Projects 1937 Ford Pickup Build | Project FUBAR

Greaat post hope you keep it going. Roger

 

Thanks Tom!! I guess I will target August 3rd (my birthday) for the first fire. Decided to take a week vacation in May to see how much I can knock off the punch list.

Gracias Señor!

 

Awesome work. Thanks for reminding the that I am a complete amateur.

 

Way cool build!

 

68_F100...you just won the quote of the year award. Funny stuff! kippers 34 makes me feel like an amateur with his 36 ford custom build.

 

Great work, nice truck.
I know my vote doesn't count but I like the middle finishing washer.

 

This all looks sooo familiar...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/new-project-37-ford-pickup.271673/

-KK

 

Cook truck KK. I have no idea how you shoe-horned that big GM steering box while keeping exhaust clearance.

 

Thanks JL. You're doing an excellent job with yours, and I'm following along with interest. The 605 box was what the owner wanted, so a way had to be devised. I made a head pipe out of mandrel bent tubing that goes as far forward as practical to keep the heat away from the box. I had both head pipes ceramic coated as well to keep everything happy in there. Aside from that, it wasn't too tight.



-KK

 

Still shocked it all fit even after seeing your picture. Good idea to ceramic coat the headers - I'm worried about heat getting to the box as well. We shall see... I used corn head grease in the box to keep oil from running out the bottom.

Your vote counts...I decided to go with the middle finishing washer. Good eye! My sisters a interior designer and she steers me straight with colors too.

 

Huge update this time. Feeling good about the build, but getting it done before my high school reunion is not looking feasible. I took 4 days of vacation to get the frame and components painted. MASSIVE thanks to my dad “skipper” for helping me on my days off. We put in A LOT of hours in 4 days to get everything painted.


Firewall Electrical Connectors…
I’ve been planning on getting a quick disconnect so I can easily tear the cab off the truck. Not planning to paint the body fenders right away, so this will help when it comes time to dis-assemble and paint.

These are TC connectivity Series 4 Connectors. I looked into these quite a bit and found high current pins etc… If anyone wants info on these, just let me know and I will post up all the details. Ive got lots of info…engineering overkill!









Firewall Bondo…
This is all skippers handy work. I’ve got the fab work down pat and he’s got the eye for body work. The firewall and is going to look trick with the aluminum inserts (steering pass thru and firewall connectors). So much so…that I decided to hake the hood sides off to show off our handy work.








Pre-paint Frame Work…
I spent around a day final welding the frame. Also had to locate the front/rear bump stops. To make sure everything was clean, we acid washed the frame with phosphoric acid. Pretty neat stuff and it pulled the rust out of some of the frame pits etc…

Motor mounts


Frame center section


Brake Booster removable brace


Front rear leaf spring mount


Rear leaf spring mount


Front Oil Filter Mount. Pretty sure you could tow my truck from this sucker. haha



Rear Bump Stops


Front Bump Stops




PAINT!!!!!!!!!
I bought a Devilbiss Finishline 4 gun to paint the frame with. We used a 1.8mm nozzle to spray the Master series paint, but I think we needed a bigger nozzle because it was so thick. It sprayed much better when we thinned it but had to go over the recommended 10%. You can really lay this stuff down thick without getting runs…and it lays smooth with a good heavy coat. We did two coats of the Master Series Sealer (silver) and one Gloss black. Between the frame and all the hanging parts, we used 1.5 quarts of silver and 1 black.

Devilbiss HVLP









Parts ready for paint





This mater series paint is tough stuff…don’t get it on your hands. Couldn’t get it off my hands for a week.



First test drive, fred flinstone style.


My dad painting a wagon for my nephews 1st birthday. Came out REALLY nice.






Now that the frame and parts are done, it’s time to plumb brakes and re-assemble! FINALLY! Although, I kind of miss the raw steel fab look. J











My rear end issue has been a mess with axle and backing plate mis-match issues. Finally decided to jump ship and get a rear end narrowed. Found and bought a 1987 E150 van rear end for $125. 1987 was the year I was born, so thats cool!!!

 

Looking REAL GOOD there youngster.

 

THANKS loudbang


Short update this month. Haven’t been able to devote much time recently.

FIREWALL…
Lets start by saying my dads pretty incredible. He turned himself loose and painted the firewall for me. It looks fantastic, far nicer anything I could have done. So…thanks POP (aka Skipper!)







I bought some Summit 5/16 copper-nickel line from summit for the fuel and trans cooler line. I was impressed with this stuff. It was just as easy to bend as the 3/16 steel brake line. To un-roll the coil, I put the free end under the truck tire and simply un-rolled it across the shop floor. Splurge on this stuff, it will make your life easy! And no fatigue cracking issues like regular copper.






Final installation of transmission! Shes ready to fire up!



I still remain HUGELY disappointed with both chassis engineering and ECI brake “kits”. Problem after problem…little things that add up to be a pain. 1st a rear leaf spring kit that requires you to chop the corners off your rear fenders, then the swaybar alignment issue, and now I ran into issues with the steering arms. Lots of interference issues with the ECI brake rotors/pads, but I won’t dive into that .

First … grease fitting interference. I had to re-drill the lower fitting and was able to use a 45deg fitting on the top. They should have at least provided enough clearance to use 90degree fittings…but I was forced to re-drill.
Second…the steering bump stops no longer work. The lower rear steering arm bolt/nut hits the drop axle BEFORE the stock bump stop. This problem could have been easily avoided with a thinner lock nut etc…
Last…The perch bolts do not have a hole drilled for the cotter pin. Small issue, but it’s a huge pain to drill a hole in a bolt when you don’t have a mil or good drill press. Plus this is a hardened perch bolt.

Here are some pictures of the front end final assembly.





Finally a snazzy rolling chassis. Motor goes in this week for final plumbing of trans cooler lines. Still have the rear end mess to deal with also.

 

Great job

 

Enjoying your build.

 

Real great that you have your "pops" around to lend a hand enjoy this time while you can.

 

Here is a pic of my pops, an automotive selfie showing off his paint work. A little orange peel, but it looks great! Single stage gloss black auto paint from napa.

 

Shot this time lapse a while back but finally finished editing the video. Thanks to old man skipper (my dad) for helping with the assembly. Took us 8.5 hours!

More updates to hopefully follow this week!

 

Awesome video.

 

I’ve slacked off on updates. Quite a few pictures on this post.

It took me a while to figure out what to do with the steering bump stops. Had an ‘AH-HA’ moment one morning and thought of a simple way using washers and the stock bump stop nuts.

First I took different washer sizes and tacked them onto the end of the stock bump stop. Turned the wheels back and forth to see if the tires hit the frame. In this picture, you can see where it presses against the outer spindle. At full lock it leaves about 0.5” between the frame and tire.



Once I found the right size, I welded them all together.


Then chucked them up on a drill and ground the OD round. My dad has a big belt sander with a backstand idler that runs 142” belts. 40 grit zirconium will make short work of just about anything, fingers and knuckles included.


Completed with some Seymour stainless steel paint.

 

Part 2 Update for 9/12/2015.

Rear End saga…
The ford 9” that came in the truck had had different offset axles on the left/right. Replacement axles are typically cheap, but I would I couldn’t use cut-to-fit axles since I couldn’t find any offered with a 5 on 5.5” bolt pattern. Way too late to swap bolt patterns since I want to use old Kelsey Hayes artillery wheels.

So…I bought a complete 69” E-150 rear end with plans to narrow it. Took it to a rear end guy thinking the axles could be cut down…only to find out that they couldn’t. The shaft diameter inboard of the existing splines is too small to be re-splined. So…back to square 1 with finding axles. Live and learn.

Before I realized I might not be using the E-150 rear end, I rebuilt the brakes – 2nd set on this build. If I don’t get the right offset axles, I might end up needing a 3rd set of brakes. :-/

Rusty and worn out brakes from the E-150 rear end.


I welded up the backing plats and ground them smooth (they had grooves worn in before welding).


Drum brake assembly finish painted and assembled


Installed the bed one last time to measure the rear width. Final width will be 59.5 inches and I will use 0.25” spacers on each side if I want to push the wheels out further.



Cab wood supports…
When I test fit the cab, we used paint sticks to shim up the cab for clearance to the running boards. Both sides needed 0.4-0.5” at the back and 0.25 at the front.

For the permanent install, I cut tapered shims then glued and nailed them to the exiting wood supports.


The top surface needed to be flat to fit the cab, I used a long strip of sandpaper on the floor to sanded them flat (left-overs from the belt sander). This worked great!!


Final Cab Install…
FINALLY, the cab is going on for good!



Firewall Pass-Thrus…
The raw aluminum theme has sort of spread throughout the truck. The dash, firewall parts, and I will most likely make something aluminum for the air cleaner.


A shots of the steering column lock and the wheel.




Door Install and Alignment…
The doors are back on and aligned. More or less, we pushed and pulled on the doors until the jams were consistent. Pretty crude process, but it’s no worse than the way old Henry Ford used to do it! Here is a pic of the passenger door finished up.


The door striker plates and alignment wedges needed some work on the drivers side. My dad exercised his grinding skills to make a new lower key.


Alignment piece installed and ready for paint.



FINAL Motor Install…
Got the motor installed for the last time!!!!! Now all the detail work, spark plugs, radiator hoses, linkages, wiring etc…







Here is some photos of the completed chassis before installing the cab. Got my dads 37 pickup and one of his sprint cars in the shot. It’s a sprint car originally built by Joe Gertler.

 

Hot rod parts are worse than a smoking addiction - I just spent way too much on spark plug wiring... Hopefully it will give the engine a slick vintage look! May splurge on some billet CVF racing pulleys too - its a slippery slope. haha

To keep the wire routing clean, I found Squeeg's aluminum extruded plug wire mounts. Fits nice with my raw aluminum theme on the engine/firewall.
Black/Red cloth covered wire from The Hot Rod Company - Spiral wound suppression core so it will work with my Pertronix Ignitor II distributor setup.
http://www.squeegshotrodconnection.com/product/ford-small-block-plug-wire-kit/




For the spark plug and distributor boots, I went with standard stuff from Taylor wire. 135 degree spark plug boots and 90 degree distributor boots.

Will post some pics once I get everything routed!

 

Its been WAY too long since I’ve updated. Never a dull moment in life! Since my last post, I went on a last minute trip to Peru and did a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu. We also rented motorcycles and rode around to see the Incan ruins near Cusco. This trip burned 7 vacation days…so I haven’t had much truck time! A new gal is in the mix too…and no…she didn’t follow me home from Peru. hahaha

Salkantay Trek – Peru
A few highlight pics from the trip!
Salkantay Pass


Our hiking mascot, Jose


Salkantay Mountain


Machu Picchu


Dirt biking…in the middle of nowhere.


Now for some truck updates!

Dash…
My dad put a grain finish into the dash. He started with a hand block and 120 grit paper, but ended up using a flap wheel on a die grinder. We put Gibbs oil on afterwards to keep it from tarnishing over time.


Installed dash – I ended up adding a starter button which is essentially a neutral safety switch trigger.



Firewall connectors…
These turned out great. Being a design/engineering guy, I planned and bought pin connectors for the firewall. These were TC connectivity connectors with 4 power feeds and multiple low power feeds (>23A). My dad made the mounting pieces for mounting them at an angle on the firewall. I really like how these turned out! One of those finishing details that turned out great!










Wiring…
I’ve spent bookoos of hours wiring but I think its starting to pay off.

Trying to keep things clean where I can.





WOVEN SHRINK tubing…from www.wirecare.com. This stuff is awesome! Looks trick along with the F6 woven wrap.


I made an aluminum plate for the battery cut-off switch. Best I could think of to keep the switch from rubbing the carpet.



American Autowire Highway 15 fuse panel. I made a mounting plate to mount it under the glove box.





LIGHTS!!
I bought some weather pak connectors for the headlights. I split the input wires so I could make an individual connector for each light. This will make it easy to tear apart….if I ever decide to paint the truck.


Remembering back to the beginning….this is the wiring hack fest that I pulled out of the truck. What a messs!


Windshield…
I CRACKED the bottom right corner….nothing more frustrating. I didn’t realize there were different thickness welting. No mention of different sizing when I asked Midwest ford for window welting…you’d think they would warn you before making an assumption on what you need.





Pulleys…
Countless spacing issues with my pulley arrangement, so I ended up buying a kit from CVF racing. Beautiful pulleys…and they were able to match all the offsets.

My dad owns a buffing and polishing company (TarHeel Parts)…but for some reason I don’t like shiny. Most likely because I realize how much work it is to maintain polished metal. Haha This is a picture before I scuffed them up with scotch brite.


Final installed with a scotch brite satin finish. Looks great and matches the raw aluminum theme I’ve got going for the truck (Dash, radiator, firewall connector mounts etc..)



Other Assembly Work…
Radiator – had to add stiffeners and some other features on the side of the radiator. Side I-beams are for the hood hold down features.


Radiator tray I made to support/span the frame. I used fender welting to protect the base of the radiator.



Spark plug wires came in!! These should look trick once wired up! Squeegs has trick plug wire holders!


The grill trim is a bear to fit. Lots more work before they fit the grille properly.



2016….hopefully will be the year she rolls out under her own power!

 

Great build. I wish I would have seen the shrink weave before finishing my wiring......

 

Coming along nicely --- looking good!

 

Had a guy email me asking about my wheel choice...so here are my .02 cents in case anybody is looking for artillery wheels.
Cliff note answer: ....Buy a new set of Wheel Vintiques 15" artillerys. They will end up about the same cost, plus you will have a bigger tire selection with 15" hoops.

Here is why:
My wheels ended up being expensive. I bought the wheels for around $100 a piece and then paid $362 bucks to get two widened to 5.5" by Jimmy at rally america (wheelkid). After it was all said and done, I had nearly 1k in wheels. You can easily get a set of Wheel Vintiques for this price. Plus you can choose your widths, backspacing and diameter (15" or 16"). They have just lots of center cap options as well.

For tires, if you want narrow and tall bias-ply look tires, then I would strongly advise on 15" wheels up front. Yes, you can buy Coker tires, but we all have heard about their quality issues.... So Maybe go with 16's in the rear and 15's in the front. With this route, you will have TONS of options at either callitw or diamondback.

I hope this helps for those looking into wheel options! Nostalgic old wheels are slick, but the new replacements look great for the same cost!

 

Your build looks great! I am just finishing the chassis on my 37 and your details will be a big help with the rest. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Outstanding sir.Thank you for posting.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Didn’t realize how long it has been since I posted an update. Slow progress but good progress! Over the past few months I’ve been making the push to get the motor fired….and I got it running this weekend. It hardly put up a fight.

Check out the first fire video!



Remote oil filter hoses…
I broke down and bought Summit AN hose fittings instead of the hose-barb fittings that were on the truck when I bought it. Looks much cleaner and will be better in the long run. Two little hoses….and nearly $60 bucks. Costs add up quick!




Radiator overflow hoses…
My dad pulled some old ¼” copper line off his truck when he re-plumbed the brakes. So I straightened it up and used it for my radiator overflow line. Looks trick! (Yes…somebody plumbed his truck with copper brake lines…some people aren’t too bright)



Transmission dipstick…
Fun story here. Who the heck thinks its ok to use a GM TH400 dipstick in a Ford C4 trans? The oil level markings are 1-2 inches different! Yet another FUBAR example. I planned to re-use the C4 dipstick in my AOD, but started looking at the dipstick markings and found out the tube/dipstick was for a GM trans. So…I bought a Hughes locking dipstick which ended up looking great and sat low in the engine bay.



Engine/Alternator ground…
Nothing too fancy here, just routed the engine and alternator wires together to keep everything looking clean!


Headers….
Instead of regretting it later, I broke down and bought some nice Sanderson FF5 block hugger headers. It was worth it. I blasted and painted them with Seymour 1200 degree cast iron paint. Clearance was tight. They worked great for the driver’s side with clearance to the steering box. But…on the passenger side I ran into clearance with the starter. All in all, I will have to buy a mini starter.


No gaskets for the sandersons, nead how they built up weld then surface ground the mounting surface. Old ford headers on the left and sandersons on the right.


Drivers side clearance
You can see from the pictures how tight they hug the block


Passenger side clearance
This is with a Ford 5.0L semi-mini starter, this was a little better than the stock starter which didn’t leave much room at all. Still looking for smaller starters.



Her words not mine….”I see how it is, you bring your girlfriend to the shop and tell her to clean”. She’s actually an engineer! After that she pulled the headliner out and wire brushed/painted the roof of the cab! I’ll take all the extra shop help I can get! Planning to have her put sound deadner everywhere I can!







Looks sharp with the clean whitewalls!!

 

Looks like you did a little "re-contouring" on the AOD dipstick tube, or is that an illusion. Sure fits nice.