1969 Ranger - Project Glory Days!

[FormerMarine1981]

Man that looks nice. can't wait to see more.

[rattlecan]

Dang! Nice work! I wish my wife would help lower my engine in one of my projects!

[FormerMarine1981]

Dang! Nice work! I wish my wife would help lower my engine in one of my projects!

No Kidding, I had to buy my wife a project car to get her to help me spin wrenches!

[tylerb43]

HA! I'm very lucky in that my wife understands that shop time makes me happy/tolerable. (but believe me, there's a limit - as always). And she was just pushing a lever...but I counted it as help. She usually can't stand being in the shop because of the mess!

Mess? What mess? There are two types of piles - work done (old parts) and work to do (new parts). Now I think that's pretty organized, right? That's no mess.

[67fordman1]

Man, your project is looking great! Makes me want to start on my old 67, dangit!!

[flyboy2610]

Mess? What mess? There are two types of piles - work done (old parts) and work to do (new parts). Now I think that's pretty organized, right? That's no mess.

Sounds like my son's room! "I know right where everything is, dad! On the floor.... somewhere."

[70 f-100 ranger xlt]

Very nice work on the truck! Love watching your step by step restoration project!! I have a 70 f-100 Ranger XLT that I am starting to get the itch!!!! Very nice keep up the great work buddy!!

[Florian]

Awesome work, looks fantastic!

[tylerb43]

Wow, thanks for compliments! They are much appreciated and sure keep a guy motivated to keep this thing moving!

I've been working on the shop a little, preparing for the "body work" portion of the build. I installed a new air line system (Duratec from Rapidair Systems) and I'm sectioning off one bay of the shop so I can cut/grind/weld and sand without getting crap everywhere. I also bought Eastwood's Dual Blaster and started soda blasting on the cab yesterday. It's slow going, but I'll get there!

[tylerb43]

Well, I finally got the DS floorpan welded in! Now I'm trying to locate the cab mount, but all my reference marks have been cleaned/sanded/blasted away! So I was hoping someone could help my with a measurement or something?? The good thing about these DC mounts, is that the mount hole isn't drilled. I'll drill them on the frame, which gives me a little room to fudge the location here. I really don't how there's a way to get this perfect anyway after replacing the floor.

Thoughts??

[tylerb43]

This measurement would be very helpful, if someone has access to factory floor that isn't rotted away!

Thank you!!

[F100builder]

It looks to me like what you have there would be fine. I just went out and measured mine...the driver's side is a fat 1/4" while the passenger side is about 1/8". Like you said, the holes aren't drilled yet so you're going to have a little fudge room. I would measure the mounts on the frame side-to-side and then somehow front to back or better yet, diagonally to get it real close.

I've seen where a few guys have temporarily placed the cab back on the frame and dropped bolts into the rear mounts to locate it. Then, the panels are tacked in place and finish welded with the cab off again. While this is a good idea, I don't think it's 100% necessary. If you can read a tape measure, you can do it as I'm sure, given the position that the cab is in now, you don't want to wrestle it back onto the frame! At least I wouldn't!

One question...are those panels primered on the inside? If not, I'd throw some on there along with some Rustoleum or some sort of paint to keep the rust at bay. If you had any welding primer, that would be optimum but if you're going to plug weld it, you should keep the heat to a minimum so regular primer should be ok if you can follow it up with a good dousing of primer/paint later. Good luck and as always, it's looking great!!!

[stephen44]

I think I did some measurements for mine whilst doing the same - i'll try and dig them out and post here

[tylerb43]

Excellent! Thanks guys. Looks like I'm close anyway. Stephen if you find your notes, please post them just to double check us, thanks man!

Patrick - Great idea to triangulate the locations from the frame holes! Duh, don't know why that didn't hit me yet, two heads are better than one!

The replacement mounts are not primed yet, they're naked steel right now. I've got Eastwood's new self-etching weld through primer, it's a weld thru that excepts a top coat really well apparently. I planned on priming the inside of the mounts with that, and once it's welded in place, I've got some brushable seem sealer I'm going to goop on all the joints and welds.

I'm not sure what I'm going to use to top coat the entire floor bottom yet, any idea? My leading thought right now is to use Rustoleum primer and then Rubberized undercoating. I figured this would help with durability and also some sound insulation. Or do you guys think this will look too much like a crappy cover-up kind of paint job? (only going to do the bottom of the cab)

Rustoleum apparently has a new Automotive line of products they're pretty proud of.

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=378

[stephen44]

I think I did some measurements for mine whilst doing the same - i'll try and dig them out and post here

should be able to post tonight !