Sheesh! Another F-1 build...

[TheTruant]

Not Bad for a weekend worth of work! That is going to be an awesome truck. Any plans for the engine? Great job. I should stop by and check it out since im only 10 minutes from you.
Dave

Thanks Dave. I've got a good running Chevy 283ci that's going in as of right now, I really wanted to put in a running 322ci Nailhead that we've got but just can't justify $800 for a trans adapter That's more than we paid for the truck Original plan is to run a th200-4r overdrive trans but I picked up a couple 4spd Saginaws today so once the motor is in I'll see what fits the best. I'd prefer a 4spd but will have to see what kinda room and linkage will be required.

Yeah, you really outta come on by and check things out. I know we talked about it up at the Showdown but never got around to it. I'll PM you my number and address and what not.

Later,
Dan

 

[TheTruant]

Got my bed spacers cut and welded in, holes drilled in the frame for the mounting bolts, removed what was left of the exhaust, cut out the loose rusty sections of the stock bed frame and then took the bed back off and torched off the stock shock mounts, the parking brake stuff, and a few other misc. pieces that were in the way. Started figuring up for the C-notch...think I'm gonna have to put in somwhere around a 2" block rather than a 4"

Hope to have the rear boxing plates in and C-notch done tomorrow

 

[TheTruant]

Messed around with the rear trying to figure up the c-notch height...not going to be able to see where the truck sits until the front is done. So, on to the front it is.

Got everything unbolted and went to find some help to pull the frontend off...nobody was home so a little one man engineering was involved. One piece of misc. steel tubing tacked to the fenders, one engine hoist, problem solved.

Next up, get the motor out

Then clean off 60 years worth of grease, grime, dirt, etc.

 

[TheTruant]

Ooooh, nice and purty

Started prepping the frame for the MII install but the day was over by that time. Going to grind the top, sides, and inside, mark the axle centerline and then pull the stock frontend and grind the bottoms. Then onto weld in the MII stuff. Hopefully have the frontend in tomorrow but you know how that goes

And I managed to find a set of wheels that will work for the front. Didn't have the right tools with me at the time so back to the junkyard on Monday or Tuesday.


And here's a quick side shot...

 

[sixtall]

Truant, I too am following your build. Great progress on what will be a great finish. Too bad you have to lose the slots. They're my favourite wheel ever. By the way, less than $800 to buy it ... ??? deals like that are NEVER around here. Congratulations. Let's see more.

 

[Thunder1]

I'm really liking your build! It's cool!

Thunder1

 

[DJM]

Dan,
SBC and M II suspension this should be one strong truck! Where did you dig up the independant front???

wish I had your time and patience
Dave

 

[TheTruant]

Dan,
SBC and M II suspension this should be one strong truck! Where did you dig up the independant front???

wish I had your time and patience
Dave

It's one of those mail order hub to hub kits This one inpaticular came from CPP but lots of places sell them, Speedway, Heidts, ECI and a bunch of other places. Tons of options too, stock A-arms, tubular A-arms, stainless A-arms, springs and shocks, coilovers, airbags, etc. The one going in is the budget version with tubular A-arms.

As of now the trans is going to be a Saginaw 4spd. It'll save a few bucks this way too as the only thing I'm missing to run the 4spd is a bellhousing and maybe a shifter if I can't put together one from the pieces I have. Got my front suspension stuff painted, one boxing plate ready to be welded in and some fooling around with the motor putting some of the missing pieces back on.

Went back to the junkyard and got that set of wheels and the tires put on them. Took the wheels that the tires came off of and had a pair of 7.00x16 wide white bias plys mounted up that I may run on the rear instead of the drag slicks...only time will tell. I'll post of a few pictures soon.

 

[FresnoRatRod]

looking great, nice build write up.

 

[TheTruant]

Boxing plate ready to weld in

Tires on there "new" wheels

Some 7.00x16 tires on the wheels that were on the front. Might run these on the back instead of the drag slicks.

Front end stuff painted

Vroom Vroom

And I found a bellhousing for 25 bucks today so it's looking more and more like it's getting the 4spd

 

[ratty46pickup]

A 283 with a Holley 4-barrel and a 4-speed Saginaw! With the WWW`s on steelies this is gonna be one sweet little truck!!! Sure hope you use the script valve covers too!

 

[TheTruant]

Got the Mustang II in last weekend..woohoo!

And with a little modifying I even managed to use the steel wheels.

Plunked the motor in and checked the fit, I think it's gonna work out great. Everything lookin' good so far.

 

[TheTruant]

Tossed on the other set of tires to see how they look. I haven't really decided which ones I like best yet, how about you all?

Next big issue is the steering, I'm waiting on parts for that (should be here Wensday) so I started messing around with the motor mounts. Took off the truck mounts and got a new pair from Autozone. Got the style that uses the tube/bolt for the mount. They're off of a '66 or so Biscayne.

Couldn't find a piece of pipe with enough wall thickness at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. so I went digging through the misc. tubing pile and found an old steering shaft. Nice heavy wall with no welded seam and the was just the right ID for a 7/16" bolt.

Cut it to size and bolted it up, just right.

 

[TheTruant]

Now comes the fun part, making a piece of 1"x2" square fit a 3/4" round.

Started out by drilling a 1/2" hole (biggest size I had) all the way through the 1x2.

Then took a step bit and opened up the hole up to 13/16"

Check the fit. Like a glove.

 

[TheTruant]

Now for the "trick" part. Cut the whole in "half" on the bandsaw...

And presto-chango a nice tight fit...almost looks like I knew what I was doing..lol

That's as far as I want to go on the motor mounts until my steering is done. So went ahead and fixed the crapped out front cab bolts/rubbers.

 

[TheTruant]

The last 61 years had taken it's toll on the rubber and the bolts were loose so the cab would move if you pushed on it.

Made a rough trace on a piece of new rubber.

Drilled a 1/2" hole in it, cut it to size & rounded the edges to make it nice and purty.

Stuck in it with a new bolt and wah-lah! Better than the day it was new.

 

[TheTruant]

Re-using the stock column is a must for me, nothing worse than seeing some cool car or truck then popping your head inside to see some ugly ass late model tilt wheel.

So here it is mocked up

Seeing as how I'll be re-using th column it's gonna take a little trickery to get it all together. One of those things being a secondary bearing and mount for the lower part of the column. So I started out by cutting on the original cover/acces some some to get it to fit.

Transfered it to paper and did some more refining.

Then to piece of 1/8" steel plate which will be bolted to the floor. My lower bearing/bearing holder will be bolted to the 1/8" plate and the bearing holder will be welded to the stock column. The bearing is in the pic, it's going between the column and plate. The steering shaft itself that is going through the bearing is something like 2 thousandths larger than the ID of the bearing. So I'm hoping to make a trip down to Clipper's place this weekend and see if he can't help me out. Hope your feeling better man!

 

[TheTruant]

Since I know where the column is going to go I went ahead and put the rest of the steering together. Hoping to have Clipper TIG weld it up while I'm down there as well. We shall see

So while I wait for the weekend so I can finish my steering I went ahead and focused on the gas tank. Had an extra one laying around from my '50 Ford and it measured up fairly decent so in it goes.

 

[TheTruant]

I added the rear crossbar things before cutting out all the extra junk to make way for the tank.

Wam-bam and in she goes.

Went in pretty nice I think, might take a little time to get a filler pipe hooked up but other than that plenty of clearance all around.

And while I had the bed off I went ahead and stuck in some 2" blocks rather the 4" blocks, mucho better for clearance and all that. Still gonna need the C-notch though. And of course a little tape to see what kinda of door/glass ratio there will be with a 4" chop, looks about right to me.

 

[bob w]

Nice work on your truck. I like the fact you are using the old steering column.