Well......DBasher talked me off the ledge today and I am officially signed up for T Hill optima event. I am nervous.

I picked up a pile of exhaust stuff tonight, 3" stainless mandrel bends, a couple flanges that worked perfect, some stainless v band clamps and a muffler is on order.

Wish me luck.

sean

:clap:

Now all you've got to do is get it done, tuned and tested....no problem!
I guarantee you'll have fun, these events are well ran and everyone involved is willing to help out.

:thumbsup:

That black truck is pretty cool, in an ugly duckling sort of way. :)

Loved the first truck you built - this one is even better! Stealing several ideas for my own 1970 F100 that's getting rust repair at Ironworks.

Probably a moot point at this time but do you still have the old front beam suspension?

That is awesome about the 70. Ironworks does some killer work.

I ditched the stock beam stuff from two trucks now. I did not know that people were still using it???

Very slow week for work on the truck as a matter of fact its been exhausting.

Picked up a bunch of stainless 3" tubing 3" stainless mandrel u bends, v bands and some 3" 2 bolt gaskets from columbia river mandrel earlier this week as I kind of need the exhaust done before I can continue on and get it on the ground.

Ordered a muffler but it did not fit so had to order another muffler, single in and out this time instead of dual in and single out.

Magnaflow 3" all stainless, I think its going to be really loud.

Managed to get the header flange over the crossmember and back to the V Bands done, then from the V bands around the transmission, built the y connector from scratch and got that all tied in together last night. Its hard building exhaust on the floor and trying to build it all neat and tight with very very small gaps.

I spent a long time getting these just right.



http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psr3m45jml.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psk6wy16po.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstaxiurne.jpg

Fit up is about perfect, there is no gap all the way around it.



http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps35t7di5u.jpg

Here is what it looks like under the truck. Sorry for the crappy cluttered photo. I really hope to have the exhaust all mocked up tomorrow and pull it out. I need to figure out if I am going to try and take it to a friends house to tig weld or just use the stainless wire that I have in my machine and get it done. His welds are masterful to say the least.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps288djk9i.jpg

Also need to get some 3/8" round stainless for the hangers.

Headed to pick the wife's new car up tonight so no shop time.....happy wife though =)

Sean

Sean your attention to detail and fab skills are impressive, for what appears to be a beater this thing is turning out to be pretty wicked! Looking forward to looking it over and hanging at T-hill....Service manager or fab shop foreman?

Is the Volvo gone and outta the picture?

Thank you sir.....the whole plan for the truck is to fly under the radar. I think the finished interior and the stance might give a little bit of that away. Should be fun though.

Service Manager......Owner =)

Volvo is gone, It went to a new home in Florida. I needed the garage space and am only going to get with practice so I keep building new cars so I build drive, enjoy and sell :confused59:

Managed to get a little bit of work done on the exhaust this morning. Finished the rear part and got the exit figured out. It took me a few times to get it but it turned out good. I am pretty happy with the final results.

Got the hangers all bolted in as well and welded up the hangers to the exhaust. It was ready at that point to come out and get welded. I asked my buddy if he would weld it up, it just looked too cool to not tig weld it.

I pulled out everything and gave it to Robbie to get welded up.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0zetimtv.jpg

Only pic I snapped of it.

After the week of exhaust work, the garage was in desperate need of some clean up. A couple hours later I was ready to get some more work done. I got the overflow tank tucked away under the air filter.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps52qfqnom.jpg

There was no great way to take a photo of i so this is what you get to see. I had to put a spacer on the front of it to make up the space. I am not happy with it but it will need to work for now, running out of time.

With that done, I could clean up the frontend a little and get the grille and upper sail panel mounted up, well at least its kind of on there. Upper bolts are in and its pretty well aligned. I ran out of hardware.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7jfeestk.jpg

Hope that my buddy gets the exhaust all welded up tomorrow so I can get this thing wrapped up and back on the ground.

Sean

I picked up these lights a while back and was excited to get them in the truck. I have run them on several other cars and they are awesome. Replaceable H4 bulbs and excellent beam pattern.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscazdgvcc.jpg

Spent a little bit of time cleaning up the bezels, they still look like ass, but less dirty and cloudy now.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1agqrtja.jpg

Went to put the bumper on and things up front might not be perfect. It took a little work with the porta power to push out the frame horn to get things to bolt together but I got it. I have a little more work to do to get things straight and square but pretty sure I can get it there.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrma7o1kh.jpg

And hot damn look at that, I have a frontend of an actual truck, It actually looks pretty good. I feel like you can tell even from the outside that there is more than just an old farm truck here.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszfawz1y7.jpg

Made the trek out to the other side of town and picked up the exhaust from my buddy. He had a few issues with the 409, but ended up looking good. Its a much cleaner process than mig welding.....I need to get a tig and learn how to run it.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxoitkqwx.jpg

Exhaust all welded up and ready to go on..

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psty0jmi2f.jpg

All bolted in

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psmkmaaoww.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszbphwus3.jpg

So.....Exhaust is done and all bolted on, v bands, gaskets at the collector flanges, done. Little bit of copper high temp on the v bands to make sure it doesnt leak after the welding

Here is where the side exit comes out, I think it looks pretty cool and flows with the wheelwell opening and the side of the truck

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psp2ehiygr.jpg

I had my wife put a couple of blocks of wood under the bed when I lifted up on it so I could make some clearance for the shock bolt so it was removable without pulling the bed. Also ran the fuel vent line with a -6 line up into the bedside behind the tailight and ran a small air filter on the line. No pics though.

Also cleaned up all the bed bolts and got those all installed and nuts on the bottom and tightened up.

Got the bolts under the truck and the rearend tightened up and went from rear to front with a pair of wrenches. Got all the loose stuff tightened up. Ran the drivers side wires in P clips for the front harness up and got things tidied up. Got the Wheels bolted back on and set it back on the ground. That felt damn good.

Fired it up and drove the bitch out the garage!!!!!! That is right, I drove it out of the garage, clutch feels excellent, brakes feel like ass but stop the truck, this is as far as I drove it, then pulled it back it. Sounds awesome.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fMN1sVHpSN0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/fMN1sVHpSN0

Pretty happy to see it looking whole and on the ground for the first time...

The very, very unsuspecting back end.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqhctut1o.jpg

Sean

Awesome build, thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to seeing more as you head towards completion.

Looking good!

Let's go back a bit to the front end....anything learned from the other truck on the CV suspension or brakes that you're doing different? I didn't see anything mentioned on donor mustang brakes so I'm assuming you're happy with the other build.

:popcorn2:

Thank you!! I am just looking forward to less long days in the shop =)

I dont think that you saw the white truck after the brake upgrade...

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4gvskiwz.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbc2ujwje.jpg

Todd at TCE Totally did a great job working with me on these. 2 piece 14" rotors, 6 piston calipers, braided stainless lines.

Truck stops incredible now.

This one is going to have to stick with the Crown Vic stuff in the front and Mustang stuff in the rear. Ill likely have to do some aggressive pads, especially with the manual brakes but want to see how it does before I start making even more changes.

I did a few things different. I mounted the rear lower control arm mounts at 45 like they are on the crown vic for proper alignment geometry.

I elected to do the SPC Camber adjustment bolts. They are a pain in the ass to install but get another 2.5 or 3° of amber adjustment allowing you to go lower without the negative effect of negative camber.

Double adjustable front struts on this truck as well so should be able to really dial it in.

I learned a lot from the other truck....a ton actually. All the little things add up. I also moved the entire cradle back 1" from the other truck to properly center the wheel in the wheel well.

Sean

Been an interesting couple of days. Spent last night cleaning up the total craphole of a garage it has been turned into the past few months. Also got the little beemer all cleaned up and put away in the garage.

Oh man did that feel good to get things all cleaned up and put away.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pshzclvhya.jpg

Last night I could not sleep, I mean slept maybe an hour or so, finally ended up just getting up and going to work. Worked from 2 am to 3 pm this afternoon and as of right now have basically been up for.....39 hours straight. Not feeling too great right now as can be imagined.

I put some coolant into the truck and found that the T connector from the thermostat housing out to the engine and back to the radiator was cracked.......and of course nobody has one in stock so I ordered it from back east, hope it shows up soon.....at least by the weekend.

Drug out some sand paper and got to work on the drivers side of the truck. I need to spend a little bit more time on the bottom of the doors but its getting better

Hit it with the buffer and the old **** shines up pretty damn good.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnt7yd9zv.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psanexesli.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscdhxab86.jpg

I kind of like this shot.....Cool stuff under the beater truck.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psiamptpvl.jpg

I really need to get some parts coming or I am not going to make my deadline.



Sean

Had a great night last night and have some damn talented friends.

My friend Scott Becker from STS Machining dropped off my hose clamps for the heater hoses and I have to tell you its pretty amazing what they can make in a CNC machine these days. He runs a small shop from his house and cranked these out in less than a week. I think he is going to try some hood hinges next. Amazing work.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbto0fzt2.jpg

I have been buggin my buddy Andrew to help me with a console for a long time and I am about to that point now so he came over and we made a huge dent in the project :D

We started off by making templates in chip board of the floor and then built the upper surface on it. The templates looked like this.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnzgpzsxp.jpg

Then we cut out an exact replica of the carboard and did all our sanding and smoothing on that one before transfering it to the PVC Foam Board (It is very, very cool stuff if you have never worked with it before).

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgjot93al.jpg

Once we had that done and were happy with them, we screwed that to the PVC and used a plunge router with a bearing guide on it to cut out the actual sides of the console. We used a 1/4 round bull nosed bit and gave the top edge a nice contour and made a huge mess with all the routing.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslyr1xdqy.jpg

Here you can start to get an idea of what I am going for. Should look awesome when done and covered.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ugqlvan.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psdqyv09dk.jpg

Center panel where the shifter is is going to get a couple of cup holders and maybe a little tray for stuff to go in It should frame the seats and stuff really well and bring the interior at least into the 2000's =)

Also ordered Seat Foams from TMI for the 67 mustang bucket seats, I got the R foams with the big bolsters.

Ordered the Seat belts as well from Seatbelt Planet, they should be here the end of next week.

Carpet is ordered, interior door handles are ordered and I think that is about it.

Parts for the cooling system should be here this afternoon so I can keep progress going. I need to get shorter struts for the front still, mine are too long.

Sean

Looking good Sean! Make a mess, clean the shed, make a mess, clean the shed...before you know it you're done and enjoying what you've built.

I heard back from the guy about the thing...he said McFarland is the only person he'd ever use and that he does do small projects. With that being said, I wonder how hard it really is...I'm sure you'll look it over when the parts show up and am willing to bet a dollar you'll be doing it yourself!

:thumbsup:

Nice progress. The wheels look good on there.

Shed is a mess most days =) Thanks for checking on the the thing with the guy....I found a local guy and might give him a shot first. I dont have covers for the seats I need a guy to sew some up for me. I want a specific color and stitching. If it were just foams and covers I would totally do it myself.

Thanks a bunch..

First of all, I got the T fitting for the coolant hose today so I installed that today and got the coolant all filled up and let the truck Idle and warm up, burped the cooling system and checked for leaks. All good. Took it for the first little trip around the block and all seems alright. It has a little tick to it, it sounds like its pretty normal with these engines. Messed around with that for a bit, jacked the truck up and set the Fuel pressure to 55 lbs base.

Second trip out of the garage netted a big burnout in front of the house =) truck is going to be damn fun. The manual is where its at for sure.

Stay focused Sean...stay focused.

Back on center console build. Got the sides connected together to finish up the frame work and it fits well.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psmt4zyjdr.jpg

Then cut this piece out to fit and heated it up with a torch to get it warm enough to bend and held it in place till it cooled.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pshuujdayj.jpg

Trimmed the top piece to fit the ends and tried the first test fit in car to mark the shifter location.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7zucsma4.jpg

Cut the hole for the shifter and all lined up really well. Console is turning out awesome. I am not sure what I am doing up front but its getting cup holders right behind the shifter I know that for sure. I kind of like the super clean simple look of it and dont know if I want to mess it up with stuff. Maybe just do a really cool double french stitch right up the middle of the flat panel

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9y2yrcw3.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psm7tobehy.jpg

View from the drivers seat..

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspmlf7rgy.jpg

Truck has come a long way since I started it in September....

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnusup6ct.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8ovxlbzw.jpg

=)

Hope to pick up some steel tomorrow so I can build the seat brackets.

Sean

sweet! just make sure the cup holders won't be in your way of your hand/arm when shifting... I find that particularly annoying on one of my cars.

I have thought of that, the console is pretty low and you done exactly sit low in these things so it should not be a problem but I might mess around with their location anyways, in front of the shifter could make use of that big blank space a little better.

Only a little time tonight to work on the truck, had to go to a WInterhawks game with the wife.

Managed to pull these out of the bin and get some polish out and see if they would clean up. They polished out like new. I was pretty suprised.

Old on the left, polished up on the right.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslwb1tln0.jpg

Also spent a little more time cleaning up the license plate from the 68 I parted out. I hope that the DMV will let me keep them on the truck.

Little hammer and dolly work on the license plate and cleaned it up really good and shot it with a coat of clear. Also got it on.

Rear of the truck looks cool...At this point, I have no plans to run a rear bumper.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2tt1c793.jpg

Also go the shifter adapter and lift kit built, welded up and bolted on. It has a little angle back and to the driver, forgot to snap a pic.

I was able to find some diagrams for the seat bracket and plotted them out at work actual size and printed out and picked up some steel.

1 of the seat foams showed up today, next week should be a barrage of parts. Seat foams, carpet and inner door handles, seat sliders, bolts and hardware, second seat foam and shorter front shocks....its go time fellas.

Damn near ready to take it for a trip to get some fuel for reals.

Sean

**raising hand** Me too...

Do you know what cracks me up about this....I have gotten more comments from people on the placement of the cupholders than anything else on this truck build.

My dad even made it a point to send me a text message about the placement of the cupholders and his concern about where they are going to go.....he is a car guy and almost 70.

More on that soon...Probably not a lot of people on here who care about seat brackets for the bumpside truck but Ill update this as well as my other thread to keep them all current.

Well, today was interesting. Hands down the longest I have ever worked on a set of seat mounts in my life.

Not too sure everyone knows that they once made factory bucket seat mounts for these trucks but they were very, very rare and even more rare some 50 years later. I stumbled across someone that had taken the time to draw up the seat mounts in CAD and share them on one of the ford forums. I downloaded them at work and had one of our CAD guys print them out in actual size so I could use them as a template. (Thanks Eddie) Its one of the benefits of working in the HVAC Field =)

And here we go.

Started out with some 3/16" hot rolled plate. I sincerely believe these could be made with 1/8" and be plenty sturdy.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psa20jzgys.jpg

Laid out the template on the plate....I should mention here that I made a couple adjustments. As I am not running a fuel tank and am not necessarily a small person, in height and diameter I extended the brackets to the rear of the truck by about 3" and marked another set of holes in the brackets.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2ivlfeyx.jpg

Got to work with the plasma, grinder and a flap disc and the drill press. I did a pilot hole, around 3/8 then the final 1/2" hole x 24 holes 8)

Cut out and marked for holes. I also use a punch to mark the center of the holes before drilling.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrfwz2u8r.jpg

All drilled up and ready to mark them up and bend them the poor mans way :roll:

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pssciup6rp.jpg

So.....I have no brake so I have to get a little more creative and its a lot more work this way but I get to the end and its a very strong good looking part. OEM, not exactly.

I marked out the lines to bend on.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszjuionns.jpg

Then I use the plasma to cut the lines. I leave about 3/8" of uncut material at the end and about every three or four inches I skip a 1/4" section to keep the piece together allowing me to bend it but keep the part in one piece.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psh7svqula.jpg

This is how I do my bends. This is a digital angle guage from Harbor Freight. It allows me to get dead on angles on my bends. I think this one was 26 degrees. I bent it to 26.2 degrees and can duplicate that over and over this way.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psfkqx6ssf.jpg

I wont bore you with the other bends.....and I did not take any photos of them either.

Here are the 4 brackets bent up and ready to weld. I know bending is the preferred way but this is doable at home and should be no issue with strength for seat brackets.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psyrash8mv.jpg

I went to work with the welder, turned the heat up a little bit and had 2 good setbacks. I forgot I had put Stainless wire, so I had to swap back to normal wire, then grabbed the hood and found it with dead batteries. So a quick trip for a rockstar, and some batteries for the hood. New lenses and batteries are good for the vision.

Now onto the weld.

You can see that there is some compound angles going on here.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslpt0xtjx.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psesqa7pnl.jpg

And there we have it, bucket seat brackets for your bumpside in about a half a day's work.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psvahiwbz6.jpg

I am super happy with how they came out, they were a lot of work and I am very, very glad to have found the drawings.

My neighbor also found a weak link in my brake heim joint (These were not final tight yet) but I was not happy with this setup so I rebuilt it with WAAAAY more better stuff.

3/8-24 stud cut down and lick tighted into a female heim joint then into the coupler with a jam nut on both sides and burried together. There is no chance of a failure now.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psznjcxkjs.jpg

Much better now.

Also got my cupholders.

Ahhh sh!t! I'm laughing my ass off over here! I know we talked about seats and I think I even mentioned I had some similar style buckets...yeah they came out of a bump side camper special, even got the cool/rare center console.

Sorry man, but in all fairness you never asked. Your set up looks great and you're done, another item off the list. Nice work!

I guess the good news is that my brackets look remarkably similar to yours =) I think mine are a little more beef than the stock ones.

Its not looking good for making it to T Hill....

Photobucket is acting up so please bare with me on the update.....some of my photos will not upload and others just upload three or four times and drop in the wrong place.

Took a little bit of time to work on the beat to #*(& hood that I got off the parts truck. It is very much not straight but its not all rusted out either. Not too sure I can live with all of the dents and stuff on it but it will have to work till I can find a straight one.

Scrubbed it up first of all, hit it with some 800 then 1500 and several passes with the buffer and it doesnt look terrible. Kind of funny seeing how different years or different models of truck have different paints on them. This one appears to just have a black primer over the metal and then color over that. Appears to be original paint as well.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psfg6a0p29.jpg

It is just sitting on there, no hinges to bolt on yet.

Yesterday was like Christmas at my office.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psynnn41iw.jpg

Shorter front shocks from Mike Naake (Guy is awesome to work with if you ever need coilovers for a crown vic setup he is the guy to call.)

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4zkcrv1g.jpg

Inner door handles....will be wrapped in same material as seats.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pseotvkamd.jpg

Seatbelts from Seatbeltplanet showed up yesterday. They look great so far and should go well with the interior theme I am working on.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbiqltp4b.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspgtrqbu8.jpg

Carpet from LMC showed up as well. Its not as dark as I had hoped but I think it will look good in there. I might see if the upholstery guy can order up some Brown BMW or Mercedes tight weave carpet and sew up a carpet kit in the future. Their carpet is amazing, if you have never felt it you should.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0x6pt1ah.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqvynpgda.jpg

My buddy Jeff took my hinges and ran them through his blaster and got them all good and clean for me (I have got to get one of those) I shot them with some etch primer and then some cast aluminum paint. Pretty happy with how they came out.....I took pics of the whole process but cannot get those to upload either....

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3tfh6xf6.jpg

Got the second TMI foam for the seats. They look amazing until you sit in them. The foam is waaaayyyy too thick. It raises you up a good 2" from the stock seat and pushes you forward even more. I would not order them again if I had it to do over again. I would just build the foams from scratch. For $335.00 for the two foams I could have spent money somewhere else.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9nemy38h.jpg

Met with an upholstery guy locally last night who can do the work in the time frame that I need it in. We are doing a high end leather looking vinyl. Dark Brown with light tan colored stitching. It should look awesome when its all done.....going to be pushing to get the truck done by the Optima Event though =(

I read this and was trying to find some motivational words to pass on....Bottom line is you've got 30 days before it needs to be on a trailer heading south, you got this!

I'll see you in California!

:thumbsup:

Yeah I hear ya.... Upholstery guy needs at least two weeks...and he cannot start for a week and a half.

I think I am going to try and find a seat I can bolt into the truck so its driveable so I can work the bugs out of it in the next couple of weeks. I am trying man, I am trying.

Sean

Nice job on those bends, and I love to see new parts! The tail light cleaned up nice.

Man truck is looking good like all work done so far and wow first complaint on the TMI seats. Was not aware of the 2" raise anybody else having this problem?

Aww Yeah!
 

You're killing it man! I loved your last truck and this one has been awesome to watch too! You can do it!

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8ovxlbzw.jpg
This looks amazing, your a machine!

Thanks I was super impressed with the way the tail lights cleaned up.

When I googled it, i got a ton of hits of other people complaining about the thickness of the foams, not just for the mustangs either. Some people have not done the leg work I have by mocking everything up, paid an upholsterer to cover the seats only to realize that they cannot fit in their car without their head hitting the roof of the car...these are not tall guys either.

I am going to email TMI about it today. The biggest issue I have is that the foams are not cheap. I think I am into my pair of foams for about $330.00 and that is just foams. Now I am going to be into them for a couple of hours for the upholstery guy to trim them down how they should be.

Awesome!! Thanks man. I hope I can make it =)

That is a big compliment coming from you. Thanks....looks like you may have been working on the camaro a little bit? Glad to hear you are back at Aarons as well. I need to get the white truck in there for some touch up on the seams still.

Thanks Crazyhorse!! I hope so too.


Looooong day at work yesterday only got a little bit of time in on the truck. Managed to get the truck up in the air and swap out the coilovers for the shorter ones. For those of you that are running a crown vic setup, how low is the front of your truck? Tire/ wheel size and crossmember to ground clearance.

Hood hinges, while they look cool on the bench, the silver in the engine bay looks terrible. Looks like I am going to reshoot them black tomorrow.

Thanks for keeping up with the build thread.

Sean

Okay, so it's like this:

Horsepower unit: Check.

Springy stuff: Check.

Wires and bolts for above-mentioned contraptions: Check.

Tires: Check.

Gas-moving device: Check (I think).

Shifter: May still require like three bolts or so. (Check soon.)

Seat: There's one somewhere.

We know you do good work, and the thing will be perfecto when done, but USCA does not require perfecto (the last and next iterations of my death trap were and will be evidence). We know it will happen soon enough. A place for the cheeks, bolted down, a couple pedal thingys, and a tiller, and you're good for the weekend.:bigun2:

I absolutely love your enthusiasm my friend and cannot wait to meet you in a few weeks.

I agree, I will get it done, really hope its at least close. I already know that there is going to be a wheel change and some other stuff but I am close.

I appreciate your words of encouragement.

Seat Tracks from mustangs unlimited showed up today along with the hardware to bolt the seats to the tracks and the tracks to the brackets. Its a lot of crap to order all this stuff from scratch.

Got the seats out, bolted the rails to the seats and figured out the latching mechanism. Amazingly enough my hacked together seat brackets from a set of downloaded drawings on the internet bolted right to the truck and the seats bolted right to the brackets.

I had to get these bolted in and see how they fit in the truck.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswe2mb4ys.jpg

Look great in there, sit at the right height, arm to window is great as well.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pssuhnwls2.jpg

Also managed to spend a few minutes on the seatbelts and got them mocked up in there. They fit great....the cable end near the console might need to be a touch longer but they look great.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psktwqyxtv.jpg

The silver looked terrible on these so I painted them black. I am not really sold on the black but it looks a hell of a lot better than the silver did. They go great with the stuff on the firewall. Need to pickup some washers for the hood bolts and I can get the hood bolted down.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqwnzxuzu.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pson7jhepo.jpg

I really hope that the weather stays dry and I can get a few road miles on it this weekend.:hairpullout:

Sean

Get a heat gun and some cans of compressed air (keyboard cleaner, etc.).
Heat up the dent, but not so much that you overheat the paint, then invert the compressed air can and spray the heated area. The inverted can will shoot out super cold spray that will make the dents pop back into their metal memory shape.
It may take small steps to pop a big dent, but it should help you :)

I have heard of this in the past....I think I am going to give it a shot and see if it makes it any better. Hood is pretty bad though, it came open on the freeway and hit the top of the cab at some time.....also the reason I did not keep the cab on the parts truck =)

Thanks for the tip John!!

Sean

Spent a little bit of time yesterday evening cleaning up the shop. It was long overdue for some cleaning and organizing. I even gathered up all the manuals, paperwork, receipts and anything coyote F100 related 3 hole punched them and got them all into a binder. I know I have a problem...I know.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqsieth1b.jpg

Although I found a little bit more rust than anticipated in the drivers floor board, I made due with it, a little rust mort and a little aluminum panel to reinforce it for now will have to work.

Managed to get 22 sheets of Hush Mat installed on the floor, firewall and back wall of the cab. I think it turned out really good. It was a pain in the ass. Sorry for the poor photos, the phone seems to be taking worse and worse pics with the update.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psezfwjd7m.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psb5yu7ptq.jpg

I had the carpet laying out for the past week or so to try and get the wrinkles out and it payed off. Carpet pretty much laid right in there. Needed some trimming and was a lot of work but I think it looks awesome.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgd6ytsfr.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4uhk7l17.jpg

I tucked the carpet under the firewall panel for the steering column as well as under the gas pedal and behind the reinforcement plate for the clutch pedal.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgazmyqnw.jpg

I also got the holes burned in for the seat mounting brackets and the seat mounting brackets bolted in place. Seatbelt on the drivers side is in.

I need a tap for the seatbelt holes in the center and some proper sized washers for mounting the hood. If its dry enough tomorrow I might get the truck out for a few minutes.

Sean

Got the seatbelt for the drivers side all installed, bolted in the seat for temporary and checked it all out. With the stock foams int he seats they are very comfortable. Great seating position and easy pedal operation.

Got the hood on it and tried to line it up but the hood is pretty messsed up from opening going down the freeway sometime in its life.

Had a little bit of help from some friends and figured out why the speedometer was non operational. Turns out the information I got from Ford Racing was wrong and I had two of the wires on the sender backwards. He is a full time tech and we pulled up the wiring diagram from All Data.....It was awesome.

Swapped the two wires back and forth on the connector and Voila....working speedometer.

Now onto the bad news.

I have a noise in the engine that we are unable to locate. It sounds like spark knock or pinging but it sounds pretty mechanical sometimes as well. I pulled the pan a while back and inspected and there was nothing in there. I also did an oil change after running for a couple hours or so and there was nothing in there either.

So I needed to dig further to find said noise....its not healthy.

Pulled Passenger side cam cover to inspect.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstfwl2cdk.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7yajhrwl.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslvc3fqup.jpg

I do not see anything wrong on anything that I opened up. The top end on this thing looks like its brand new but I am not a Ford trained technician.

I think it sounds like timing chain to me. The only thing I did see was some whitness marks on the backside of the timing chain that indicate its been running against some plastic, dark colored like black or dark brown. I am wondering if I have a chain guide/tensioner issue but am not too sure how to tell if I do or not.

Oil pressure is excellent 100 psi at startup and around 40 at a hot idle.

Could be spark knock because of the no cats, open exhaust and open element air filter...could be mechanical issues I have no idea at this point.

Any input? Its almost impossible to get video of it since it has to be running and driving.

Pretty sure at this point that I am not going to make Thunder Hill, I just am running out of time to do it all.

Super Bummed out.

Sean

Just a quick search and I've found that it's fairly common on these motors...passenger side ticking. It seems more noticeable when guys have done headers or cat deletes. It appears ford issued a TSB on the timing chain at some point as well, I'd start there.

Is it RPM related?
What oil? Some folks mentioned hearing it after an oil change.
Can you plug in to see if any codes have popped up?
Check your PS pump and make sure it's got the clearance, Clarence.

I'll look into it some more tonight when I've got more time...don't worry you'll get it figured out.

25 days....just keep swimming, just keep swimming
:thumbsup:

We thought it was spark knock or Pre ignition being a really lean conditions so I ran some 110 octane through it last night, no change at all.

There is no other signs of damage other than the plastic on the one connector. The electrical connections appear to be just fine inside that one.

Pulled the serpentine belt off last night to rule out alternator, tensioner and water pump. Same noise.

Added in some hyper lube to the engine oil as I have heard good things about it same noise.

Picked up a stethoscope and got it good and warm and tried to pin point the tick. There is literally no noise from the engine. It was loudest near drivers side tire. So I started poking around with the stethoscope around the exhaust and frame then hit the bellhousing and the noise was very clear in the stethoscope.. tick tick tick.

I have no idea if the tick tick tick and clatter are related to each other, they sure sound similar though.

Push in clutch pedal, hot tick goes away.

Going to drain transmission fluid this am and flush and refill with redline MTL.

Interior has to get finished today and over to the upholsterer. Trip permit is going to run out and I need to get it registered so I am playing hooked from work for a little bit today.

Work peeps following along.....thanks for understanding =)

I'll report in in the MTL helped at all.

Sean

So....I had one dry day, and one day to get the upholstery done and get it to the upholstery guy.

Got the MTL swapped in, that was a nightmare by the way. It made no difference in the clatter. I raised up the rearend a little bit and went for a cruise. I put 10 gallons of fuel in the truck and drove it to the DMV.

Well its got a couple really big problems. The driveline vibration is bad. It does go away at some speed not sure what speed that is, it seemed to change around a little bit.

3rd gear, well it does not go into it all the time. Seemed to work about 80% of the time but twice at least I got a grind out of it.

The Clatter that I mentioned before and thought was pinging or detonation is clearly not. It is a mechanical issue, its present in any gear clutch in or out once its warm and has been driven a ways it will make it in the driveway.

Swapped in a brand new set of Motorcraft plugs just to rule that out.Also double checked the coil packs on each plug, verified operation as best I could. No difference.

So I am done with this thing for a bit. I am mentally destroyed between this and my actual work load.

I finished up all the work on the interior since I had a deadline with the upholstery guy tonight.

Here is what I ended up with on the console. I thought it turned out really well for a backyard shop.

Adding a little detail for the side to break it up. This is 1/8" material.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswz6myrov.jpg

Cut out, mocked up and letting the glue dry

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psuqgdv8tg.jpg

So this piece serves two purposes. Cover the screw holes that hold the thing together and add a little detail to the top of the side panels. The 1/8" piece is about 3/4" shorter than the side, giving a nice little detail when it is being covered. The side will be covered in one piece each. The center panel will be removable for access to run wiring and things like that down the center. Panel will have a french stitch all the way down the middle to keep the theme on everything.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrzeqeswz.jpg

Going to get the shop all cleaned up and push the truck to the side for a while.

Thanks for following along everyone and offering up your help, I really do appreciate it.

Sean

"Thanks for following along everyone and offering up your help, I really do appreciate it."

Sean

Thank you for posting!

Sean,

If the ticking noise goes away when you push the clutch in, I would be exploring either a clutch or a throw out bearing issue.

Andrew

It sucks to hear about issues like you're having, but really, some of them should always be expected with a new build. It will probably be a year of time between when I bought the engine/trans (currently sitting in my Falcon) and when it might be fired. Here's hoping for a lack of issues . . .:sarcasm_smiley:

Let's take a minute to blame unreasonably optimistic expectations and the need for artificial deadlines on reality TV. These elements added to a hobby will frequently ruin the value--don't let it happen. Just chill. Be the boss.