Yabba dabba dooo!! Looks good Mr. More pics as you go.

 

Looks good Mike, keep up the good work, and keep the pictures flowing!!

 

im loving the build. even though it will be lots of money in the end it will be worth it especially since u can say u did it all ur self! cant wait for more updates

 

Thanks for the photos and updates. They are good motivation for my orange truck project. Keep up the good work.

 

Keep the thread going with some new status updates! I spent the last three and a half years getting my '74 Explorer to it's current state, all that's really left is installing the stereo and speakers and getting a few dozen gremlins ironed out.
You're going to be a proud poppa when you turn that engine over for the first time and it fires. I know I was.

 

Arcade Tom, that's a really nice looking '74 you have. It's close to the color combination I'm planning on going with although I'm going with a slightly darker blue. I'm also going to put the '73 Explorer graphics along the bottom.

Here are a couple of before and after pics. The first is the proportioning valve and the second group is the fuel tank installation.

 

Here are the before and after of the fuel tank install.

 

Thanks man. Mine is the original color (in new, modern base-coat / clear coat paint) scheme. Midnight Blue Metallic (had to custom match it since there was no direct cross from laquer to base/clear enamel) with the white top and stripes. The top was (I think Wimbeldon or Oxford) white. Since I was not able to locate any new stripes for the sides in vinyl, my paint shop sprayed them on using the same white as the top. Yes, they are under the clear coat and I love them. Johnny matched up my stripes exactly the way they were for '74.
My interior was a little different since I was not able to locate the blue, silver and gray scotch pattern for the inserts. I had my interior shop custom make inserts out of 100% fake leather (lol), but it is perferated and so far seems to be a good choice. It hasn't gotten dirty yet...

 

you do nice work, this will be a top notch truck when it's done....

 

Thanks for the compliment and encouragement. That helps me to keep focused on what my goal is for this truck.
Basically when I'm done I want to own a NEW '73 F100 Explorer.

 

then your on the rite track, leave no bolt on touched..

 

Guess it pays working for Ford at one time...first time I've seen someone put on correct colored fasteners on the tank.

Probably could enter a concourse resto show or something.

 

Thanks for noticing. One of my (many) quirks is that I like to keep the little details like fasteners as close to factory as possible.
While this isn't going to be a pure restoration I want to keep the factory look.
One thing I've learned from being on this forum is that a lot of the problems that current owners encounter are electrical, steming from the actions of previous owners. Fortunatley, I've owned this truck for over 25 years and the wiring hasn't been butchered but it's still 37 year old wiring. I'm replacing as many of the wiring harnesses as I can find with NOS. So far the only two I haven't been able to come up with are the main (dash) harness and the frame harness that goes from the front to the taillights. The ones I have are in really good shape and haven't been cut up or spliced so I'll just clean them up and rewrap the tape covering.
While installing the fuel tank I got to start using some of the parts I've been stockpiling for the last 17 years. According to the invoice that was in the box for the fuel level sender I bought it Feb. 17, 1995 and paid $55.68 for it. The wiring harness for the sender is a much more recent addition, I got it from Green Sales last year.
As a side note, most of the fasteners I'm using are from AMK Products in Winchester, Va. They're on the expensive side but are dead on accurate.

 

Yep, thats real nice MIke, nice to see a job taking off in the right direction. Dad always taught me, if you are going to do it, you might as well do it right. ArcadeTom I love your Explorer, and painting the stripes on is the only way to go. You don't have to worry about them peeling, cracking, or fading like you do with vinyl.

PS: Mike I thought I had you talked in to keeping with the factory orange color??? Guess not

 

Yeah, I just can't bring myself to go with the orange. The Pumpkin was originally all orange with white Explorer stripes. The donor truck I bought was two tone, black with a white roof. I decided to keep the two tone because I don't like the look of a truck that has the moulding for two tone but is painted one color, I don't know, to me it just doesn't look quite right and I didn't want to remove the moulding.
At first I was thinking blue with a silver roof but then realized that that combination wouldn't go so well with the white stripes so I decided to go blue with a white roof and white Explorer stripes.
But the paint is still a ways away and my taste might change before then.