Well, it has been a couple weeks but I got to put some time in this past weekend. I would have posted this sooner had I not tried to cut my fingers off with my table saw last night. Seven stiches later and a visit to Ortho this morning and I'm back on the healing road.
Anyway, Sunday I mounted the brake booster and hooked up the pedal to it. It is going to need some adjustment but it's on. I got a new air cleaner for the carb as the old edlebrock 10 inch round no longer fits with the brake booster. I have new rear brake lines to put in and new rear brake hardware and I'll be ready to hook them back up again.
After that I started to rebuild the headlight buckets. They had mismatched screws and a couple springs broken. The ones that were left were pretty brittle anyway. So after doing all that they went back together like a dream. I ordered my new energy suspension bumpstops and sway bar bushing so those should be in soon. I have the rear end kit but haven't decided when I'm going to do it as my step mom is moving out of her house soon and I don't want to have to scramble to get it done. Oh well, Enjoy!

 

I know it has been a few weeks since I posted anything but just an update. Not much has happened with the truck. I got the new plug wires on and got the fuel line unfouled and it started up like a champ. I pulled the back wheels off and decided to redo the brakes as they looked like they hadn't been touched since 1973. (which is the year of the rear end out of a Nova) So I got all new brake hardware, shoes and drums to redo it but haven't had the time to do it. I also got my brake lines in. I made a stop at So Cal speed shops and picked up some odds and ends yesterday so it is ready to be done. This past weekend I spent working on my step moms new house and this one she is moving so no work for a bit. Once all this calms down I will get the brakes done. I did get the front fender braces in and got the rear braces attached. For some reason they were there but only attached to the fender and not the frame.




Red

 

I finally got my step mom in her new house and it is lieable for her and my sisters so I took some time to get the back brakes don on the 40. I replaced all the hardware, shoes and drums. It all went relatively painless until it came time to re install the brake lines to the new cyclinders. The threads don't work. I don't know if it's the threads on the brake line fittings or what but I couldn't get them back on to save my life. I went ahead and put the rear wheels back on and left the brakes as is. I have been wanting to redo the lines as well, I just wanted to do them later on.

I then went up front and put the new fuel line I built yesterday. It is a stainless line with nice AN fittings. Except it took me the better part of three hours to get the damn thing together. The inner fitting did not want to bite on the threads even though I had the hose backed out enough. Well, I finally got it done an it looks OK but not great. It was a first attempt and I have another 25 feet of AN 6 so I will get better...hopefully. So i got the line on and went to fire it up to check for leaks and.......click click...nothing. I have to get a new battery as the one I have has finally bought the big one. So with that on hold I finished installing the sway bar bushings. Energy suspension all around. That went well at least. So now I have to buy some brake line and a battery.

Oh, I forgot, I fit the proportioning valve and bent the front lines to attach to it. That went well so overall it was a 50-50 day. But at least I was working on thew thing. I will get some pictures tomorrow as I have to go over and get some measurements for brake lines and AN hoses.

 

I just got back into town last thursday night and decided to update this from the prior weekend. Well, I typed a huge paragraph and tried to post it and the LAN took a crap and dumped my work. I got so frustrated with it, I didn't retype it. Well, now I have some more to talk about so I decided to do it tonight.

Last weekend I started to lay out the new brake lines. I already had the front lines in so I didn't mess with them (mistake #1) I started by disconnecting the rear brake line. It had about 87 zip ties holding it and the rear wiring together it took me a while to get it all cut loose. I decided to go ahead and reattach it using some sweet stainless clamps made by kugel. They were double clamps so the new lines and wires fit great, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The first 18" of the rear line coming out of the P valve was seperate from the rest of the line. (it was an 18" piece with a connector on it. (mistake #2) I thought it seemed like a good idea as it is hard to manuver a 6' piece of brake line while trying to get it manuvered around all the crap underneith a truck. So I went ahead and built my own 18" tube to replace it. Why you ask am I replacing brake line that works? Well, It's all 1/4" line that was used with a 4 wheel drum set up and some of it has kinks in it. So out with the old and replace it with new. I got the first short line in and started to measure for the rest to the rear. I layed out the old line and measured it out. I learned a cool trick on another mesage board that was to use a router to make a groove in a 2 X 4 and lay out the brake line in the groove to get it straight. That worked awesome, so I layed out another 5 feet of line.


Now keep in mind I have never done this before so cutting the brake line was easy but the flaring took some practice. I lulled myself into a false sense of security the night before by nailing the first flare I did. The rest of them were not as easy. Bottom line was I got the rear line in to the T but the lines off the T were smaller then the main lines. I called it a day and thought to hit it this weekend once I got some adapter fittings.

Cut to this weekend and I got the adapter fitting but it took me about an hour to get the two lines of the T in as the wheel cylinder threads pointed in a slightly downward direction so it took some manhandling of the lines to get them to thread. Once I got them attached it was on to bleeding the Master cylinder. I only had a small portable vice so it got a bit frustrating trying to bleed it on the floor. I eventually got it done and got it into the truck. Once again I had to manhandle the brake lines from the MC to the P valve as they were short and didn't want to conform to the MS threads.


I started to fill the MC and loosen the rear passenger bleeder valve (speed bleeders as I knew I would be by myself) I started to pump the brakes and the brake fluid started to go down. I stopped and looked under the truck and I must have had four leaks. (mistakes #1 and 2) So I spent the next 2 hours running down leaks. I still have one in the area of the 18" line but can't run it down. After I went through my second bottle of brake fluid I called it a day for the MC.


To add insult to injury, I went and bought a new battery last weekend for the truck. I was so tired when I went to put it in I neglegeted to take the cap off the negative side, so when I tried to start it...not even a click. This time I got the cap off and started the truck. It took a while but finally kicked on. I got out of the truck and started looking for leaks and what have you as I had put the new stainless fuel line on that I was so proud of (first one of those as well). Well, as I walked around to the front of the truck I noticed that there looked to be fluid coming out of my radiator towards the bottom. I cut the truck off and went back to see what it was. What it turned out to be was the fuel line that comes out of the fuel pump wasn't fully tight and was spraying fuel out. In addition the connection from that same line to the carb burst and blew fuel everywhere. So I spent the next hour cleaning that all up. Needless to say I called it a day and measured the fuel line so I can make a new one. I lot of lessons were learned today. One being to ensure everything is tight prior to putting it into operation. Second being I need to get my truck out of this garage and to my place where I have everything I need and aren't scrounging to get it running.

 

Keep up the good work!

My little pickup:

 

Very Nice. I like the color!

Red

 

After another couple weeks of not being able to work on the truck. I finally got some time on fathers day. The week prior I got her towed out of my step mom's old house and over to the new one. It has been a big relief as I don't have many tools there and it isn't the best place to work.

Well, I got the truck at the new house and went to work replumbing the rear brake lines. I pulled the front fenders off again to facilitate getting to the front lines and MC easier. I had a couple of premade pieces so I coupled them together and ran the existing rear lines from the tee. That went pretty well so I decided to go ahead and bleed them. I put speed bleeders in all four so I could do it all myself. What I didn't do is get a resivoir to have the fluid flush into. After one round of bleeding I decided to hold off until I can get something set up.


I'm concerned that the booster and MC are to big for the engine compartment. They both fit but tend to overwhelm the drivers side. I have given thought to putting it under the cab on the frame but don't want to undo all that I just did.
My Dad had put the silver plastic wire covers over the engine compartment wiring and I was never a big fan of. Since I had done all I could with the brakes I went ahead and stripped all that off and replaced it with painless performace wire covers which I liked much better. I moved some of the clamps holding the wires to the firewall around and I think it gave it a cleaner look.

After I finished that I started to replace some of the old hoses around the engine bay with sainless hoses and ends. I can't find anything small enough to run the vacuum lines but the others I had worked pretty well. Just a tip, don't buy Spectre stainless hose as it is not the best quality and is difficult to work with in comparison to Russell hose. I am on a tight budget so it worked ok.

All I had was the small 1/4" line so I was only able to do a few hoses. I have 3/8" and 5/16" at my house so I can finish these up later.

Lastly I removed the old push button shifter and put the Lokar adapter kit on with my new shift ****. I hope to have it on the road by the end of July as I am out of town so much my weekends get pretty full. Hope to make it to Super Run here in Vegas. Hope everyone had a great Fathers Day.

 

Update! As you might or moight not know I just retired from the military and moved the family from Las vegas to Florida. This took place in January and things have been hectic with the new job and house etc. Well are in the house and just disposed of the last boxes and are living a normal life. Let me start this off when we left Vegas:

As it was January it was obviously cold. We left out of Vegas and went south down into AZ and New Mexico. Some of you might remember a bunch of snow that went through there about that time. Well we hit it. The 40 was on a UHaul trailer picking up snow, ice and salt all the way until we got through New Mexico. Long story short, it created a lot of surface rust and dirt all over the engine/ front end. Once I got her to Florida I set out to get her cleaned up. I had to put her on the trailer minus front fenders as she was to wide with them on. So cleaing took pulling the radiator off, removing all pulleys, belts and hoses. I decided to get the carb rebuilt as I felt it was the basis of my issues keeping the truck running.
I drop the Edelbrock 1604 off to a local guy as I was headed out of town for work and when I got back a month later I got it and all the rest of the parts that I had cleaned reinstalleed. After a bit of tweaking and tuning, I got her fired up. She coughed a bit but I turned the idle way down and she purred like a kitten. I was so stoked!
I haven't hooked up the electric cooling fan yet but I had to drive it down the road. I threw the dog in with me and we took her for a quick spin! She ran great. Especially for not getting around under her own power for almost three years. I brought her back to the house and fine tuned a couple things and shut her down. Nobody was around except the dog to share my excitement of "maiden voyage" as the wife took the kids over to the pool for an afternoon swim.
I am very excited to get the front sheet metal back on and continue to make her road worthy for more than a neighborhood spin. I will add some pictures of her this weekend. She still needs a bunch of work but nothing major will get done this summer as I want to drive her around a bit before garaging her again!

 

Just curious to see how much turning clearance you have with the front frame clip? What clip is it? These 40's have narrow front ends and most clips hang the tires outside of the fenders. I have a dropped tube axle in my black pickup and can only run 5" rims and it still rubs when I have a passenger. I'm building another 40 pickup but using the TCI Mustang II unit. It came with 5/8" narrower arms just for the 40's. Here is a link I'm doing over on the HAMB for my 40 pickup build. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=527407

 

It has a 74 Nova clip on it. It has been narrowed which I found out the hard way. Meaning I bought a front sway bar for it and went to install it and it was about 4 inches to long. Come to find out the original sway bar was cut and sleeved to fit the narrow front end. I know that is the wrong way to do it. I am trying to find out how to find one that will fit. Additionally, I think the drag link was cut to. Any ideas how to find one that fits?

Turn radius is great, I converted mine from drums to discs as well. I don't remember how wide my tires are but I can say I put 1 1/2" lower spings on it and it drops the fenders to low inside the fenders. I have to put the stock height Nova springs back on.

Red

 

I have some progress to show. Here she is in her new home in Florida. I have been slow going as kids soccer, scouts and life in general with three kids keeps us pretty busy. I have been feeling restless about the truck lately. Sort of like the boy with his finger in the dike (so to speak). What I mean is that there are a myriad of issues with this chassis so before I go any further with little fixes here and there, I am going to address the frame and suspension. I rolled her out of the garage and fired her up to get the fluids rolling and decided that since I have been hemoraging money with the new house and all my other projects, I would take all the parts I have and do all that work first.


I have recently picked up a 302 with a C4 that supposedly runs but I don't know yet. I'm leaving that be for a while until I get the frame squared away.

I started to pull the rear fenders on in preperation to remove the bed. As some might know the rear leafs and shocks leave a bit to be desired. So as I'm removing the rear fenders, I discover that the both have only two or three bolts holding them on and it seems none of them are the same thread or size. Awesome!

Needless to say they came off quickly. Now to tackle the bed. My dad, god bless him, let someone `talk him into carpeting the bed. It was probably a less expensive option than painting and body work. So in my quest to remove the bed, I tore all the carpet out, which also came out rather easily.

After that, I noticed only two bolt heads showing on the floor of the bed. I traced them under the bed and sure enough, they were the only two bolts holding the bed to the frame! They were about 10" long and went through the floor of the bed, through the bed wood underneith and ended up into the frame.
I decided that I would try to see if the bed would budge and surprisingly it did. So I worked it off the back of the truck and stood it up on some of the old bed carpet.

I then strapped it to a dolly and rolled it to my shed for storage. By that time my day was coming to an end but now I have a much better idea of the work ahead of me and much easier access.

More later.

Red

 

Glad to see you are working on it again. If your looking for a up-grade on the rear springs, here is a thread I did for my truck. Technical Low Buck rear springs for 35-40 Fords - THE H.A.M.B.

 

I appreciate the link. I bought a spring perch kit from Chassis Engineering a year or so ago and am going to put that on. It has new brackets for rear leafs and shock mounts. It should be way better then what was there.

Red

 

Good choice and will be much better than what you have. The only thing I have noticed with their kit is they sit a little high and need lowering blocks. I used blocks on mine as well but I like them low.

 

The truck has blocks on it already but once I get the springs seperated from the rear end I will see how serviceable they are.

Here is some pictures from last night. I pulled all the existing wiring back and wrapped it up for later and removed the shocks and unbolted the existing springs. As you can see, the "shackles" really aren't shackles at all.









Hopefully this weekend I will get the time to remove the springs completely and start prepping the rear end for the new springs I have. I ordered boxing plates from Yogi's today to finish the frame up. I also plan on cleaning up the frame and spraying rust encapsulator on it as well. More to come.

Red