I got Dad's old truck out of storage today, and made some progress in getting it back on the road.
As i mentioned in an earlier post, it had not ran much in the last 10 years, because of Dad's failing heath, and not at all since May of 2016.
We pulled the plugs and put some oil in the cylinders and rolled it over, a little. Put all the plugs back in and after adding a little coolant, and checking the oil, we primed the carburetor, and it fired right up.
So far no issues with the engine, and the clutch was not stuck, but it has no brakes, at all, so I began the work on getting them working.
So far, the above work, a new master cylinder, installed, and moved into the shop was all I got done today. So tomorrow I will begin the task of getting the wheels off and looking into what needs replaced in there, to repair the brakes.
I know you all like pictures, so I took a few today. Please excuse the dirty condition of the truck, as its not been cleaned up yet.
More to come as we move forward on this adventure.

 

Nice looking truck! Since you are doing the brakes I would recommend to go ahead and replace all the steel lines as well, with copper/nickel line. You can get a spool on Amazon , with fittings for less than $40 and it is super easy to bend and flare. Best wishes.

 

Great looking '63 Custom Cab. You inherited a very nice F 100. A complete brake job and complete fluid changes is a great way to start. The tu tone paint and moldings really make these '63's stand out. Like the ads say "Built like the big trucks". These so called "wrongbeds" will grow on you, IMO, more desirable. Hopefully argent silver bottlecap hubcaps are in its future! Very nice '68ish F 100 camper in the shop as well.

 

Looks really nice, what year model is the Bump next to in the second pic?

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the compliments on the old trucks. The wrong bed, as they are nicknamed, certainly makes for a unique truck, but its had to imagine how the public would react these days to a mismatch such as this.
The old truck has special meaning to our family, and I will try and keep it as close to the way Dad kept it as possible. Mom said, that he was very proud of it, but when he got it new, and was blown away, when we bought it back and rebuilt it for him.
The Hub caps are as wrong as they can be, but someone Dad knew gave them to him, and he liked them. Not sure what happened to the original hub caps, as they were lost during the the years that it was not in our family.

I had a pretty good day in the shop today, with success for the most part, with the exception of a few small hiccups.
As expected the brakes were in horrible condition, and all needed attention desperately. I got the rear brakes all cleaned up and fixed up with new cylinders, and shoes.
It was getting late, but I started the right front, and got most of of it cleaned up and put back together, and the bearings packed.

After Church tomorrow, I will probably work on the other side, and then bleed the front, and of all goes well, maybe a test drive.
I blew out all the lines and since most of the system is new, and I am converting it over to Dot 5 fluid, in hope of getting rid of the Hydroscopic effects of the old Dot 3 stuff.
Has any one else converted to the newer style fluid?

The Yellowish truck is a 69, and has been mine, since 1981, my senior year of high school. It is mostly original, with the exception of rebuilding the C-6, and a rebuilt 390, replacing the tired 360, in 1989, when it had about 120 K miles.
The camper is a 1968, but not original to the truck. My wife and I purchased the camper in 1991 and we used it to travel, until 2007, logging about 30,000 miles, before we updated to a 5th wheel and and Super duty crew cab.
I parked it there, in 2007, and its been sitting on 8 screw type jacks, to keep the weight off the springs, ever since. I hope to get the camper removed soon, and then return it to light duty, and have some fun with it.
It was never really enough truck for the size of the camper, with its biggest limitation being the brakes. We were lucky enough, and careful with it, and were rewarded with good service, and several trips with almost no problems.
I will let you all know how the rest of the 63 repairs go, and if the test drive goes ok.
Brad

 

Nice truck. It's nice that it was your dad's and you get to keep in the family and on the road.
I have a '63 custom cab that I'm working on getting back on the road. It's been in storage for 17 years now. What master cylinder did you use? I was thinking of going with dual pot set up.

 

Good morning all.
The truck's brakes are all done, and we took a test drive yesterday. First stop was the car wash to get rid of about 10 years of dust and dirt from sitting in storage.
Test drive was uneventful, and the brakes worked perfectly, and should with any luck be serviceable for some time to come.
After cleaning things up, and making sure we had no fuel leaks or other issues, I went and picked up my 87 year old Mom and we went for a drive.
She seems thrilled that Dad's old truck is driveable again. I drive it to work today and hope to drive it for a few days, and see what bugs show up.
If it stays road worthy, and depending on weather, our town's Christmas parade is in a few days. Perhaps I will take Mom and drive in the parade.

Mote: Thank you for the compliments on the truck, and good luck with your project. Yours is the red one right? I think I saw your post, while reading, the other night?
Dad was proud of the old truck and its very unique, and he was too. I am the keeper of the truck, for now, and it is priceless to our family. Maybe there will be some family events, that center around it, will be in the future for us.
Regarding the parts source question. All parts for the brakes came from Oreilly's. Master Cylinder was their house brand, and I think is Master Pro?
Brake shoes were in stock for the front, and they had to order the rears. Wheel cylinders were in stock for the rear, and they ordered the fronts.
All parts seemed to fix ok, and the conversion to Dot 5 fluid was a simple task, as most parts were new, anyway. I blew out the lines on the truck, and flushed about a pint of new Dot 5 fluid through the system, while bleeding the brakes.

My Buddy and I discovered a few more things yesterday, while working on the brakes and looking things over.

First, This should be an easy fix, but the brake lights don't work. Since the turn signals work, I suspected the pressure switch, I have a one on order, and it should be here today after 3 PM, and hope that fixes the problem.

Second the left tie rod end is pretty worn out. I am sure that I checked it, years ago, but it is sure loose now.
Should be an easy fix, so I suppose I will order both and replace them, and reset the toe in. I suppose 1/8 inch or so of toe in is about right?

Third is and most worrisome is there is some looseness in the left king pin.
The weird part is that 30 years ago, when I rebuilt the truck, I replaced these with new brass bushing, and a friend's Dad resized them to fit perfectly. It has only been driven about 11,000 miles, and my Dad always greased everything.
So, I am very vexed as to why the looseness, has returned?
Does anyone know if the axle its self has bushing where the pin goes through?
It would seem, like that would be unnecessary, as the pin is secured in the axle and the part that pivots is where the bushing are at. I am just dumbfounded as to why this has became loose again?

Fourth For some reason the truck sits lower on the right, by about 2 inches, than it is on the left. This is another new problem that I dont remember the truck having when I was last around it. Its an easy fix, or should be, but will require the removal of the spring pack and re-arching of the springs.
The front is probably sagged down some from the 60 years of service. I am not sure what the exact ride height is suppose to be, so if some one has one that is correct, and don't mind measuring the bumper to ground distance, I would be grateful.

Best regards,
Brad

 

Good looking truck. I’ve always liked the mismatched beds. Never could put my finger on why I just do. Keep up the good work

 

I've always been a fan of the bed also. I put my finger on it a while ago, IMO, the bed has more of a "truck look" with the larger clearance rear fenders. The new for '64 bed was inspired by more car looking styling.

 

This weeks progress.

Been driving the truck a little this week, to get a feel for how it would run, and hopefully get to take the truck to the Christmas Parade. I had a little issue with idle, and the engine wanting to die, when slowing down. Figured the carb was needing attention, so I took the tag off and went to the auto parts store.
The guy behind the counter seemed to know nothing about the tag or how to use it to look up the correct kit. The kit that I received was a one size fits all kit with about twice the gaskets that i needed.
Worse that that the power valve was a different style, and when I screwed it into the hole it bottomed out, and held the valve open.
In my haste and working in the cold, I missed this and tried to use it that way. You can probably guess the results, a flooding engine, that hardly ran.
So I noticed what I did wrong.. I was able to cure the problem by putting two gaskets under the power valve. So far so good, but there is surely a correct power valve available for it?

The brake work from over the week end is successful, and now the brake light problem is fixed, with new switch, and only $15.00.

I was hoping to order the new seat upholstery this week from SMS, but the week got away from me and I did not get it done. I will call them next week and get this process started.
The 1994 seat is too thick, and I cant wait to get the correct seat, with the correct upholstery in the truck.

I treated it to a fresh oil change, and greased all moving parts. Added a little gear oil to the trans, and looked it over a little bit. It has came about 100 miles now, since I got it going again.
We made it, and took off with it, and a couple of my other toys to the local Christmas Parade, on Thursday night.
Below are a few pictures that my Sister took quickly at the parade last night. They are not real good, and I dont know why they are random sizes..
We made some memories, and nothing quit us, so the night was a success.

Thanks for sharing my story.



Here is our 87 year old Mother, in the parade with me behind the wheel. Having the truck in the Parade seemed to be important to Mom. She was pretty proud of all the compliments that we got. She says its just a month away from its 60th birthday. Her and Dad took delivery in the first week of January 1963.


My buddy driving our 69. I rebuilt this one just before starting on Dads 63. I started working on this truck, in the winter of 1991 and finished in the spring of 92.

My daughter and her husband, in our 67 Mustang. I bought this car wrecked in 1983 and it was my project in auto body school, finished in 1987, when I got out of school.
My wife and I dated in this car, we left the Church after our wedding in it, and 2 of our 3 kids rode home from the hospital in it. It also went to proms, and the kids left the Church in it when the were married last year. It never was a show car, and its starting to show some age, but it has a lot of history in our family.

 

Thanks for sharing photos, your vehicles definitely have sentimental value! All engines require a fresh clean supply of fuel to operate correctly, if there are restrictions in the tank, in the lines, in the fuel pump and in the carb, it will result in poor performance. Carbs can be finicky, many small passages and various small parts that must be in clean to operate correctly. Here is some alignment specs. Both of your front springs should be re arched if one side is sagging.

 

Thank you for posting this info. this will be handy going forward, and I dont own a truck specific manual.