Heirlooms '68 F250 - 2500 miles later.....

[LANCE65]

You're doing a great job!...question, why didn't you have the heads machined for screw in rocker studs/guide plates? That would make your vavletrain adjustable.

[Heirloom]

You're doing a great job!...question, why didn't you have the heads machined for screw in rocker studs/guide plates? That would make your vavletrain adjustable.

Thank you!

Simply put: $$$

The cost of the additional machining would put these heads too close to aftermarket heads. The Scorpion stud mounts are a little cheaper than the pedestal mounts ($245 vs. $256) but the machine work is what did it. Plus, using more expensive rocker arms from comp or crane was out of the question. Building an engine is always an exercise in compromise. A lot of the money spent on the heads was directly related to the valves, and for good reason. Instead of adjustable top end I choose to carefully match the decks and head thickness' so that geometry would be very very close from side to side. No extra cost since the heads were being surfaced anyways. Carefully set up I think it will serve with out a hitch. Adjustable would be nice but I felt that, for this application and budget, it was something that could be left out.

[72stepside]

It all looks good so far. You really ought to let me save you from putting those 8 lug slot mags on the truck!!!!!!

I would love to find a good set of those but they simply do not exist around here.

[Heirloom]

It all looks good so far. You really ought to let me save you from putting those 8 lug slot mags on the truck!!!!!!

I would love to find a good set of those but they simply do not exist around here.

Thank you!

I plan on using them

I'm ashamed to admit that I let a set go to the shredder at the junk yard a couple months ago. I wanted to pick them up, but didn't need them & didn't know anyone else would want them. Couldn't justify it at the time. But, if you are seriously interested I will keep my eyes open for more. They do show up from time to time around here. If some pop up I'll PM you.

[Heirloom]

I picked up some metal today to fabricate the seat mount bracket. 1" square tube, 2 1/2 x 1/4 'L' or angle stock, a little 2" x 1/4 flat stock, and a little 1 1/2 angle 'L'


Mock and block the seat into it's rough location.




Check out the situation. Figure out HOW your going to mount it. In this case it will be very easy to remove the feet from each corner, leaving a flat slider rail to deal with.







I notched the rear brackets to fit in as close as possible.













Next up is modifying the seat sliders to mate up with the 1" square rails. Each seat has two sliders, each slider has two 'feet' riveted on, some are welded too. So I will be cutting the rivets and taking the feet off. That will leave nice, matching flat sliders that are on the same plane....easy for mounting! I'll be reusing one hole from each foot/slider location to pass a bolt through the slider rail and through the 1" square stock. It couldn't get much easier!

[Heirloom]

Good progress on the bucket install today. Both are bolted in solid. I have work left to do on the mounting frame, fit & finish mostly but also adding some strategic mount spots for interior finish pieces and other features.

I started with removing the feet that were riveted on the rails as well as the bracket that holds electrical connectors.



Then I drilled out the two holes I chose use to 5/16 to accommodate the 5/16 X 2" stainless steel bolts. I tacked the bolts in to act as studs. If you wish to duplicate this I would recommend using 1 3/4" bolts rather than 2". I had to trim the two inner bolts on each seat to clear the floor.



Then I reassembled the seats



After marking and drilling the holes the seats dropped in. I had to shim approx. 3/16" under each rail (two washers) to provide a truly flat mating surface. The seats rail has a slight contour and is not 100% flat. When I disassemble next time I will weld in 3/16 X 3/4" flat stock strips on the bottom of each rail to make it solid and not shimmed weird. But for the next couple months it's good enough.



I have fit and finish work left. You can see the cut made to clear the fuel line. I'm going to weld in a 1" square tube on top of the two 1" square rail mounts just outside of the seats. The purpose is a hand hold bar for getting out. My hand automatically wants to reach down next to the seat to brace and pivot myself out. The square tube will do great. Once those are in on each side I will trim the square rail mount tubes flush with my hand bar and cap them. I will also be trimming the large L brackets to be a little more attractive but still very strong. Under the seats there is room for a little storage. I can weld in some 16ga across the bottom of the large L bracket mounts, thus extending the under seat storage pocket. Looks about right for a first aid kit Of course I will be keeping in mind I need to fit my seat belt retractors in.



The seats slide forward about 5 inches or so and that gives enough room for a decent recline....for a regular cab truck with a cab tank. Slid all the way back the seats have a comfortable recline. Not laid back, not upright rigid, but it is adjustable. I love it!!!





I have buckets!!!

But I still have to deal with seat belts. The seats have belt mounts for the inner 'female' seat belt receiver. Since my current belts don't click into the seat mounted receivers, I will be modifying things a bit and making custom belts. It's not for the feint of heart and I wouldn't recommend someone do it. But I do have access to the proper materials, commercial sewing machines and know how. Please don't ask if I will make you custom belts, I will respectfully decline. Short term I will be adapting my two point lap belts. Three point shoulder belts will come later.


While I had the seats apart I inspected how the upholstery was done. It will actually be very easy to strip, pattern, sew and recover them.

[sargentrs]

Congrats! Great work.

[F100builder]

Looks comfy. Nice work!

[ta TACO]

Hey Chad,

Great work. I saw you were looking at seat belts next. Here is the thread I used to get the belt I have.
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... seat+belts
I love the belts, but I would recommend getting these https://www.gotbelts.com/retractable-la ... 81/view/78. I'm getting irritated by the buckle portion always slipping, causing the buckle to be on my belly button. I think the plastic extended portion would resolve this issue. Just some food for thought. Hope this gives direction.

Davin.

[Heirloom]

To my knowledge I'm not now, nor have I ever been Chad. Don't think I've publicly disclosed my name here. FWIW I'm Josh. Maybe Chad has the F600 cluster we were talking about?? Maybe less Tacos and more Drugs??? LOL!!! J/K

But if you're talking about about my work here. Thanks! I am building up pictures for an update. It might come by the weekend. Keep your eyes open for it...I'm pretty pleased with the work I've been doing the last couple days......

[Heirloom]

I knew I wanted a console. I looked at consoles on line for days. Watched all the video's I could stand. Knowing that a custom console built for me would likely cost $600-1000+ I was willing to jump in and try making a console, not just a box, a sculpted custom console. Most all consoles I saw served their purpose. Many seemed to have 100% function, 0% form. I am all for as functional as possible but I also like a healthy dose of form thrown in too.

So this is the first time I have attempted as detailed a wood project as this, and the first time I have tried making a console. I started, of course, with looking at the lines in the truck and the lines of the seats. From there I had a rough vision of what I wanted. So step two then is start making templates












After getting things roughed out I transferred over to hardboard to work with a more rigid template.



I picked up some indoor/outdoor glue to glue and nail it together. I ended up switching to glue and screw because the nails were just not strong enough. I split MDF in a couple spots before getting my pre drill the right size. No biggie, they are not going to be a problem. I started building the console from the rear forward. I need to build it in two pieces otherwise I will never get it to go in. The rear section houses a single 10" sub-woofer, a 'stuff' pocket and covers/beautifies the exposed tank area. I built the basic sub enclosure first.










After massaging the hardboard side template to my final liking, I transferred over to 1/2" MDF and cut both sides out at the same time.







After marking screw locations I pre drilled both sides....




Then routed the edges. On the out side top edges I routed a step into the sides. Later when I upholster it, I will place closed cell dense foam on the sides right up the the step. This will give a nice touch in the end.




Now assemble the sides to the sub box....




And test fit.




Note that with two metal angle brackets screwed to the back of the console I can bolt it right to the old middle seat belt holes.




And I will also make brackets to bolt the front of the rear section to the forward seat mount bar. Oops, there's my pre drill screw up. Not a big concern.




Now to add the bracing for the top.....




My original plan was to make it as easy as possible and not form a top to match side contours. I was just going to do straight panels. However.....

I used to have neighbors that were sign makers. They moved sever months ago and left us a bunch of random materials. One was a used sheet of 1/4" PVC plastic with a brass sheet spray glued to it. I peeled the brass off and had a form-able top material.




This is a test to see if it reacted the way I expected. I did




Here is the rear section ready for a top....












Here I have cut the hole for the sub. I also made provisions for wire access. The diamond shaped hole in the middle is to run wire through, but also for hand access into that dead space. The four central screws are temporary; they will later be replaced with T-nuts for bolts. That will be the bolt together for the rear and front sections.




Looking good! I am using regular sheet rock screws to keep the top panel on. When I upholster it I will punch holes in the upholstery and use a nice allen cap screw to hold the panels down. I could have hidden hardware or glued the top on, but I sort of wanted to add a utility look in there as well. Being able to remove the tops makes building, mounting, modifying and removing a lot easier.










With the rear section pretty close to done I could begin on building the front section. Again I started with the soft templates, then moved to hardboard templates. Finally I could cut out the sides. These were trickier in getting them to match up. The drivers side extends considerably further down to the floor, where as the passenger side runs right along the top edge of the tranny tunnel. Plus, the drivers side area the meets the dash is right at the funny curve of the lower dash.

After massaging, fitting, modifying, fitting, cursing, modifying.......it came together.....






I built the rear of the front section just a little over sized. After assembling the front and screwing the two halves together I sanded the over sized section down to meet up perfectly with the rear half. Ok, perfect is not attainable, but it's pretty good I think.










In the vertical part, just under the dash I will install auxiliary gauges and switches. In the vast flat horizontal section I will 'french' in a B&M Star Shifter and two double step type cup holders. In the dead space under the console I plan to mount an amp, fuse blocks and other wiring stuff. The heater box outlet was an issue. Then I decided I would find appropriate 'accordion' rectangle hose (think factory air cleaner to fresh air box) and secure/seal it to the outlet and extend it over to blow where it should.

The upholstery is not set in stone yet, but it has morphed since my CAD drawing. Right now I'm thinking the sides will be blue, the top black. As for the seats, blue with black inserts. Blue painted dash with black dash pad. What y'all think???

[Calfdemon]

Uh... WOW!

[sargentrs]

Great job! Can't wait to see the finished product. And thanks for the tutorial on "How to Build a Custom Console"!

[Heirloom]

Thank you Rich and Randy!

Not a great tutorial though. Just a loose follow along. There are important details you need to keep in mind while building that I didn't talk about. Like accounting for the thickness of upholstery materials and building in such a way that you don't build yourself into a corner you can't upholster etc. Notice I didn't do hinged lids, pop ups or anything like that. I wanted to keep it fairly simple since this is my first one. Things I learned on this (and any subsequent build) will make any future consoles even better. By making and keeping my hardboard templates I can build another console easily and customize it differently. My Dad has an early 50's Chevy Sedan Delivery (I think that's what it is) that he is going to start working on this Summer. He hasn't said much about what is going on in his head regarding what he wants to do, but now he knows a custom console is easily attainable!

[LANCE65]

That is turning out SWEET! Cant wait to see the final product!