mY 1970 f100

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, so since my last post, I have been doing little odds and ends. Painting and prepping for paint mostly. Dash had to go all the way back to metal and built back up. Looks good now with 3 coats of clear on it. Had some body work to do on the doors. Originally I was going to use doors off the donor but looks like it would be better to keep my doors and so I have ben cleaning them up. Also tried my hand at skim coating the two quarter panels. I am not exaclty the finisse type. The quarters were from the donor and needed a little TLC, a few bad rust spots along the bump where water must have collected behind the trim. Little POR-15 epoxy and then POR15 skim coat. Lots of sanding and should be ready for primer coat tomorrow. Probably will skim coat outer doors tomorrow as well. They had only a couple of rust spots on the outside but a little more on the inside. Again, POR15 epoxy and lots of sanding, etc. etc. I do not have a welder nor the knowledge or skills for how to weld. The rust holes I used epocy on were fairly small, only one about the size of a quarter, the others were more like thin spots and a couple of lines about the width of spagetti. Then there was pitting and such, so I think the epoxy will do just fine. Its real easy to work with and quite solid after it cures. Anyone had experience with this stuff, i.e. if/how it lasts years later?

I am hoping to gvet engine back soon, but each day they have it is another day I save $$$ to be able to pay for it. Once I get dash completely clear coated, I will start re-installing all the interior parts and get windshield installed, etc. etc. Hopefully, by the time I get the engine back and installed, the rest of the parts will be ready to install also.

[Madsen1970F100]

Ok skim coated front quarters and coated with 2-coats of filler primer. Skim coated doors also, finished dash (mucked up glove box dooor AGAIN ) and cleaned most things up. I am certainly no body repair man but should suffice for my needs. Painfully tedious work and tons more to do. Was nice day here today so allowed me to paint and work outside which was literally refreshing. I know I still have to wet sand and keep working those quarters to get them right but they are looking pretty good to me. Save all bolt up stuff for later in the week.

On it goes....

[Caseys71]

, Nice Progress! Those fenders look pretty straight best I can tell, nice work! The truck is really coming along nicely. I'm not sure if the POR-15 Epoxy you used is the same thing or similar to what Kieth had used for small patches on his Oldsmobile or not but if it is then I do recall his recommendation towards it for small patch-work.

[Madsen1970F100]

, Nice Progress! Those fenders look pretty straight best I can tell, nice work! The truck is really coming along nicely. I'm not sure if the POR-15 Epoxy you used is the same thing or similar to what Kieth had used for small patches on his Oldsmobile or not but if it is then I do recall his recommendation towards it for small patch-work.

Thanks Casey. One of the many great things about this site is to post your progress and hear from others who give the encouragement and support to keep going..... Wife comes out and says, oh that looks nice...or.... OMG, whats that smell?? Are you going to be out here all day?? Not quite the feedback that works for me.... So its a good place to get feedback and support. I am very impressed with all the POR 15 products so far. I used the epoxy and then used the body filler which was very smooth and silky. I hope when I get the final paint on her, she will still look pretty straight. Not planning on putting trim back on, maybe on the bump but not on the bottom. Just a long and slow path.
I'll be in North Carolina- Garysville at NC Center for Automotive Research, shooting a NASA race event the beginning of April. Hoping to drive my bump there. Maybe not prettied up but driving and mechanically solid.

Hope yours is coming along as well!!

Later

[Madsen1970F100]

OK< picked up engine from the shop today. Had the work done by NAPA machine shop here in Richmond. Heard good things about them and hope they are true. Did not do anything special to the engine, just basic rebuild. Now I need to remember where all the hoses, linkages and so forth go. Surely will be on here soon asking dumb questions again. Hope to get bulk of it installed by Sunday.

[FormerMarine1981]

Sweet looking engine...

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, bit of a mixed day today. From my other posts some of you may already read that I managed to crack my bellhousing We can chalk it up to being a goober or some type of a learning curve I suppose but any way you slice it, it sucks and set me back on progress. Luckily a tranny shop I have worked with before had a used bellhousing sitting around and offered it to me for $25. When I went to pick it up, I brought the torque convertor (the implement of my destrucion -as a post bell-house-mortem investigation suggests, it appears that I did not have it seated all the way when I was cranking down bell housing bolts) and it appears that I may have damaged that too! Its only off by milimeters I suppose but enough that is worth replacing at this stage of the game, while everything is all apart. I do not think I cracked the pump gear as I really wasn't cranking down that hard In any event I brought the tranny, the torque convertor and such to his shop and he will go over it all and should be about $125 bucks provided he does not discover more problems

Meanwhile, while berating myself all day for making such a stupid mistake, I did drop the engine in the perches (mostly to save room the the garage) and started to figure out the linkages, and the more complicated than you might think, brackets and pulleys for the alternator, power steering, etc. Also grabbed a AC compressor out of my donor.

Need to get new alternator, going to buy a new distributor and need to clean up the AC compressor so it looks half-way decent. With any luck I should have the tranny back in my hands by mid-week and might even get it all bolted up and installed before next weekend.

Here are a couple of before and after shots on the engine. I am so thankful for the people on this website who continue to assist me and support me despite myself!

[SmokeyBurnout]

The pics are awesome man. Looks great!

[Hemmi06]

[Madsen1970F100]

OK, I picked up my tranny and bellhousing today from the shop. My little error ended up costing me $208.

Used bellhousing free....new pump gears.....$33, new torque convertor $95.....Gasket $3.50, profesional labor $70. Learning how to install an automatic transmission properly.....priceless!!

After a lesson from the trany shop, the tranny and my little 302 mated up together with no problem. Dropped whole thing in and started bolting up some other parts......getting glass installed this Saturday and should have front clip back on by end of the weekend......Essentially feel like I am making the turn for home. She will need lots of body work and some paint but all the mechanics should be in order and even driving by April.

Now to figure out he vacuum lines and electrical mess that is the wiring harness.

[BlueOvalDave]

engine looks sweet, love the power by ford valve covers. nice work

[Madsen1970F100]

Dropped distributor in tonight. Still can't find any good reference to vacuum system. I have dual vacuum distributor, power booster for brakes a 302 w/C4 auto tranny which has some vacuum lines associated with it. I did not take enough reference pictures. Anyone know how these go together? Or maybe have a few pics of a 302 without air cleaner on it, so I can see where all the vacuum lines go? I think if I can get that sorted, might be enough to get it running by the weekend!!

[Madsen1970F100]

Fair day today. Had two guys come over and install a new windshield, turned out the one in the donor had a small crack and a rock chip. They did a nice job and installed the rear glass as well. I spent the day hooking up this and that. Distributor is in, sparkplug wires and sparkplugs, hooked up lots of little things, rigged the blower motor resistor and mounted the heater, so I could hook up the hoses. Found out donor truck's fan switch is not the same as the one I need Mapped out vacuum lines - still have lots of questions on that....so many fittings, not sure the diagram I found in the tech section of this website is enough to help me. Hoping someone might have a 302 like mine and shoot a picture or two without air cleaner on carb to give me a better perspective. Got the exhaust out of storage and had to get new bolts for manifolds and will mount those tomorrow, ran the fuel line from pump to the carb, mounted a/c compressor and assorted pulleys and such.....

tomorrow will bolt up exhaust, install fan belts, mount front clip (if I can figure out how to install all the new rubber seals I got particularly the one with "staples" ) install gas tank, might even get radiator installed and start on electric, possibly have it up and running by next weekend? Depends on how many things I manage to screw up or break in the process. Anyway, here are some pics.....not much differnt from earlier posts but everyone likes pics!!

[Madsen1970F100]

Today spent time installing exhaust manifold and piping down to mufflers. Installed gas tank, hoses, inner quarters and mocked up the rest. Had some problems with the rubber seals that go between firewall and inner quarters. Not sure what I wll do about that but probably end up using rivets or something. There are 3-pieces, and they fasten to the inner quarter with either staples or plastic push pin type things. Any ideas on how to fasten these, please let me know. Put doors on as I think they will be easier to work on for final touches of my fine body work and primer that way. Tossed hood on, just for sh_ts and giggles. Tossed radiator in, but stil need to figure the brackets and such to get it in permanently. With all the front clip on, I have less room in the garage to move around so I tossed seat in the cab and at least now I can sit in it and make vroom, vroom sounds.

[SmokeyBurnout]

Progress looks good, hopefully I get the same boost your feeling and get some things knocked out on mine!