Today I was able to change out the lock cylinders, both door and ignition. I was hoping to replace the track bar bushings, but wife, I mean life got in the way. Next Saturday looks promising, the wife is going to a flea market with a friend so I'll have the day open.

 

got to hear my truck's 460 run for the first time., found out the darned carb (edelbrock/carter) needs to be rebuilt.. starting puking gas everywhere..floats were not stuck, neither were the needles..I had an old holley off of a 1972 460.. slapped that on and was able to start and run the engine..would keep the holley, but it has no electric choke, and no provisions for the C6 kickdown...also smells like its running a bit rich..i did not mess with any of the adjustments on the holley though.. just slapped it on for a test run..

forgot to put the radiator cap back on and when I shut down the engine it barfed coolant everywhere...what a mess..

did not put a mechanical oil gauge on the engine, but the guess-o-gauge is reading good as far as oil pressure goes..temp gauge also read good after idling for a while.

one thing i did notice, is the upper radiator hose gets hard(pressurized) pretty quick(like in about 5 mins) is this normal? or are the head gaskets bad? there is no evidence of coolant in the oil so far..at first it was puking into the overflow tank, but I think it might have been some air that i did not burp out..it only did this once...I put a new radiator cap on and so far no more puking....I will start it again when it's stone cold and see how long it takes to pressurize..it was in the 90's here in phoenix today..probably why it warmed up so quickly..

G3 alternator is working great (14.3V) but the belt squeals horribly when the engine is first started...I tightened the crap out of it, and its still squealing at startup..the g3 alt. in my 88 ranger also does this sometimes.. but not nearly as bad..I will roughen up the pulley a bit.. probably some glazing..
still got some bugs to work out.. but i was so glad to hear her run today..

 

Let me amend this by saying I was talking out my rear end. Apparently my FE had never been apart in it's almost 40 years of life to replace the timing chain. So I had two days of prying, banging, and beating to get the balancer spacer off the crank.

Aside from that, it all went pretty smoothly. I really need a camera assistant, as all my work gets done without proof. Usually by then, I'm too dirty to grab the camera and take pictures.

Either way, new double roller timing set is in, and the truck feels beastly like it should. Before the new chain it wouldn't turn over 2k rpm hardly. Now on launch it wants to break the tires loose just babying it.

Can't wait to get it out on the road tomorrow and have a little fun with it! Feels like a whole new truck.

 

I just got around to painting my front grill inserts this weekend on this 1976 Ford F100 styleside Explorer, and added the white instrument gauge overlays. I have a new lens on order, this one is clearly showing it age with the micro cracks.




Here's the before picture just to show the contrast:

 

Looks real nice!

 

My 1973 F100 Short Bed 2WD has been in climate controlled storage since October. Most of that time I was unable to drive so I did not think about it much, but my Doctor has OK'd me to drive again, so now it is killing me, I want to drive my truck, I also got a small list of projects for this year and cannot wait to get to them. I only got to drive it a couple of times before I had to put it into storage... But soon it will be time to convert the brakes to power brakes, and get the kick down rod installed...

 

Man the grill and instrument panel look great! I assume you got the white overlay from White Face Gauges - Custom Gauges - Your Auto Gauge Specialist. I worked with them to get overlays for the dummy lights as well. If you're interested they should be able to hook you up. Either way looks great.

 

I was on the fence about those white face gauges buy I'm sold now after seeing both of those. They look great.

 

Used some CLR to get off some surface rust on my 78 F250 Ranger. Put a clear sealer on for now until I'm ready for a full restore.

 

Was able to get the front bumper replaced with one that is strait. Had an issue with the ignition it just quit on me to some time to track the problem down. It ended up being the wires that run to the coil. so after some adjustments it fired right up now I'm a happy camper.

 

Man I love the white gauge over lays hope I can find some. Today I experimented with window tint for the first time and I got it on pretty good without bubbles but cut it half inch too short. I'm hoping this weekend I'll perfect it.

 

I've been doing the rust repair on the '73. The rust is now gone. (finally) New floors, cab mounts, wheel wells and patches in the bed floor.

Here's the type of rust repair I like to do. Just a thin skim coat of filler over this to make it perfect. The metal was cut out of another bed and fit to this one.

 

Popped the tire off and cleaned up one of the rims on my 79, had some debris from offroading in where the bead seals and it caused a slow but steady leak. All better now

 

starting to look like a motor again

 

I'd like to do those white gauge face place too. what LED bulb did you choose or would you choose from that same website? I do have tons of LED strips laying around tho.. RC days.

O. today I got a new windshield and replaced the stock gasket. The original windshield had a scratch.. and was old.