I have the uncut keys that match those Mercury caps

 

A 3" drop via springs will get you to a point of serious negative camber that can not be adjusted out. I just had my truck aligned, small block 1 1/2" drop springs in a truck with a 460 left me with -1 degree camber with the adjustment maxed out. The adjustment slot could be widened to accommodate this. I am going to run with it since toe is the primary wearing angle. If wear is too serious I will either elongate the adjustment slot of order another pair of springs that will raise the suspension a bit. Hammering the lid = chop top.

 

 

That's what I thought you meant. Just never heard it called that before.

If there is too much negative camber, I'll modify the lower slot like you suggested. Right now I don't see a problem (but then again there is no weight on the front suspension right now).

 

I like that but I don't want to mess with my spares.

I should have grabbed those old Dodge and Ford hub caps that I saw in the junk yard last week.

There was one old Dodge one and a couple of mis-matched Ford ones. Maybe I'll go back and grab them.

That clock is a great idea.

 

You sure know how to score treasures amigo... When I finish some R&R time, I plan to cruise the Yonke's here in S. Baja. Lots of old trucks sitting in backyards here, with some just hanging on to GrandPa's old rig. I'd love to find one of those black & chrome instrument clusters from a F600 to F750.. One with the tach would be the bomb for my truck..
Keep on truckin'

baja

 

The original tach is mechanical. That's why you see "replace with an elec. tach".

 

it said 1960 galaxy hub cap

 

Thanks! I'll have to take you up on that some time. I'd love to see the CV swap in person and pick your brain on any best practices. I'm on the hunt for a '53-'56 and that'll be one of the first things I do to it.

 

any updates?

 

Yeah, but I've been real busy working on a customer's 56 Olds.

I'll try and update the thread tonight when I get home.

I've been wanting to do my own upholstery work for years and while it's a little early to start thinking about it for this project, I've just acquired 3 different sewing machines.......

Pics later.

 

Ok, I've been very busy working on a 56 Olds lately and have not had too much time to work on my own truck.

I did manage to get the engine/transmission laid in place for engine mount mock-up. It's sitting in the chassis really low right now and I plan on leaving it that way. The lower the center of gravity, the better it will handle.

Here are some pics of the engine/trans install:

 

Like I said in an earlier post, I've been thinking about how I'm going to finish the interior and have some ideas.

I've always wanted to try my own upholstery, so I went ahead and found some good ol' sewing machines that should get the job done.

The first is a 1930 Singer 31K20:



The second machine that I acquired is a 1961 Singer 31K5:



These machines do a great job, but the pitch of the stitch was just a little too short and they don't handle a big enough thread weight for my liking. I'm not going to use red thread, it was only used so that you can see it better in the pics:





I finally realized that I would have to spend some coin and get a machine with a walking foot to do the job correctly. I then stumbled upon this Pfaff machine at an estate sale. It was purchased new by a gentleman back in 1963 and used in the basement of his house to do upholstery work. It's one of the BEST machines on the market and got a smoking deal on the machine, table, tons of extra walking feet, thousands of heavy duty needles and supplies. This machine lasted his lifetime and it will most definitely last mine as well.

 

After cleaning out some of the dust in the interior, I took out the BMW seats that I had originally found and did some work on getting the Passat seats ready to install.

The Passat seats are power, heated and leather. I'm going to build a custom center console to incorporate space for a 10" subwoofer, the shifter handle and some cup holders.

I first started out by cutting off the factory slide mounts:



That left me with a nice flat surface and a great place to weld on some new rear mounts:



A light coat of semi-flat black to keep them from rusting for now:



Sitting flat on the floor of the truck:





With the 1980's tilt column and 79 Mustang wheel wired in for mock-up:

 

Please take and show pics of the mounts!