A woodworker by trade, this is my first total frame off build. I can tell you that the help available on FTE has enabled me to get as far as I have. Thanks to all here for all the posts that show how it is done, and for all the feedback when I ask things that seem simple to the ones who know.
Here are some pictures of the work I have done in the last year or so.

Cross member welded in, frame stripped and painted, TCI front coil overs installed, gas tank and Explorer rear installed with the new CPP springs and spring mount kit, cab gas filler hole filled and cab primed, cab painted, and cab mounted with new mounts. About 8 months, a little at a time.

 

The PO had some really bad work in this truck, like a motor mount that was just a flat piece of 1/4" steel bolted directly to the frame and to the SBC with no vibration dampers at all, and the trans crossmember was another piece of metal that had one bolt in the tail of the trans and the metal was just sitting on the frame rails, not welded or bolted. He also had covered over the rust holes and the seams in the two piece front fenders with a half inch of bondo and fiberglass. I really couldn't afford to change the motor and trans so it still has the sbc in it - but I ended up having to rebuild the motor and changing the th350 to a 700R4 (overdrive). I did some woodwork in trade for having the engine rebuilt and getting the transmission from a friend who has one of the best car repair shops in town.
Here are a few more pics:

 

Running boards repaired with some metal patches and some fiberglass with bed liner. And my attempt at getting the hood straight. I worked on this for 4 days! Amazing how many small dents and dings in this hood. You can still see some. I also had to weld a few patches underneath on the edges where there were stress cracks. The PO took the nose trim off when he painted and broke three of the 4 bolts off of it. He had one bolt and some liquid nails holding it on. I am going to have to weld new studs on and test my welding skills.

 

Great job, looking really good.


Kevin

 

very nice looking build. you will have a very nice truck when it's done.

 

Looks like you are doing a nice job. And though it may not seem like it, your rate of progress is well above average too.

I loved the part about the Liquid Nails. We have all been victimized by the P.O. in one way or another. My front clip assembly was installed with four 3/8 bolts and a nice stack of washers.

 

Hey Topper,
It looks great! Is the two tone blue/black the final color scheme?
You have been busy - My hood took forever as well - It's still hitting in one small place up front. Have you tried installing it back on the truck - they didn't make adjusting the hood a simple process.

That engine looks great - very nice.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Your making great progress and its looking good to.

In referance to the hood, we thought it would be a no brainer to plop the hood for Jon's 50 back on but NOOO. It took us like 5 times of putting it on, taking it off and tweaking it a bit then bolting it back up before it, finally fit, really glad that it over.

I really hope your hood fits better than Jon's did, I wouldn't wish that hassle on anyone.

 

Looking good, great color too!

I have a '52 nose trim piece you can have if you want....IF I can find it LOL.

 

Nice truck! I have a couple questions: in the picture of the backside front fenders did you use the weather strip to fill a gap? If so good idea, I have a set of 51 glass fenders for mine from bebop and I have some gaps on either side. Also where is your column from and how long is it?

 

The column is a 30" Ididit. The weather strip is actually from LMC made to fit there. Ross (ALBUQ F1) had to tell me about it after I posted a thread about how the Bebop fenders just didn't fit well from the cowl down to the running board. With the rubber it looks great.

Ben, the fenders came black from Bebops and I kind of like it. Who knows, I might end up painting them black. But I do have lots of the "burn out blue" from Eastwood still...

Thanks for all the kind comments from all, it has been a real learning experience for me so far with a long way to go still.

 

I haven't even tried to put the hood on yet. I really hope it fits!

 

That would be great if you do find it. Let me know and if I have anything you can use...

 

So is your build thread like mine started? I did not get my build thread going in the beginning. and I had to try and reassemble the process in my head and post it here. I guess your avatar makes me think you already had most of this done.
Nice stuff here though!!! Looks great!!

 

I just did the build thread a week ago, luckily I had some pictures and could somewhat reconstruct what I have done. Now that I finally started this build thread, I plan to post the highlights of the boring details.
I hope to get mine to look almost as good as your someday.