50s Ford F1 Build

[Old Iron]

Man, doesn't it feel good getting a build to this point?
We new you could do it [cl [cl [cl

 

[Torchie]

[cl[cl[P[P

 

[skull]

nice

don't it feel good to drive it[cl[cl

cool, glad ya made the show, lookin' foreward to the pics[P

Later

 

[Dirtyrat]

Thanks guys, yes! And now for about a week of not working on it... heh!

 

[I-R-POPS]

I knew you had it in you!
I find it interesting that there never seems to be a place where
you can say its finished.
Nice job.
ENJOY!

 

[earthman]

......................

 

[MercuryMac]

Ladies and gentlemen we have a runner. Congratulations.

 

[Dirtyrat]

For the facebook unfriendly people, here are the youtube videos.

http://youtu.be/liQZMVPkBXE
http://youtu.be/0OkUarN1i80

 

[Dirtyrat]

Not a whole lot to report, but I did manage to get the power steering lines switched, but I need to get that tested out soon. Also made a new glass template and got that over to Henderson Glass, for their 2nd attempt at a windshield...

Been catching up on the house and hopefully the yard too... Had a fence company out yesterday finally to put in our fence, they did a nice job, and the dogs are super happy to be able to run free with no leads... I got a rain barrel setup for the wife, and picked up a 55 gallon wine barrel that I plan on cutting in half to use for a small raised garden, if it works well and we like the look we will probably get another one and add to it.... Its time to grow some of our own food...

I'll probably get a little garage time to do some more organizing, and tinker a bit with the truck... Its nice going back to no deadlines over my head and working at my own pace, more enjoyable...

Oh, almost forgot, MP Brakes sold me a new booster (mine was well out of warranty) for cost, so that is on the way and they are paying shipping, and return shipping on the old one because they want to test it and see what is actually wrong with it...

 

[Old Iron]

Multiple attempts on any glass much less a windshield, doesn't make you comfortable at all.
Glad to hear the weather has started cooperating with you for a garden.
That was a stand up thing MP Brakes done for you.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Multiple attempts on any glass much less a windshield, doesn't make you comfortable at all.
Glad to hear the weather has started cooperating with you for a garden.
That was a stand up thing MP Brakes done for you.

Yea, hopefully they will get it right this time around... the previous one looked like my 7yr old cut it out with scissors...

Yea I think we are FINALLY beyond the frost point in the AM now...

I was hoping they would send me a new one and if the old one truly was bad they would refund the cost, but I understand a warranty is a warranty even if I never used it until now when I bought it in late 2011...

 

[Old Iron]

Oh I didn't understand you had never used it. I guess I missed that part.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Oh I didn't understand you had never used it. I guess I missed that part.

Yea, so maybe I'll get a refund out of them if they find its bad inside... who knows, that would be the stand-up thing for them to do in my opinion and they would have a customer for life and good word of mouth.

Not a lot to report, been working around the house this weekend, fixing a sprinkler line that was cut by the fence post auger, and re-purposing a wine barrel into two raised garden planters. Also got the rain barrel setup and plumbed in so we can use some free water from mother nature too. Lots of cleanup work with all the dirt from the holes and what not...

Today I plan on tinkering a bit with wiring on the lights for the rat, we will see though.
I did order my taillight and backup light lens seals today from CPR (California Pontiac Restoration) So those will complete what I need for the rear as long as I can rig up some bulbs into the housings...

 

[Sam_Fear]

Yea, hopefully they will get it right this time around... the previous one looked like my 7yr old cut it out with scissors...

Uh.... might need to look for a different glass place if this next one isn't right. One place I've dealt with even said they would finish up my edges if I managed to cut it (curved glass).

 

[Dirtyrat]

Uh.... might need to look for a different glass place if this next one isn't right. One place I've dealt with even said they would finish up my edges if I managed to cut it (curved glass).

Well, they called me today to tell me they have a nicely cut, unbroken windshield ready to my template. So hopefully its nice when I get there.

I tinkered a bit last night working on the front light wiring before I ran out of shrink tube. I sorted out my hood ornament lighting, since the chrome plating was completely flaking off inside the dog, I got it all out as best I could and then sprayed chrome paint on the inside and rolled the thing around so that the light reflects up to the eyes like its supposed to do.

Tonight I'll be hopefully putting in the glass for the last time, and hopefully wrapping up the front lighting and cleaning up the wiring... then its on to the taillights, backup lights, and brake light switch off the pedal.

Still have not found a workable seal, and I need to re-examine the vent assembly to see if it is assembled as it should be...

 

[Torchie]

Nice to see you making progress.
After an exhaustive search I have come to the conclusion that the seals for this vent are all going to be like the one you got.
The one thing that I noticed on mine when I was starting to work on it was that one side was not closing as tight as the other even though the handle was fully in the closed position. You may have to pull the vent mech. entirely out and clean and lube everything. Then possibly make your own seal as has been suggested.
Here is a link to the procedure.
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/871188-cowl-vent-removal.html#post7768473

Torchie.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Nice to see you making progress.
After an exhaustive search I have come to the conclusion that the seals for this vent are all going to be like the one you got.
The one thing that I noticed on mine when I was starting to work on it was that one side was not closing as tight as the other even though the handle was fully in the closed position. You may have to pull the vent mech. entirely out and clean and lube everything. Then possibly make your own seal as has been suggested.
Here is a link to the procedure.
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/871188-cowl-vent-removal.html#post7768473

Torchie.

Thanks for looking Torchie!
Yea, there are no properly formed seals available as far as I can find.
I had the whole assembly out, blasted, painted and re-assembled...
I still need to verify 100% that the assembly was ever correctly assembled in the first place... but since it was a source of irritation, its sitting for now.

I did get the front lights wired in and back into the cab, just need to finish securing the wiring to the frame and that is done so I can work on the rear lights... Another show is coming up and I want to drive it there, even though its only 1/4 mile from the house...

I'll get some pics of the lights up tonight or over the weekend.

Brake booster showed up today, so I'm hoping to get that in soon too so I can do some brake testing... really hoping that fixes the issues, but I'm fairly confident it will.

 

[05snopro440]

Did you check if Steele Rubber has a seal for your truck? I've heard their rubber products are the best by far, maybe they have a new style one for it.

Check out this gasket at Steele Rubber

 

[Dirtyrat]

Did you check if Steele Rubber has a seal for your truck? I've heard their rubber products are the best by far, maybe they have a new style one for it.

Check out this gasket at Steele Rubber

If it is as in the picture, its the same garbage seal setup with no formed corners. I do need to find the time to call them and verify however, and I appreciate the link!

Updates: well I have no windshield still, the last one Henderson cut ended up too large, and so I took it back to have it ground and smoothed out where it was uneven from one side of the lamination to the other... Well, they ground into the face of the glass bad enough that i couldn't use the glass without staring through grinding marks. So, we tried to install it anyway so I had a windshield for last weekend, and apparently the grinding made some stress areas which allowed for the glass to crack pretty easily on installation. So, after all that we did some more fitment with the template and short sections of the windshield seal that was cut because of the chop, and that template is at the glass shop for a 1/2 off re-cut which hopefully will be done tomorrow.

Now, I did get the rear lights working, installed a brake pedal switch after much fussing and waiting until I had a good idea. So the lights work all around now. I've actually enjoyed working on it at a calm pace again. Tonight I worked on wiring up the GM column to the ford harness for Ignition/Start/Run/ACC, and tested that out & everything seems to work, now I need to permanently solder all the wires and clean them up.

Last weekend we had a pretty good sunday even with driving the rat in the rain in the morning to get to a show, it was nice to be at a show & have both my rat and my father's 55 chevy in the show, we both took home trophys, but it was nothing compared to all the positive response to the build and all the people I talked to about what it was and all that has gone into the build.

So now for the frustration part... Still no title, and no cooperation from the secretary of state so we are looking at other options for parted out trucks & titles since technically there is little to nothing left of the original donor truck, using a good title makes the most sense and I can get the reproduction VIN plate with a good title in my name.

If not I'll be on the builder's title which is really a last resort as I want it titled as a 48-50 F1... Anyone scrapping any trucks out there? [S

Anyhow, a few pics from the show. I'll get an event up if I find th time so you guys can see all the awesome cars that were at the show.

 

[Yankee Transplant]

When I got my door seals for my 65 ford truck from LMC. I installed one door and it fit perfect untill I shut the door ,, it was to thick it had the door in a bind . I e-mailed them up and they sent me a refund with no problem. I used the rubber-foam storm door moulding (works for me)