Yeah, me too. I've seen both types of Tu-Tone paint styles on Canadian '65 and '66 trucks, with the break following the cab and box body line or with the break underneath the anodized aluminum side trim.

We did some sanding tests on my F100 and we believe that the paint is original, so that is how Al painted the Mercury.

There seemed to be a layer of Wimbledon White underneath the Twilight Turquoise? I assumed that this was overspray or maybe the truck was painted Wimbledon White first? This seems like a big waste of paint!



On the Wimbledon White parts of the truck, both above and below the side trim clip holes, we saw no real evidence of the Twilight Turquoise colour.

 

The box had been finished and in primer for months but I didn't get any detailed pictures until October.

 

That's looking amazing already, can't wait to see it completed.

 

Hey thanks, you and me both!

 

With all of the major parts in primer, we needed to pre-assemble the truck so Al could align the rad support, cab and the box.

We again used the tractor to place the cab back on the frame.








After many months, the box was back on the frame and we pulled the truck back into the shop.

 

I purchased my re-popped fenders from Dennis Carpenter via a local reseller and I bought my rad support from LMC Truck.






Al installed the rad support and tested the alignment of the hood to the front upper valance, the cowl and the front fenders. He wasn't happy with the fit of the driver's side fender to the cowl and the door, so he had to work on the fender a bit.




The stone deflector from my Mercury was bent and cut up in the middle, but the ends were in great shape. So Al spliced the ends of my Mercury stone deflector onto the middle of the stone deflector from my F100.

 

I was back at the bodyshop on Halloween 2015. Al was shooting various black parts earlier in the week.

Here are the inner apron shims, various nuts, bolts (poked through cardboard), washers, cover plates.




Here is one of the upper valance supports, horn, fuel tank upper mounting clips, and the hood latch.




Here are the front fender brackets and the rad support.




I read in a post that the back of the tank was not supposed to be painted, as was the case with the F100 fuel tank, but we painted both sides of the Mercury fuel tank anyway.




At this point, I think that Al had inserted the proper shims and the hood, cab, doors and box were aligned correctly.




The upper valance, stone deflector and the tailgate were all finished and in primer.

 

By early November 2015, the pre-fit of body parts was complete. Al then prepared the cab and doors for the coat of Wimbledon White.

 

So I was really wanting to use the floor mat from my F100, even though I knew that it wouldn't be a perfect fit. My Mercury has a 4 speed and the F100 has a 3 speed, thus the transmission hump was lower on the Ford.

I started to pull the floor mat out, but it was really stuck in there? Turns out the PO put in a layer of roofing shingles instead of installing some new floor pans!








I also pulled out the F100 firewall cover, the paint underneath was not all that great. The F100 Custom Cab firewall cover is on the top, the M250 Standard Cab firewall cover is on the bottom.




Here is the M250 cover again:




Here is the F100 cover again:

 

By mid November 2015, Al had painted the Twilight Turquoise on the outside of the cab and the doors.

 

Love that Twilight Turquoise, it pops out with that white. Great look.

 

Thanks. It would have looked good as a solid colour as well but I'm pretty happy with how the Tu-Tone scheme has turned out.

 

So these are my 8 bolt 'innie' rims. I have no idea what truck they originally came from, but the PO ran them on his '65 or '66 F250.






The PO ran LT 245/75R16 tires, which seem too big and too wide.




Once I get these rims cleaned up and painted, I'll probably get a set of LT 235/85R16 tires. This appears to be the closest diameter of tire to my original 750-16's, just 45 mm (1.77 in) wider.

I see that Coker Tire does have some 750-16 "Classic Blackwall" radial tires, but they use a tube and I don't think that will work with my rims?

 

You can always use a tube. But, with those rims a person can also run tubeless.

.

 

Good to know I have some options. I still need to measure the width of my rims, then I'll start looking for tires.