sharing the joy - 352 is in and running

[flyboy2610]

[Whoaaanelly]

Well, here's where I am as of last night. I have yet to drive it yet, but I'm getting close. The entire front end is now bolted back on and I installed my $25 Pull-a-Part bumper and "sanitized" grille. I just straightened it and repainted the red and black areas. And repainted the Ranger badge, which turned out awesome too, I might add. I've squirted Satin Black on the hood and fenders and will do the cab and bed next so I can get some mirrors installed and take it on a test drive.

This is just a brief clean-up for the truck now that all the mechanical and electrical work has been redone. It really needs a new bed, so I'm not going to do much to it for now other than blacken the sides.

I'm going to be working on a step-by-step of all the work done when I get a chance to breathe a little.

[dcbullet]

That looks really, really good. What ignition did you use?

[mjhaltom]

Sweet ride. The Gold and black is the bee knees!

[Whoaaanelly]

That looks really, really good. What ignition did you use?

I've started it with points and condensor to begin with because it's easy to "static time" the engine for the initial start up if you do that.

I wanted it to start and run right out of the gate, which it almost did. I had exchanged the intake to this "S" manifold as I noted in my first post and used the hot-water carb spacer that was on the truck. What I neglected to notice was the fact that the carb spacer had a extension out the back for the vacuum hook-up for the PCV, which the original manifold had accommodations for that the "S" manifold didn't. So I had a MASSIVE vacuum leak when it first fired. I removed the spacer and broke in the cam with no further issues.

Anyway, I'll probably convert either to Pertronix (easiest) or to DuraSpark at some point. It has an aftermarket Accel coil, but I doubt it's adding much. I don't really have a lot of issue with points since it's not a racing motor. I added the later model cap and rotor... because I have a few of these laying around... and could. I've got the big rubber booty too, which I'll put on just for show.

[trukcrazy]

That is looking really good. It is always fun seeing a truck going together.

[Whoaaanelly]

Yeah, I always like to look at other people taking what was succumbing to decay and turning it back into something viable.

This truck, though not as far gone as some I've seen, was certainly on the far-end of a downhill slide when I grabbed it. People, of course, always look at me as if I'm crazy when I do this sort of thing (this is obviously NOT the first time I've done this sort of thing), but they never, ever, question my ability to do what I set out doing. My problem is I've not got the space to leave something undone for long, so when I get started I usually have to see the end from the beginning and know where the cut-off date is (which is this Friday, by the way). I'm not going to do a decent paint job on this for a while, anyway, but the rest of it is (has gotten) a significant overhaul. I have a car that has to be garaged, so the truck is going only this far (to point of spraying it with Rustoleum) before the winter hits again. Good thing here is that I can touch it up anytime I want with a rattle-can.

[Whoaaanelly]

Well, I took it for a drive tonight after getting all the exterior painted the satin black and installing my ebay Ford mirrors. It was getting too dark to take pictures, so I'll do that when I get back from a little trip I'm going on (not with it). It drives great, and oh it's got some nice low-end I haven't felt in some time. Can't wait to tweak it a bit more and get the stereo in. Maybe some flames on the side. It's official also... it's called Darth Forder. So perhaps I'll start a new thread when I get back with a lot of pictures of everything it's had done.

Have a good weekend.