Well isn’t that interesting! After I read the above posts I did a google image search and found pics of brand new buckets (with 1 spring) and a bunch of used buckets with 2 springs, and 1 lone pic of a 3 spring bucket. I went down to the shop where I checked both of my F47 buckets:








There were 3 springs in each bucket, and the paint in those buckets matches the rest of the body, suggesting that they are likely original. Out of idle curiosity I walked over to the barn and pulled the driver headlight out of my son’s 1950 F68:




Yup, 3 springs! I’m wondering if it's related to trucks made here in Canada.

 

Hello, there are also three springs in my Mercury. At least, I think so. I'll have to check again.
Regards, Bernd 61 HD

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-birthday.html

 

fwiw: over the years (I've owned my F-1 for 53 years) I've accumulated 8-10 original headlight buckets from various sources. Every one of them, and the original ones in my F-1, have three springs. Prior to reading this thread I never knew that there were other configurations, such as 2 or 1 spring.

 

All my trucks came from the Oakville Ontario plant and had 2 springs, 4 - 56's and 1 -53

 

All this is interesting.

I don't see how a new bucket with 1 spring can be properly adjusted.

I don't see how an old bucket with 3 springs (like I had mine for 25 years) can be properly adjusted. Wouldn't the odd spring, the one not lined up with the adjustment screws, keep the headlight from moving vertically and horizontally?

But, then why are there 3 holes for springs?

 

When I was dealing with the routing of the battery cables I did a mockup and some initial fab work on the battery/tool box which will sit in the bed of the truck. At a swap meet last summer I picked up an old steel box that had a decent colour match and looked like it would blend in nicely:









I added hold down tabs and a plate to properly secure it all:







Final installation will be done once I get the bed floor back in place. I ran transmission lines up to the front where they will join the short sections of rubber line to meet up with the trans:







Next I tackled the shifter linkage. Of all the aftermarket kits I have dealt with on this build, this fifty dollar Amazon kit was the best:







Installing it was delightfully easy. You remove the factory arm on the tranny, add the new knurled nut and new arm:












Next you add the heim joint to the shifter tab on the steering column, thread in the long rod, and bend it to whatever route pleases you:












Next you align that lower end of the rod with the middle of the long slot on the tranny shifter arm, mark that point on the rod and cut it there:







Then you slide the collar on, tighten the set screws to leave marks on the rod, disassemble, dimple the shaft where the screws will sit, add some locktite and tighten things up:












Then you simply find the sweet spot where it all shifts nicely. I set my column into the park position, adjusted the sliding tranny arm mount just once and it all worked perfectly:










I know I’m supposed to be on the wiring right now, but I keep running into silly little things that stop me dead (like needing a grommet or connector that I don’t have on hand). There’s no shortage of other things to do while I wait for some little part to arrive.

 

The wiring is drawing to a close! I wired up the new tail lights after an epic battle. They came with sockets designed for bulbs with staggered pin heights (like an 1157) but the supplied bulbs are the parallel type bulb. When I tried an 1157 bulb it would not go in. Yet the parallel bulbs supplied in the kit did (but they shouldn’t!). Long story short is that the supplied bulbs do work, HOWEVER if you rotate a bulb 180 degrees and install it you end up swapping the tail filament for the brake filament. I’m still scratching my head over this one…….

After losing my mind for half a day on the tail lights, I needed something that was easy and visually satisfying, so I worked on tidying up some of the wiring under the hood (or where a hood will soon be as there is no front clip on right now). Here’s a shot of the wires starting to look a little less disorganized:








The next step was to test the wiring. With so much new stuff in place there was a pretty good chance of some screw ups, so I decided to do things step by step, nice and slow. I started off like this:







I pulled out every fuse, double checked every connection, hooked up the battery..........







.......and started testing.

That vice grip you see is so that I could quickly disconnect the negative post in case of sparks/smoke. I added a fuse, checked that circuit, added another fuse, checked that circuit, and so on. There were some problems found, but they were minor and typically involved bad grounds. One example was the taillights, where I had forgotten to tighten the passenger side mounting bracket. This created a poor ground which caused the weirdest things to happen. I have however done enough builds to know that “when weird stuff happens, check your grounds”.

I eventually finished testing the body harness, then moved on to the fuse/relay block that runs the engine and finally the fuse/relay block that operates headlights/fan/starter. The final test was a test run of the engine. I had done a test months ago, but I had since added O2 sensors, the starting circuit, etc. Since it was going to be run, that engine was gonna need some oil. I had earlier swapped to a low profile oil pan, but I still had the truck dipstick, so that had to be dealt with. I added enough oil to be 1 litre low and test fired the engine (it worked). After letting things settle I noted the level on the dipstick, added a litre so that it was now full, ran the engine and after things settled noted the dipstick level again. I then added a new hole to mark the full level, and a crosshatch pattern down to the 1 litre low level:












After the test runs I had a few codes showing on my OBD2 reader but it was minor stuff (things I had left disconnected despite having double checked everything). The only code I could not clear was for my fan system. The LS ECU has 2 fan triggers as it's designed for dual fans, but I only have one fan. As a result my check engine light is on while the ECU searches for a 2nd input connection that it's missing. I have some ideas about how to deal with this though. It may take a while to get at it though, as my son is now seriously getting into his build so my available time has been divided up.

More to follow!

 

I like your dip stick treatment. Makes it a lot easier to know what's going on. I find in my advanced, decrepit age that reading the dip stick is becoming one of the more challenging automotive maintenance things to do.

 

Wayne, I am with you on reading dipsticks as I get older. The worst is brand new oil on a dipstick. Actually the worst is checking new hydraulic fluid on my tractor, where the dipstick is plastic and is the exact same colour as……….you guessed it...….hydraulic fluid!

I desperately wanted to get the bed finished as I am getting tired of having a half dozen things 95% done, so I got to it. I had the bed wood off, so I added a gas tank vent while access was great. It's routed up into the rear stake pocket where it’s hidden, but I also needed an easy way to fish it out if there was a vent problem. I made a wire hook which is attached to the vent hose, and it can easily be grabbed and there is enough slack to be able to pull the vent up and out of the stake pocket if required:

















The floor was tossed back on and I cut a hole for the gas tank filler, and added an access hatch to dress things up:


















The box needed a quick brushing and some rust paint on its floor, along with a strong plywood base as I don’t trust the thin sheet steel as the way to secure that heavy battery:








I added some rubber mat in case I store other stuff in there, and bolted everything down:







You can’t see any of it, but that battery is held by a big steel plate that is securely bolted through 2 pieces of thick plywood.

More to follow!

 

I’ve continued on with little stuff and it was time to deal with the power steering pump and lines. I started off with the lines, using the Borgeson kit designed to mate the GM power steering pump to the mustang ll rack. The kit comes with a brass fitting that is designed to eliminate the O-ring in the gm pump. I installed it (and it sure was a snug fit) and then when I tightened the fitting I realized that it seated with only 1 turn.







Those threads would have ripped out if I had snugged it down properly. I also noted that the threads in the other end of that line (at the rack) took an above average amount of force to go into the rack. Customer service at Borgeson was however super quick and they advised that I need a shorter brass fitting and they mailed one out to me. When it arrived I had fun removing the old fitting from the PS pump due to the snug fit. I eventually had to run a tap down into the fitting and use a vice grip and hammer as a home made slide hammer to get it out. The new fitting was quite a bit shallower, and the end result was a hose that fit properly:












If I were to do this again (which I absolutely never will) I would order stock replacement hoses for the pump and for the rack, cut the lines at a spot that allows for nice placement, select the best clocking and then have them joined together at a hydraulic shop. This would have avoided all the above aggravation and allowed me to create a length that I liked and a far better clocking of the fittings. The kit is however universal, so it's impossible for them to come up with a hose length and clocking that will always work.

My next aftermarket kit experience was far better. The GM pump puts out a far higher pressure than the mustang ll rack is designed for, so I picked up the Borgeson kit that addresses this problem. Installation was easy and interesting. You simply unbolt the big high pressure side fitting at the back of the pump:







Then use a magnet to pull out the pressure valve:











Next you disassemble the valve using the “tool” that comes in the kit. The tool is just a piece of pipe with a slit in it that allows you to clamp the pressure valve into a vise without damaging it. The bolt on the end of the valve gets loosened while it's all clamped firmly in the vise and you end up with this:










Then you simply add however many of the shims you want to the bolt. There’s a chart in the instructions that tells you the pressure you get for the number of shims you add.











After that you just reassemble and you are done. The instructions in this kit were excellent and everything fit perfectly.

 

Those pumps are amazing. I used one on the front of my 47 farmall BN to run the loader, 3 point and mower that I built for it. That was like 25 years ago. My brother still has that tractor. It can pick up way more than it should and the that little pump is pretty fast and crazy that it can run 6 hydraulic cylinders. I drilled out one the holes for more flow if I remember correctly. It still runs on transmission fluid so on cold morning pushing snow it wouldn't move slow. Anyways, great progress amd progress is what it's all about to get her on the road

 

Thanks Luke! My supplier told me that the pressure reduction kit may not be needed, but my online searching suggested that it likely would. As my front clip was off, this was a good time to do it in comfort. While the kit is cheap, that pump is a PITA to remove due to bolt placement and the pulley requires a puller for removal/installation. Doing that with the clip on would be truly miserable. I’m gonna try another test fire with the clip off as that hose kit was a major disappointment and I’m a bit worried about leaks (again horrible to deal with if the clip is on).

While waiting for parts I did make some more progress. My steering column had a couple of minor issues (and I spent 10 whole dollars buying it!) so I got to work.

The GM tilt columns have a common shifter problem as they get older as a little spring gets tired or breaks, causing a floppy shift arm. The solution is to drive out the pin that holds the arm in place……







…….then pull out the shifter, which leaves you with this opening. You can see the broken spring on the left side of that opening:







Here’s what I found inside, compared to a new spring:







I’m not sure where the missing pieces of that spring went. Installation is a tad tricky as you have to use pliers and a pick to work the new spring back into place BUT there is the possibility of the new spring shooting down into the guts of the column (not fun to deal with if that happens). A thin piece of cardboard pressed down into the hole acts as a shield to prevent this:

















The cardboard can simply be pulled out afterwards (as long as you remembered to use a THIN piece of cardboard). The shifter handle then just gets stuck back in and the pin gets driven into place. I also had a starter key that was a bit stiff so this was a good time to toss in a new switch as the spring in the old switch had lost its strength and wasn’t springing back very well when the key was released from the “crank” position:







Interestingly, afterwards there was a good improvement in both the arm and the key, but neither are as good as they should be. I have to wonder if there is a bit of broken spring somewhere down in that column. I will have to remove the steering wheel in the future anyhow as it’s really really ugly, so that will be a good time to go spelunking deep inside that column.

I have my annual spring chores to do now so progress will slow down but I’m in luck today as its snowing like mad outside, providing me with a perfect excuse to play in the shop.

More to follow!

 

I was going to do another test fire to deal with the one engine code that my ECU was throwing, as well as testing the power steering for leaks. When I tried to install the serpentine belt I found that it wouldn’t go on. It turns out that the tensioner was shot so I ordered up a new one and got to work on little things.

I started to add butyl rubber vibration dampener and a layer of foam:

















I got the bulk of the inside done, but left the floor for now as I’m still crawling around in there and will just mess it up.

I then spent a bit of time cobbling together rad hoses, as my local auto jobber was fresh out of rad hoses that fit a 1950 ford with a 2006 GM engine and a ‘68 mustang radiator (with the very rare electric fan option). I used the online catalogue from Dayco to select hoses that had useful bends and lengths and ordered up a few. It was kind of interesting and actually sorta fun to do a 3D puzzle of angles and lengths. I picked my best route, and then cut and joined pieces of hose until things fell into place:

















For the top hose, all I needed was an adaptor to convert the engine hose size to that of the radiator, and a single section of a rad hose that had the bend I needed:

















I still need to plumb the LS engine steam tube into the system, but that gets done once my coolant lines to the heater are in place.

More to follow!

 

I've encountered a few people that would be surprised by this and would be offended at the suggestion of having to work through it 🙄

Nice job!

 

Door Time!

It was time to tackle the doors once and for all, so I cleaned up my work benches and got to it. I had all the glass cut at a local shop some time ago at a rather good price. I love flat glass trucks! The glass needed to be set in the various channels/frames, and I have done this before using the old school way that I was shown by someone else.

Here’s the door glass and channel. Both were thoroughly cleaned up:





I could not find any detailed instructions on where to set the glass into the channel, other than numerous posts suggesting it just gets centered in the channel. There is however a little tang that protrudes from the channel on the lower left in this pic, and I have no idea what its purpose is:












If that tang sticks out past the glass, it would rub the fuzzy material as the window was rolled up and down, so I decided to shift the glass just a tad so that the tang doesn’t do that. Now that I had decided on where to sit the glass, I got to the messy part. I had measured the total gap between glass and channel, which was ⅛ inch. Since the setting tape sits on both sides of the glass I needed 1/16 tape. My supplier only had 1/32, but the stuff can be doubled up:







The glass was set up side down into a special jig that was purposely made for this build, and a layer of setting tape was bent over the top edge:







Now the messy part. I used a paint brush and motor oil to wet the tape (both sides), added another layer of tape in order to get my 1/16 inch on each side of the glass, oiled it up, and then pressed the channel down onto the works. The oil makes it easy to adjust the channel to where you want it to sit on the glass. The whole works is then taped together:












I set things aside for a couple of days (the oil swells the sealing tape, anchoring the glass firmly but it needs time). Once it had set it was just a matter of taking a razor blade to slice off the parts of the setting tape that stuck out past the channel:







The vent window frame was the same process, except the curve in the glass makes the tape want to buckle and slide around, so I pie-cut the tape to prevent this:

















In hindsight, I should have separated the 2 vent window frame sections as it would have made the process easier. I ended up separating them anyhow later on when it was time to install the vent window seals.