My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

[SuperBuickGuy]

Holy Cow it's been 8 years since I started this thread. Life got in the way for a while but I'm back at it with this project.

To give you an idea how long I've been working on it: This is my daughter with the truck the day I bought it.



And this is her now, on a motorcycle ride with me to celebrate her high-school graduation:

I can clearly see you had your hands full beating the boys off

now that she can take care of herself,

welcome back!

[glockster]

Fixed the holes in the dash and got the gauges installed. Rattle canned the dash with some metalflake black paint




Made the seat bottom out of plywood and covered it with 6" high density foam and black vinyl ordered from Amazon. Luckily I've got my mom around to sew it all up for me

[glockster]

I've been slowly working on it here and there. I built a house on the family farm a few years ago and built my shop in the old barn built by my grandpa in the 30's. finally room for a car lift




Got the engine done and running. Learned you can put the head gaskets on upside down on a SBF. Had a lot of trouble overheating during the first couple of test drives but I think it just needed burped after I fixed the head gaskets. Seems to be better now but haven'e taken it on the road yet.




Wired it using a "Universal" wiring kit off of Amazon. Actually pretty good quality and had all the wire I needed. Instructions were not great though so had to make up a lot of it as I went

[glockster]

Holy Cow it's been 8 years since I started this thread. Life got in the way for a while but I'm back at it with this project.

To give you an idea how long I've been working on it: This is my daughter with the truck the day I bought it.



And this is her now, on a motorcycle ride with me to celebrate her high-school graduation:

[HillbillySailor]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

This is badass glockster. I have to ask, being a Sailor myself, are you a Snipe?

Of course. Once upon a time I was and Engineman 2nd class

With your fab skills, I was thinking either EN or MR. I'm just an old 'tron chaser (FCC) myself, although I'm still pretty handy around a car. ;)

[glockster]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

This is badass glockster. I have to ask, being a Sailor myself, are you a Snipe?

Of course. Once upon a time I was and Engineman 2nd class

[Huskinhano]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

Love your fabrication and welding skills!

[HillbillySailor]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

This is badass glockster. I have to ask, being a Sailor myself, are you a Snipe?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

progress... coolness.

[glockster]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

Finally warmed up a little tonight so I got out to the shop for a while. Got the steering installed and hooked up, actually went together a little easier than things usually do seems nice and tight. I'm sure it's not up to modern rack and pinion feel and precision but it seems worlds better than the steering in my 92 dodge truck.

68 dodge dart manual steering box, homemade pitman arm, homemade column. I do plan on trimming the excess shaft off the steering wheel hub. Safety first!

[Huskinhano]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

May I suggest http://www.racingsoftware.com/chassis_setup_secrets.htm I bought this book a while ago, tons of great info

[mustang13]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

I just caught up on your whole build thread, WOW! Cool project. AWESOME fab work. I liked the rear FOX set-up you started with, gives me some ideas for a future project.

LOVE the grille, LOVE the Ford power too. What trans? Heat makes old kingpins run scared (even tho they say not to, I've always done it, and warm up the spindle-axle, and freeze the new pin before install, they fall together)

FYI, if you don't know all ready, if your water pump if for a sepentine belt style late model, it spins reverse rotation from a V belt style, since thats what I see you have bolted to the crank.

[cantvalve16]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

The whole thing looks like fun. I'm curious to see how the straight axle handles with coilovers and sitting low like that.

[BetterWithBoost]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

I'm very jealous of your buy, and more so of your fab skills! That chop
looks killer, the custom grill is entirely bad-ass, and the bed will be too!

Maybe a short (5' or less) bed to keep the thing Truckster-ish? ;D

[glockster]

Re: My first project thread- el cheapo 46 ford

I went out and spent some time looking at it last night. I agree with your assessment and will reinforce the lower arm. I would prefer to have the axle centered between the links but it didn't work out with my frame design. The joys of building a car from scratch