I spent all day yesterday fighting with my axle u-joints on my plow truck. I then reached for the cut-off wheel...which at that moment I remembered what I was trying to remember at work all week...that I needed to stop and get cut-off wheel discs. So today I'm just moping around thinking about what I could do. Everything else is at the point it needs 2 people or more to lift, or will be a can of worms when started.

Of course, the rain doesn't help either.

 

No clue what you are trying to lift. I bought an engine hoist (folding one) w/load leveler and a floor jack from Sam's for that reason. I am pretty much going to have to do everything by myself (when I get to that point).

The whole truck is waxed now (running boards too). The wheels and tires are cleaned and shined. I still have to polish the chrome and vacuum it out.

I am just letting everything dry first..and cooling off.

Not sure if I will get to the engine compartment tonight or not....

 

Starting painting the inside poriton of the truck bed. Got one coat Saturday and one coat Sunday, then I washed and waxed my Triumph, today we went to a car show, saw a couple of Ford Pickups, had a great day in the sun.

 

Well I'll have to say this has been a pretty good four day weekend. I got the frame all wire brushed and cleaned up. Went down to a friends house where the Jag was at and took out the IRS and IFS. Got them home. Need to get them off the trailer and into the garage before someone from the City comes along and sees them in my driveway. Should be off two or three more days this week so I hope to get started putting the IFS under the truck.

 

It's still very hot here in Phx but I got my rear roll pan from LMC on Fri. Finally couldn't take it anymore so I mocked it up on Sun despite the heat. Looks pretty good, pix in gallery.

 

The rain let up, so I moved the rear fenders, grill assembly, seat, tailgate, and other smaller stuff from the back of the bed. There's no bedwood or bed floor, but a couple braces and the front hold the bedsides together (makes it tough to hang onto). This and the cab are what I need to move out to the shed with the the other stuff. Once that's done, I can remove the springs, and everything else to get it sandblasted.

I mocked everything up to fit, and so far so good. Now it's disassemble time to reassemble right time, lol.

 

Painted my right door. Finished priming and doing the body work on my hood then trimmed it out some.
Installed my wiper motor and switch. Tore down a donor door for some parts. Did a small welding job for a friend and built him a grill with a hotplate for his trailer at the lake.
Worked on some custom taillight buckets and fiddled with the bed trying to patch up the hinge area.

 

I had a good weekend. Put some gas in the tank and checked to make sure the gauge was working. I then put the bed back on the frame. Then put on the rear fenders and got the running boards bolted up. Installed taillights and started installing some "hot litz" in the bed roll. Need to wire up taillights yet. Installed new window mechanisms in the doors.
I'm getting real close to being able to go for a ride!

 

Got the Flaming River tilt column in today. Made a real nice plate to mount to the floor in the stock location. Copied the round 2 piece stock plate and made a single piece with a 2" hole for the column. Welded a "L" bracket to the plate and used a stainless muffler clamp to hook the column to the plate. Also modified the stock '57 column drop to work with 2" Flaming River column. Still need to detail the bottom bracket but it's nice and solid. Also got the Moon steering wheel mounted and let the wife sit in it and give it the OK (she picked out the wheel).

Also got the Lokar floor mount shifter installed and all the bracing on the front suspension strut rods tacked in place.

Tomorrow it's day 1 of vacation! Find the tranny builder, get the boxing plates cut and finish the front suspension. Found out today the rack I've been hording for years is junk! Gotta find a new rack tomorrow and get the extensions on it and build the steering shaft.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and Holiday.

SPark

 

I've been too busy with work to do much of anything with my trucks. The F-2 is still in winter storage. But I did get a little something done this weekend. I installed the outside mirrors on the panel truck. Now it won't feel like I'm wearing a five gallon bucket with a view hole cut in the front when I drive the panel down the road. I only drove it a short distance last year, from my shop to my house, about 3 miles. It was a straight shot but it still was uncomfortable to drive without mirrors, a panel truck has some really big blind spots.

Mounting mirrors might not sound like a lot of work but I had to reproduce factory hinge mirror brackets from scratch. I also had to fight with the hinge pin in the driver's door, the passenger's hinge pin popped out when I hit it from the bottom with a hammer. Also, everytime I thought I had the correct part it turned out to be too short or too small or too big and I had to go back to either my shop or the store to get the correct part or tool. That's the biggest waste of time.

Oh well, here's a picture of the mirrors mounted on the doors:

 

Bob....those two pictures of the panel side by side makes me crosseyed. Now I have a headache.

 

Well I got another 500 miles on my 67 mustang, which is always fun to cruise in, and in that trip I was able to get my welder back I let my dad use, and I met another FTE member (fellro86) from Iowa at a Junkyard in Homestead where I was able to find 2 toyota power steering boxes. Then I got back to Ames, Ia and started to clean up the steering boxes, and then I resolidered the top of my radiator shut for a 3rd try. It split at the seam while running a 13# cap so I solidered it and it split again so I switched to a 7# cap and Solidered it again and I didn't get it all the sealed and there were 3 super small pin holes that let out a small bit of steam so I took out all of the solider yesterday and redid 9 inches or so of the seam, it was holding after driving it around town today! I hope it lasts. Now I just have to sneak in some time at work between all my engineering classes to make some money so I can order up a pitman arm and U-joint and get some power steering in so I can parallel park.

Thats all for me untill next weekend then its the First time I will take my own truck to go tailgating for an ISU football game, nothing like Burgers, Brats, and a few Bee...revages, and if anyone is in Ames, IA for a football game and see my blue 55' truck stop by and I'll have a Burger for ya.

 

Brain,

Is this better?

 

not to mention that pesky earthquake on Saturday!

 

Got a chance to work a couple of hours on Monday, redesigned/rebuilt the door jamb on the passenger side and installed the bear jaw latch. Will try to mount the post on the door this week and have 1 door that latches.