Got a pickup...back on track again

[clm2112]

Muhahahaha... Time to take it all apart!



Seriously, the time has come to get the doors aligned.

Here's the driver's door when I started this morning. The door is about a quarter inch low. Someone else replaced the hinges, but never lined up the body. As you can see from the pinstripes, the truck was repainted and striped with the body out of alignment.



It took all day to do this. This is when I was almost done. I still had to move the door a little more forward and out, but the vertical alignment is just about there.



It got dark before I finished up, so no pics of the finished side, but I did get the fender back on and lined up. Tomorrow, the passenger side and hood. It should go quicker now that I have the hang of this and know where all the fender bolts are.

But from this morning... the white whale and her five new sneakers

[00Beast]

Tires look great on there Curt! Really gives it an aggressive look.

[clm2112]

It's like having a big Tonka toy

[clm2112]

And on to the other side





Had to cut (pun) my day short yesterday. Partway through reassmbling the nose I succeeded in slicing my hand on one of the sharp edges. Decided that was enough in disgust. Picked up today and finished putting the nose back together. Now to line up the hood and move on to replacing the door handle cable, so the drivers door opens from the inside.

Also have another project... adding cruise control to the truck (this showed up yesterday)

[clm2112]

Doing some research. Ford has a different philosophy towards wiring their vehicles during assembly. While GM has a different wiring harness for every option and occasion, Ford has more of a "one size fits all" approach. There are a bunch of capped off connectors in the harness for options not installed on the vehicle.

So far, I've found most of the required wiring for cruise control already in the harness. Even the servo electrical connector was in the harness, with a nice plastic cap over the end and clipped to the fender right where the servo is suppose to mount. Only thing I've found missing thus far is the brake master cutoff switch and it's short wiring harness (connector where it joins the body wiring is present.)

It's a different cruise control system than what I'm used to. It's not vac operated. The servo is all electric (which I read is common to 93 and up Bronco/E & F-Series) Still uses a cable to the throttle body, but looks to be pretty easy to hook up.

[clm2112]

Today, I opted to fix the door handle sheetmetal. The inner door shell cracked around the latch, and eventually tore out the speednut fastener that holds the door handle on. The cable was worn out too.



Made a pair of backing plates out of 18ga steel (one for each door), welded them in and ground down the welds.



And now they work just great..lift the handle with a finger and "pop", the door opens

[clm2112]

Back inside for a cup of coffee. Swapped steering wheels this morning. Still got the ugly black airbag though. Thinking of painting it to match the rest of the steering wheel..possibly leave the center black so the cruise buttons and airbag form a black stripe across the steering wheel.



Now, on to the really unpleasent task of the day. My 16 year old cat, Henrietta, died on Christmas eve. Just stopped eating and gave up (she was diabetic according to the vet). Now I have to take her to the local Humane Society and have her cremated. Funny, but not really funny, her remains have been boxed in an intake manifold box, and packed in the garage freezer since yesterday. Hope I don't have to explain that, hate to start crying in the lobby of the Humane Society.

[00Beast]

Sorry to hear about the cat Curt. I know what it's like to lose a close pet.

[ga93sle]

Sorry to hear about your cat, and on Christmas Eve :/ that's tough.

[Jrs3800]

Sorry to hear it curt...

[wake]

that really sucks curt! i have a 14 year old cat..and ive been dreading the day without him for a while now..i hope he makes it to 16!

stay strong curt!

[clm2112]

Yeah, It really sucked. Older couple was there too with a deceased pooch in a Coleman Cooler. Just pass around the box of Kleenex.

Not getting another cat anytime soon. Donated all the pet stuff to the humane society yesterday as well. Feels a little odd. First time in 30 years that I don't have a cat around the house. I guess I will get use to it. I've managed to get use to *dang* near everything else.

Meanwhile. Got another cylinder of Argon/CO2 mix. So I'm back to welding on thin sheetmetal. I need to make the spare fuel filler neck first. Then on to filling the extra holes in the doors and fenders. I opted to go with older style mirrors on the doors instead of the plastic ones. I'll be filling in the large cutout openings in the door skins. I also decided to remove the fender badges and fill those holes too. If I can get that done by the end of the week, the new door speakers should be here and I can button up both doors for good, as well as all the interior trim pieces. That will finish the inside of the cab (even have the rifle rack for the rear window.)

[swampthing]

Sorry too hear about that curt, I lost my 13 year old dog this year back in the spring. Its been a rough year all around

[99bonnieSE]

DEFINITELY liking that wheel/tire combo.

[sandrock]

Sorry to hear about the pet Curt. Karen is still trying to get used to the fact that Jaeger isn't around (though she's in a rosewood box sitting on a shelf in our bedroom).

The truck is looking better and better. Any plans on welding up a set of nerf bars for it?

[clm2112]

The truck is looking better and better. Any plans on welding up a set of nerf bars for it?

Nerf bars are already here. They are stacked in the back room waiting for all the cab trim to go in (one of the mounting points is the seatbelt bolts in the floor, so I need to have the inside of the cab done before they can go on.)

Cruise control is up and running. Took it out a little while ago and tested it out. I don't have the brake pressure cutoff switch connected to the master cylinder yet (need a different brake master with the extra port) but the brake pedal switch is present, so the system still works correctly.

Did some work on altering the doors.

Original mirror mount openings. I've already drilled out the spot welds for the doubler that the mirror screws into.



Door glass resting comfortably in the cab. Now that I know how easy it is to remove and reinstall the door glass, I will not hesitate to do so when the time comes to give the truck a real paint job. For the moment, it is just going to be fill and a quick coat of spraycan white. When I'm not rushed for time, I can sand through the two coats on the truck, take out all the dents, and do it right.



New 22ga steel doubler welded in and some fill work done.



Just put a layer of body filler on, waiting for it to cure. In fact, it's 30 minutes are up.. time to go block sand them smooth.

[clm2112]

Sanded down and taped off for a quick coat of paint to protect the steel.



and the mirror on as darkness fell..

[ga93sle]

Looking good. Always liked those mirrors on my dads, they fold up very nice when you're out romping around the woods and get too close to a tree lol.

[clm2112]

they fold up very nice when you're out romping around the woods and get too close to a tree lol.

Yup, easy to replace too.. I figure sooner or later I'm going to wind up rubbing a tree-trunk with the truck.

I got the door speakers in today, along with a new dash pad. Spent the rest of the day packing boxes. Sorting through the model trains, deciding what to keep and what to put up on ebay.

The piles of packed boxes is growing. U-haul trip pretty soon.

[clm2112]

Finally getting another day on the truck. Spent most of last week doing work on the house and packing boxes to move out. So far this morning, I swapped instrument panels. I had found one online that had the factory tach. Plugged it in this morning and everything worked.

As luck would have it, it must have come out of a truck that already had 31" tires (the conversion constant was already set to 918 and the reprogramming counter was still at 6, so nobody had ever changed it.)

This is just too easy. I didn't have to repin the harness like when I installed the tach instrument panels in the Camaro and Bonnie, just plug the sucker in and it works. All the wires were in the dash harness and hooked up.

So, I gutted the old panel out for anything I might need in the future (the speedometer & digital board, light bulbs, and the shifter cable/indicator). The rest went into the trash can.

I also got a new dash pad for the passenger side. I lucked out, my choice of interior colors "Opal" grey just happens to be what all fleet Fords got, so a U-Haul dealer selling off excess spare parts had a couple of these still new in the box! Part has been discontinued and out of stock from Ford for years with no aftermarket one available. Another bit of the jigsaw puzzle in place.

Time to finish my coffee and go install the rest of the dash parts (vents, ashtray, bolster, etc.)