Cut out the center of my transmission tunnel today to make room for the new transmission/transfer case inspection cover.




Inspection cover covering the hole:




I will be recycling the portion of the transmission tunnel I removed and using it to make a factory patch for the rust hole in my driver's side floor panel. I will be hand forming the scrap panel to match the contours of the original floor panel. When I'm done, it will look like a factory repair panel.

 

Found a shifter boot for $1.

 

Thats going to be a truck your going to be proud of...you have come along ways on it,looking good.

 

Heck, I'm already proud of her!

Thanks for the compliments!

 

Picked up the alternator brackets for a 351M/400, half of the power steering bracket (I didn't have the right size wrench to remove the PS Pump from the other half), and a few misc bolts and odds/ends at the junkyard today.









Gonna start cleaning everything up today and tomorrow, and then eventually prime, paint, clear, and then put them all away wrapped up in a special place.

 

Picked up the rest of the brackets for my 400. Picked up the water pump and crankshaft pulleys, as well as the rest of the power steering pump bracket. I still need to clean them all up and then re-finish them.




For the time being, I filled the hole in my shifter boot with a 1987 BW1345 shift handle and ****.




And just for fun.

 

Looks like it is time to clean, prep, and paint some parts for future use.

 

Exactly!

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks!

 

Picked up a 4x4 transmission cross-member for the truck, as well as the coil spring seat/sway bar brackets.

Old 4x2 cross-member on top, new cross-member on bottom.



Bolted in :







One of the sway bar brackets:

 

Good job so far Fordzilla80.

 

Thanks man!

Since I'm here, I might as well add a few new pictures.

Here's a most recent of the truck as a whole.




And here is a 1978 400 that followed me home one day. I bought it for the heads, crankshaft, engine/transmission separator plate, flexplate, harmonic balancer core, oil pan, and a whatever else I can scavenge from it. The block is already .060 over, so it won't be used in my truck. Since I now have a 400 crankshaft, I won't have to worry about finding a 400 crank if I find a 351M.

It was pretty crusty when I bought it, but it cleaned up pretty well. I don't allow crusty parts in my shop.

Before cleaning:



After cleaning:

 

I haven't posted in a few weeks or so, and there's a few new updates, so here we go.

I started work on the 400 oil pan getting both the New Ford Gray and the original Old Ford Blue stripped off so I could tackle the surface rust and all of the orange RTV that was used to seal the dipstick thread plate. The pan is now pretty much down to bare metal, and will be cleaned, primed, and then receive a new coat of Old Ford Blue.




Mid-way through.





And if some of you guys remember, I was on the search for a set of 351M/400 engine stands/perches. Well, as it turns out, whoever installed this 400 into the 87 Bronco I pulled it from actually did their homework. The perches were actually the correct 351M/400 perches that somebody had swapped in, along with the correct 1980-1982 oil pan shown earlier. So $10 later I now have a factory set of 351M/400 perches bolted to my cross-member.












And since I now had the correct perches to set the engine on, what better way to check fitment than to drop the motor in the truck?











And this picture was taken after the motor was dropped in. The front came down a little bit, but all the motor contained was the block, the timing cover, the heads, and the oil pan. All of the internals, external covers and accessories, and the transmission/transfer case assembly were not bolted on. Once they're all together, I expect the front to drop significantly, enough to require new front springs since the springs I'm running are still the factory F100 springs.

 

No big updates, except....