That looks and sounds great!

 

I am looking at body work now. Which has me thinking about what holes I do or don't need to fill in the firewall. Anyone use a modern AC setup like vintage air on their trucks? I am curious as to what it looks like around the firewall. I already have a sanden compressor so its likely I will just find a evaporator and a condenser, I think they part them out this way.

Anyone have trouble with these guys or recommend someone else?

 

Hey Aaron,

What front IFS kit did you use? I have been looking all over at all the different ones. I noticed yours does have power steering. I was also wandering how much and where you got it from? Thanks again.

 

Mine front end is a kit from fatman. It is pretty expensive. There are other ways to achieve power steering than replacing the entire front suspension though.

 

I went ahead with the vintage air purchase. Its to cold in ky atm for me to be out in the garage. Though last weekend we were able to finish the front passenger side body mount and bottom front cab corner. (I should've taken a photograph).

I bought a little pot blaster from harbor frieght.
20 lb. Pressurized Abrasive Blaster
Once I had the exterior of the body removed I blasted the inside as it would be my only opportunity to clean this area. This blaster worked great using black diamond media. I was worried about metal damage but at 70psi and staying away from flat body pieces I am comfortable. It worked really well. I have 3 more corners to patch and then the firewall to attend to. Then we will begin on the doors. After all that I am going to assemble the body to the frame as a final look before paint.

 

This thread beginning to end was a morning well spent.
I realized I've been away too much and too long.
Thanks for sharing the journey
Can't wait to watch the home stretch
JML

 

Currently I am replacing the front cab corners and working on the body in the surrounding area. Below is a picture of the one cab corner I have finished, I also had to repair park of the front floor panel/rocker. I still need to grind the welds down.

Also is the other side, I have removed the rust affected area and blasted the inside.

 

You're making good progress, keep up the good work .

 

Its been cold. But we got the other front corner replaced. One of the PO had fabbed up some aluminum rear cab mounts. I polished them as best I could with but I really needed a fine sandpaper like maybe 1500. It turned out meh, but hey, they are cab mounts.

 

Hey Aaron nice build you got going. I live down near Nashville. Did you go to Kyana's swap meet yesterday in Louisville? I saw some F100 parts there. Enjoying your build

 

I didn't really think about it much, Louisville is 2 hours away from bowling green.

 

I'm still around. Getting close to doing body and paint as all the major body work on the cab is finished. Now I am putting the truck togethor with everything to test fit and look for any last adjustments before it is painted. I'm just going to post the pictures as an update of how things have been changing.

 

For those following along: When cutting out and replacing panels try to avoid sharp corners. Make 1/4 round corners with as large a radius as possible. A roll of masking tape or quart paint can is about the ideal size to trace around for the corner curve. There is two reasons to do this: 1. A circle the same size as a square has a much shorter perimeter. This means that the curved bead will be shorter than the sharp corner. (for example the perimeter of a 4" circle is 3.14 x 4 = 12.56" , the square is 4 x 4 = 16", a difference of almost 3 1/2". That's a lot of extra welding and extra heat !) . 2. There will be much less distortion and warping. There will always be some heat shrinkage along the weld seam even when doing proper skip tacking technique. By making a sharp corner you concentrate the heat shrinkage into a much smaller area almost guaranteeing more warping. It's much easier to hammer and dolly stretch along a curve rather than a tight corner.

This is a common mistake I see time and time again, even a lot of pros do it.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

 

I enjoyed the update! It's really looking good.