Thanks Mike!
Those hubcaps look soooo much better on your truck than mine! I'm glad you could put them to use!

I still needed to change the rear seal on the transmission. The old one wasn't leaking.... yet... I don't want to rely on 40+ year old rubber so now was the time to replace it.
Using a 1 1/16" impact socket and my DeWalt 20v impact it made easy work removing the yoke on the transmission output shaft. The seal however didn't give up easily. The old seal came out pretty mangled. Te original seal was a National 470059, unfortunately I didn't have a local source for National brand seals. My local NAPA crossed the number to a Chicago Rawhide/SKF seal 15005. This CR/SKF seal was a bit narrower, but fit well.



I put a little oil on the seal lip and reinstalled the yoke and lock nut.


Now it was time for the transfer case seals! The 40 year old seals need changed although they aren't leaking... yet...
I drained the oil into a bucket. The oil actually looked pretty good considering it was the original oil from 1977.


Being that a highboy uses a NP205 divorced transfer case it is difficult to find the seals by application because there are so many variations.
I used a 1 5/16" impact socket and my DeWalt 20v impact to remove the yokes. Sooooo much easier than fighting with a ratchet and trying to hold the yoke.
Both outputs(front and rear) took the same seal and yoke.

As it turned out all three seals (1x input, 2x output) are a National 473468 or Chicago Rawhide/SKF 21211. I prefer National oil seals because I think they are a better quality seal. The input yoke is a smaller size yoke and my impact socket was too thick. Thankfully I found a thinner walled socket at NAPA and was able to take care of the input seal. This all would have been much easier before I put the cab and bed on. lol
I decided not to change the shaft seals for now. I may regret this decision later. I will probably scrape the paint off the external part of the shift rails to prevent the paint from damaging the seal.



And now to refill the NP205 transfer case with oil!
Unlike the transmission a NP205 does not contain "yellow metals" like synchros and bushings. So a chemical reaction with the GL-5 additives is not an issue.
The 1977 Ford owners manual calls for SAE 50 oil in the transfer case. However the NP205 was originally designed to use 80w-90 gear oil, and was changed to SAE 50 later to try to squeeze more fuel economy out of trucks during the gas crunch of the 1970s. As with the transmission I will be going with 80w-90 gear oil because I live in a warm climate and I am not building this for fuel economy. I filled the transfer case with about 2.5 quarts of Valvoline conventional 80w-90 gear oil. Because it is readily available at any parts store nationwide if I need to top it off away from home.
That is what I did, if you have a different opinion that is cool, do what you want to your project.

 

Moving away from gearboxes and on to engine accessories!
I had the opportunity to use a friend's Skat Blast sand blasting cabinet and WOW! It was great! I added it to my wish list, maybe someday.

I started by gathering everything that needed blasted, mainly focusing on engine accessory brackets like power steering, A/C, alternator, pulleys, and some exhaust heat shields. Also shifters, pedal assembly, and clutch linkage. What a ugly rusty mess!


After blasting the parts I got them coated with a good quality primer to protect the metal at its most vulnerable state. Then a coating of semi-gloss black paint on most of it. Then everything was hung up in my parts tree to dry. Yea, I have one tree here. lol.

The dry environment here makes painting a bit easier for curing, however every paint job is just one gust of wind or a dust devil away from being ruined with blowing dirt.

We robbed the timing pointer off the original engine so I pulled it back off to be cleaned and painted. Pretty simple installation. There is two studs and a dowel to locate it on the block.


The original engine had a thin steel shield over the passenger exhaust manifold to direct exhaust heat up to the air cleaner to operate a flap in the air cleaner for assisting cold starting. This shouldn't be needed since I will be using fuel injection but I wanted to keep things as original looking as possible. There is a flexible tube that connects to this I will install later.
I coated the inner and outer shield, as well as the mounting studs with black VHT high temperature paint. Then I replaced 2 exhaust manifold bolts with the studs to mount the shield. I was fortunate to have a good shield, as most rust away.
There is also a spark plug shield that I painted with silver VHT paint that goes around 3 spark plugs on each side of the engine as a heat shield. After painting I installed them as well.


I then turned my focus to the accessory drive and brackets. This gets complicated because Ford has so many combinations, and many components don't work together. I decided to use mostly parts from the 1979 parts truck since it had air conditioning, but I would not be using the SMOG pump since the highboy is a non-emissions vehicle.
I installed the A/C bracket on the engine using the original hardware from the parts truck. Then the power steering pump bracket from the original highboy engine since I sold the 79 one with the steering gearbox. Turns out they weren't the same, but similar enough that it still fit with the A/C compressor mount.

When I pulled the power steering pump off the old engine I saw a bunch of water come out the dipstick tube so I decided I best get a rebuilt pump in case this one was ruined from water intrusion. I prefer to buy rebuilt parts or to have original parts rebuilt because a lot of "new" parts are overseas knock offs of original designs or sometimes very different. Meaning those "new" components cannot be rebuilt in the future if needed. I removed and cleaned up the old power steering reservoir and ordered a rebuilt power steering pump from my local Advance Auto Parts, part number 20-232 and swapped my reservoir onto the rebuilt pump.


I also decided that both of my alternators I had for the project were in pretty sad shape and sounded a bit dry when you spun them. Might as well get rebuilt ones of those too. The original highboy alternator was only a 40 amp alternator, the parts truck had a 60 amp alternator. They both were identical externally and since I will be running A/C and other stuff I got a rebuilt 60 amp alternator at my local NAPA. Part number 213-3029.


Surprisingly the alternator brackets were identical on both trucks so it was easy to get it mounted.
After getting the power steering pump mounted into its bracket and clocking the reservoir dipstick tube properly, I mounted it onto the engine.
The crankshaft pulley and water pump pulleys were from the 79 parts truck as well. The water pump pulley was slightly smaller making it turn faster. I assume this is because the 79 had a clutch fan? I compared the direct drive fan from the 77 to the clutch fan from the 79 and decided they should be a direct interchange. I opted to go for the clutch fan since it should be quieter and use less power.
This thing is starting to look good!

 

COOL....

I need me one of those trees that grows Ford parts!!

Great work!! You are really coming along! LOOKIN' GOOD!!!!

 

Went ahead and installed a belt on the power steering and alternator and tightened them. I used a Gates 9505 belt for the power steering, and a Gates 7405 belt for the alternator. Looking good with belts on it! I still have a lot to do before installing the A/C pump and belt.


Then on to a few other items in need of attention. Starting with the thermostat. A Stant 13469 thermostat and a Fel-Pro 35041 gasket were installed with a light film of Permatex Ultra-Blue. This thermostat is a 195 degree thermostat. I thought it was a 180 degree when I ordered it but this might actually be a good thing because the fuel injection system I am using normally operates on an engine with a 195 degree thermostat. If it becomes a problem I will change it later.


I may have to remove one or more of the plugs later for the coolant temp sensor used on the fuel injection system.

The oil pressure sending unit was in unknown condition so as a precaution I decided to replace it. I used a Standard brand PS60 from a local parts store. An easy change with the front end off the truck.

 

I have decided that I do not want to permanently mount the cab until I have coated the underside of the cab and painted the firewall. This means that I cannot connect things like master cylinder, clutch linkage, parking brake cable, wiring, and such. Unfortunately I am running out of time before my next business trip. I may have the underside of the cab sandblasted and coated with spray in bedliner as a sound and heat insulator, as well as rock chip and rust prevention on the underside. I am open to thoughts and input on the bedliner route vs blasting and painting with the POR-15/KBS Coatings on the underside of the cab.

Since I am leaving soon I didn't want to start a big project on the truck so I figured I would rebuild the pedal assembly.

According to NumberDummy on another thread there are 30+ different configurations of pedal assembles for these trucks! After I read that I knew I needed to reuse the original pedal assembly. I disassembled the original from the 77 highboy and sand blasted the pieces while I was blasting all the other pieces. I made sure to take plenty of pictures so I would put it all back together properly. Surprisingly the original pedal pivot bushings were in excellent condition. Some of the original parts of this assembly were bare metal from the factory but I primed and painted all of the parts semi-gloss black. I masked off the pivot shaft and bushing holes to prevent any fitment issues due to paint thickness.


The assembly requires four pivot bushings part number B7AZ-2471-A. I purchased new reproduction ones from Dennis Carpenter. The clutch pedal has a rubber bumper stop part number D3TZ-7583-A also purchased from Dennis Carpenter.
A pivot bushing is inserted in each side of the pivot tube on the brake pedal. And a bushing is inserted from the outside inward on both sides of the pedal bracket.

The clutch pedal rubber bumper is inserted through the hole on the 90 degree bend. Right by the bushing in the picture. A small flat screwdriver will help work the rubber through the hole, it takes some work.

After using a generous amount of silicone grease on the pedal pivot bushings and shaft on the clutch pedal, the pivot shaft on the clutch pedal is inserted in through the left side of the pedal bracket, and through the brake pedal tube, and out the other side of the pedal bracket. Being sure to remove any excess grease. Once the shaft is all the way through I used the original two nuts and bolts to reinstall the small bracket that holds the clutch pedal rubber bumper.


Then this large spring is reinstalled. It just sits between the two forks, one on the clutch pedal and one on the bracket I just bolted on. This gives a cam over effect on the clutch pedal when depressed. It easily pops into place with the help of a screwdriver. I also painted the heads of the original bolts and started them in the mounting holes so they wont get lost, with a bit of anti-seize on the threads for good measure.


Then I installed the pedal pads. Brake pedal pad was a wide one like an automatic transmission brake pedal. Seemed odd to me but it was originally that way. Part number D3TZ-2457-A from Dennis Carpenter, and clutch pedal pad part number B7A-2457-A also from Dennis Carpenter were installed on the pedals.


Just one more thing before the assembly is finished. On the right side of the pedal assembly the arm to lift the clutch rod when the pedal is depressed need to be installed. The arm faced forward in the truck, and also holds the clutch shaft in place once the nut is installed. I also reinstalled the original brake light switch and adjusted it to where it was threaded in before I took the assembly apart.


I set the pedal assembly aside in a safe place for when the cab is permanently installed.

I know these sub assemblies cab be boring but a necessary part of the build.

 

Great work and good progress!

Thanks for sharing the part number for the belt that goes to the alternator. I have tried a couple of different belts with less that satisfactory results. You have the exact pulley set-up I am using (PS and Alt...no AC). That is one belt number I haven't tried yet.

 

Thanks Mike! The original water pump pulley on the highboy was a slightly larger diameter than the one on the parts truck. I assume this is because the highboy used a direct drive fan and the 79 parts truck used a clutch fan and the clutch fan needed to spin faster. My pulley configuration uses the smaller diameter pulley since I am planning to run the clutch fan. The original belt off my highboy with the larger pulley was a Gates 9510 belt, slightly longer.

My time before my next trip for work is coming to an end so I started to focus on preparing the clutch linkage parts for installation when I return. The original clutch rod has plastic bushings on the ends. The lower rod end where it meets the bell crank had worn through the plastic bushing and into the rod and also worn the hole in the bell crank to an egg shape.




Using the parts as is will quickly ruin the new plastic bushing and the clutch pedal will have slop. This wont work for me, so I took the parts to a local machine shop to get the parts fixed.
The eyelet on the other side of the bell crank that holds the adjustable clutch rod is held in place by having been peened over. It was fitting loosely because one of the washer/spacers had deteriorated and fallen out. Since it is peened over I have no way to tighten it or add another spacer.

A couple days later the machine shop called. They had welded up the rod and ground it very close to the original profile. Close enough that the bushing shouldn't be damaged. They also welded up and re-drilled the hole on the bell crank. The eyelet was removed and he made a new eyelet with a threaded shaft so a lock nut could be used, and adjusted tighter instead of peening it over. Should be ready to install when I return from my trip.


I gathered as many remaining parts as I could find that would need sand blasted and took them to my friends blasting cabinet to get as much as I could finished.
Mostly front core support pieces like hood latch parts, and headlight parts.
Gave them a coat of paint so they will be ready to use when I get home. And let them dry in my parts tree. lol.


Sadly this is where I take a break for a while since its time to go on another long trip for work. I have a list of parts to find and have waiting when I get home, and I am eagerly looking forward to continuing on this project. Having the engine done has reignited my motivation on this project.
Thank you all for following along!
See you in a few months!

 

Very good idea to get those worn parts welded up and back to standards.

YES, You made some nice progress. Stay safe on your business trip!

See you next time you get home.

 

Back from another long excursion!

Lots of new parts have arrived! To include the new upgraded air conditioning parts from Original Air. Another exciting part to arrive is the decals for the engine. Of course mine were slightly different than any of the reproductions available online. I could find the one very similar but for auto transmission not manual, and nothing for the production decal. So my local print shop reproduced them for me. Was NOT cheap, but they are very good quality.


Valve cover decals

I decided to use the original Y pipe so I removed it. I had used it for the break-in run and it was kinda ugly. Before removing I found what looked to be a safe location for the O2 sensor and bung and marked it. I drilled a 3/4" hole in that location and welded in the O2 bung. Then I did something silly. (Don't judge me. lol) I sanded and painted the ugly rusty original Y pipe with very high temperature header paint. The original exhaust is NLA from Walker and to get custom exhaust made I will still have to drive the truck on/off the trailer and in/ out of the exhaust shop. That's difficult to do with EFI and no O2 sensor. The original exhaust showed to be 2 1/2" diameter from the Y pipe to the muffler and 2 1/4" diameter from the muffler to the end of the tailpipe. My original exhaust was 2 1/4" from Y pipe to muffler so I had to shop around and found a muffler of similar size to use that was for 2 1/4" exhaust in and out. I went with a Walker 17878 known as the "Sound FX", more of a value line muffler but the nicer one showed to be stainless and might be a bit too flashy under there. The Walker 17878 is stock replacement for early 80s Fords with 351M/400. Some might poo poo the small exhaust size being a single 2 1/4" but I'm not trying to win any races and true duals are very difficult with the divorced transfer case. In addition to that the "bigger is better" concept is mostly for high RPM use like racing, and some extra back pressure can help increase torque. If I dont like it I can do a complete custom 2 1/2" single exhaust later. As for now I'll get a custom tail pipe made when the truck is drivable.


Walker exhaust catalog
I tried to match the color of new aluminized exhaust.



Unfortunately while under there I noticed that the Dennis Carpenter reproduction rubber clutch boot I installed literally the day before I left on my trip was cracked and split! UGH! I hope this isn't what I can expect from the rest of the Dennis Carpenter re-pops. I thought they were similar to OEM quality. I will call tomorrow and ask if they will send me another. Four months of use just keeping dust out seems like a short life span.


Cracked clutch boot. Only 4 months old!

I went back to work on the bed. Being a sore subject from the damage from being backed over I wanted to get it wrapped up and done. I carefully aligned the bed floor to the sides one at a time and welded along the pinch weld with a mig welder. This was difficult because it was all done from underneath. Having to weld between leaf springs, frame rails and crossmembers was difficult. I am definitely not a great welder, but welding overhead and upside down proved very difficult to get a pretty weld.
Then I squared up the driver side at the tailgate opening and welded it in place using a framing square. Then on to the passenger side. Before welding it I took the old original tailgate and checked the width. Glad I did because I was about a quarter inch too narrow! With some help from pry-bars and vice grips I got the distance I needed out of the right side. Wishing I hadn't welded the left side already. Ugh! But it all worked out. Then I eyeballed the width at the headboard using the cab and doors as a guide. to get everything straight the headboard was about maxed out and still wasn't flush. I went over to a friend's house and looked at his all original 1975 Highboy to verify this width. His was over 1/2" narrower but looking down the sides of the bed to the cab I could see that the bed was made slightly narrower. I verified this on another dentside truck in the Home Depot parking lot so I split the difference and tacked it in place. Once I got it structurally stable enough to lift the bed I removed and flipped it to do all the underside welding from a much better position. My welds looked so much better! I even touched up a few ugly ones.


welding the underside
While under there I was able to correct the rear bed mounts that were not properly positioned and poorly welded. I also removed the rear mounting standoffs from the original bed and welded them in place on the replacement floor. Don't judge my welds please. Those ugly ones are the old ones from two summers ago when I was re-learning. Wish I had sandblasted the parts before installing them but the friend with the blaster was out of town.


Rear bed mount and standoff.
Once everything was welded up properly I had to fix the damage from the aftermarket mud flap bolt on both side at the rear bottom of the bed. Then fill in the extra 8 bed mounting holes for use on non-highboy applications. Then coat all the welds and bare metal with primer and some black paint.


Completed underside.
A friend came over and helped me flip the bed back over and set it back on the truck frame. It sits a lot better with the corrected rear mounts and standoffs. Even if I hadn't had to replace the floor the proper conversion from a non-highboy bed to a Highboy bed is a pain in the @**!! But hopefully worth it. I will probably be doing a spray in bed liner after paint to cover any imperfections.


Completed bed conversion.

 

Looking good! It's fun to come home to piles of new parts.

 

Thanks nutter3!

With the bed pretty much done I turned my focus to the cab. My intentions were to leave the dash mostly in tact and have the underside media blasted. However my sandblaster advised me to remove ALL interior and glass because the sand would go EVERYWHERE! Reluctantly I completely stripped the interior except the headliner and removed the doors for blasting. The windshield was no good anyway so I wasn't concerned about it but the rear glass I wanted to reuse.
Once again... Off comes the cab.


For those of you rust belt dwellers here is a view of the inside of a very clean cab! The silver color is the original color of the donor truck. Someone went to great lengths to paint it blue at some point and did an impressive job. Had me fooled til I removed the fenders.


Off to the blaster the cab went!
He did a great job. Did the whole underside, firewall, door openings, and anywhere else he saw rust starting. Unfortunately it revealed a few spots I hadn't noticed before.

The blasting of the rear window opening revealed some pin holes and thin metal.


Also where the floor meets the rear of the cab the seam sealer had let moisture in and started some rust.


Plus the spot on the cab corner I was already aware of.
Next I needed to coat the bare metal. I also wanted to get the cab back onto the chassis and off my trailer so I focused on the underside of the cab first.
Since I grew up in the rust belt (Indiana) I did not want to lose this truck to rust again. Although it is unlikely since I live in the desert now anyway. So I chose a product by KBS coatings called KBS Rust Seal. If you have been on this journey with me you will remember I also used it on the chassis. This time I will be brushing it on instead of spraying. KBS Rust Seal and other similar products like POR-15 have excellent leveling characteristics. The brush marks disappear soon after coating. I coated the underside of the truck with the recommended two coats, and 4 hours in between coats. They say moisture helps it cure and here there isn't much so it took longer than the 2-3 hours before it was ready. Be aware that these coatings do not like UV rays so any areas exposed to the sun should be top coated. I mainly used it in the underside.



After letting the KBS Rust Seal cure I coated the underside of the truck with a special spray primer made to allow top coating of KBS Rust Seal called KBS Fusion self-etching primer. After a light coat and letting it set up it was time for the final products! Lizard Skin! Lizard Skin is a sound deadener and heat insulator. It sprays on and looks like rubberized undercoat or bed liner but it is made to act like Dynamat but with a cleaner look. Since I am also doing the engine compartment I will be using the Lizard Skin Ceramic heat insulator over the sound deadener in the areas where heat will be. I bought the Lizard Skin application kit which came with a stirring tool for stirring the bucket, as well as a paint gun made specifically for the thick product. I was sure to plug any threaded holes with aluminum foil.


I also sprayed the ceiling of the truck with the sound deadener and heat insulator. This will help the road noise as well as help insulate from the hot New Mexico sun.

The final product was great! The Lizard Skin was messy but overall not bad at all to spray. Some "lessons learned" though, Mask the area you want to spray because it will splatter on everything! Use a funnel to fill the sprayer cup because it will spill product. Have rags ready! Its messy!

 

Since I want to put the cab back on I wanted to paint the firewall so I wouldn't have to try to paint around the engine. I had two spray cans mixed by my local NAPA of Ford Dark Blue Metallic to paint the firewall. This will be the color of the whole truck, it is the original color of the truck. The slight texture you see in the picture is some of the overspray splatter from the Lizard Skin. Its not really as bad as it looks in the picture.


Then it was time to re-install the cab onto the chassis. Then I can work the other repairs on the cab.


Once I got it set on the frame I remembered the heat shield under the cab. But when I looked at the original Highboy cab it did not have the heat shields under the cab. After thinking about it for a while I decided to go ahead and use the heat shields under the cab. Even though they aren't original to the Highboy it cant hurt to have that extra barrier.

 

Been a while since I posted anything on this project. Other than some small projects on the truck I am almost stalled due to being ready for body and paint work. Unfortunately finding someone willing to do the body and paint work has been difficult. Seems most body shops only want insurance work, most freelancers body guys can't stay off the drugs and finish anything, and the one shop that was willing told me $8500+ and about six months wait. I understand the amount of labor and talent that goes into body work but my budget is more like $3500 which I think is reasonable for painting a disassembled shell of a truck and doing a few very minor dent/rust repairs. Maybe I'm wrong. It looks as if I may have to attempt paint and body work myself. I don't really have the patience for it but I may have no choice.
The other problem is that I have no shop or garage to do the work in. Though this problem hasn't stopped me yet, its a bit of a problem for body work. I need a clean stable environment. I do have access to a paint booth for the painting process, but all the prep work will need to be done at a slow pace indoors.
I have been focusing on saving and prepping for building a shop, which is moving slowly.

I need to finish a few minor things before the shell is ready for body work and paint. One being the installation of in-cab fuel tank provisions.
I drilled the spot welds holding the upper fuel tank bracket out of the old rusty cab, then welded the bracket into the new cab. Earlier in the build I had located and marked the location for the holes that will need cut through the cab corner, but I decided to wait because this will introduce moisture into the cab corner when it rains. At least until I can get the project indoors.



While the project sits the transfer case has been leaking. Although I replaced the front output seal it is leaking oil between the yoke nut and the yoke on the front output. I looked in the parts manual and it does not show an O-ring or anything to seal. Just seems to seal with the nut tightened to the yoke. I will have to investigate this after another work trip... Until next time...

 

Dan, I wouldn't be too intimidated with paint and body work. The prep you are doing for the underside and inside the cab and bed is MUCH harder than paint and body. All of the prep sanding, body work, primer, sandable filler primer, you can do that stuff outside--actually, that makes cleanup of the shop much easier! With you having access to a paint booth, I would do all of it.
I've been slowly working my 75 highboy with no paint booth. It isn't really that bad, although I do get dust nibs and some bugs in the paint. It's still going to look good enough for me. It won't be a show truck, but I dont want a show truck anyway. I want to drive and enjoy my dad's truck, and still have it look good and be protected from corrosion.

 

I also found out this when trying to get a hood painted, years ago. I decided to do it all myself, after painting my f250, bronco, and a few cars, tractors. Having limited funds and time makes it difficult. But I started painting one panel at a time. Lots of mistakes but you learn as you go. Eventually one panel turns into a complete truck. Go for it, better than waiting around on a body shop to give you excuses month after month.