Has a beautiful original wood floor for the back 9' cargo area. Then about 2' of slightly raised steel area for the seats and the front area as you can see was almost non existant. The wood floor is possibly my favorite part in this truck. It is in 'the perfect state of disrepair'.

 

Thx for sharing pics GB, like the old lunch box

 

What else could possibly be lurking in this "attic" of yours?

 

Looking good Gary!

 

One somewhat unusual thing up there is our cabinet shop's 'power tool wrecking yard'. I have always bought the same model of belt sanders, drill, random orbit sanders, power planes etc so all the dead ones are up there in a heap. When we need a switch or brushes or whatever, I go up there and scrounge parts. Usually we are back in business in less than half an hour.

As for auto parts it's landcruiser parts on the left and ford truck on the right. Been selling off the cruisers and parts. Lost interest. There are maybe 4 flathead v8s in parts in the ford section. By now most of the v8 stuff is the dregs from 3 'rebuilds'.....

 

Tried to bleed my new brake job after work yesterday, but alas, I had kept one and only one remnant of the old brakes. The rear hose. It looked really good and never gets sunlight and Napa didn't list it so I left it. Well, it was hopelessly clogged. Drilled out the metal ends but thought the drill bit could have pierced a layer of rubber and a new hose is about 20 bucks. Think 'single master cylinder' here. I looked at my '60 f350 parts truck and the rear hose was the same so I ordered one from napa for a '60. It should be here today. I shifted gears and retrieved the panel's stuck engine from a shed and pulled off parts I needed for the new block I'm fitting out. It was a beautiful afternoon and I love the smell of the old oil and grease in the sun. I still don't have a good carb, but I'm going to a large swap meet tomorrow. I don't get out much so this is going to be a very exciting trip for me.

 

Isn't it wonderful having spare parts!

 

Couldn't do without them... And FTE friends as well. Did you happen to notice the tread on that front tire leaned up there? Stu sent me those for free. I just paid the shipping. What's a MH guy gonna do with a couple of hiway tread 7.50 17s ? Maybe made a friend for life?

 

Now that's a great idea! I've seen more than my fair share of ruined cylinders because of a failed clip and wandering wrist pin. Thanks for posting.

 

This thread is making me want to get started on my 40.

 

Gary, so good to see your progress. Can't think of any better stress relief than exactly what you are trying to do. As always, great pics. Thanks.

 

So this afternoon there was real progress. Yay! I tricked my employee, Danny into helping me get the engine back in between the frame rails. No matter how many times I install a flathead I never remember that the transmission with it's rear mount tilts down at the front. We finally put a jack under the trans and got the angle right. I have never done anything like a chev 350 or any normal engine. Just the flatties. I wonder if all engines are so hard to get the splines to engage. Holy Cow it wasn't a walk in the park. But now I have all the bolts in and ready to install the rest of the accessories and maybe fire this thing up. It has been a long road this time as I opted to do everything the hard way. There was a time when I thought the multi million dollar waterfront homes with my expensive custom cabinets would never end, but things have changed at Mt. Pickett Woodworking and just in time to look at retirement and remember I forgot to save while helping 4 kids through college. I'm not bitc#*&g, it's been awesome, but I can't go to the catalogues and just order new parts. Sorta fun. Well, gotta go help my wife work on the old house she used to live in because her son will be here in 2 weeks to move into it. Working on her old house isn't what I would choose to do on a friday night , but she has been a godsend to me and it's my turn to do more for her. The panel will still be here in 2 weeks after her son, his wife and new baby are settled in. Not like I'm going anywhere anyways. ( don't be surprised if I sneak out to the shop in the middle of the night and fire up bthat 59ab)

 

Get out to the garage & stop wasting time Billy ....

 

hang in there GB your work is inspiring. being self imployer can be tough,sometimes i dream of only owning a lunch box. and only working 9 hrs days must be fun.

 

Funny, I have been self employed for something like 32 years and have often thought how great it might be to live in Seattle and work at Boeing like a lot of my friends did after high school. Now they are retiring with great pensions and golfing and taking cruises and .... Oh never mind. I doubt I'd enjoy either of those much. Never tried 'em. I can't count all the day/nights I've worked 12 hour days. Often in the kid years I would go back down to the shop after I read them (and myself) to sleep. My oldest daughter still mentions me running the thickness planer at 2 am while she was trying to sleep. Her room was at that end of the house. But I had spent the afternoon at little league games and needed to get the hours in someplace. Best thing about it though has been that all 4 kids have become hard working self starters and doing well in their fields, so I like to think I may have set a good example, and since the shop is next to the house I was here for them if needed. Well it's 6:45 here and I'm on my third cup of coffee, wife asleep.... Maybe I'll go install the fuel pump and do some wiring. Last night after I wrote I went down and bolted on my new exhaust manifolds from last weeks swap meet. 10 bucks for the set and they are perfect, with perfect studs all 4. Start up can't be too far off. Unfortunately my 21 year old youtube videographer moved to Studio City California last month, leaving me kidless. Maybe my wife can make a youtube of the startup. Let's just hope those teflon buttons don't melt!