Didn't want to bother anyone to help me reinstall my front clip so tonight after work I decided to do it myself. I used 2 ratchet straps up to my overhead garage door tracks and my 5 ton winch to the radiator support. The ratchet straps exerted an outward pull along with the necessary lift, which enabled me to get the captive bolts around everything and into their holes. I pretty much just drove into the thing and lowered it down and back a bit. Yesterday I torched, sawed and angle-grinded the original radiator support to get the '77 ford radiator I'm using to sit about an inch furter ahead in the chassis to clear the diesel engine and it's fan. All in all, it's been a lot of work, but like many have said before me, "it keeps me outa the bar". ( Nobody says I can't have a beer while working on my truck though).......

 

Good work, GB. That is awesome.

 

Looking good Gary! Man I'm a little envious, I've still got a few things to finish up before the front clip goes on.
You will be road worthy and ready to pull that trailer out for another hiatus from the cabinet shop.

 

Well, well! Way to go! Now the weasel just looks like any other old compressor motor that you would find in an old Fridge!

What is that eerie shiny stuff coming in the garage doors? Could that be sunlight? We had some of that once.

 

Thanks guys! But Wally, let's not pretend...when a guy leans towards the 'beater farm truck' look, the body and paint take about half a day I did clean all the underside and inner fenders and cab mounts etc and paint them with rustoleum red primer and then polyurethane undercoat. In known problem areas, notably the space between the front fender brace and the front fender, there is a big gap and the front tires fill that up solid with mud. Well, I sealed that up and caulked it with a big fillet of black sikaflex, so no more mud can enter that area. First I welded in a new fender brace I made from an old electrical panel (that heavy gray stuff) and did my filling. What I'm getting at in my usual long winded way, is that I fixed and sealed all the problems underneath and behind the front clip before I put it together. Now I can do as little or as much paint and bodywork on the exterior panels as I want. I'm certainly no 'rat rodder', but I like mixing up a batch of flattish meadow green and brush it onto whatever repair I might do in an afternoon. If I should sideswipe a stump in the woods, I can grab the hammer, pound it out and then bust out my brush and have it fixed that day. And Spur, that WAS the sun, but now we're looking at a couple more days of heavy rain, our normal June weather. July and A ugust are summer here. That bright glow was really hurting my eyes!

 

Gary, a quick question. I am about to pull my front clip and am a little confused about the last 2 bolts. The ones on either side of the radiator with the springs. The seem to be the only thing left holding it, but it also looks like once if fight the nuts off the thing, that the bolts will still be left in the frame and can't be removed. If this is true do you simply life the front up six inches first before trying to move anything else, or have I missed something completely.

I figure I am better off asking someone who has just done this then reading the book and making my typical stupid mistakes.

Mine is also a 1960 F350, but a dually dump bed.

Thanks

 

They are long studs, threaded at both ends. Both of mine came out of the frame when un-screwed, so they were out of the way. If yours don't go that way, just use two wrenches and double nut the top nut and I think they should back out of the frame. I still have cuts on the back of my hand from those 'hand holes' in the door hinge post. You need to sort of spread the front clip there so the captive bolts will clear the holes. Mine was a dually factory ford script flatbed when I bought it last September. Good luck with the project. It would be great to see some photos.

 

Thanks for the info

Did you say photo's:
Taking the bed off with the Kubota:



Sitting next to shed after bed taken off:



Will start a thread on its rebuild. I love pictures.

 

Looks good. What are those rear tires? They look pretty big for 17.5s. Are those one piece wheels or the dreaded widowmakers? My build thread is back on page 5 here. It's called 'kinda like a hot rod, but it isn't hot'....

 

8R17.5 tubeless on solid rims. If it had the widow makers I would have skipped the 350 and gone with the 250 that was missing a door (but I really wanted the dump truck). They stand about 31.5 inches tall. Would like to find another rim for a spare, but so many other things to spend money on first. Once I get her ripped apart I'll start with my shopping lists.

 

Remarkable!

 

Thanks Gary, its off. Let the real work begin.

Pics of truck are at Truck - 1960 Ford F350 Dually pictures by gtiltonas - Photobucket if you ever want to look.

 

I did EVERYTHING I could think of during the 4 months or so that the clip was off. I mean all the things that are a pita to do while leaning over the fenders, like valve adjustment, wiper motor conversion to electric etc etc. Just got back from my first of many 24 mile round trips to town. Still no hood, but it's easier for all my buddies to view all the stuff I did. With the straight pipe, the turbo whines like a semi truck. The whole thing is just plain LOUD! The boys in town declared it bad-***. I'm gonna get somma them ear plugs.......

 

Got the hood back on this week, it's looking pretty civilized. I found a set of military tow hooks at a junk store. It took just about all the nerve I could muster up to notch my perfect front bumper to give them some room. After the torch cuts, I was still unsure if I did the right thing. I looked around the shop to find something to trim the cuts with, and came up with a couple of junk caulking guns. The rods in the new style dont have notches in them, so out they came. As for those ugly torch cuts, I normally work on the truck after work, but this was in the morning and I found that 2 cups of coffee has the opposite effect as 2 cold beers to steady the old hands. From now on I cut and weld in the late afternoon!

 

Those look pretty nice. How often do you get stuck?