Sunday, May 06, 2007  -  Yeah, it's been a while since there's been a project update...sorry about that. It's not that I haven't been picking away at it, it's just that I haven't really gotten enough done to warrant a new page. So just to get you back up to speed, here's a quick overview of what I've been up to over the past 6 weeks:

March 25, 2007 - Got to spend the whole day in the shop, and actually got quite a bit done, though it's almost not too obvious just by looking at it. The whole day was working on the front and rear suspensions.

I got the rear suspension completely reassembled and it's sitting back on the ground. I really wanted to leave the thick bottom overload leaf off, but the center leaf-spring bolts I had would have been too long, and since everything was closed today, I decided to just use it for now and see how it looks once everything was back together. I can always pull that leaf out at a later date, once I get some shorter bolts.

I then dropped the front suspension off the donor truck (Fig. 01), intending to just swap it in as a complete unit. However, upon disassembly, I found that it really wasn't in as good a shape as what was already on the truck (Fig. 02), so I ended up keeping what I had. However, I did have to almost completely disassemble the choptop's front suspension...to swap the radius arms side-to-side. The previous owner had the right-side arm on the left and vice-versa, which put the shock mounts pointing up instead of down. I then got the front springs cut down by 2 full coils on each side, and then got the front suspension reassembled. I couldn't measure the amount of drop since the springs that were in the choptop when I got it weren't from a Ford truck...I don't know what they were originally installed on, but they didn't fit right (Fig. 03). The coils I cut were from the donor truck which had a 302. However, it appears as if the front was dropped several inches, and while the truck wasn't sitting on flat level pavement when I got done (it's sitting over the oil pit and the concrete is slightly slanted there), it didn't appear to have adversely affected the camber.

Figs. 04 and 05 were taken towards the end of the day. That front fender is just sitting there, to get the visual on the amount of drop the front got. The radiator support isn't completely cinched down, so the fender will drop down another 1/2" or so when that gets tightened up.

Since the two coils I cut from the front springs doesn't appear to have adversely affected the camber, I'm going to keep an eye on things as I move the truck around over the next few weeks, to allow things to move around and settle into place, and if it doesn't appear to have changed much more, I might very well take another coil off the springs and lower it a tad bit more.

Fig. 01 - Removing the donor truck's front suspension.

Fig. 02 - The donor truck's radius arms were totally shot and not useable.

Fig. 03 - The spring on the left is what was on the choptop truck when I bought it, compared to a factory spring on the right.

Fig. 04

Fig. 05

Fig. 11 - Taken after cutting out the tunnel and dressing it up. I still need to drill the mounting holes.

Sunday, April 29, 2007 - Spent another day in the shop...as usual, I didn't get as much done as I was hoping. It seems that it's always 'two steps forward, one step back' with me.

Since I'm taking all next week off work (April 7-11) to finish up the body and get it painted (knock on wood!), I decided not to do any bodywork today. I decided I'd get the truck wired up. I decided to use a '67 Camper Special harness, so there will be some minor harness mods needed to hook it up to some of the '68-up accessories (like the heater switch and brake-light switch). Got the engine compartment wiring installed after doing a few minor repairs and rewrapping it, and then got started with the underdash harness. Got it about half done before it dawned on me that I had to get the firewall cover installed first. However, before I could install that I had to get the cab floor and firewall painted, so I spent some time finishing up the prep on the floor. Got some brush-on seam sealer over the top of the floorpan's patch panels and is now ready to paint.

Then I got started cutting out the butchered transmission tunnel, so that I could install a removable cover. Figs. 10 and 11 show the before and after pictures. You can also see the Hurst Indy floor shifter (that was graciously donated by a FORDification forum member) which I got trial-fitted, but it's very sloppy and will need rebuilt.

Sunday, May 06, 2007  -  As I mentioned in the April 29th update, I'm taking all this week off from work to get the bodywork done and (hopefully) get the truck painted. Therefore, I really didn't want to do any bodywork today, so I decided to get started on the engine. However, unless you've read up on my progress in the FORDification forums, you're not aware of a major change of plans I made last week regarding the drivetrain, so let me get you up to speed.

While trial-fitting the floor shifter, it became apparent that not only would the shifter have to be rebuilt, but I'd also have to do some fabrication to the shifter rods and levers to get it to function properly...something I really wasn't overly-excited about. Plus, I got to thinking about how difficult working a clutch pedal was going to be anyway, seeing as how I'll be practically sitting on the floor when the interior is reassembled! Therefore, after much thought, I've decided to remove the 302/3-speed and replace it with the 390/C6 that I've been saving for my '67 project. Besides, I've been stockpiling all kinds of cool dress-up and performance goodies for the 390, whereas the 302 would've been kinda boring to look at whenever the hood got popped open...and since this truck is probably going to attract some attention on the street, I decided that I'd just simply be happier with the 390 in here. I've still got the 460/C6 that WILL eventually get put into the choptop, but in the meantime, at least until I need it back for my '67, the 390 will go into the choptop.

So anyway, on today's agenda was getting started getting the 390 cleaned up. I needed to push the truck out into the driveway to give me room to work on the engine, but I'd have to install the steering box and linkage first. I spent about 90 minutes getting the steering box cleaned up and painted:

Fig. 12 - Well, here we go with another drivetrain swap. I decided it would be easiest (and safest for my freshly-applied engine compartment paint) to just remove the radiator support, to prevent the hoist from having to drop the engine/tranny down at an extreme angle.

Fig. 13 - Getting the 302 and 3-speed tranny pulled from the truck. I'll probably end up just selling these.

After getting the steering components installed, the truck got pushed out into the driveway, and I then set my sights on the VERY greasy 390. This is the engine from a '75 F150 that was featured in a '67 project update page during it's removal. Figs. 15 and 16 show the 'before' shots. Unfortunately, since I don't have access to a pressure washer, I'm going to have to do this the old-fashioned way....plenty of time and elbow grease (no pun intended).

Since I'm (probably) going to be painting this engine, I first had to strip off all the peripherals to get it down to a basic long-block. That included removing the A/C, alternator, power steering pump, exhaust manifolds, water pump and pulleys, etc. Unfortunately, when removing the exhaust manifolds I ended up snapping off 3 of the bolts, so I'm going to have to do some drilling to remove the stubs from the heads.

I then pushed the truck out into the driveway and got to work. Beginning with the transmission, I spent a good 4-5 hours just scraping grease off with a putty knife and wire brush. Once the majority of the baked-on grease was off, I fired up the angle grinder with a wire wheel and went to work. I got the transmission 98% cleaned up and got started on the engine block before having to call it a day. I'd estimate almost another full day's worth of work is ahead of me getting the block cleaned up enough to paint, but that'll come at a later date, since starting tomorrow morning (Monday May 7th) I'm going to be spending the whole week in the shop getting the bodywork on the cab and front sheetmetal finished up and getting those areas painted.

Fig. 18 - ...and here's another. I'll bet there's at least 10 lbs. of grease and grime on this thing!!

Fig. 19 - Here's a shot taken at the end of the day. It's looking MUCH better, but still needs a lot of cleaning.