'62 Franken-Uni
 

Hello guys/gal's, I am new to "classics" and recently bit the bug from family members who own 60's Chevy trucks and Camaro's. My goal was to buy a truck with hopes to turn it into a driver that is capable of doing anything around town that I needed it to. I no longer haul any boats or trailers and really just use my current '12 FX4 as a commuter around town and to carry items home from the hardware store. The truck I was looking for was under $10k with a few modern amenities like AC, PS and PB. I love the 60's model F100's and C10's, so I had a challenge at my hands to pick one or the other. I found unibody's and fell in love. So, this is where it started.

I recently purchased a '62 Frankenstein of sorts, but I'm destined to make this thing work. Previous owner bought this truck out of Arkansas and subsequently purchased a 1984 F150 with a 302 and 45k miles. The '62 now sits on the '84 frame and has all of the modern amenities that I wanted. I've got PS, PB and AC, so I was excited with my starting point. The transplant is fresh (+/- 2 months), paint is fresh and the truck is about 85% done to my standards. New gas tank was installed and now sits under the bed, so I've got more room in the cab. The paint isn't 100%, but I didn't expect a $5k paint/body job on a sub $10k truck. This is going to be a driver, so nicks and scratches are in its future. Interior is lacking in some areas and needs some touch ups, but that will all come in due time.

Here is one of the pic's that got me going, and since I just received the truck on Sunday evening, I haven't had a chance to snap any new shots.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps23793d30.jpg

The truck has a bit of a starting issue, but drives well, tracks well, and stops well. There will be some obvious changes in my pursuit of the truck I have in my head, but it will likely be somewhat slow and unchanged from the cosmetic front. I would love to drop the truck down a few inches in the future, but those wheels/tires are FRESH, so I am going to get some road time on them before I make any changes on that front.

Hope to learn a lot from you guys, so bare with me as I get my hands dirty and figure this thing out.

Well good luck on that one. If I had yours I'd just scrap mine. Well, maybe not.

A little update, no pic's yet but I'll get those soon. We've been busy over the past few weeks taking on several small projects:

Under the hood
- In my quest to clean up the wiring, I switched over to a single wire alternator.
- New HEI distributor, spark plugs and plug wires
- New belts
- To do's - re-charging AC, blasting and painting stock air filter & valve covers, new headers & exhaust

Interior
- Switched to a new dash panel from Doc's Custom's - had to extend a lot of wires
- Added tachometer
- Fixed dash lighting
- Replacing headlight and wiper switches
- New arm rests
- New dash bezels & knobs
- Pulled out old seats that took up half the back window, in process of installing new black vinyl lowback buckets & seat belts
- To do - add center console, new steering column and relocating ignition back to dash, get rid of cow crap smell

Suspension
- No upgrades yet, but will be talking with a custom shop soon to determine my course of action. Leaning towards 3/4 DJM dream beams and shackle/hanger kit.
- Need to re-build front end, bushings are worn bad

Wheels
- Will be ordering chrome Wheel Vintique O.E. 15x7 in front & 15x8 in back, no caps
- Likely sticking to black walls for the time being to save the coin, but may do whitewalls if I get rich quick

Exterior
- Doors wouldn't close correctly, so we adjusted the strikers and they close nicely now
- Considering removing rear bumper and placing license plate in curve under tailgate. Problem is that the '84 frame has a cross member at the rear of the frame and it hangs down much further than the original '64 frame. May have someone fabricate me a small roll pan to cover frame rail

A lot of other small odds/ends not worth talking about, but progress is being made.

Nothing exciting to look at, but I should be finishing up the seats and dash this weekend, so provided those items get knocked out, I'll be able to move it to the home garage.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...psca97ff30.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps0c753db8.jpg

Sand blasted and painted my stock air cleaner cover Ford Blue. I'm going to start blasting the bottom section tonight in hopes of having it re-painted by Sunday.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ps6cd4f492.jpg