The chronicles of Lou, '70 F350 dually Cummins project

[Ranchero50]

Today I spent the morning cleaning up my shed and lower garage / shed and found a bunch of the stuff I 'lost'...

The truck now has the stainless drip rail molding and I polished up a set of window ventshade thingies.

I'd take a picture but I was threatened with physical harm if the wife find her camera in the garage again.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Today my oldest son and I made the trip to Carlisle in the Ranchero, all in all a pretty good day in spite of getting sunburned in the 72` air. It was an incredible show, supposed to be the largest gathering of Shelby's ever. Under penalty of death I was not allowed to take the camera, . One of the more interesting dispays was a huge amount of the factory drag racers outside the gate in a special building and under a huge tent. Probably 50 427 SOHC's, 100+ boss 429's, tons of 427's and 428 cars. Phil Bonners altered wheel base '65 fatback was there, one of the '70 Ford drag team cars. Dyno Don's '71 Maverick. Ford was in the manufacturers area with tons of stuff. It was a good day, I had to take a nap when I got home.

I picked up the pair of inner fenders for $80. They have some rust but it's only in the hinge area which is the best section of my '68 inners. The dash was had for $140 in perfect condition. The horn ring and seat sides are seconds from DC, $30 for the ring and $10 for the seat sides. Best deal of the day was the two NOS '71 stainless grill insert bars for $10


I updated my wardrobe as well as my magazine subscriptions True blue trucks, 5.0 Mustang, Modified Mustangs and the show shirt.


Finally a quick pic of the truck with the drip rail stainless installed. I got it from a '72 I parted out last year.


Flyboy, my phone finally told me you called around 7 this evening. Time for another phone...
Jamie

[flyboy71]

No problem. I only called once but didn't wanna bug you. You scored good on what you got. I only got some marker lights for my 69 grill and a left rear nos repair panel for my bed from a guy that had a nice stash of nos ford parts. Yeah got two old warehouse lights cheap too. The show was mostly mustang but hey I got some free goodies at the ford area. Maybe I can catch u in August for the all trick nats.

[Ranchero50]

Good deal, I was looking at those light fixtures but wasn't sure where I could use only two of them. I was thinking three by the garage doors and one at the man door...

Today Matt and I swapped in the nice dash and installed the repro door handles. We also worked on the new inner fenders, cut out the rust and fitted in the better hinge metal. One is half way through the welding process.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Nothing too newsworthy this evening. I've painted my cab light bases bright aluminum and the plastic grill inserts a Rustoleum metallic spray paint in metallic matte nickel from Lowes for around $5 and it looks really close to the Ford argent color with the correct matte low gloss sheen.

I also finished my inner fenders, the driver turned out pretty nice but the passenger looks a bit abused. Hoping to get them installed in the morning and then move on to the wiring (finally)...

[Ranchero50]

Today was a good day...

But first, pictures from yesterday. Cab lamps painted bright aluminum. I cut the finger tips out of some gloves to cover the lights.


A bad picture of some semigloss black fenders.


Finally some argent painted grill inserts with the center bar just sitting there.

[Ranchero50]

New rubbers for the inner fenders. I found out that the back seals are different side to side.



T seal installed. The hole in the top gets cut to fit around the cab pinch weld.


For the back, the old staples weren't in good shap so I made some new ones out of some 1/16" stainless filler rod.




1/16" holes drilled through the fender and rubber.


Finally the staples bent over.

[Ranchero50]

I ended up with 8 or 9 staples per inner fender and it took a couple hours to get the seals made tight and installed. Notice I clamped the iner fender to the frame rail so it would stay still.








I forgot the drill and install the lower inner fender tabs...


Of course I ran out of the push clips. I'm still trying to find a cheap source for them.


Overall it was a pretty busy day. Matt and I finished it off my getting the hood back on. Now on to the wiring

[Ranchero50]

I spent the last couple minutes of daylight getting the intercooler plumbing trimmed to fit. I'm really happy with how everything has turned out so far. I only had to trim a bit of the intercooler flange for inner fender clearance.

Tomorrow I hope to get the stone guard done and maybe primered.

[67mann]

Lookin real good jamie.....nice cab mount spacer

[71PA_Highboy]

Looks like it will provide a harsher ride than stock though...

Looking good Jamie!

[Ranchero50]

I think the front end is going to ride very smooth and I'm not sure about the rear since the bed is so light. I do think I'll need a front sway bar since the cab rocks from just getting inside it.

I've been working the last couple days. I did sit the '94 air filter on the inner fender and it looks like it belongs. The engine bay is going to get filled up fast at this rate.


I've ordered some missing T-bolt clamps for the I/C plumbing and I also ordered some Sunpro gauges with the top pivot like our stock clusters. I want a voltmeter vs. an ammeter and am hoping to come up with something that looks very stock.

Last night after work I spent an hour drilling and tapping some 8-32" holes in the seat frames for the chrome covers and I like the simply effective way they look.


I'm making another list of resto parts to order to finish out the cab and front clip.

[Ranchero50]

I'm working on a voltmeter swap for the ammeter in the evenings after work.

[FLATBEDFORD]

I just caught up with the last year or so of this thread. Nice work. Good to see the progress.

[Ranchero50]

Thanks Steve, it got back burner'd again for a couple months because my daily drivers are having reliability troubles and I don't want to push this one on the road until it's really ready for the road. Hoping once it cools off I can get back into it.

Jamie