Hey guys – I’ve not been making as much progress as I like on the truck, but haven’t been posting any progress AT ALL of FTE. So other than a few lurking posts on other threads, I thought I’d dump some pictures here to let you all know that I’m still alive and wrenching.

Hopefully I’ll add some more descriptions later, but I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking here.

At this point, the doors and hood are on and I’m finishing up the wiring of the power doors, some additional lighting and accessories and interior work. sadly the old, white rusty bed will be going back on the truck until winter breaks. The Good Lord has kept the snow accumulations in PA down to a minimum this year, so I’ve gotten by with the 2wd gasser as my daily driver, but parking at the top of the long driveway and walking up in the dark both ways whenever snow/ice is forecast is getting old!

Ok, pics:

Truck outside:






Grill, bumper and headlights in (gonna have to do something about that big gap between the DIY bumper and grill…)


and do you believe i can't find the ford emblem for the grill anywhere in the barn? anyone interested in selling one off a spare grill or parts truck they may have lying around?


The DIY IC piping I’ve been having trouble with – the aluminum wye was a nice cheap solution, but crumpled under too much clamping load. Thanks to Quesey’s post in my “parts wanted” ad, I may be getting an SD spider from craigslist in the mail, soon though, so should be good:




Bodywork on the doors I bought from Brad. One door was fine, but one was pretty badly hail damaged. This is after spraying a guide coat and sanding. Several rounds of bodyfiller and paint later and it looks good as new. oh, and the window motors were shot, so i got good practice at rebuilding those if anyone needs advice on jerky window motors. $3 in parts from NAPA, lots of rivet drilling, 10 mins of motor assembly/disassembly and their good as new




Some work on the overhead console that will house my gauges, window switches and some aux lighting and accessory control switches. The final will be not as tall as this mockup, but this is the general idea:





Here’s the flat of the real piece. Wish me luck with bending 



Ok, back to work (at real work, which has been crazy lately). Then back to wiring like mad in the barn at night.

 

That's looking really good, JP! I can't wait to see what that hot rod black paint looks like all buttoned up and done.

I'm diggin' it!

 

X2. That's looking pretty sweet.

 

thanks guys - i'm liking the color, too. not for everyone, but definitely for me. i have the doors, grill and hood on now (but no pics yet) and i like it even more :-)

also, i forgot to mentioned, even though its not street legal again yet, i did some work with it the other day: i pulled my dad's 2wd GMC 1500 up my 1/4-mile long driveway in the snow when he couldn't make it up 10 feet up the slope. 4-wheel-low and some tow straps shackled to the frame and my truck didnt slip once - or labor in the slightest.

 

I'm with ya on the slow progress.

Yes, that passenger door was hailed up pretty bed, at least there was no rust.

You sure you don't want a very clean bed? I just picked one up this weekend i want to resell

 

i just might.

txt just sent sent :-)

and yeah, those doors were clean except for the all the dents! the run channel and belt line rubber was even reusable.

 

That hot rod black looks pretty sharp. Good progress so far.

 

JP, I just realized that we have the same headlights I'm pretty sure!

Looking really good!

 

Sorry, Didn't realize that was you. here are some bigger pics

 

I’ve been real bad about taking pictures and posting progress on this build lately, but it is coming along – albeit, much more slowly and more expensively than I had hoped. Though, if I had been honest with myself 5 months ago, it probably wouldn’t be that far off.

Anyway, I have a few pictures to show regarding the near completion of the overhead console I was working on. This wasn’t a large project by size, but definitely was by time.

Here’s the piece bent up and hanging with the air valve installed – yes, an air valve for a roof-mounted air horn with overhead pull-cable actuation :-)






And here’s the console in place with gauges installed.


The picture is a little grainy, but overall I’m quite happy with the look and fit of it. Those swtiches in the back are for my aftermarket power windows – this truck is an XL, so I just added power doors and wired all the motors up to one central location instead of dealing with the crew cab power driver door headache. For those wondering, that switch is out of a Chevy HHR. …no there was nothing Ford that would work. …at least its American 

I also cut the headliner out for it and extracted the rear window out of my parts truck yesterday. I’m dying the headliner black, and found out the hard way that 2 cans of dye is not enough. More coming later this week hopefully, then the headliner and back window go in.

Then, a few days of checks and buttoning things up, but she should be back on the road soon!!!

 

oh, and here's a fun pic i just found on my phone. i had a Dodge Sprinter van home from work a few weeks back and it could not handle the small amount of snow/ice on my driveway from the last storm that had come through. so it was either get out and salt all 250 feet of driveway and HOPE the van would make it up at 400am when i had to leave for work. ...or do it the fun way and pull it up with a half-assembled truck.

you can guess which way i chose - and i'm happy to report that the it was not trouble at all towing it up.

it was quite a sight with the wife steering the sprinter with the two kids in the van with her.

this picture is on the flat spot of the driveway, but you get the idea :-)

 

I was wondering when you'd show up again. I like the overhead console, are you going to cover it with anything?

 

well, its already covered with paint, so that'll be it :-) i used the last of a can of krylon non-skid paint. its basically paint with some sand in it, but it gives it a nice textured surface. i suppose i could have upholstered it, but i like the military vehicle exposed sheetmetal look personally.

and yeah, i'm kind of a ghost lately. ...my wife would probably say the same with all the time i've been spending in the barn.

 

Console looks good JP! Everything looks real good!

 

Looks good! I'd be interested in seeing how that pull actuaded air horn turns out! Big truckin'!