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

[sargentrs]

Looks like brand new!

[dftuttle]

That's beautiful work. I'd be proud of that. Most people, myself included, would just find another fender that's in better shape.
My older brother builds aluminum racecar bodies by hand & that is every bit as nice as his work. To bad he moved his shop from the Valley to NorCal. I could use some of that equipment right about now.
It's a lot harder to work with that 45 year hunk of steel you started with then with a flat sheet of 5051 T3. One of the tricks I never mastered was getting rid of the oil canned spots.
Like I said, Be Proud of your work!
I you want more practice, I'll bring my pile down for a visit!

[Heirloom]

Thanks everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The fender sure feels like a victory. Good mojo moving into the new year.

Nothing wrong with finding good fenders. My thing is that I have swapped fenders before. Can do it blind folded. I needed to do something new, expand my portfolio so to speak. Bodywork is really the 'last frontier' for me in the automotive world. It was a logical move....to me at least.

Lol, sorry guys, I have plenty to keep me busy for a long while. There are a total of three complete Ford trucks plus one in pieces around here that need my attention. Plus, someday my Dad will start his Chevy project and I assume he will need some metal work.

Next part I'll work on is going to be the inner fender on the same side, the drivers side. Some time in the past someone thought it was a great idea to blow a couple big holes in the core support and one inner fender with a torch






Here are the core support holes. Almost big enough for intercooler piping....which got me day dreaming...






While I have the fender off it makes sense to pull the inner fender and get it fixed up. I will need to go get some 16 gauge for this....well, maybe. I might have something in the scrap pile.

[Heirloom]

Work begins on the inner fender.











The clip openings have worn extensively. I will be fixing them up.





Another shot of the extra vent hole a PO cut.





I washed the entire part with Dawn dish soap first. Then I took a big angle grinder with a 6" wire cone and went over the whole thing top and bottom. After that I took a Makita random orbital sander with a 40 grit disk to it. That's when I took this pic. There are some areas that need more sanding, but it's to a point where I can fix this thing up first.




Since I will be doing welding anyhow, I figured I would go ahead and fill all the misc. holes that are not needed. I'll be using the classic tack weld a bolt in the hole, cut it off, weld it solid and grind it smooth method. Tedious and mind numbing.






I think it's beer-thirty

[Heirloom]

19 out of 21 holes filled today, including the big one.









Anyone remember the movie 'Hell Raiser'?






The distributor came today. I must say I am pleased with it, barring any failures. The machining is nice, tolerances seem great, the cap stays on nice and solid, the wires and crimps in the connector look good. I think I love it. We'll see how it runs, though I suspect it will be great. She sure is a big-un. It would be a problem if I had to run minimal carb spacer and a drop base air cleaner. But I don't need to since we have miles of hood clearance.







The next pics show how close an air cleaner gets. One is with a drop base, the other with a regular base. I am going to run as much carb spacer as I can get away with. I want to add some plenum volume. That will help with the clearance. Except for that minor non issue, it's awesome. I should note the carb is sitting on a 1" spacer for the pics.

[sargentrs]

That's some great detail work there, Josh! And that dizzy looks awesome on your engine. Follows the red/white/blue scheme well.

[Heirloom]

No pics today. I didn't do any body work. But I did go to the JY and picked up a few essentials. PS and Alt bracket set ups and a fan and spacer. I also stopped in San Diego's best hardware store, K Surplus, and picked up the rest of the allen head hardware I'm using. K Surplus is the best. They sell by the pound and have nearly everything and then some. I spent $10 and got extra engine hardware, a stash of 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 & 7/16 flat washers and some other none truck related hardware.

I'll be finishing up the motor and inner fender this weekend. Pics most likely on Sunday.

[Heirloom]

Got the motor pretty much done. It's all sealed up. I have a few paint touch ups to do, as well as clean and paint the other half of the PS bracket. I need to get a 2" spacer and studs for the carb. The valve covers are pretty polished for being cheap Ebay units, not bad for $80. And somehow I miscounted and ended up 2 3/8" allen cap bolts short. So the two pulley bolts will soon have the other correct pair.








Getting ready to drill check oil pressure

[pincheweddo]

That's quite the patriotic motor you have there. My guess it is made in the good o'l US of A. Looks awesome!

[pincheweddo]

[ Image ]
[ Image ]
While I have the fender off it makes sense to pull the inner fender and get it fixed up. I will need to go get some 16 gauge for this....well, maybe. I might have something in the scrap pile.

Back in the day during the winter time there were a couple of locations to set a 12 pack of beer under the hood. Good air flow got it cooled quicker.

[Heirloom]

I finished up the the inner and outer fender and slapped it back on. That fender is now the nicest panel on the truck

I had some spare white spray can so I decided to quick paint the inner fender to sort of seal it for now. The front light wiring is just floating up there for a little while. I plan to extend and re-route the wiring to hide it. I will probably route it down to the frame, tucked in the frame channel, then up between the core support and grill. Clean and hidden.

My Uncle and I spent about 1/2 day working on my very worn out hood hinges. All the rivet pivots were sloppy and some of the bracket tweaked. We forged the rivets with some careful (very hard) blows to swell them a bit and straightened everything as best as we could. In the end they came out very usable. I still would like new hinges, but these are certainly working OK. My hood lines up better than it did by far now and it settles in the rear (cowl area) when bringing the hood down and giving it a lite side to side shake.

Sorry about the picture quality. The camera was not on a HQ setting I guess.

[sargentrs]

Good job, Josh! Looks nice and neat.

[Mancar1]

Very good work, I am enjoying following along.
Every time my youngest daughter visits, (she is 37), she brings weird ass scary movies so I can watch them with her. Kind of what has become a father/daughter bonding thing So yes I remember the movie HellRaiser.

[Heirloom]

Very good work, I enjoying following along.
Every time my youngest daughter visits, (she is 37), she brings weird ass scary movies so I can watch them with her. Kind of what has become a father/daughter bonding thing So yes I remember the movie HellRaiser.

Hahaha that's great. I knew someone would know it. My Dad introduced my Sister and I to a lot of movies. My Sister is now a cult moviephile. Me? Not so much. Hollywood has always been too Holly-wierd for me.

[Heirloom]

I am now accepting donations in the form of Dura-Gold 150/220/320 grit PSA longboard rolls, 1" Frogtape and 1/4" 3m fine line tape. I am soooo close to being able to order some Eastwood Epoxy primer and a seam sealer kit that I can almost smell the catalyst.

Also on the immediate future/need list is a complete set of Prothane or Energy body mounts and new hardware, bed included. Gotta have the cab and bed lined up right to lay down straight/matching blue-wht and wht-red transitions.

My plan is to build a 20x30 booth from PCV and 4mil plastic. I would like to do it in a way that I can break it down and reuse it on other projects. I've priced the materials I would need to buy (pvc, fittings, plastic, tape, screw in eyelets and wire) at about $130. Vented with filtered air made from HVAC filters, a box, ducting and a cage fan I already own. I intend to make the booth a rectangular box, tape the pvc connections and use the eyelets and wire to X brace it. 20x30 will give me lots of moving room and space to layout lots of parts at one time. I thought about doing it hoop house or Quonset hut style, but you lose sq/ft because of the low rounded sides.