1972 F-100 5yrs later....lots of pics

[dantheman71]

For some reason the first couple of pages of my original project thread have disappeared, I noticed the problem a while ago but things have still been slow so I didn't make a new one until tonight. Tomorrow is my 34th birthday, I started this project on my 29th birthday 5 years later and still not done, ouch. This will be my new project thread, and hopefully it will be complete soon.....someday.....ah what the heck, it's been fun......

My project has gone in phases, usually it would make progress, then sit for a few months. Then repeat.

I have spent WAY too much money on this project, especially when you consider what it's re-sale value will be if it ever gets completed (sure hope I'm not reading this in 5 years and still incomplete)

Before I start with pics I want to share the top 3 lessons I have learned over the past 5 years.

1. Start with the BEST truck you can find, even if it seems too expensive.---I paid $650 for my original truck, the only original parts on the final product will be the frame, rear end, and transmission (and I may upgrade to AOD still). If I could go back in time I would have waited patiently and found a truck with a much better body, and travelled to wherever it was to get it, probably would have been a short box too. Northern Alberta is not a good place to find mint condition trucks.

2. Plan ahead!!---- The biggest mistake I made is with my front suspension, I want a low truck so I went with drop beams because they are easier and "cheaper" but looking back you don't save much by the time you replace/repair all the front components that are worn, and when you're done it is still 40+ year old technology. For anybody wanting to go lower I would recommend doing a crown vic swap (lots of guys with great info on this site) or step up and buy a kit from Fatman Fab or TCI, or whoever....

3. Have a place to work on it/store it---When I first started my project a friend told me to bring it to his house and we would work on it there, but after 3 weeks I had worn out my welcome......then I hired guys who I thought would be ok and they weren't......now I own a 32 X 40 shop and my truck is being painted by an actual professional. Now that I'm setup properly I want to do another one completely by myself, but I need to get this complete first!! I have a second one already, but that is for later in the thread.

Anyway, that is enough boring talk. I will add pictures below. I will separate the pics and info into a few different topics, maybe suspension, engine, body, mistakes(that will be a long one)....hope you all enjoy!

[dantheman71]

SUSPENSION
My front end is simply a set of drop beams with a 1/2 coil cut out....wish I would have went with something better, but life goes on.
Out back I installed the DJM shackle kit


But I didn't like it, so out it came


And in went a Fatman fabrications 4-link rear suspension




complete with frame notch


When we did the rear suspension we also added a new fuel tank


But I didn't like that either.....see next post!!

[dantheman71]

After reading about the Mustang tank install on a few posts I had to have one.
I did do a thread about it showing how I did the install. Please note right in the top there is a link to Bobbyford's tank install thread, I used his info and modified it slightly. Read both and do whatever works best for you.

Anyway here is link: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =3&t=48081

I will put a few pics just to keep you on this page.

Drilling the ring to hold it on.


Bolted on side view.


More tank pics to come...

[dantheman71]

FRAME
It is pretty sad, but at this point 5 years later my frame is still the nicest part of my build. After doing the 4-link and tank install I decided I would wire brush the frame and paint it, but the rust was pretty bad and I decided to do it right, I took it apart got it sandblasted, then painted it body color.

Frame and parts after blasting ready for paint


All painted



Front end, note the drop beams that I have a love-hate relationship with.


Rear end prior to bolting the tank on. Shows the 4-link fairly good. Note the frame was partially boxed near the 4-link, just mentioning it because it wasn't shown in other pic.


Tank installed. It hangs a bit low, I may paint it flat black if it ends up looking bad behind the truck, but it will give me something to do someday.

[dantheman71]

BODY
This is where I probably made the most mistakes by far. My original body has had too much time and money wasted on it, the truck really should have just went to the scrap yard. I drove it to my dad's farm after buying it, 150 mile trip and it leaked out over 4 quarts of oil so there wasn't much to be saved....but I thought I would try:
Here it is sitting on the farm.

Taken after a car wash and a trailer ride to the great white North!! This was taken on my 29th birthday.....now I'm 29 forever This is the official "day 1" pic

Some of the brushed on paint fell off at the car wash. Truck is originally Mallard Green and white.


At this point the truck was at my friend's house where it spent 3 weeks (maybe 4 can't remember for sure) anyway, we did a lot in a short time. Looking back I should have just slapped together what we did then, made it run, sold it to somebody, and started over properly.....but I wouldn't learn much that way.
We started with paint stripping:

Followed by dismantling


You can see the left cab mount is broken, I finished it off driving around the farm in early spring and hit a snow drift, expecting it to be soft. It was rock solid and I jumped the truck and broke the cab mount. Had our dog riding along, we both went flying off the seat and I grabbed him in mid-air so he didn't hit the metal dash and get hurt. By far the most exciting trip I've had in the truck yet....only in Canada.

[dantheman71]

BODY continued:
Next it was off to the sandblaster. Had to throw in this pic because back then I drove a brand new truck. Now I just have a 2002 Ford F-150, believe it or not I like the 2002 better, not quite as roomy, not as fancy, but no payments so more cash for old truck projects.



I live in oil country and took the original cab and box to an industrial sandblaster. I'm no expert but I think the media and pressure used was too aggressive, I would pick somebody else if I did it again. The hard blasting combined with rusting and not much left....you can see the horrible patch put in by the previous owner


Oh ya, did I mention the oil leak when i drove it home. So sorry mother nature!!! Won't happen again


So the patching began:






Please note!! the welding methods above are NOT recommended. In some places we overlapped 1 inch and spot welded randomly, other places used a flange tool and did a bit better overlap, and in a few rare spots we did PROPER butt welds.

[dantheman71]

BODY: cab
I continued working on the original cab, primed and coated the floors with lizardskin on inside and outside





Oh ya, of course it got new cab corners too

[dantheman71]

BODY: box

Meanwhile the original box got some patches hacked into it.



The original box had mint sides, but the floor was awful. The floor was super crooked and rusty, should have blasted the inside too but I think it would have evaporated.

[dantheman71]

BODY: Time for a break

At this point I had worked on my truck every evening and weekend for about 3-4 weeks. The guy who spent hours convincing me to bring it to his place was sick of having me around, we worked together so before we drove each other crazy I assembled it and took it to my house in town. It sat there for about 6 months, back then I wasn't set up to do much work, didn't even have an air compressor.



It is funny how you learn things as you go. You can see on the box how I had filled the seams with body filler thinking that I had done it right.

The first month of my project was interesting, I learned a lot, and looking back I mostly learned what not to do. If you are still reading this and considering building a truck make sure you LEARN first!! There is so much good info on this site At this point I hadn't even discovered the forums on this site....that came later.

[dantheman71]

After it sat in my garage for about 6 months I decided it had to go somewhere, plus it was winter and my wife wanted to park in the garage.

Anyway, I still thought my cab was worth saving but I didn't think the box was worth saving. The sides were good but the floor was so bad that it got scrapped. I found another box from a guy 1.5 hours away and I went and picked it up. The sides were good and the floor was nice and straight, but after sandblasting it the floor vaporized and it wasn't worth fixing.
Here is a pic of it. What you can't see is how all the cross members underneath were gone.


I am putting a separate post just for this scrap box because buying that box changed my life in a good way. The guy I had bought it from mentioned Fordification to me, I had discovered the site before and read some of the tech stuff, but I had never visited the forums. I remember when he told me to visit the forums I drove away thinking he was a nerd because up until that point I had never been on any forum before.....

Anyway, I'm a super nerd now and I wish I had found the info on the forums before I even bought a truck, it has been awesome. THANKS TO EVERYBODY!!!

[dantheman71]

BODY: More cab....

So I took the truck down to my home town to a bodyman that I've known for years. Super nice guy, but that doesn't make him good (more later)

Anyway, after checking out all the awesome trucks on the site I was especially inspired by mnagatini's 1968 that eventually was featured in several magazines. I love the shaved door handle look and to make it better I decided I just had to shave my drip rails too


What you can't see in the pic is that the metal along the front of the cab was fairly thin due to rusting. When you cut the drip rail off you actually separate the cab roof and the windshield frame, they are spot welded together via the drip rail. Although I love the look of a shaved drip rail, it is a modification that is not for the faint of heart, and I wouldn't do it again. Drip rails provide strength, and they keep moisture from getting in behind the windshield seal leading to rust. If you do decide to do it make sure you have a rust free cab or you will regret it.

This is as far as I went on this cab.....and I'm not even using it for my finished product!! Keep reading, if you're tired go to the fridge for a beer.

[dantheman71]

BOX: I know I bounce around, but hopefully you have followed the fact that I had already went through 2 boxes and didn't have one worth using....then I found a diamond in the rough.



I bought this in Edmonton, somebody had imported it from Washington state. After stripping it down we discovered bondo up to 3/4" thick in some places, but at least it was rust free....that is hard to find locally.

Anyway, we did quite a bit of work on this one.
Cut out the wheelwells to make them wider:

Installed a roll pan too

Even did undercoating:

Also did my one and only original idea (ok maybe it isn't, but I haven't seen anyone else do it) cut out the hole for the running light and replaced it with the pointy bump from a front fender.


In the pics above the part you can't see is how the seam was welded improperly. The bodyman told his latest "helper" to weld it in, and he did. With one solid 8' long continuous bead. To top it off the bodyman put lead on top of the weld (did I mention he was old). What ended up happening is the side of the bed is an 8' warp, and the excessive fill of the weld with lead on top actually caused the bodyline to look distorted and far too high....at the end of the day he basically ruined the box and it will never be as nice as it could have been. It still makes me sick to my stomach how this happened, not only because of the money I invested in this box, but because of the fact that it is only good for a beater now, and I plan to have a damn nice truck when it's done....just a waste of good parts. That's all I have to say about that

[dantheman71]

BODY: New bodyman, new body!!!

So the truck had been at the first bodyshop for over 2 years. The only time it seemed to change is when I went down and did the work myself, it was 4 hours away so I didn't make it as often as I would have liked, because life had changed....for the better!

My daughter was born 2.5 years ago, here is a pic of her first night at home.


Anyway, back to truck stuff. I got sick of waiting for the first bodyman to do something on my truck other than charge money.....besides that he was having personal and financial issues....I decided to pack it up and take it back to the farm. It sat in a seacan for about 6 months while I "re-grouped"

Bring on bodyman #2
Unlike the first guy this one has actually COMPLETED a restoration in the past 5 years, and he does damn good work. To top it off he is a bumpside guy, here is a pic of his truck sitting in my shop (that I finally built 2 years ago) with my Lightning wheels added on..you can see my frame still waiting for a body in the bottom right.

His truck is viper green and he uses it strictly for drag racing. It gets lots of compliments at races but he is embarrassed by the paint job because it is one that he "slapped together" last minute before a race. If this is a slap together I'm looking forward to having his quality product.

Anyway, he tried to salvage the stuff I had been working on but the cab still has rust hidden in various places and the box was warped beyond repair....so it came time for a new body!
I have a pic of it that I will edit in later.....can't find the "before" pic at the moment

[dantheman71]

BODY: Box #4, 5, and 6

So the truck that I basically started over with was a $400 beater that someone had started to restore but never went far. The cab was mint, but the box was badly damaged so it was not useable. I later bought a complete truck off the internet for $200 hoping it would be good enough but the previous owner had left plywood inside and the floor was the worst one I've ever seen. I could literally fit my entire body through the "main" rust hole.

Anyway, I was having trouble finding another diamond in the rough, so I used the wonderful tool we call fordification and put out some wanted ads. Tsherry was kind enough to reply to my thread and he told me about how there are often trucks in the Spokane area and told me to search craigslist....wow was he right! I managed to find one at a dealer in Post Falls Idaho with a box that was in excellent rust-free condition. Tsherry was kind enough to drive to the dealer and take some pics of the truck and email them to me (awesome guy, took 43 pics in total and shared his opinion on the purchase and he was dead right) Thanks again Tsherry!!

Here is what I bought:



I ended up paying $1000 and went down July 4th to pick it up so I had a great fireworks show on the trip. The bed was rust free and very straight and it is the one I'm finally going to use The best part is that the truck had air conditioning so I will use that on my final product as well.

[dantheman71]

Ok, that is all for tonight, if you haven't all fallen asleep yet, I'm going to sleep!! Tomorrow I will find the progress pictures of the final body and hopefully add them on Sunday night when I get back to a computer again (can't add photos on work internet).