Ohhhh Ill just pull the cab off! :-P
All that still needs to be worked out.

I traded the Flat 6 for a 289/302 today.



The engine was thought to be seized, I figure a $20 pile of scrap iron for some Bling Military Truck Valve Covers, why not?!

Turns out it isn't seized, and is spotless under the covers. Probably a good running engine.

Any who, today's issue, the exhaust pipe wont clear the damn steering box!?



Options?

 

Hey BigB,
Unfortunately it does get tight on the driver's side. I used Sanderson blockhugger style headers to solve this problem. M/T - Mickey Thompson valve covers - ignore me if you were just pulling our chains.

Ben in Austin

 

Hey BigB,
Here are 2 recent discussions on 302's & clearance issues & solutions.
We moved our engine an inch or two toward the passenger side to get some more room.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ock-302-a.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ering-box.html

Ben in Austin

 

The manifolds on the new engine come straight back, possible for them to work?

 

The 289 in my 50F1 has a driver's side manifold that dumps straight back. The caveat is that it is the most cobbled together engine mount I have ever seen, and it came this way so I have no idea what the manifold was off of. There is a pipe stub on it that just had to jog slightly inboard to clear the steering shaft.

 

Well, got the engine all shinny, and installed. Thing runs great!
Had to use a lot of parts of the other 302 I had, so I cleaned then up and painted them Mercury Phantom Black (Outboard paint; oil, gas, sunlight, saltwater, and corrision resistant. Excellent stuff.)



Figured as long as I had some Ford blue left, I would paint the brake lines.
It looks amazing in person. Im going to paint them all like that.



Then I went parts hunting. A local guy said he had some factory headers that would work, well they don't, but I figured I could sell them and put the money towards some that will fit.



Then he gave me some other interesting stuff.
A new in box A/C compressor, and a A/C head thing!
Hellllll yeah. A/C for the win! (FTW)



Now, gotta fix this. Hell, I'll run it out the front if I have to.

 

Been a little bit, tied up with work.

Anywho, the manifold problem was solved by a local fabricator,
he used the stock ?mustang? headers, and made them work, and gave the some type of coating





Not to bad for $80

Then, I painted the underside of the cab.
After that, the truck sat untouched for 4 months while I was working up in Oregon



In the past week or so, I got to work, got the cab all sand-blasted, and the firewall painted.







And that is how the truck looks today.

Let me tell ya, body work is extremely time consuming. Primper sand puddy, sand, puddy, sand, primer, sand, over and over.
And that was just for the front.

I'm now debating painting the entire truck myself. I have a gravity feed gun, and some decent knowledge on how to do it. However, I don't have a spray booth, or a quality gun.
The 12 year old harbor freight gun I have, seems to be the best of the HB guns. There is no way to spray it on smooth, I will always have an orange peel look, from what I've read online, its just the limitations of the gun. (all these years I thought I just sucked at painting) I'm okay with it on the firewall and underside, but outside....?

I can do it myself for $500 in paint and supply's
I can leave it primer and still enjoy the truck
It can sit in primer for months-years before I have the money to pay someone to do it.
I can buy a $400ish gun and do it myself, but with paint, I might as well pay a professional to do it.

So I dont know. Opinions?

 

Given your options, think about taking the cab, bed, and fenders to Earl Sheib or Miricle Auto. Before you fall off your chair consider this: they do crappy prep and shoot cars all day. After a few thousand cars the spray guy gets pretty good. You do the prep & take your high quality paint to them. They'd probably shoot it for two or three hundred.