I just received a box from Dennis Carpenter in the mail. So like a kid on Christmas morning I rushed to my garage to open it! Among other things inside were the little rubber bumpers for under the hood. I replaced the missing ones, pressing them in to the slotted holes. I closed the hood, but found there was still lots of slack, it wasn't sitting tight against the rubber. Assuming there was adjustment on the top hood latch I loosened the bolts. As I did this I noticed it was worn 1/3 to 1/2 through the 'p' shaped rod, where the latch contacts it. Pulling it off I was going to get on the computer and search one out. (5.95 plus shipping on mac auto parts)

Ford - Ford Pickup Truck Hood Latch Hook - F100 Thru F700 - Macs Auto Parts

Instead I decided to grind it out and run some bead in with the mig, smooth it out, sandblast and paint. Which took roughly 30 minutes, I figure about the same time it would have taken to search it out, put in my credit card info and order it online. Bonus being I wouldn't have to wait for it. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of how worn it was before grinding and welding....











It appeared as though it was originally painted black, and so I gave it two light coats in flat. My question is whether it would have been flat or a gloss black?

I know this mighty seem like the smallest and least important part on the truck, I want it to be the same as it was in 64, thats just how I like it. If it was good enough then for fomoco then, it is good enough for me now.

 

The latch, hook and hinges as well as many of the bolts and other hardware were originally done with a black phosphate coating. You've seen this coating on new bolts, nuts, etc. Click on this link to see some examples.

https://www.google.com/search?q=blac...HQ79ApIQsAQIMQ

There are kits to DIY or there are places that can do it for a person - if you care to go to that trouble. Places like Paramount in New Jersey do a great job, but lots of places do black phosphate.

Home | Paramount Metal Finishing

You've basically got the look there already. Black phosphate can vary from a dark grey to black as coal. They also would often coat black phosphate coated parts with oil which gave it a wet look because big bins of fresh bolts dipped in oil can be almost dripping when new.

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Thanks for the information on black phosphate. Its a bit more than I'd care to get into at this point. I am quite satisfied that the colour and finish represent origional using flat black paint and then sprayed with rust inhibitor spray.



Rust Check Spray | Canadian Tire

The hood now sits snug as a bug on those new rubbers!


After cleaning out the tank with vinegar and scrubbing with some chain and rinsing with gas I added a bottle of sea foam and installed. I also ran some seafoam down the lines from the filter to the soft line connecting into the metal tank line and blew it out with compressed air. Same for the line going into the tank. Put in the new float and reconnected the fill tube, getting everything to line back up took some doing.



The rectangular tab on the new tank sending unit from Dennis Carpenter had to be modified, I trimmed about 1/16 off the side so the original ground wire connector would mate to it. I don't know if I bent the round plate doing this or need to retighten the bolts, but after filling the tank with gas it started to sweat and leak out gas around this spot while I was driving.
Took it out for a drive a few times this weekend which was fun but it wound up smelling strongly of gas. I will look more into it next weekend. I also was not able to reuse the tiny rubber washers under the bolt heads because one cracked coming off and I will need to source some new ones. It could be coming from there but I doubt it.

It appears to be coming from under the new gasket, not properly seating. If it is just not sealing properly is there something like silicone you could use to seal this up that gas won't eat?