You guys are dangerous!!! Those columns look awesome!!

Buying the parts outright is a slippery slope, you take a few steps out there and pretty soon....whooosh! you are falling fast and before you know it the truck has permanent residence in the garage and never sees the light of day, occasional boxes show up on your doorstep filled with enticing goodies from a myriad of sources and your wifes face glazes over every time you mention the truck(because she has quit seeing it as a truck and just sees a hulking mass of parts)

I have no problems with the darkside, in fact the last bone stocker I owned was a 69 F250 when I was 19. At the same time I was adapting the runnig gear from a 75 F-100 4X4 to a 60 F100 Custom Cab (it was a fun truck)

UH OH...its light outside again, I better duck into the shade with my dark glasses on so the light side doesn't burn me

Randy, thanks for the tips on posting pics, I've been wondering about that

Bobby

 

Tim, Kent, RJ... did you see it....

he's weakening... lefthandedly admitting knowledge of the darksides force... oblique comments about it's lure and seduction... we got him !!! he just doesn't know it yet...

let's start sending him catalogs from the aftermarket vendors.... and articles on custom work..... maybe a set of solonoids for his hidden latches ?? register his email address at billett.com... yep, hook line and sinker

Bobby... RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !!!!! prepare to be assimilated !!!


later
john (that was just too easy)

 

John,
I can see that one must not understimate the forces at work here.

The only thing that keeps me on the straight and narrow (besides the wife) is the ever powerful and all controlling checking account (those pesky kids insist on eating every day)
My bathr...er..reading room (as AX would say) is already oveflowing with catologs full of chrome goodies and gadgets. MMMMMMM chrome (spoken in best Homer Simpson dreamy doughnut voice)

And as for the huffer........I'd love to be blown. Eventually I would like to fool around with injection. I'd like to either find one of the early port injected Caddy manifolds and update with current (and reliable) electronics and/or build a plenum box to adapt to my manifold and run mulitple throttle bodies....but I digress

First things first, I need to get this truck to a driveable stage before I tackle those issues.

Bobby

 

Bobby - (In Yoda's voice) "Calling you, the darkside is. Resist it, you cannot."

John - Actually, Bobby is too easy. After all, he's already got a Caddie motor in that thing. And it sounds like his reading room already has plenty of catalogs. His pockets are just empty. I can relate!

Now, getting George to go to a polished or chromed Flaming River column would be unbelievable! That's a challenge! I like the catalog idea...

 

I think it's all over but the "re-labelling." He's a dark-sider, just not quite ready to admit it yet. Maybe you need a 12 step program to accept the fact that you're a dark sider.

Step 1- acknowledge the fact that you're a darksider
Step 2-..uh...er...us darksiders are fast-we only need a single step!

Good Luck!

 

LOL I'll readily admit/accept/encourage/etc my dark side. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing a factory stocker but I just hate to be bound by those limitations. There's trucks out there that are calling out to be restored and then there are those like mine that were pretty danged rough and begging to be modified......MORE POWER URH URH URH
As with most, I am on a tight budget and I like to do my own work and fabrication. Its a constant learning curve. I have built numerous cars over the years and raced one or two at the drags but I have never tackled one to this extent. Most of the stuff I have put together in the past was all bolt on applications and engine modifications.

You guys on this site are excellent, fantastic knowledge base as well as a cool senses of humor. Its a big help to look at the pics of the work you have done and to read your tips and advice. It really helps with keeping the frustration levels down and the motivation up.

Thanks again to all

Bobby

 

yea well... you can pump us and flatter us all you want... we get off on that type thing :-X but being accepted also brings responsibility... we don't just hand out these dark sider tee-shirts to anybody... actually we don't hand them out to Anybody. hmmm ...we need tee-shirts !!!

anyway your responsibility is not hard... all you have to do is post... details...pictures and if you're willing a tech article or two... we already know you can write... we pay it forward here :-X (we really don't even care if it IS stock either)

RJ... you do a good Yoda... but Fenders says Yoda is cuter ???

everyone have a good weekend... as for me ??? truck work ???? NO !!! it's painting windows for me... yippee my enthusiasm is underwhelming


later
john

 

Yeah John, the window painting thing is a downer. Lucky I got mine done earlier this year so the house was presentable for my kids high school and college graduation parties. I'll actually get some time to work on Earl. Got the cab sitting on it's back on a hunk of 3/4" plywood where the bed is going to be. Going to make a 7' x 2' bench at just the right height so I can lie on my back under the dash and take stuff apart without kneeling all over the cab back and putting lots of nice little dents in it. Should work out OK - I'll let you know.

 

Chores, chores, chores. I just finished cleaning the house and am on my way to the wrecking yard in a quest for a better column. On the way I have to stop by a buddies hosue who has a spare column from a 68 442 that just might be what I need.
The paint for the trim on the house is just going to have to wait another weekend, besides it going to be close to 100 today and too hot to paint house trim.

The tee shirt idea is cool. Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

Bobby

 

I feel for ya! I had to pull one of the coilovers off the Miata, the previous shock had leaked and swelled the rubber isolator pad between the spring and seat. When we put the new custom built shocks on we reused it until we could get another one, but it started to come apart so it had to be changed. After that I mowed the lawn (did I ever mention I hate grass!) and got the race tire trailer out and attached it to the car to go racing tomorrow. The event is 4 hrs away (VA beach) so we have to leave at 3:30 AM. I'm waiting on supper to be ready then it's off to bed to try to get at least 6 hrs sleep...

 

Dang!!! The problem with "square one" is that the path leading away from it is never the same or easy. I had good luck at the wrecking yard. I was meandering up and down the rows of derelicts eyeballing vans and measuring anything else that caught my eye. I had just about resigned myself to a tilt column from a mid 80's van when I stumbled upon a 1963 Buick Riviera. The car was equipped with a tilt column that terminated right at the firewall where it met the steering box. The column is chrome with and I just coulnd't pass up that styling. I proceeded to take the column and some various other parts from the Riviera. Total prics for a column, steering wheel, shifter, various switches, etc........$30

But now...the money I saved by not purchasing a Flaming River column----I can send to Lokar for a shifter....AAGH

I'll have to redo my steering column mount at the dash, redo my intermediate shaft (which was expected to clear my headers) and come up with an ignition switch etc....

The fun never ends

I posted pics of the column in my gallery in the "steering details" folder as well as pics of my engine with my dark side chrome headers in the "49 F-1" folder

the new column is 8" shorter than the old one

All in all, it was a good weekend

Bobby