I'd rep you again if I could, that is excellent work. How did roll the top of the gate? If something were to go wrong how do you intend to get inside to fix it, I'd hate to think I envy you for the size of your shop too

 

Its kind of a Fred Flintstone way of rolling the tailgate skins. what I do is tack weld the edge of my sheet metal blank to a section of 3/4 inch water pipe (alignment is critical to get a perfect roll edge). Then I lay the sheet metal on a sturdy, flat workbench with the pipe facing up and clamp the pipe down securely on each end with "V" blocks (I have a set with bearings as rollers which works great). Then I find a buddy to help and we put a 16" pipe wrench on each end of the pipe and simply roll it until the tack welded edge just touches the sheet.
Now you can cut all the tacks off and check the roll for size, typically it will spring back just about enough to be dead on but you might have to do some minor tweaking to get a perfect match.


I sincerely hope that I never need to get back inside the tailgate but if I have to I will have to use my big ugly heat gun and heat the inside panel until the panel bond softens and I can pull it free (destroying the paint of course).
That's why I took extra care and welded in pipe bushing through every frame member, then pressed bronze bushing into them so there should be minimal wear on the 5/16 stainless lock rods (they slide like butter) . I press fit a sealed ball bearing into the 3/16 thick, 6061 aluminum handle so it should rotate freely forever (I hope). And I installed 3 springs into the system when only one of them is needed to operate the latch (triple redundancy). Then on top of all that I slathered on a thick coat of plasti-lube to every moving part.
So,,, I think I covered all the bases but time will tell.


I work for a helicopter company here in Hayden and we have a very nice shop area that I use a lot but my truck is in my friends hangar which used to have a lot of room but with his boat, plane, several project cars and my beast scattered all over we are becoming a bit cramped. That's the problem with space,,, the more you get,,,,, the more you fill up...

 

Thanks, you taught me a lesson on rolling steel, Your tailgate looks well engineered and with your explanation it seems clearly fool proof but I had to ask Now I'm just envious of the shop you get to work in

 

I am jumping between several things right now depending on my ambition because it is so flippin hot right now.


I am working on the vintage air kit that my wife not only insisted on but bought with her own money (aka,,my money), but it is the thought that counts right


I am also folding, bending, and cussing some sheet metal in an effort to make new inner wheel wells that mesh with the flip front end structure and such.



The vintage air kit for the 55 f100 comes with a set of lines for the heater and AC unit that use the original blower motor hole in the firewall which is really
great if I had a stock 55 but this arrangement will not work with my flip front end subframe so I will have to start over.



The vertical control panel will fit perfectly in the original ash tray hole so I can save some welding rod filling that one in.






I threw out the stock inner wheel wells because they just would not work with the crown vic IFS and flip front end.
So I began by fabbing up the upper panel and bolting it in.




Once the upper panels were in place I killed a bunch of cardboard before I formed up the inner side panel for the driver side.





Once I get the front of wheel wells welded up and bolted into the flip front sub frame I will fab up the rear portions using the
original mount tabs off of the firewall. they will overlap each other buy several inches to control the mess.

 

Your inners are looking good and you are going to appreciate that air.

 

Awesome work ...
Do you get much sleep at night or do you lay awake thinking about how you are going to fab up this stuff??

 

I sure wish I could run that AC unit now it was almost 90 inside the hangar today as I installed the condenser and dryer, thought I was going to melt.

 

I kill a LOT of card board boxes, it allows you to try multiple styles without putting in hours of cutting and bending only to FAIL...

 

I've got to purchase another one of those kits for this build eventually.

 

Vintage air mis-sent me the 56 install kit which I tossed onto the shelf,,,, if you want it just say so because I will not use it,
There is the ABS panel which fits under the dash for the vents, the metal mount brackets for the gen III unit and several other small items.


That should save you a few bucks because you can buy the generic gen III system.

 

I've purchased my vent diffusers and made a dash extension for this build already and still have the abs piece that came with the kit I purchased for my panel but if you are offering me the parts pictured I'd gladly take them off your hands...lol

 

It was triple digits outside up here, I waited for the sun to set before attempting anything requiring physical effort. You do know the truck came with factory air don't you? Roll down the windows, **** the vents, and put the pedal to the metal! It worked best after the sun set as well.

 

Don't forget to open the cowl vent! You could get quite a blast of air thru the cab.

 

I originally intended to keep the factory heater, took it all apart put new brushes in the fan motor, boiled out the heater core, bead blasted the entire unit and repainted it.
But my lovely wife insisted on having an AC unit because she has some breathing problems and I have to admit that it will make her life much better.


I will still have the wing windows to use when I am out and about alone but the cowl vent will be closed off because when I fit the crown vic wiper motor to the original wiper governor it will block about half of the cowl vent.

 

Just checking in after a little hiatus. Looking awesome. Wish I had your access to tools for fabbing metal.........I also wish I had your skills.