Project "Uncle Fester"- 9/21 Interior almost finished

[sargentrs]

Looking good! That's a beautiful red and looks great with the W white.

[72stepside]

I wasn't sure at all about how these colors would go together. I had Kirker send me their paint chip brochure which I held in the sun, shade, flourescent light, incandecent light, etc... just trying to see how they'd look together. Honestly, it was a complete mystery until the spraying started.

I aimed for the Regis Red/Wimbledon White from the original Ford color choices. I ended up with Inferno Red Metallic and Wimbledon White instead which I am very happy with.

[sargentrs]

It worked out great. It's especially evident on the rear shot of the cab corners in the sun. Btw, great idea you had on hanging the doors for paint!

[72stepside]

looks real good, ton of work, got questions about your paint. I bought a few parts from your Dad about a year or 2 ago, I need to swing by and chat with both of you guys.

Just starting my build/restore on my Dad's ole 71 F250 camper special, been in the family since 72. I just moved her into the covered area my kids and I just completed. Half of my backyard is concrete so I covered a little less than half of that, 20x24 space. My 66 mustang and the 71 F250 fit nicely. I plan on building a "roll up paint booth" hanging from the rafters once I get to that stage. Funny, my youngest, my daughter, wants to help with and drive the truck when its done and my middle son, wants the stang, right now welding in one of the floor pans on the car.

will keep watching this one though

Let me guess, you recognized the tractors!!!!!

[Zorm]

actually, the pole barn and that old blue pickup, I think I saw the red tractor.....that is funny though

[72stepside]

actually, the pole barn and that old blue pickup, I think I saw the red tractor.....that is funny though

Oh, I remember you. You bought those parts from me!!!!! I'm the (now 40 year old) kid!!!!

[Zorm]

Guess I never met your Dad then..

[72stepside]

All the body panels are painted!!!!! Only things remaining are the white on the tailgate and silver for the rear bumper and the tailgate hardware.

Enjoy...





Probably gonna set the bed back on the frame in a couple of days... then it'll start looking like a truck again!!!!

I received all of my weatherstripping and window anti-rattle rubber yesterday. Still waiting for my firewall cover. I understand that you have to take everything off the firewall, install the firewall cover, then install all the items that go through the firewall... column, cables, and wiring. Guess I'll get to do a few things over!

Oh, and I believe it's also best to have your carpet down because I've read that it is tough to shove it under the firewall cover once installed.

So, I guess the batting order will be remove some things I've installed, order and install carpet, the install firewall cover, then hook everything back up. Fortunately, I haven't installed the inner or outer fenders yet so getting the column is still pretty easy.

Enough of my rambling... stay tuned!

[72stepside]

Tonight we got the bed put in place. Used a chain hoist to lift it, then spun it around (thanks to a swivel on the hoist), and carefully lowered it onto the frame.







Once we got it set down in into position, I discovered that the cab doesn't sit on the frame straight. It is skewed in the horizontal a little bit and the drivers side sits 3/8" lower than the passenger side! Oh by the way, did I mention that my aux fuel tank is installed and contains around 5 gallons of gas!!!!! Also, I failed to realize that you can in no way reach the front driver side bed bolt with said tank installed!!! So, FOR THE 3RD TIME the fuel tank had to be dropped. I swear I am an idiot!!! Apparently that tank must have been the last thing Ford installed on these trucks on the assembly line because it is in the way of everything on the drivers mid side of the truck. I guess in the 5 years since I removed that tank, I failed to remember that it was the first thing I took off of the truck!

So, the tank is out again and we did some measuring to find the driver side of the cab sits a little low. I guess I tightened down my new cab mount bushings too much on that side. So we've decided to (1) not put the tank back in for a while, (2) shim the cab accordingly to get it level with respect to the frame, and finally (3) hang all the body panels and get all the body lines straight before doing anything else. I've come WAY too far for this truck to be all crooked and have body lines/gaps that aren't uniform. Now that the tank is dropped again all the mounting bolts are accessible so it's time to do this thing right.


On a positive note, I am really happy with how these colors have come together. I like to just stand back and look and just imagine how it will look once everything is straightened out. I'll really get excited when everything gets hung (at least temporarily) for fitting.

Stay tuned...

[guerra]

You have done a great job so far. Looks real good.

[72stepside]

Ok, made some pretty good progress over the weekend. After the fiasco of having to remove the AUX tank again, I cheered up a bit and went to work about levelling the truck out.

We got the driver fender and door put on Friday evening.





Saturday morning we set the passenger door and fender on. We spent the next few hours getting everything lined up. Once we got the doors straight and all the body lines even, we took a string and put it in the farthest trim hole in the rear of the bed and stretched it to the front-most trim hole on the front fender. I found the rear of the cab was a bit low on both sides. Time to shim up the cab. I put on new cab mount rubber, but things were still off around 3/8 of an inch. I got some large fender washers to use for shims. After several iterations of shimming, we finally got it right.

I didn't get a picture, but wanted to share how we held the string around the truck. We used a large cotter pin, placed it in a small piece of rubber tubing, then placed all that in the trim holes. This held the string in place in the center of the holes all the way around the truck. It made lining up the body vertically and horizontally go quicker as we could quickly see how far in what direction we had to go quickly without having to restring each side.

We bolted the stone guard and grill on to make sure the width of the front of the truck was correct.



Just after that, I wanted to see what it would look like with the front bumper on. I just laid it up there with the top two bolts in to see how it would look. I found out the front ends of the frame rails were tweaked toward the driver side by about an inch. It looked really bad. Today, we chained a 8 ft piece of 3" steel pipe to the frame then chained a come-a-long from the end of the pipe to one of the poles on the barn and gently pulled them over. We did each frame rail separately. They moved fairly easily. We got it lined up to where the bumper was even with respect to the front fenders. Everything is now within a sixteenth of an inch here and there so I'm pretty happy with it.

Still waiting on the firewall cover to come in. I plan to order carpet later this week so I can get the interior going. I plan to take the driver fender off when I have to take out the steering column (again) to get that cover installed the right way.

I think I'll wait until I'm completely done with the truck before I re-install that gas tank!!!

Stay tuned...

[basketcase0302]

Looks awesome Chris. I love the color(s)-reminds me of my older Brother's 69 Stang, (the maroon).
You should think about driving it to Webster once your done:
http://www.floridaswapmeets.com/
I'm sure they'd love to see it there.

[Zorm]

now that is looking sweet!...inspired for mine.

[72stepside]

Looks awesome Chris. I love the color(s)-reminds me of my older Brother's 69 Stang, (the maroon).
You should think about driving it to Webster once your done:
http://www.floridaswapmeets.com/
I'm sure they'd love to see it there.

I'm pretty pleased with the colors. In the shade it looks pretty dark. It gets much lighter in the sun.

Wow, that's quite a haul from where I am. Only way I could pull that off would be to include a Disney trip in there for the kid!

[sargentrs]

That's one BEAUTIFUL paint job!