Have you ever used contact cement? Its just like the 3M spray adhesive but it comes in cans. The stuff will hold anything and everything. You apply it to both pieces, let it set for about a minute, then stick them together. It bonds instantly and won't fall apart. I used it to glue a new headliner in my last truck and to glue carpet to certain pieces of the dash and console of my current truck. I rank this glue up there with plastic epoxy and shoe goo.

By the way, nice job so far. It looks like it's going along nicely. Can't wait to see it finished.

 

I find that duct tape will hold anything lol. Nice job Fredric by the way!

 

thanks guys for all the compliments. Even though it's crappy out, I managed to sling the project under the eave, and keep it dry at the expect of getting myself wet (it's a short eave unfortunately).

The passenger side is now covered with one layer of fiberglass, notice how you can see through the fiberglass! That means there are no air bubbles!


The driver side end didn't come out as nice, there's a huge air bubble on the side. I didn't notice until much later (after it'salmost dry) that there is something stuck underneath. Not sure what, maybe a pebble or a nut or something, who knows. Once it's dry I can zap it with dremel and glass over the area so it's flat. I find it much easier to correct mistakes once it's dry, rather than cover my fingers, worktable and body in sticky, gooey fiberglass resin.


I tunred it around so I could glass the top and around the edge. There was one air bubble as you can see, but I pricked it with an awl then bristled it down after I took the picture, so it's fine now. A little overhang that refused to tuck under, but once that's dry I can sand it right off with my tiny air grinder.

 

Two more pictures. Dries fast in the hot sun, which is cool, I can get more done between showers.



Once I put several layers on the back, inside curves, and around the cluster/touchscreen areas and it cures overnight, I can install it in the truck and do the remainder of the layers on the outside. The reason for this is it gets stiffer with each layer, and I *know* lying on the workbench or the sawhorses, the buck has torqued just a little bit. I don't want to hear a loud "crack" when I install it.

That would suck, now wouldn't it?

 

commin along good.

 

Keep it up, its lookin good.

 

Its like you're buidling your own truck. You should change the FORD badge to a FRED badge.

off-topic: how does digi-cluster react when you select a different fuel tank?

 

Just like your factory gauge. Flip switch, gauge moves to current tank's position.

Except that it moves REAL slow. It takes the cluster a while to realize the sudden change in fuel level was intentional, and not a sensor gone bad.

I experience the same thing when I fill up my factory digital-clustered CV without turning it off.

 

Any more progress so far?

 

Better beef up the alarm while your at it!!

 

Yeah, an update is due. After these photos, it's going to sit for a little while due to other things I have to do unrelated to truck projects. i.e. its been deemed I spent too much time on it and have ignored the various house projects that I promised to do this summer, that I haven't started yet

Anyway... lets see where I left off... aaah, fiberglassing mostly done. Yes, yay. filler time!

First step is to rough up the fiberglass resin. To ensure I didn't sand through into the fiberglass mat, I slathered another layer of resin just to be safe. After that dried, I hand sanded the entire thing with 80-grit sandpaper, with a wadded rubber glove behind it since I couldn't find my sanding block. Talk about a slow process. I sanded most of the day.

Once that's done, wash it down with a rag soaked in acetone, to make sure every bit of dust is gone. Then slather your choice of body filler. I chose to use west marine's "structural body filler". It's expensive as hell, however it slathers on easy (its like water, with a clump of loose fiberglass strands in the can), and sets in about 10 minutes, long enough to squeegee it all over the place. If you don't get it perfect, at the 10 minute mark, just stop and leave it and let it cure, and sand off the parts you screwed up. I found out trying to force it past the set point results in it coming off in chunks... and you can't reapply it obviously. Easy way to ruin $20.



Once you slather that all around your imperfections, twice if necessary, you can sand. I used a 6" rubber pad in my air grinder, with a piece of 80 grit sandpaper I cut out and spray-glued to the rubber pad. Home depot was out of stock on stick-on round sandpaper, I had my 6 month old with me and he was getting cranky so wandering to other home depots wasn't going to be doable. So I grabbed sheet sandpaper and just cut them out with a steak knife for lack of anything more convienent at the time. And viola - rough sanding done.



Here is a top view after 180 grit sandpaper...



And the same top view after 300-ish grit sandpaper:



And here is what the front looks like right now, after sanding the resined front with 300ish grit sandpaper by hand:



In the fourth picture you'll see to the right (driver side of dash top) a bit of yellow... that's the construction paper peeking through four reasonably clear layers of fiberglass mat, and one layer of fiberglass cloth. Why is it showing? While carrying the dash into the truck to see how it fit before sanding while the filler was still slightly wet, I managed to nail that spot on a piece of plastic trim that was hanging down since it was in the way. It acted like a scraper, and scraped the filler right off. Grrrr. So I kept sanding the rest of it anyway to see what the potential is, and I will be filling that area, and sanding sanding sanding, once I have some more free time. Unfortunately that will be a couple of days... Like I said above I have some house projects to do this week and thursday a friend and I are taking a road trip north to my storage as he's buying my unloved suicide door Lincoln that I bought 8 years ago and did nothing with other than store stuff on it. I'm hoping he takes the equally unloved fastback mustang "half" and the messed up jag rear I remember buying. LMAO.

All in all, I'm really happy, yet really unhappy with the outcome so far. I've never been good with body filler of any kind. In fact, any kind of detail work I tend to suck at. When working on projects around the house for example, I usually do the "rough stuff". I'll tear out, do the plumbing, drywall, flooring, ceiling, any structural work, up to the point where gobs of "mud" is slathered all over the place and in clumps on the floor. Then I pack up my tools, and leave. My wife comes in, and sands, primes, and paints to the point where it looks beautiful. Same with the dash. I can do the dirty stuff, just not the pretty stuff. And my wife won't touch this, I asked :-(

 

I agree with Memorex
The FRED badge will be a nice addition to the front of the truck.
FRED....Fix and Redesign Everything Daily

 

lol , 924x, that fits just right

Project is coming along real well there.

 

Yeah, redesign things daily.

I have the whole truck finalized in my mind, bumper to bumper, except I can't draw LMAO.

Once the dash is done, any day now, I'll start fiberglassing the center console, mount both, then make the fiberglass "case" for the pentium 4 motherboard, mount everything, then install the new control harness for the overhead console, on it's own circuit rather than tapping what I've tapped. Then I can reinstall superbumper headlights and the turn signals in those lights will work correctly as will high beam/low beam, the switch for the computer, the 120V inverter (1200W), and I can cut the 120V outlet holes on the center console. One in the front, one in the back.

Then I'll install the two amps, one for the four speakers and one for the sub, make the fiberglass sub enclosure and wire and mount that, then install the new body harness for power everything front to rear, the brake controller, and the new underhood harness I completed about an hour ago, for an EEC-V. I decided this morning not to go Mustang EEC and instead, do something weird and unique - EEC V. ODB-II all the way. Now I just have to find linux freeware that will display online ODB-II information.

I have to also get cracking on the twin-turbo exhaust manifolds... as the engine is almost done. Another week if I have time, and it's going to fire up just fine. I so cannot wait. I also visited my storage and pulled out the rest of the parts for this project, so now I can't walk in my garage bay anymore. Huge pile. But I found the 20% underdrive Gear Vendors unit that bolts onto the ZF in place of the ZF tail housing (which moves to the back end of the GV unit), so now I don't have to bother changing the rear end gears, I can just slap in the dually rear at some point (next spring probably) and keep the 3.55 gears that are in it, which also matches the gears in my SRW rear that's on there now.

I also talked to my two friends who a month ago we were putting together a massive 4-link for the rear of my truck, including the air bag mounts. Over the winter I'll have to bring the bags up to the shop and we can continue fabricating the rear suspension. Then I will have a much software ride in the back when unloaded, and I can stiffen it up as necessary for hauling, towing, and so forth. The wiring for that stuff is already part of the new body harness sitting on the garage floor. One of those two friends also found in a junkyard this past saturday a pair of "mint" as he put it, full power red Chrysler minivan seats, which will bolt right into the recently finished mount I installed into the crewcab. So now I can have a full power driver seat if I really want to, but that's a "I'll get to it " thing. I don't have time now to run up there and get it, install it, and money with the wiring. My body harness has ford connectors so I'll have to change them if I want to recycle the mounts i just made, which I imagine I will. Hacking off a connector and replacing it is much easier than rewelding seat brackets. Which reminds me, I have to take them out and prime/paint them before the turn into a nasty pitted, iron oxide mess.

Worked out the forward-hood mechanism on paper, using a 1986 Buick LeSabre forward-hood hinge. I simply have to make a 1/8" spacer on the bottom, and rail-locks at the firewall, and widen the mechanism 7.5". Since it's made of round tubing, this is very easy, I think.

Forward tilt hood! Why? Because I can! Useless in every way!

Anyway, let me get back to sanding before my wife notices I'm not in the house

 

frederick,
one word comes to mind to decribe your truck when your finished AWESOME!!!!!
keep up the good work. My truck is just begining to be customized, i started to put a lift on today. best of luck in your project
-jordan