Well, I finally got the truck licensed on Friday. Now I can drive it on the road legally. Not much to report with the engine other than it sounds pretty good with the straight 2.5" pipes. Probably annoying for everyone else, but I kinda like it. Everything seems to be going well with the engine and drivetrain, the engine oil looks brand new after about 50 miles of mixed driving and break in. So-far-so-good.

I'll probably have to go through the SROD transmission (something I did with the originator). 3rd gear feels like it is way over to the passenger side, it initially wants to go in a little to the driver's side, but it's a no go there. Probably a worn shift fork, breaking it down sometime will give me a better idea. Since it's not a daily driver, no big deal for things like that.

Now that's it's running well, time to move on to Phase II: Interior.

Here's a quick view of the interior that I'm starting with:

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The door panel on the driver's side is a work in progress that I am using as a test for how I want to do the rest of the interior. So it's not there. As you can see, I have some work to do on the floor, I purchased a panel from LMC that I'll use to cut and fill.

This is Mr. Seven hands:

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Just thought I would give a shameless plug for this screwdriver. I love it. I have 4 of them. Indispensable for working on carburetors. I digress...

Another view of the interior:

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Pretty rough. Noticed the back of the seat is missing some upright supports:

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Thought it would be a good time to tear into the seat if I'm going to be working on the patch panel:

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The backing foam looks pretty good. I'll weld in new upright supports, I should be able to get some 1" strap scraps from work.

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I can't be certain, but I think someone might have cut these out thinking it might be a better feel? Who knows, I'm finding all sorts of surprises in this truck...

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Yes, that's a piece of 1/8" plywood under the driver's seat...

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Not much support there.

Seat foam:

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It looks like they added a 1/2" layer of foam to the top of the old foam:

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Using my trusty go-kart exhaust spring tool to pull the springs on the seat spring base:

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The only thing (other than the rust) that is wrong with the frame is this last tab:

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I'll have to weld it back in place, when I tried to bend it over it broke (as expected)... That's all the progress for this week. I'm going to probably purchase a new spring base for the foam from LMC, the foam there is a bit expensive, so I might do some handywork and see if I can cut out nasty foam and add in some of my own. I have some memory foam from some packaging that came into work. We'll see. I'll probably use something like this to cut the foam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2n_EbRzZ0g

After that, I don't have a plan for the seat covers, I might see if I can enlist my mom or my mother in law to make a new seat cover set. They are both quite the seamstresses.

That's it for now.

Take Care everyone!

-Matt

 

Matt - You are getting things done! Good for you!

 

Hello all!
I thought I'd give everyone an update.

After pulling out the seat, I stalled out a bit. I was going to try and salvage the seat bottom foam (because I'm cheap). I built a foam cutter so I could cut out the bad spots on the foam:

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One word: disaster

It didn't work. If I could get enough heat in the wire to cut the foam, the wire would stretch so much that it was a floppy mess. My wife was helping me and we thought it would be a good idea to try and cut out the bad parts with a wood saw. No pictures here, but I'm sure you can imagine the mess of foam that it made. Needless to say, the foam was toast and out the door. Since I ruined what was left of the foam, I decided to go about working on the rusty floor panel.

Before:

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During:

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Rabbit Punch:

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I love this logo.

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Naturally, I haven't taken any pictures of the work now that it is complete, but this is it tacked into position. I was pretty happy with the demo portion. My dad and I were able to remove the outer gutter piece without to much hassle, just a cold chisel and cutting wheel. The rest was cut out pretty easily The connection to the sill plate was knocked out with a cold chisel.

Luckily, the "bad" rust was contained to where I cut out, so there no need to go beyond what I have here. I've hit the rest of the rusty spots with "rust reformer" by Rustoleum, bought at Harbor Freight. I love that store, even though the quality of their tools is suspect at times, I still like it.

Lastly, a new U-Pull-It arrived in town. Once I take more pictures, I'll detail my escapades raiding several 80-96 trucks.

Take Care Everyone,

Matt

 

I was interested in your endeavor to cut foam because im reworking my seat too
so I went to you tube and found this you can buy 4 inch foam at most upholstery or fabric stores this might be a good path to fallow
I love you tube if you need to learn something there is probably a video about that here's another

 

Well, I've been lurking around on the forums for a few months without posting any progress. Part of the reason is this:

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Her name is Paige. It's a pretty amazing thing, I never knew that a child could change my perspective on life! Needless to say, because of Paige, I haven't done much to the truck.

The last time I posted, I teased a bit on my escapades at the local U Pull It (UPI)... My old man was in town to visit, so we decided to head down to the UPI to see what we could see. We were not looking for anything in particular, just seeing if we could find anything that I needed. I was primarily looking for seats and he was just along for the ride! Well, a seat was to be had, there was an '88 crew cab with the back seat that was in pretty good condition. We started to scope it out and found that it had the movable track and was in decent shape, there was a hole on the drivers side, but that could be covered up with a seat cover... So we removed the seat, threw it in a regular cab that they had on site to check for fitment, and voila, Matt had a new bench seat for $49.99. We also grabbed any nuts bolts and door strikers that we could find. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Now that I have the floorboard fixed and a decent seat, I decided that I should start driving the truck more. I've made it a point to start driving it to work at least once a week. I have a 45 mile one-way that is 35 miles of freeway and 10 miles of in-town/highway driving. Currently I am getting about 15 MPG, but I'm cruising at around 70, so that is probably to be expected. I have a feeling that the MPG will rise as the engine continues to break in. Initially the truck wandered really bad, well, maybe not that bad, I'm used to my 2006 F150 with R&P steering, so it might not have been too bad. That is until I got a flat... Initially, it had 215/75/15 on the front and 235/75/15 on the rear. The 215s were in pretty bad shape, so I moved them to the rear. It looked odd, but it made the truck drive just a little better... On to the flat, I changed the 215 and dropped in to my local Les Schwab, they said that the tire was toast and the other one wasn't looking to good (dryrot). So I sprung for a used set of 2 - 235/75/15s that they took off of another vehicle. It is amazing how well the truck drives now! It actually feels a bit manageable.

So, it's so far so good with the truck, I'm whittling away at smaller items, stereo is installed, added an aftermarket tach, oil pressure and water temp gauge, and found some vacuum ports that needed to be plugged at the VCV (bonehead move there).

The only complaint that I have when driving the truck is the noise. It's my own fault, I need to get carpet, muffler and a headliner. It resonates so much in the cab that you can feel it in your chest!

I need to get a plan together, there are so many things that I want to do to the truck that I need to prioritize. Once I figure out what I'm going for, I'll be sure to post.

Lastly, I'll take some pictures of my progress tonight and share.

-Matt

 

Beautiful young lady! Enjoy every moment... they grow up way too fast!

 

Amen! Spend time with her and later she'll spend time with you - maybe even working on the truck!

 

Just thought I would share some progress:

Air Cleaner:
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Installed:

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Due for a cleaning:

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Brooke (my wife) painting needles:

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Before:

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During:

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After, Including the Tach, Oil Pressure and Water Temp Gauges:

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I'm still having fun with the project! I just need to figure out how I need to proceed. Any input?

Here are some options:

-Lower? Maybe Crown Vic? I'm not sure if it would fit, might be fun...
-Paint... Spendy $$$
-RustoMod? Sand it and polish? Cheaper and chique right now. Might look cool 'till I want to spend some money on the paint.
-Pin Striping? More fun....
-Wheels and tires? 20s? 18s?

Anyway, just Netflix and FTEing right now. Good Stuff. Few beers too...

-Matt

 

Looks good - except for the bellows. That may not clean up very well, as the holes don't seem to disappear as you clean.

By the way, what paint did you use on the needles? It looks orange in some pics, which is correct.

 

Gary,
Yea, the tear in the bellows will be a problem. I'm going to be careful when I clean it and probably use a combination of Gorilla Glue and duct tape (on the inside). I'm not sure yet, once it is clean, I'll make a determination.

The paint is from LMC, I can't remember the cost, but it works pretty well.

-Matt

 

Kinda doubt Gorilla Glue will hold on that. Duct tape will be better. But, maybe something that's designed to flex a bit would be better - like this: