pretty clean ride, love the liner on the bed

Thanks man, I agree, bedliner turned out far better than I imagined. It really pops with the cream colored paint.

Done working on the truck till next week.

I did manage to get it back together yesterday, the truck is just about fully wired (5 or 6 wires left to connect, but they are all run)

Its plumbed, wired and pretty much bolted together.

First time seeing it in the daylight.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspe7p04d9.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswc0crmrs.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psv8ffxx3d.jpg

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

I think I ordered everything else I need tonight to finish it up. Front coilovers are on their way along with a bunch of little stuff from LMC and Dennis Carpenter.

So looking forward to starting this thing up:nod:

Sean

lookin nice! what coil overs did you find for the CV front end?

Naake has a setup there for it that he puts together. Its basically a QA1 coilover with a little different spring setup for the stock frontend but its pretty nice stuff, have heard great things about Mike Naake as well.

Still need to figure out how to get this front sway bar on there as well....

Its been very challenging this week not even being able to touch the truck with School and a fathers day weekend of camping coming up. Ill get back on it though next week. Should be a good weekend with my pops and brother in law anyways.

Sean

Are those moduline lower work benches in that garage shot there?

Oh geez no, I am just a working man for a living. I built up the benches from scratch and did two of the big craftsman bottom boxes for the bottom of the bench. They just slide into the metal frames.

Look like this when I built them.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...21B6B-orig.jpg


http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...3398B-orig.jpg

Really like the understated style on this. :thumbsup:

This build will have more of us building trucks IMHO. :)

Looking good! What would you say to painting the radiator support behind the grill black so that the grill doesn't get lost in the sea of white?

Thank you!

Thanks Chuck,

I have looked at that a few times and agree. When looking straight on with the front end jacked up in the air the white is pretty noticeable. I am hoping that once the frontend is lowered down to ride height and the hood is on it will hardly be noticeable.

The problem with doing paint on it would be that there is no clean line to do the paint as you look at it from different angles you would be able to see the tape line and the change from black to white. Also, looking down from the top with the hood open you would see a paint line.

Ill see how it looks when its all together and go from there.....I am paying attention to that. I think if anything I would do a black wrap behind the grille to see how it looks before paint.

I heard from a little birdie today that the Hood and Door panels have some paint on them...

Should have everything bolted on and aligned early next week.

Thanks to the paintboys Chris and Aaron.

Sean

Maybe some black mesh directly behind the grille?

As long as your using stock lower control arms, the CV sway bar will bolt to the frame. Center up the bar mounts, drill the holes and mount it up. Just make sure the links are vertical.

Yeah I have seen a few others do this before, Going for the aftermarket bar so I can have it powdercoated and nicer bushings as well as a bigger bar for better handling. Stock Lower Control arms, so we should be solid.

So these showed up Friday afternoon and hung out in my office all weekend along with a bunch of stuff from LMC Truck.

Headliner, seat slider knob and the wrong brake pedal pad.....I think it was my fault though.

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

But these are pretty sweet.

I have been sick for the last three days, battling some nasty ass cold but really hope to get some time to get all this stuff installed this week once I am feeling better. Having the truck not at ride height is just bothering me.

I heard From Aaron that the hood and door panels got some paint on them last week, they were waiting for them to harden up a little bit before bringing them over to install and align the hood and frontend.

Sean

Still feeling like crap but I did manage an hour or so this evening out in the garage.

Got the headliner installed, looks ok. Its Gray just like the factory would be. I did not think I liked it at first but its growing on me now. Keeps the top of the cab a little lighter than if it was black.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswwli7h6v.jpg

After a lot of screwing around with the side mirror, its finally back on the truck. The actual Mirror portion still needs a little bit of work but Ill deal with that later down the road once its at least driven under its own power.

New rubber, new screws and here it is all mounted up. Looks alright, still not super happy but I think it will work.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0o9mastl.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9wwdv5qz.jpg

I am trying to get tires figured out at this point but at a little bit of a stand still. I am running 8.5's up front and 10.5's in the rear and need them to be a fairly short sidewall, 20's are big.

What are your recommended tire sizes?

Sean

Stopped by Aarons place and chatted with him and Chris for a little bit after work. Hood is about finished up and door panels are all done so I brought those home tonight. We are going to fit up the frontend and get the hood on Thursday night. Will be the first time seeing the truck all together since August of last year.

Got one door buttoned up tonight, somehow I managed to misplace one of the window cranks....So passenger side still needs one of those but panels are on and the inner latch releases and arm rests are in.

Doors are a little stark but I think they are very fitting for the look I am shooting for.....very clean stockish appearing from the outside looking in. Wish I had a different shifter, I might get the aluminum cover and lever powdercoated black to blend in with the floor better.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps89ulupwp.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslexaofx4.jpg

Sean

Looks good Sean, I miss mine, of course it wasn't this cool, just the same body.

Looking Good!

Personally, I'd go with a different color (black) for the door cards. They are going to be really hard to keep clean and it's just a bit too much white IMHO. Even painting the outer edge (where the screws go through) black might do the trick to break it up a little.

I can get Black Plastic door cards later down the road if I choose to. This is how the truck came from the factory though, White painted door cards so that is what it is getting for this time around.

It is a lot of white, but looks really clean and I like that. Not too sure I could pull off a black trim around the panel, I think it would give it a bit of a cheesy look, 80's vintage, but I never really thought about it.

This interior is temporary though.

It will get a full custom interior next winter, just running out of time for summer and need it on the road soon.

It will be getting a full Saddle Leather interior setup, buckets, full center console and door panels.

Coilovers got installed tonight and kind of adjusted. Already looks and feels better than the stock crap. Pretty easy install too. Mike Naake put a great front setup together.

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

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

Steady progress, little bits every night.

Tomorrow is hood and align front sheetmetal with painter and a little bit of wiring.

Got a laundry list of stuff to order now, Exhaust being the big thing.

Sean

That's how it get's done! A while back I was working on my project mostly on the weekends because I didn't really feel like doing anything at night after work. Then I realized how much time I was wasting when I was trying to get everything done on the weekends. Not to mention finding problems and having to wait for a new part to be delivered or something.

When I started working on it a little bit whenever I had the chance, stuff started moving along much more quickly.

I totally agree. Usually I spend a whole day on the weekend just getting parts together so I can keep working.

Speaking of little bits.

I managed to finish up the rest of the wiring in the engine bay, all loomed landed grommeted and ran into the cabin.

Aaron and Chris showed up and got right to it. We got the hood on and rough aligned and then went to work on shimming up the core support. Once it was at the right height, we squared it all up and got the hood final aligned, hood latch installed and done.

Thanks again to those guys at Southbound Customs!!

I have only seen this thing one time all complete, but it looked nothing like this. The hood totally changed what this thing looks like.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3qhikf4b.jpg

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

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

Also managed to get the right window cranks on the truck. The ones from LMC sucked.

I picked up fluids for it today. I am going to try and make a darn good push this weekend and hope to maybe try and start it in the next week or so.

Thanks for following along.

Sean

Looking great!
Hell, I didn't even have the hood on or the wire loomed when I couldn't resist any longer and started mine for the first time. Just fire that mother up! You know you want to.. :poke: ...LOL. Just don't forget to tighten the power steering lines like I did, that gets messy...and smokes a lot when it hits the exhaust.

Truck looks great.:trophy-1302:

Truck looks darn good all back together. :thumbsup:

WOW, Thanks guys for the feedback.

This last week has been :G-Dub: for me.... not compared to most of the other builds on here though.

Yesterday was a little bit of a bust, but did manage to figure out a solution for that terrible stock steering wheel. I cannot really believe it but I settled on a Grant Classic wheel. I think it is fitting for the truck, the era and the stockish look I am going for.

Its brushed stainless center and foam rubber outer and I think it looks pretty good.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxvmkz5c7.jpg

Also managed to finish up the heater hoses and heater control valve. I ended up using some DEI heat wrap on the 3/4" outlet from the water pump to the heater core as its really close to the crossover to the turbo, but it should be alright. Time will tell. Its all new even the metal factory ford Heater Control valve from Dennis Carpenter.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9odtp3x0.jpg

I also managed to get the TAC module mounted up under the dash button up the glovebox wiring, finish the starter wiring and run the brake switch wire over to the pedal area, just need to verify where it needs to land.

Today is more than likely Torque converter bolts, all fluids, shifter cable, and maybe swap out the third member if I have time and desire to lay under the truck for a few hours.

Oh and clean up the mess in the shop. :thup:

Sean

Cleaned up the shop, it was a total mess. Got the truck up on jack stands and worked on the shifter. Got the shifter cable installed with the right brackets on the tranny and got it adjusted as per the manual.

Bolted up the converter, but not sure if I was supposed to use spacers between the flex plate and the converter as it was shipped with some washers. I cannot imagine that I should have installed those, but you never know.

I will email Chris at Circle D and find out if I need them in there or not.

Buttoned up the wiring and pretty much everything else. I ran out of **** to do on it other than putting fluids in it and firing it up.

Put it back on the ground, put the shifter in park and the truck still rolls. Messed around with the shifter a little bit and you can just barely hear a click click click when it is pushed in park.

I know that it is all mechanical in there but have to wonder if I should fire it up and see what happens or just pull the tranny now?

Anyone have any experience with this?

If this tranny needs to come out, it may just be the thing that stops my progress on this thing... I don't know if I have the energy and time right now to go backwards that much.

Sean

Hope the trans issue is an easy fix.

Having a tough time with this .....^ :)

No really, my shop gets pretty bad when I am in work mode. Its a total disaster after last nights shenanigans.

No big fantastic picture update....

Pulled the pan off the tranny last night and found some weird hard brittle plastic chunks that almost look like pieces of old filter in the bottom of the pan. Now keep in mind that I had just recently put in a trans go HD2 shift kit in this and those pieces were not in there before. I believe that there was a small piece of something in the linkage for the parking pawl not letting it engage. I took the pawl apart cleaned everything and put it back in and it works exactly how it should now.

My buddy Chris was over about this time and we got to work. Primed the turbo, checked for drain, filled the tranny with fluid, put 5 quarts of 5/30 in the motor.

Then it was time to see how the electrical system was going to react. Installed both battery terminals and made a quick check for smoke or problems. I had most of the fuses out at this point for stuff. Turned on the disconnect switch and no smoke. Put in the main fuse for the truck wiring. Checked the parking, brake and headlights. They all worked.

Put the key in the ignition and turned it on, computer fires up ALDL light comes on.

Chris manned the ignition, while I climbed under the truck. I popped a fuse in for each pump he bumped the ignition and both fuel pumps fire up with the ignition.

Even the blower fan worked for the heating system.

I have done a lot of electrical but to get everything to work on the first try was pretty impressive for me.

We hit the key and bumped the starter and Ill be damned, it turned over. :D

So we went and grabbed some fuel and threw a couple gallons in the tank and began the priming process. Here is where I encountered problem number one. Those pumps primed almost immediately. However it did highlight rather fast the fact that I did not install a 1/8" plug in the y fitting in the fuel system and it covered me, my face, shirt and garage floor with fresh fuel. I got a plug and threw it in there. We primed the system and made sure we were getting fuel back to the tank. Those pumps flow a LOT of fuel together. No leaks so far.

So we gave it a go. Acts like the battery is dead when cranking, jump box on, no difference, charger on, no difference, pick up new battery, nope. I ran a jumper cable from the battery negative to the water pump and it was much better. Turns over and tried to fire up.

Sounds like something is wrong in the firing order. I am going to double check the wiring to and from the coil packs and make sure I have that all right, right coil to right cylinder and so fortth.

Also found that the fuel sender in the bottom of the tank is leaking so I need to pull that back out tonight and see whats up with it. I think its just the seal, hope its not something more major than that.

Few little things to fix still but a pretty rewarding night for me.

As always, thanks for the help Chris.

Sean

Sweet! Getting close! Awaiting the start-up vid!

Ask and you shall receive.

I ran a 1/0 guage wire directly from the negative battery terminal directly to the a/c bracket bosses on the side of the block. Cleaned off everything very well of paint and stuff.

I knew that something was not quite right with the firing order so I printed out the wiring diagram for the coil packs as that was the one thing I did not know if I had right, I suspected the 2-8 bank for some reason.

Sure enough I had the odd bank in the right order but had the even bank wired backwards so signal 8 went to cylinder 2 and 2 went to 8. All it took was swapping the plugs on the coils.

I was sure it was not going to fire so I just hopped in, turned the key and the damn thing fired right up. I mean right up like it was meant to be.

Video makes it sound much quieter than it is. In person its pretty damn loud with the open exhaust. Turbo makes some nice noises too.

I pulled the fuel level sender to find a leak in the return fitting so I am dealing with that.

Need to drain the tranny and reseal the pan too, it leaks like crazy, just at the pan gasket though.

Damn happy though.

Sean

http://youtu.be/woiwYhJfiaw

Sean,

Congrats on the successful fire! Brings back good memories when my buddy and I fire the 5.3 in my Firebird. I bet you cannot wait to drive it!

Nice!

I thought the same thing as you when I went to try to fire up my '69 LS1 swap a few weeks ago. "Bah, it isn't going to start the first time anyway" and I had the same results. Fired right up.

I was a little apprehensive about swapping in a modern engine/computer. Especially one that i did all the wiring myself. However; after doing it, I don't think I'll put a carburetor on anything ever again. Now that I've done it once, I can't wait to swap an LS engine into something else!

Of course, it helped that I had sent the PCM off to someone that knew what they were doing to program it before hand.

Awsome! Even with all the small issues, I bet you are super happy!

:hapdance: :woot: :woot:

I will never work on a motor with a carb again. After doing a few ls swaps with factory GM stuff and building a volvo on Megasquirt I am totally sold on late model motors in early sheetmetal. It is what I love to do. Old looks with new operation and performance.

Totally. I put in the repaired sender last night and that was it. I watched a little bit of TV and hung out with the wife last night. I think she was pretty happy about my choice to not be in the garage last night.

I ordered up all of my exhaust yesterday and should have everything to build that this weekend.

Hopefully get the tranny pan all fixed up and sealed up and back on the truck.

Chris at Circle D wants me to double check the flexplate to converter gap and make sure its between .125 and .150, I think its more than that and might need some spacers in there.

So it will probably be at least another week until I get to see if it will move under its own power.

Thanks for the compliments and I am super excited that it all works, still pretty stoked just that everything I did worked :confused59:

Sean

Had a crazy busy week at work but I did manage to order in a few things this week. Mostly exhaust parts, but did order in this cool little catch can for the radiator.

Measured about ten different ones but ended up with this little guy from Summit Racing.

Its a great fit and was a pretty straighforward install. This area is getting a little busier than I had hoped for but trying my best to keep everything very simple and clean but still very functional.

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

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75ry5mpb.jpg

Also in some crazy feat of a miracle all of my exhaust parts showed up. I have 8' of 4" 16 guage tubing, 2 mandrel 180's 2 mandrel 90's, 2 mandrel 45's 1 4" flex coupler, 1 Dynatech race muffler, 3 hangers and a few other bits.

Trying to decide if I want to try and run 4" Exhaust up and over the axle and clear a rear mounted gas tank lowered truck and not a lot of clearance or just do a side exit angle cut in front of the passenger rear tire...

Suggestions?

Sean

Please put the 4" over the axle. This truck deserves it!

I am kind of in agreement with that but physically do not think it will fit.

4" is huge exhaust to run on a lowered truck. I will have it up on a rack around 9 this morning. Should give me a much better idea if I will be able to make it happen or not.

Sean

Could you split into smaller duels before the axle to get up and over?

Love the truck, the details and how quick it's coming together!

:thumbsup:
Dan

These trucks are my favorite vintage Ford truck. Would have been cool with Ford power but this thing is going to be insane regardless. Very excited to see it finished.

I'd run the exhaust out in front of the tire. Through the bed exit is neat too. Or just dump it under the bed.

Just read from page one... great project! Really like the way you kept it simple and just did a nice job.

Thanks Dan for the compliment and suggestion. For some reason and I think it might be my age or the era I grew up in but I am not a fan of dual exhaust. It just seems too 80's for some reason.

I looked at a couple of those but they just did not pencil out for one reason or another.

Thank you sir. I am still just a young guy building cars when it comes to others on here. I tend to like the simple cars with cool drivetrains.

I went up to my neighbor Brians place and got the truck up on the lift for the day to work on the exhaust.

It was a damn good thing too, it would have taken me 4x as long to get this done on the garage floor. Actually, I might not have been able to do it on my floor at all with the clearance needed to pull the parts and weld them out.

Turns out that it would not have worked well at all to do the side exit in front of the tire. It would have made it necessary to remove the exhaust to get to the battery and it kind of looked terrible.

I ended up running 4" from the downpipe, over the first crossmember, then to a flex pipe and hanger then a 4" Vband to split the exhaust in two pieces for removal purposes.

Then into the muffler, over the rear axle and out the passenger side between the bumper and rear tire.

It was a ridiculously tight fit getting past the tranny, over the x member and below the body then over the axle and between the spring and fuel tank.

It turned out pretty good. Under the truck has awesome ground clearance, under the tank the very rear is pretty low but still a good 5 or 6" off the ground. I am not worried at all.

Here are a few crappy pics....I am going to paint the rear most section with high temp satin black paint to make it not stand out as much.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psuej1auws.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1v7lymcm.jpg

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

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

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psda0bo1cn.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslb8v1qqc.jpg

Also pulled the tranny pan cleaned everything up and checked it for flatness and it looked good. Put the pan back on with a new non neoprene gasket.

I need to torque it in the morning and put the fluid back in there.

Tomorrow should be rearend fun...

Sean