'71 F-250 Diesel conversion and more 01/10 starting back in

[Ranchero50]

This WILL be the first one I get back together. I have a '69 fastback that I gave up on the resto nine years ago and I have a '55 Ferguson TO35 that need the sheetmetal smoothed and painted. The truck and the tractor will get done this year. I had to chase the tractor sheetmetal down from one of my paint guys that owed me, but never had the money to buy the materials.

My bodywork stuff has been gathered for a couple years. I got my little lincoln 110 to do the floors on the '69... My IR inline sander was bought off of eBay. the DA sander came from a storage sale, etc.

BTW, I didn't even go in the garage this evening. I just finished a seven on with twelve hour days and I need some rest. Tomorrow, split wood, clean out woodshed, sand truck, repeat until 3pm and go fishing

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Another update. Sanded the poor cab nearly to death, got ready to roll it out and I decided to see what else needed dont to make it run. Notice the driveshaft wasn't done, needs a bigger yoke for the tranny. Noticed the return line for the diesel looked like crap... And realised the bottom of the truck needed painted so I flipped it on it's back (naturally it hit the garage door opener) and painted it after getting the driveshaft out and the fuelline ran,



Oh yeah, I just straddled the engine and picked the cab up, it wasn't too heavy. I had to be carefull to support the back though so it wouldn't collapse.


I also remembered that I broke the old glow plug controller off while trying to remove it so I had to drill the bottom out to extract it. It's the little broke off looking thing at the back of the head.


Finally back in paint with the implement of destruction in hand.


Oldest kid came out to watch, amazing what happens when you take the video games away...


Todays project, romove stuff and prep for paint. Gonna be some rust repair on the inner fenders etc...




Sort of closeup. This roller job looks about the same as my normal spray job, just without the mess. Another nice coat this evening and the cab should be done. I'll let it sit a couple days for the paint to cur and then start putting the pedals and column stuff in. I unpacked the carpet so it can relax. Black on blue is going to look nice.


More to come.
Jamie

[fomocoguy]

That looks great! I've been seriously thinking that when I get to the point of painting my truck I'm going to give this roller business a shot. I've seen so many great looking results that it's got me convinced I can do it. I figure I'll try a panel and if I suck at it then I can always sand it and send it to someone else.

[Ranchero50]

OK, another fun day. Most of it was spent taking the front clip apart, man what a bag of poop. Lots of rust repairs.



Second good coat of paint, even did the insides of the doors so I can mount them to finish the outside bodywork.




Tomorrow after work I may roll the chassis outside and put the picnic table in it's place to do the front clip and hood prep and paint. I don't want to weld with the fresh paint in the garage and sitting outside should allow it to cure quicker. I just hope the birds don't crap all over it...

fomoco, I'd definately roll the primer out. I plan on putting a couple more coats on the outside and letting it cure over the winter before buffing it and replacing the side trim.

Jamie

[1971ford]

wow i am completely amazed by how nice that roller job is looking
can you see anything in the paint that shows it was rolled or is it completely unnoticable?
what brand of paint are you using?

[OldRedFord]

That's rolled on? Looks as good as spray. What is the color called? I know its blue but .

[Ranchero50]

Good old Rustoleum Low VOC Safety Blue from Lowes. Had to special order it for around $60 for two gallons. They stock safety red and yellow. The frame is Rustoleum Flat Black.

It's like a house wall, as long as you go over it a bunch of times really lightly as it dries the roller lines disappear. There's still a good bit of dirt in the paint, but it looks good and should buff out nicely.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

OK, last night I trimmed the tubes off of the '84 F 250 driveshaft. This evening I have to pull a differential yoke off of a newer Dana 60 so I can figure out how long the shafts need to be. Figured since I've went this far I might as well upgrade the driveshaft as well.

Pix tonight, maybe.
Jamie

[dcbullet]

Yeah, the paint in the close up looks remarkably good. I look forward to seeing it after buffing. Are you also going to wet sand prior to buffing?

[Ranchero50]

Learning a lot of stuff doing this work. Learned that Ford used tiny 3 1/4" U joints way back in '71 and the diesel tranny used 3 5/8" U joints. Spent an hour at the local Napa warehouse checking boxes for an adaptor U joint (3 1/4" on one leg, 3 5/8" on the other) and even found one, but the cap diameter was too small and it really didn't fit very well. I had also grabbed a spare driveshaft from the pile for 'just in case' purposes. After trying a couple dozen different things I finally gave up and decided to come back to it and while working on some other stuff I decided to try and use the front of the spare driveshaft, but it turned out to be too short. The rear was pretty close, but it used the big bearing U joint and my '71 rear didn't. I also didn't like the tiny 2 3/4" secondary driveshaft. In the end I took both shafts in to work one evening and used the big lathe to cut the welds out of the ends and trim the tubes to size. Then last night I went down to the farm and found a '79 Ford dana 60 with 3.07 gears in a brush pile with the bigger U joint yoke. It even has the factory rear sway bar setup. I almost mounted it in my truck, but it was a 2wd version with the spring perches way to wide for mine. So I'm going to gut that one and put it together in my case and weld on sway bar perches as well. BTW with 3.97's I'll be turning 1800rpm at 70mph...

New driveshaft mocked up... I had to remove 2" from the rear of the rear section.


The new and old. The cut tube is the old front section trimmed down to 24 1/2" to fit the new carrier bearing and front yoke. The rear shaft was a press fit, the front a little loose. I figure even if it's out of balance a little I should be able to test the fit and get better ones made down the road.


New to me rear end. Another heavy chunk of iron to move around...


More to come, I hope to get the driveshafts welded together and in the truck. I'd like to do the rear parts swap, but I think it's going to eat a whol day just doing that and I'd rather get the rear brake line installed so I can move the truck.


DC, it depends on how tough the paint gets. I'd rather wheel buff / polish it vs wet sanding. I plan on getting the column and pedals in before putting another coat on the cab.

Jamie
Jamie

[dablack00]

How did that ranchero do with that big dana 60 in the back. I can't believe you just picked it up out of a pile. I usually sell those things in houston for $200 or more to the jeep guys.

Nice job on the paint and the driveshaft. Looks like its coming together.

Austin

[H-DFord]

Im amazed at your paint job. I may try that on a swb im trying to buy. John

[Ranchero50]

Another day done. didn't get as much done as I would have liked, however...

Pushed it outside and cleaned up the mess in the garage. Started moving parts from the shed up into the garage to get the cab reassembled and relized I can't find half the stuff I took off the truck a year ago. I can't find the manual steering column bracket (have two power brackets) and I can't find any of the windshield wiper mounting hardware. I may end up with another truck just to reassemble this one.






The pictures really don't do the color justice. It is very bright in direct sunlight. The paint still has some solvent in it, it got soft when the sun was on it. I'm seriously thinking about doing the wheels blue as well.


Finally, got the rubber window gaskets out and put them on the cab to 'relax' and we put the doors on temporarily. Also managed to get the pinion nuts off of both rears with a lot of heat and got the yoke swapped. I almost welded the shafts up, but I don't like how the original front section fits loosely on the U joint yokes. I think I'm going to cut down another new shaft to get a press fit before welding them together.


Tomorrow I hope to get the steering column back together and maybe installed. The '69 mustang rim blow wheel needs restored so I'll probably just put a three spoke wheel on for now.

dablack, the ranch didn't notice it too much, it's only 300 or so pounds and the trucks had 1570lbs of aluminum and copper on it at one time. I was out at Lowes this evening and they had a crumpled can of gloss white for $13... Two tone anyone?

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

I'm just missing a bunch of stupid odds and ends... I need to make new gaskets for the wiper holes (missing one) and figure out which bolts go where. I finally dumped out seven yellow bins on some cardboard and started organizing the hardware by size and type. I'm missing 6 of the clips for the transmission hump and I don't have long enough bolts for the cab mounts since it's raised (I thought they were 1/2", but are threaded for 7/16). I want the cab bolted down, the steering and pedals hooked up, the windshield wiper and firewall blanket installed, then maybe the heater stuff. I got the fuel tank out and found the missing mounting bolts and retainer clips. Found the seat tracks and seat belt stuff as well. Part of me wants the carpet in so I have something soft to work on. Found where a cat had been sleeping on the seat thank God it didn't piss on anything.

I'm off to the junk yard for the column bracket and handfulls of hardware. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I need to get the outside work done today.

Yippee,
Jamie

[Ranchero50]

OK, well I got the column assy installed. Ironically the stupid bracket was laying right next to the truck the whole time, sitting on the gas pedal assy...

I started to restore the rim blow steering wheel as well.

The pedal assy is in and the firewall blanket is installed. I ended up using some spare push clips from a newer F series to hold the blanket against the cowl.

Jamie