my 49 ford truck

[Old Iron]

If I may suggest, buy a pre-made harness where each wire is labeled every 5" to 12"
This will save your sanity if your wiring skills are low [P[P[P

 

[Skip]

If I may suggest, buy a pre-made harness where each wire is labeled every 5" to 12"
This will save your sanity if your wiring skills are low [P[P[P

I couldn't agree more. After putting in a Speedway kit, I felt like I knew something about wiring. Good luck.


One thing about buying kits; figure out what you really need, and don't waste money on a larger kit. I bought a 21 circuit kit. Now I have rolls of wire hanging under my dash.

 

[Tripper]

Wow... truck's lookin' awesome! Love the bed!

I buy my wiring kits from Rebel Wire! They use good wire that is labeled well with big lettering. That's one of my main gripes with many kits... I have to use a magnifying glass to read them or they aren't labeled often enough. Bob knows his stuff & so does his tech guy Jeremy. They are readily available to help & have saved my bacon several times. I use the 8 circuit kit! Instructions are good too!

He used to give our members a 10% discount!

http://rebelwire.com/

BoB

 

[49crazy]

thanks for you guys input. the builds on this site are amazing, a group of very talented builders.

I'm slowly getting this project done, the operative word for me is 'slow'.

It does help for the solutions to problems thou, time gives you a lot of room to think out solutions and makes for a better build, at least with me.

Dave

 

[49crazy]

When I bought my truck, the seller gave me an extra front fender section. The grille was in better condition than mine was. I dug into mine and broke off a few bolts a day for the past week. My cutting torch has problems so the easiest solution for me to get off the rusted bolts was to tighten them until they broke. Which worked fine on my original front section.

The other donated section I took apart yesterday, the fenders were to far gone to reuse so I cut them off which gave me better access. Amazing how many bolts hold on the grille, I counted at least 20 bolts. Towards the end though I got a little lazy and started cutting but without touching the front grille.

Amazing how the grille can be in good shape and the surrounding inner fenders and other pieces be all mangled. Here are some shots.

Dave

 

[Skip]

Nice job salvaging the grille. [cl

 

[joedoh]

I am a cutting disc in a battery powered grinder addict too. I think I could do surgery with that thing.

nice work!

 

[49crazy]

looking for opinions on the stock gauges for this truck. still have not done the wiring to try to start the flat head 6. If I use a stock guage set up that was originally 6 volt on this truck does it make a difference with the gauges?

I was thinking that the ballast resistor would reduce the voltage to the points, still plan on doing that but will the stock gauges work with 12 volts? or should I get another set of guages?

Dave

 

[Torchie]

Stock gauges won’t work correctly with 12 volts.
You will need to use voltage reducers. There is a names for them but it escapes me right now. They are not expensive and you can find them on e-bay or your local auto parts store should be able to source them.
Torchie

 

[49crazy]

torchie,
thanks for the quick reply. knew there would be a catch to using stock gauges.

Dave

 

[Cbucket]

Assuming you have the standard gauge set from that era, Temp, Amp, Fuel, Oil Pressure the only one that won't work is the fuel gauge and $20 kit will make that one work. Temp & Oil gauges are mechanical so use no voltage, an Amp gauge doesn't care what volt it is and works fine.

Of course all lights will need 12v bulbs installed.

 

[Torchie]

Here is what I was talking about. Runts.
Torchie
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Runtz-12-Volt-to-6-Volt-Voltage-Reducer,2374.html

 

[49crazy]

my christmas present came early this year. Last night when my son, Eric was pulling out the old fake lighted tree, he found the previous mentioned lost wire harness. yeaaaaaaaaa!!!!

 

[Old Iron]

LOL [cl[cl[cl

 

[Torchie]

[cl
Torchie

 

[joedoh]

some guys have all the luck!

 

[49crazy]

I was very surprised to see it, can't believe the number of times I looked for it. sign of my age and forgetfullness???

now to figure out how to mount it. wires sticking out the back, maybe mount on a couple of thick rubber spacers.

Dave

p.s. I got a new round aluminum gas tank ready to install on the flat bed.

 

[49crazy]

I got a question for the experts. I picked up a 9" ford rear end. I thought with one side wider than the other (axle longer on one side) the rear end had to be cut down with the center not centered even thou the yolk is offset anyway, thought the hub would need to centered.

when talking to someone the other day about cutting it down I mentioned the problem, he said that it does not need to be cut down, not an issue with the driveline being angled. Is this correct?

Dave

 

[joedoh]

ford always offset the pinion on solid axle cars, as long as the pinion is pointing straight forward (it is) and the trans is pointing straight back (it should be) then the two angles on that plane will offset and there will be no vibration.

 

[36Binder]

Well the car or truck it came out of it probably wasn't centered perfectly, hence why it is not now centered. As far as the driveline angle I am sure it will be fine.
The only reason I would cut it down would be to narrow it if it is just too wide for the truck. When I installed my 9" it was 2 1/4" wider than stock. So only 1 1/8" per side. Well within my tolerances.[