Saturday, October 22, 2005  -  I've been working on and off on the truck over the past couple weeks, but am just now getting around to getting an update page posted. So there will be several entries on this page.

Sunday, October 16, 2005  -  As I mentioned in my last update, I've been trying to figure out whether to use the dealer add-on A/C setup or to go with the factory configuration. After much thought, I've decided to go ahead with the factory setup. Therefore, I got the necessary holes cut into the firewall to run the A/C hoses and to accommodate the new heater hose routing. The heater hoses will now enter the cab 4"-5" below where the stock heater hoses were, and there are dimples in the firewall in the appropriate locations to show where the holes needed to be added. I also cut the hole in the upper-center portion of the firewall for those A/C hose grommet, and drilled the two holes for the grommet retaining ring. The firewall was also dimpled in the right spot for these two screw holes. However, I found it very interesting that these two areas were already marked for A/C, since '67 trucks didn't have a factory A/C setup available...they weren't available until the following year. Therefore, I'm guessing that Ford knew the option was coming and went ahead and prepared for it by marking the firewall in the appropriate places. Even though the dash and doors were updated in '68 with new safety features, the firewall panel remained the same.

You can see the holes that I added to the firewall for the A/C setup in Fig. 2. In addition to those, I'll also be plugging the three holes for the stock heater box mounting, since these aren't used with the A/C unit. For mounting the unit, I'll drill one additional mounting hole in the large dimple visible in Fig. 2 next to the upper-right heater box mounting hole.

I then had to get started getting the dash set up for the A/C heater controls (Figs. 3 thru 5). Ford started using slider controls in '68 for the heater and A/C instead of the pull cables used in '67. Using the patch panel I cut from a good '68 dash (back on Page 49), I cut the patch panel just large enough to fit over the hole I cut into the dash. On the bottom, the panel is secured with one screw and the dash brace bolt (both of which will be hidden once the A/C setup is installed). The top of the patch panel is screwed into the dash with three screws which will be hidden by the dash pad.

Fig. 1 - I stopped by the parts store and picked up the body filler and glazing putty. I went for the professional stuff for this project.

Fig. 2 - Here are the holes needed to add the factory A/C setup. Since I didn't have the appropriate hole saws needed, I just drilled a 1/2" hole in each location and used a die grinder to enlarge them to the sizes needed.

Fig. 3 - I masked off the area of the dash that would need trimmed out for the '68 patch panel.

After getting the patch panel in place, I turned my attention to the front windshield area. All the black goopy windshield sealer was still in place after removing the windshield, and it needed cleaned up. I found that the MarineClean I got from POR-15 worked pretty well for this. Then I got started touching up the holes that I welded up around the rear window last time. The welds were ground down fairly smooth but still needed a very thin coat of filler to finish them off.  You can see my progress in Fig. 7, though a little bit of sanding still remains to be done there.

Fig. 7 - This shot shows the cleaned-up windshield area and the body filler being applied to the holes around the rear window.

Fig. 8 - The cab is getting cleaned up here. Since the wire wheel could distort the cowl vent fins, those will have to be sanded by hand.

Wednesday, October 20, 2005  -  I normally don't get the opportunity to go to the shop on weekday nights, but the opportunity presented itself this evening, and I couldn't say no. I got started getting the cab stripped and ready for paint. I spent about 5 hours with a wire wheel attachment in the angle grinder and got almost half done with the job. I should be able to finish this up with another day's worth of work.

Saturday, October 22, 2005  -  Well, I guess I'm gonna need a little more than a day. I spent about 8 solid hours today on the cab and didn't quite finish it up like I'd hoped. However, it IS about 98% done. Actually, the exterior is completely done, except for some needed touchup around the cowl vent holes, but the interior still needs a little work. I completely wore out two wire wheel attachments and will need one more to finish the job.

Well, this is where I'm setting at the moment. I'll need a couple more hours to completely finish stripping the cab, and then another day's worth of work applying filler as needed. Since I've tentatively decided that this truck is going to be painted black, the surface will need to be perfect, since black tends to show every flaw, no matter how minor. I've got the time, so I'm just going to use it trying to make this as smooth as glass. I'm going to be setting down and researching the available options I have in regards to paint, but I believe I'll be going with a single-stage urethane, due to ease of application and future touchups.....but we'll see what happens. As with most things in this project, decisions change day-to-day, so anything's possible. Stay tuned!