mY 1970 f100

[Madsen1970F100]

Well got hood off donor and cleaned up and POR 15'd the underside. Still need to top coat,just because and also so I can get into nooks and crannies that brush could not reach. Hood was in pretty good shape but thought POR15 would clean it up even nicer.

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, now the cab underside. I started to celan up with 4 inch grinder and wire wheel. Found little rust except what is obvious in the pictures. Decided to leave thick factory undercoating in place and just clean up the low areas, then POR 15 and rattle can undercoating the whole thing. Still waiting on a welder to replace cab mounts and patch some floor spots so don't mind those in the pictures, figured I'd have the most of it done by the time I find a welder to come to the house. Apparantly the economy is not hurting their business as I can't seem to get one to come out.....

Anyway, cab is ok, just so tired of grinding and wire wheeling and such...... Man is that tiring work and messy too!

[Caseys71]

, It's looking pretty good man!

[71F100SportCustom]

First off, I'm a firm believer that no truck has too much rust. It just depends on if you have enoough patients to fix the rust.

Keep up the project.

[Madsen1970F100]

Nothing worth taking pictures of today. Stripped donor of doors, fron quarters and the bed. Put my old parts back on donor. Still have some pickings left, i.e. windshield, AC compresor, and a few other things that I have not thought I needed yet. Back is a bit achy moving around all those parts. Got lucky with my doors as they bolted in and closed without any adjusting!!

Need to bend new brake lines, weld new cab mounts (need to get guy out here who knows how to do that), clean up underside of bed, POR 15 it and touch up here and there, then might be ready to put back on chasis. Will have top side of bed line-xed and get them to do wheel wells too while they are at it. Clean up donor quarters and doors, remount cab, install engine, etc etc. NOthing too it. My weekends are planned for a while. Thanks for all the support and encouragement, it really helps!

[basketcase0302]

Eric,
Looking good man! God bless ya' (doing it the hard way as I had to)!
But you're doing a much better job!
You gonna' sell the donor truck once you've gotten all the parts from it?

[Madsen1970F100]

Yes, once I am done picking through the donor, she will be for sale. Has a 360 that PO claimed to have rebuilt. Engine looks good but have not ran compression test or anything. Runs good once it gets started but probably needs a lot of adjusting. The only things I think I will take off the donor at this point is the windshield (replace with laminate-failed one, but otherwise fine from my resto project) the AC compressor and windshield washer fluid container. Otherwise, she will be for sale. Probably won't let her go until I have the resto mostly put back together, hopefully by late summer.

[Madsen1970F100]

Thrw my back out last weekend. Guess from removing doors by myself (those are heavy!) and rolling up and down getting the front quarters off donor and lastly moving the old bed onto the donor and the donor bed to side of garage (that I had help with but was still heavy) So nursed myself with with aid of some prescriptions from the doctor and was back at it today. Of course, did not do much and am somewhat limited since it is getting pretty cold. But anyway, here is a before picture of donor quarter and after some wire wheel and grinding, a couple of smacks with BFH to get little dent out and if weather permits will celan it up some more tomorrow, fill in the litle rust holes, etc. etc. Guess this will be my focus for next couple of months, body work that I can get to in the garage out of the cold.

[48prerunner]

Wow looks great who ever said it had too much rust need to come up north to see what we fix. Damn I need to take aride with the trailer down south .

[Madsen1970F100]

Old cab mounts have been removed. Used a cutting tool and grinding wheel, a chisel and quite abit of elbow grease. Now decided to send back the LMC cab mounts that were not OEM and of questionable fit and quality. Hope they give me full refund, did not try to install but did scratch one a little. Ordered new ones from Dennis Carpenter. Hope they will be a perfect fit. Appreciate the feedback as always. Happy new year everyone!!!

[Menace Kustoms]

Hey, do you have the grill inserts out of your donor still? I might be willing to contribute to your restoration fund in return.

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, after taking a while to get a welder to come out to the house, finally got one. Got my cab mounts from DC mounted and welded in place. TIG welding and took a liitle customizing to get to fit just right. Passenger side mount did not come out very pretty but he was getting hang of things by time he got to the drivers side. Also cut patch in drivers side floor board to cover small hole. Ran out of argon and still has about 3-4 inches to complete the weld. Meanwhile installed new brake hoses and started on bending brake lines. Installed new tie rods, steering linkage, etc. and re-installed the steering gear box/

Tried to replace the univeral joints and while was successful in getting the old ones out, had a real bear trying to get new ones in....anyone have a trick to this that does not require a hydraulic press? OR superhuman strength? I plan to bring to a machine shop or something nad have them install the new u-joints, unless I learn of a better way.
Anyway, all in all a busy but relatively constructive day/night...... Finally turning the corner from disasembly to re-assembly However, lots of body work still to go!!

Will be a little more productive as a buddy lent me hi kereosene heater making the garage workable inable. THanks to all on here for your continued advice, support and answers to my numerous questions!

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, universal joints 2 of 3 installed. What a bear a vise and a c-clamp, (not to mention my shoulder) did not survive as well. Is it suppose to be that hard? I went very slow and careful. They move nicely within the joint so I guess all is well? Any chance the yoke is bent?

These things seem pretty strong so not thinking my efforts did any damage? Any thoughts?

[FormerMarine1981]

If you didn't beat on them too hard or put heat on them for to long they should be ok.

[Madsen1970F100]

Well now that the bulk of welding is done, I started on other parts of the cab. Small holes I plan to fill with POR-15 epoxy to level out. Then turned attention to fron brakes. Can one get all the brake parts at a local store these days or must they be special ordered? Not sure I am going to tackle replacing king pins however, probably will let a shop do that when I go for new coils and such . Will be a while though, after I get everything back together. Planning to go bit by bit touching up here and there and POR-15 over most anything. Now that cab mounts are on need to finish POR 15 and undercoating for that, then get cab right side up and start on dash, floors, etc. etc.