess you just got lucky this time, but it is very east to mess this up and destroy your tranny.