^Thanks Last Chance. Might look them up if my guy is busy.


As for the build I'm actually way ahead of schedule. My original plan was to get it in a "roller" chassis before winter. Then I added the fender mods and decided to box the entire frame. Both rather large decisions. I really can't go any farther building more cross members until I get the engine/trans mocked up. I want to get both mounted and the exhaust, then build my trans x member. I'm slowly collecting parts as that was technically in next years budget.

As I mentioned I am using a Tremec TKO600 5 speed. The first of the parts showed up today. A RAM clutch kit some various bolts, T/O bearing and such. Also the bell housing and hydraulic clutch set up. I like hydraulic clutch set up over cable. Then given the choice between a internal hydraulic slave cylinder or external slave cylinder I like the external version. Anything made by man is subject to failure. If the external slave cylinder fails it is a 30 minute repair. If the internal style fails the transmission needs to come out.

I went with a Mike Forte external slave cylinder kit. She be purdy:

 

While I wait for my transmission and engine I'll shift gears and move on to some body work. The original cab that came with my truck was in horrible condition. The PO put about 3 lbs of bondo in each cab corner, 2 lbs bondo each front lower cowl, and about 6 gallons of two part epoxy on the floors, then squished in "repair" panels ha! Basically the bottom 4 " of the cab needed replaced. The deeper I dug the worse it got.

I've been on the hunt for better parts for some time. Had an add up here in the marketplace and have had no luck. Buffalo is pretty dry. Although I found some cabs for sale they weren't much better than mine. Then I answered a Craigslist add and low and behold... 2 miles from my house I find a jackpot. (And a pretty cool dude that I'll be keeping in touch with). I won't say I got the deal of a century. But I'm happy with what I got for what I spent. Everything is really solid. No previous repairs, what you see is what you get. For 750 bucks I got this cab and doors:





This hood in really great shape.






And also scored a pair of air deflectors, 4 running board mounts, rear bumper, battery cover, and shifter hump. All this stuff I needed.






The guy I bought the stuff from blasted some of the smalls. Next week the rest is going to the media blaster. But I do have too many doors now. I have the ones in these pics, a pair with rotted out bottoms and a new pair of re pops. Anyone other in the B-Lo area needs doors shoot me a PM.

Today was a good day. A good parts score and I got to meet a cool dude. I chopped up my original cab and scrapped it. I did save the roof as it was the only good area lol. Gave her one last salute at the junky's.

 

Nice score Nick!! Do you have a extra hood you want to sell? Just say your other post about roof panel, I have a roof from a old chop job it is cut in 4 pieces so you could see cross section if that would help let me know. Thanks

 

Thanks Last Chance! It was fun picking all that stuff. I do have an extra hood now. Let me think about it. As for the roof I saved my old one as it was in good shape. I'm getting it blasted with the rest of the stuff so I can decide how to proceed. Thanks for the offer, I wouldn't mind taking a look at it though?

 

I REALLLLLLLY like that hydraulic clutch setup.

 

Yeah its pretty slick. I found about it on the Factory Five Racing Forums. Lots of guys running Coyotes over there. I actually found out a lot of info over there for the install. Lots of guys with them done, running and racing.

 

So today I stripped out the "new" cab to get it ready for blasting. My last cab got worse as I dug deeper. This one got better. Very happy with the overall condition. This is going to save so much time. I'm guessing it left the factory red. What do you think.




















The only bad spot is the roof as it has some dents and oil canning. But it isn't as bad I I initially though now that I have it home and had a chance to look at it well. I really happy with the condition.

 

Looks like a pretty clean truck. Mine was trashed at the seams.

 

Nice score on that cab Nick, you wouldn't find one that nice in my neighborhood.

 

Don't usually find stuff like it in mine either! The guy said he got it from a barn up in Wilson NY. Rare find here as well. I'm happy about it.

 

My transmission arrived. Its a TKO 600 with mid shift. It has the .64 OD gear. The mid shifter location puts the center of the shifter 19 5/16" back from the front face of the bell housing. I'm still between a bench seat and buckets. But I wanted the shifter in a forward location either way.





This top pic shows how the external slave cylinder kit tucks in nice.

 

Little progress. Getting ready for winter round these parts takes some time away from hobbies :-). I mentioned the roof on my better cab was dented up badly. I think what happened is a gorilla was hopping on it with clogs. Maybe a silverback. In any event it was caved in. Creased. Dented . Little bit of everything. I tried to take some pictures but it was hard to show the extent of it. I put some water on it to see it better. It was the entire roof. Back front and sides.










At some point something in the bed ( possibly the gorilla ) crashed into the cab. The bottom and top of the window frame was creased in. I'm sure the window shattered when this happened. I cut an access area in the bottom and removed the roof support brace so I could straighten the back panel. I pushed the window frame back straight. Then removed the dents and creases.




I pounded out all the dents and dings and got the roof reasonably straight first. It was hard to decide where to start. I mentally divided into 6 areas and just worked out each area. I feel its at the point where it could be skim coated, but I'll keep working on it till its as perfect as possible. I'm happy with it so far though. But Ive got nothing but time.

There were large creased dents above the drivers door in two major areas. Middle of window opening and top rear corner. They came out well.




The damage above the top passenger side area was pretty bad and more difficult as it was dented and oil canned badly.it was a wavy river. It took some shrinking to get this repaired. I will work in this area some more. But its miles better.



This was the worst part as shown in the first pic. Lots of hammer and dolly work. Lots of shrinking with a hammer, slap file, and a torch, disc. Pretty much a little bit of everything.





I also started on some rust repair. I removed the drivers cowl panel. It had some rot in the bottom. I'm still not sure if I'll do the other side, its solid but I might delete the vent. Not sure yet. 56panel (john) has lots of good pics of the process. It helped me to get an idea of where some of the spot welds were. And how to access them. Thanks.





My cowl repair panel is marked 53-56. I didn't think much about it but it definitely needed a bit of trimming. Maybe its made for the 56 and can be adjusted for a 53? Not sure. The mod wasn't enough to think about returning it. Here is the issue. Upper area where is meets the cowl and door frame.




I cut a slot...




And bent it straight and removed the radius that was creating the problems.




Fits better now. I'll do a little more fitment then weld the slit I cut. I'm going to leave off any panels I remove so the media blaster can get in those areas better.




Little by little.

 

You did a nice job removing the dents on the roof and back panel Nick and it always seems these new patch panels need some tweaking.

 

Ordered the engine today from Jeggs. It will drop ship from Ford in a week. The new 15-16 435hp crate variants are out. I talked to a tech at Ford Performance and he said the new stand alone control packs now take a VSS signal which is an improvement. Ordered the BOSS alternator kit and a few other things. Good day.

 

AWESOME!!!