Mine seems to be southern yellow pine like most pickup floors. Douglas fir is quite similar. It is what we call mixed grain, mostly 'plain sawn' or flat grain. Is this the section the seats are bolted through? I noticed there is a covered access hole under the driver's seat to reach the fuel gauge sender. You don't want to drop the tank to reach that. I have almost ten hours total in removing and installing tank over the weekend. The hard vent line between the filler tube and the top of the tank is almost impossible to access and re-install. Of course the new tank was from a '60 panel so everything was just a bit different. It was brutal working under there. Whatever you use for a floor in that area, consider making it removeable. I bolted in my new floorboards for that reason. My shoulders and neck are killin' me this morning and I still have rust in my eyes. Maybe I should have taken the grandkids out in the canoe for weekend recreation. Oh, never mind.....

 

Thanks for the info, Gary. The driver seat is bolted to a plywood patch panel over the original metal panel that partially rusted away. The gas tank is in the rear, below the cargo floor, and has a rear filler neck. Totally different than OEM. I developed vertigo from reinstalling the gas tank after changing the sending unit last year. I learned that the pad on a creeper is for the back of the head - never for the neck. I have a much better creeper now. The pump cover will be screwed/bolted in place and made from multiple pieces to fit around the vertical piping to the booster reels and give easy access to the pump primer and controls shown in the left side of the picture.

 

I took my first trip into town with the panel on Thursday. Too cheap at this time to do the 12 volt one wire alternator conversion, so running it on six, positive ground. I picked an original coil from a box of 4 of them and she fired up and ran nicely. Town (Eastsound Wa.) is 12 miles away and I was heading to a regular Thursday night BBQ event at the shop of a fellow gearhead. Well, after about 8 miles I noticed a miss, then nothing left so I pulled into a dirt side road and coasted to a stop. Had a bunch of tools, a test light, duct tape and zip ties on the passenger side floor. Also the 12 volt battery and coil I had been using with total loss ignition system. My employee was driving behind me because at the last moment before leaving home I found the 6 volt brake light bulb I had found didn't work. I planned to get one at napa before heading home. Ok, so I found test light bulb really dim at coil so I jumped across the resistor and boom, she fired up. For another 1/4 mile and this time I didn't get off the narrow curving road, but got the nose heading up a dirt road. Several motorists and my employee pushed me up the hill to a nice turnout. It was about 4:30 quitting time so lots of guys in trucks from construction on the road. This was a plus. Danny, my employee drove me into napa where I bought the only six volt coil they had. It has printed on it 'no external resistor required'. I duct taped it to the dead six volt coil and hot wired it straight to the battery and it ran perfectly, although still sounded like a slight miss. Arriving at Nate's shop I found I had dislodged a spark plug wire which was now laying on the head. Brake light turned out to be a dead bulb. Why do I save the dead ones? .... Next day I wired up a second brake light with a bracket on the bumper and a solid coil installation through a switch. What a fun hobby this is! Maybe I'll go out crabbing in my boat after work tonight. Oh wait, I sold it to buy some truck parts last year.........

 

Great to hear she is on the road Gary! Glad you got the bugs worked out. Any word on the video? I'll bet your waiting for a Fall TV premier.

 

Here it is !!!
O I forgot to tell Gary that Ford did not want to sponsor the premier of his show. sooo...the big wigs got another sponsor , o and had to change the truck shots too. You know in Hollywood things change , you may think you are staring in a action film with a German Shepherd seeing eye dog as your partner, and the show airs and you're walking around with a talking Chihuahua(taco Bell dog) it's all about the$$$$$

 

I talked to him the other day. His table is pretty much done and he'll be back on the island this weekend. He said the video is the kind of thing he does in his spare time and he should be able to edit what he has while he's up here during July. Thanks for the filler video while we wait!

 

You did sign a "no nudity" clause I hope...

 

It's OK.... I put the front clip on so now she feels more 'modest'. She was looking a bit exposed in the early shots.

 

I ran into Geoff, the cinematographer yesterday at the hardware store. He told me he had been working on the video and should have it completed by today. I have absolutely no idea what he has created. He asked me a lot of questions while I was on camera and your guess is as good as mine about what this is going to be. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be embarrasing to see what I look and sound like, like when you hear what you sound like on a tape recorder. He will send it via dropbox or put it on a flashdrive. Not sure I know how to run either of those things. Why couldn't he have just held my cellphone as I drove past like my wife and kids did on my other videos.....

 

My popcorn is ready! A flashdrive is just a usb appliance. Plug and play. Dropbox is a file transfer web site for large files. Also fairly easy.
Just don't forget the little people.

 

I am ready with my friends!!!!

 

Funny, nothing showed up yet. Oh well, not sure I was quite ready to go viral yet anyways.

 

Hey Gary, since I've discovered the S3 Ford alternator, I'd never, ever go back to a junky Delco just to have one wire. The S3 takes 2 wires, uses half the room, can do most of it's 95 amps at idle and the brushes/regulator come out the back without opening it up. I usually pay $10 for them used but you can get a new one off ebay for $79

 

Thanks! That's great information. Even I can figure out 2 wires. In the meantime the transmission is out of the panel. Seems in my haste to get the engine in one Friday before my employee left I did something very wrong in the clutch release mechanism and a few things got chewed up in there. I had everything I needed in boxes in my attic except for a new throw out bearing which turns out will be here on Monday. Meanwhile my wife is going to be gone tomorrow taking the grandkids to Seattle and I found a tan canvas tent when I was in the attic so I thought I might sew up some seat covers for this wreck. On the Hollywood scene, Geoff called today and said he's sorry he hasn't got a whole production together but If I brought a flash drive over tomorrow he will give me what he has and I can do what I want with it. Hoping I can figure out how to post some of it on youtube. I'm hoping if I bring my youtube password along he will do it for me. The way things are going with it, don't pop your corn til you see the link or at least the title to look for. Maybe it should be Parkers Prairie Panel..... I have been Sooooo discouraged about pulling so much of the truck apart. Someday I might have the courage to publish what a bonehead mistake I made. It wasn't pretty in there.

 

Those seat covers will be cool Gary, good luck with the trans