"Spuds" the 1950 Ford pick-up

The EFI is going away to be replaced with a two barrel carb that will use a rod to control the TV. Can not get any simpler than that.

Dakota Digital equipment falls under the heading of "Non Serviceable" This entire box can be replaced with a floor mounded bezel to indicate what gear you are in. Try and find someone to sort this out at a later date?

Better image of the relays added to the painless harness. Tucked way up under the dash above the amp and the AC evaporator. Can you imagine trouble shooting this in two years?

Forgot to take a picture. but the "Affordable EFI" system was  wire intensive and has a controller the size of  a tablet PC. Must say though, the brackets for the relays and the controller are a work of art.

NOHOME said:

Yanked the axle.  You can see where for reasons unknown yet the ends were cut off and the tube of a different axle was shoved in and welded. Then they decided that did not fill the fenders enough, so they shoved the 2" hub adapters ( or spacers, not sure yet) to make it even Wider. 

I have a feeling that this whole dog and pony show might have been to accommodate the fit of the wheels that got declared the fixed variable early on in the game. 

 

If the axle is bent, my inclination would be to find one that is the same width as this one with the spacers at 65"  But if the wheels must be kept, I have a feeling that is going to complicate things. 

 

03+ Crown Vic/grand marquis 8.8 axles are supposed to be around 65” wide. 06+ had 31 spline axles, not many came with limited slip but early explorers had 31 spline axles and most of them had limited slip. Ford racing also sells a 31 spline trac lok for around $250 new.

Keep finding more nice stereo stuff, keep tossing it in the bin. 

The answer to the axle is going to be a 02 crown vic at 62" wide. The 03 jumps to 65.6". Will also include disc brakes.

In reply to NOHOME :

Wanna send pictures of the stereo stuff? I may can use it (amps and crossover primarily)if its just going to be scrapped. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Not mine to dispose of sorry It might could be used, but the goal is to get the truck on the road not build a show car. If the owner decides he needs high end audio for his cyrus talk shows, then he can have a stereo shop install the system. As is, it was just time and $$$ that does not need to be spent before he drives and sorts the truck. Same with the AC.

Moving right along. Should be a nice truck when done.

One item that came up that was funny was only funny in that morbid " I dodged a bullet" kind of way.

The Pete that was working on the bed wood, tailgate and rear bumper   was admiring the hitch. When he noticed that while rated to tow a car trailer, it was only attached with two tack welds.

The funny part was when asked for how to proceed, I said to just knock it off for now because it was not even on straight and who needs a head catcher at this point? A swift application of the mini sledge did not dislodge the tacks, but it did send the entire rear crossmember across the floor. Much welding then ensued on that bit. Would have been hilarious if we had just welded the receiver and not noticed that the crossmember was not properly welded in. Even so, it is going to take a lot more structural integration into the chassis if the intent is to pull up to the rating of this receiver.

In reply to NOHOME :

Yikes!  This thing is like a thousand-problems-deep!

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to NOHOME :

Yikes!  This thing is like a thousand-problems-deep!

It is at that. But none of them at that difficult to fix. It has good bones, they just are not attached to each other! It's worse than a Big Healey

In reply to NOHOME :

... and now we are inspecting every intersection of structural elements, brackets, etc, to be sure they are welded properly.

i hate finishing what others have started.

"i hate finishing what others have started.......and proclaimed finished"

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Well yeah, that is kind of the project description. What I signed up for.

What is coming out is that the chassis must have been subcontracted because it is just so much better than anything else. Well thought out, well welded and powder-coated in its entirety. It is everything else that was then added ( like the rear cross member for the tow receptacle) that is "just in place but not attached"

To be fair, the person who was working on it before me warned me to not assume that anything was tight or solid. So far he has been true to his word.

In other news, Mustang Pete hs been hard at work aND the rear axle and huge spacers were escorted to the curb to the benefit of the local scraper. A new rear axle of the correct width from a 95 Grand Marquis will take up the job offer. The 4.10 gears and posi from the original can be salvaged.

"In other news, Mustang Pete hs been hard at work aND the rear axle and huge spacers were escorted to the curb to the benefit of the local scraper. A new rear axle of the correct width from a 95 Grand Marquis will take up the job offer. The 4.10 gears and posi from the original can be salvaged."

SCOREBOARD!!!!

Some progress.

The Master cylinder, proportioning valve and front brake lines are plumbed. I like to do this BEFORE the engine goes in, but it worked out not too bad. Thank the powers that be for NI-Cop brake line; the stuff bends and flares like a dream. When trying to pit a 10" line from the DS under-floor to the PS front brake caliper line, it is nice that you can curl around a few corners and clean the bend out afterwards. I dont care that it cost twice what steel does!

Just cause I like pics

Buried the proportioning valve under the driver's feet cause I did not like the look with it attached to the MC.   Also did not like the look of lines shooting straight down to the frame like a fireman's pole, so scooted them under the booster and fabbed up a couple of clamps from the scrap aluminum pile.

Easy enough to reach from a above or below to adjust the rear brake proportioning

DS

PS. Still need to clamp it all in place. While I like the alloy ones that I made for the firewall, they really take too much time to make so I will go with something a little more mainstream. I am NOT a fan of the rubber lined P-Clamps that are often used for this purpose.

Mustang changed out the rad hoses. The truck came plumbed with some fancy silicone hoses that would not hold water; they all leaked out the ends. I think they wer meant for tubo piping. Nice material, but more expensive junk.

This was interesting and I think not quite right. When the short hoses that connect the chrome coolant tubes were removed, there was a washer inside that was acting as a flow restriction. WTF? says I. Need to do a bit more research on this cause it just proves that you often don't know what you don't know about what you are working on. But I don't think this is quite right.

Waiting on the new rear end at this point before I can finish brakes. Going to be a week or two to get it all together with the new disc brake bits attached. I need to get the truck back on its wheels before it gets cold because it is currently sitting under the infra-red tube heater and way too close. I know, First world problems.

sometimes a flow

is used in place of a thermostat?

This is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Last night Mustang and I were out and decided to do an ergonomic check of the column/dash/instruments and pedals. Things were OK until Mustang noticed that the tilt function on the column mde the column go sideways to some degree; ideal at full up, but cocked to the side when lowered. WTF?!

So that had to get sorted. Thing is column would not rotate without taking the entire gymbal apart at the firewall. See that Dynamat? That made it fun. NOT.

While mucking with the column, took some time to figure out why there was a bit of bind on the steering. Did not take long to notice that the double D mid-shaft was too long. It was jammed into the lower rack u-joint. With the column out, good time to cut 3/4" of an inch off of that. Also made the bracket for the dipstick, that being the only real forward movement! Too bad I forgot to paint it before I installed it.

So with that all fixed and the column in place, there was a bit of play. Seems even with the pinch bolt cranked, the double D to U-joint fit is wallered and wont tighten up. So that sucks.

While looking for play, the rack seemed to move around a bit too much. Better have a look-see at that...

DS mount looks reasonable

PS seems a bit off. For some reason, the PS steering arm seems to have a bit of forward direction compared to the DS that is normal to the chassis. Might just be alignment, but will reserve judgement until the rack is sorted. I dont think it is just a case of tightening the one side.

In other news, it had already been observed that the shock mounts needed some help in the form of washers either side of the mount bushing.

This is all pretty low hanging fruit to put right, and things are moving at a good pace.  More of the same to come I am sure, until we get past all of the work done previously.

Pete

Been making good progress on Spuds.

Mustang has the new axle ready to move in; just a brake line and an oil fill and it will joint the rest of the truck and we can have a roller once again

Wiring has been much sanitized and simplified.  This all fell out of the underside of the dash originally. Much complicated, with yellow tape all over the place to id  wires that have the actual function written on the wire itself. WTF?

Bit less clutter under the dash.

That nice Lokar shifter? Would have been nice if it engaged all gears in the AOD, someone screwed up the internal cable that controls the detent quadrant. Small E36 M3 but still.

The oil pressure and voltage gauges that were installed facing the engine compartment had to go inside. That left some holes in the firewall

Brake fuel and transmission hydraulics have been fabricated and routed to their respective locations. I really like these metal clips to hold lines parallel. Picture is brake and fuel going to the rear. Would have been much easier to do hydraulic stuff before the engine and trans were installed!

The steering rack mounts have been replaced with the proper ones courtesy of stuff under Mustangs bench; much more solider attached now.

The last remaining slop in the steering was traced to the u-joint; way oversize on the D shaft end and going to have to be replaced. Pretty much every single link on the steering system has had some issue.

Rear bumper is mounted. Not a fan and it needs more lights to be safe, but it is firmly attached. And yes that is a smear of filler over fresh paint on the tailgate.

"The truck is completely wired, running and all circuits tested" was the word when we picked it up. Wiring of this quality is rare. Will take a picture and show cleanup. All of those wires now run out the DS behind the fender and along the inside of the frame; this ting is going to be tucked. Battery is not going there if I have my way. Note two gauges over the brake MC. Its just oil pressure and voltage, not like you want to be able to see those when driving.

Should have stop and steer by the end of this coming WE and then move on to the GO part of the project.

The much improved wire routing for the engine bay and front lights and what not

ALL of those wires that covered the engine now come out into the back of the fender and into the frame to be routed up front

Tons of lazy stuff like this that just needs a few minutes to shorten the spacer and put some washers up between the spacer and the rubber bushing. This shock was going to migrate into the frame in very short time.

Avec washers either side of the busing

Here is one of my favourites. Was warned that the Lokar shifter needed some finish welding. Did not fit out of the box so he cut and shortened it.  Did not give it much thought other than Lokar does not make total crap and this shifter WAS made for an AOD, so it should have fit.

Then Mustang figured it out...(facepalm emojy) See if any of you can see it.

Is that a fluid pressure switch being used as a mechanical backup light switch?

I believe the owner literally owes you his life.  This will be a nice truck when you are done with it.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Is that a fluid pressure switch being used as a mechanical backup light switch?

No, it has a ball bearing on a spring acting as the contact.

I'd suspect the bracket that the shifter bolts to is backwards.

NOHOME said:

I am NOT a fan of the rubber lined P-Clamps that are often used for this purpose.

Any particular reason? Form or function?

In reply to solfly :

You win.

In reply to Racingsnake :

Form. Just me maybe... Especially when routing two or more lines in parallel where you need a lot of rubber  P clamps rather than the formed metal ones that can clamp several lines of several sizes up tight to the surface they are following..  

Functionally the rubber ones are just fine and maybe from a vibration isolation point they can be even better.