That's not fun....but hey, at least you can drive it! I feel you on the lack of funding...I get so impatient sometimes!

Keep it up!

 

Hello Dan, just came across this thread, love the colour you are painting your truck! I played your video on my work computer, little volume, can't hear anything so don't know what the trouble is, over heating perhaps. Good luck with it anyway.

I'm sure I don't know what frustration you may be feeling, I was fortunate to be able to buy a complete and running! truck, but there has been a lot of, mostly fiddly, but ultimately time consuming and expensive things to fix (because I can't do it myself, though I need to learn some stuff) to make it pleasant, safe and reliable to drive. Still things to do.

I've rambled on again, just wanted to say love the colour of your truck, it's looking good and all the best with your build.

Home now and watched your video, shame about the heater core are they expensive to fix or more of a nuisance?

Cheers
Neville

 

Hi Dan, been gone from the site for a while, you truck is sure coming along. Looks great! I wish I could say the same for mine but I plug a way at it little at a time.

 

thanks guys for the pos feed back and compliments. Aus56, if ya didn't read all 4 pages - I got the paint from work for free. The electricians bought it thinking they would paint one of their work trucks but we don't do that kind of thing at our shop so it just sat around. I lived in Perth a year - back in 95/96. Didn't see any old american iron but a guy at work had a pretty old Morris.

I've been working on low buck instruments and I'll post some photos and a video soon. Been kinda fun.

 

I'm almost done fitting the gauges out of a 89 Astro van into my instrument panel. Several years ago I got the 700R4 tanny out of my boss' wrecked van and have been pondering how to get the speedometer to work (it has an electronic VSS). Come to find out the fuel and temp gauges were fried so nothing in the original instrument panel was working and this is a low budget project so Dakota digital was not going to happen. My boss still had his old van sitting in his yard so I got the instruments and wiring harness out of it and took it all apart and traced out the wires and salvaged all the moving parts. Haven't finished it yet but everything seems to be working. more photos in my album if you're interested. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/m...ent+panel.html

 

Dan,
I love the whole "build on a budget" thing. You've done an amazing job for very little money. I like what you did with the guages. As you probably saw in the thread about gauges I did something similar using mid 90's GMC van gauges in my 49. I have less than $20 into my cluster.

Keep up the good work
Bobby

 

Great Job! I've followed you on youtube for a couple of your videos but had no idea you were a member here. I love your "low budget" ideas and how you are pulling it all together.

 

thanks for the compliment lowtrkn2k - and the reminder. I intended to post a link for the videos. I really like seeing what other guys with deeper pockets do, like $700 wildwood brakes, but I just don't have the funds for that.

Anyway, here are my videos for the "low buck" instrument panel.

 

Cool videos, thanks for sharing. I can't wait to watch them all.

 

first of all - happy new year everyone. I got the instrument panel installed and it's working pretty good except I still have to chop my way into the gas tank and install the fuel gauge sender. I'll post some photos of that when I get the sender installed and all the gauges are working.

My more recent endeavor has been the heater. I've given up on the idea of finding a heater / AC unit from a newer model vehicle and decided to install the original heater box. Come summer time I'll use the 2x55 to cool (2 open windows at 55 mph).

Being a low buck project, I found a heater core from a 65 Mustang is a little smaller and thinner than the original and only cost $25. I used a bunch of weatherstrip to fit the new mustang core in the heater box, cut new holes out the back side of the air box, and used 1/2" copper elbows to make the jog to match the holes in the fire wall. I'll install this as soon as I get the dynamat (actually a cheaper knockoff brand) that I have ordered installed on the inside of the fire wall.

I had to jog the tubing to match the holes in the fire wall. I ended up using 1/2" copper elbows, one street ell and one regular ell back to back. The upper pair needed a slightly longer offset so I didn't push them all the way together and the bottom pair needed a slightly shorter offset so I ground a 1/16" off both ends and seated them all the way.

 

Dan, I'm really impressed and humbled with your creativity, perserverance & skills. As I've gone through your thread a phrase kept coming to mind - Necessity is the mother of invention. Thanx for taking the time to keep the rest of us in the loop and providing us with motivation.

Steve

 

thanks for the compliments 2losteve. What amazes me is the guys that build their truck the right way and stay married. That would take some creative financing - at least it would be for me. And then their are guys with not one, but 4 trucks - hope do you manage that? lol.

 

The '71's my daily driver which I've had for 33 years, the '56 is our really nice truck which we drive all over the country; 10 year build, been driving 11 yrs. since, the sedan delivery is currently in progress and on a much slimmer budget, and the '57 is waiting patiently and has been for about 15 years. My wife loves (most of) our trucks and they keep me outa her hair.

 

hey... i'm running ford on ford on ford but its just a choice for this build. i bought a lincoln as a donor car and damn it!! i'm going to use it! what makes our trucks great is their uniqueness. left over spray paint from work? thats great. keep it up, i'll be watching

q in 'cuse

 

The Ford truck vs. Chevy truck thing is pervasive and iconic - I enjoy it. But I must need to see a shrink. I put a Ford heater core in my Ford. And now I'm thinking about adapting electronic heater controls from a mid 90s Ford - at least to control the heater valve that's under the hood. I just prefer to run wires instead of a cable thru the fire wall. This info I found on a web site makes the manual electronic heater controls from the mid 90s Ford a possibility. The GM controls are way too complex.