The firewall is it. It's Zero Rust gray primer. It also is a sealer, so it can be left alone with no problems and no chalking.
Hopefully I can have it painted and ready for glass by the end of the month. Windshield is on next month's truck budget

 

That should be very functional.

 

Progress!!

 

lookin' good over there! Ain't it nice to be assembling major parts?

 

Yup. I'm in the process of rebuilding the doors now. New weather stripping, glass runs, etc.

 

That was the hardest part of the whole restore for me! Hope it goes well.

 

I'm cheating. I haz a shop manual. I'm also doing away with key lock on the door (why only on the passenger door? What was Ford thinking?) I'll install either an alarm system or a remote locking system BEFORE the windows go in. I'm leaning toward a full alarm system as the price difference is negligible. And I have visions of my ahoogah horn sounding when I unlock the truck.

 

You know how in the old movies you see people park their vehicle and then slide over and get out on the passenger side? Well I guess that's what Ford was thinkin. If you pull the drivers door handle the opposite way from opening it...it locks it! Then you slide over...get out the passenger side door...and lock it with the key, lol. Maybe they had a problem with driver side doors getting torn off when parking by cars passing by too closely. I dunno.

 

That is a possibility. Roads were a lot narrower then. I already tacked in a patch on the passenger door.

 

This is what doing research & looking up old Laws is all about.
To this day on the Law Books of the majority of the States, there is a Law that states that it is Illegal to Exit your vehicle out the Drivers Side Door into traffic, when Parallel Parked.
Hence the Cars Companies (FoMoCo, GM, Chrysler, Plymouth, Studiobaker, etc.) Only putting an Exterior Lock on the Passenger Side Door as Standard Equipment.
One could Special Order anything & an Exterior Driver Side Door Lock was one of these S.O.'s. It was also a cost saving device for the Car Companies, as there was a Bad Recession going on at the time as well.

 

I decided to make a bumper out of some 6X2X.120 wall rect. tubing. In the 2nd pic you can kinda see how I put a small piece behind the bumper itself to mount the hitch. Total cost, with brackets, hardware and stuff I already had came to $138. And it's way stronger than it needs to be.
I also have a place to put some flush mount led lights. Still have to make some end caps and paint it, but I think it looks pretty good.

 

I like, I like! Bumper looks real good...cant wait for more updates

 

Thanks. I'm not happy with the hitch mount. I need to get a piece of 2X2 tubing to weld on the bottom of the bumper. I feel a truck without a sturdy hitch is, well, a car.

 

"Slight" change of plans. I scored a 292 w/T98 for less then the cost of an engine core. Complete and partially torn down. This engine is a reman from a local company I've done bidness with before. I took the 3 transmissions apart, put the best stuff together and got a seal kit. Now how did that dang bird know to poo right on the trans fill plug? Shouldn't have left the thing outside over night.

 

rig is looking good, how is rest of engine/trans install going?