Projects It started innocently enough

So I recently took my old 1959 F-100 to an alignment shop as the front tires had gone bald on the outside and looked factory new on the inside. I'm told that they can do it but the leaf springs are going to need to be replaced first as they're worn out. Fair enough, so I bought the springs and proceeded to start replacing them. The fronts went in easily enough but when I got to the backs I saw the axle and mounts looking to be in a sad state. Pulled the bed, cut out the old springs, and found a mangled spring hanger. Sand blasted the frame and found some damage to repair, and now the whole rear of the pickup is down to frame rails.

My front springs were living on the bump stops

This was the best shackle i removed from the front.

The rear passenger spring pack fell to pieces when I dropped the axle.


Axle mounting brackets cleaned, primed, and painted.






Ugly duckling that leaks from just about every seam.





Previous owner couldn't get to a nut without pulling the bed so they did this hack job to the rear passenger front hanger.

This needs to be patched up yet, its only painted to keep it from rusting.

This is the hacked up hanger, going to fabricate some new ones as they don't seem to be worth repairing.


I'm going to build a custom wood floored box since only the step sides came with wood. Funny how all this started with just wanting an alignment.


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I understand perfectly. You have the drive for perfection.

 

You did good..I feel better knowing you will be driving it corrected....

 

I think it's called the snowball effect.

 

Be thankful, in a twisted way, those tires went bald. Looks like that frame coulda failed you very soon.
Good work getting it repaired and cleaned up.

 

Even if the springs where & are shot. It still could be aligned to where it didn't wear tires if the king pins and tie rods where in good shape. The axle has to be bent to set the caster & camber and tie rod adjusted to set toe in and toe out. The springs have nothing to do with those things.

 

Time to change the fan belt now!

 

I call that the " Might As Well " syndrome. It starts out, fix part A&B, then you notice C&D, next E&F, etc, etc. In your case after you fix box, then it will be the cab, it Never stops till everything is redone. I believe this applies to cars, houses, most if not all things we do in life. You started out to buy new tires/alignment, soon we'll be following your build thread and sometime down the road, Magic ! a real Nice pickup truck will be yours.

 

This why I don't work on old plumbing.

 

AGREE, had and old house for 30 years that I remodeled, an old house might be worse than an old car sometimes, many years and $$$, you end up w/ a Nice old house, BUT it's still an old house w/ some flaws from original build/design that it's not practical $$$ to fix, a car can be completely redone fairly easy compared to housing IMO. Then again, I'm a little slow as I have learned on TV, you can build a car/rod in a few weeks or a total gut remodel house in 30/60 days.

 

- good that you are going through everything - Old wolf stated good info above - need to check all frontend parts for possible wear on parts as found in rear

 

While your truck shows some wear and tear from years of service, Worn springs are not the culprit causing your tire wear. If the outside to inside wear is equal scrub wear (rub hand back and forth across the tread to feel the scuff) check the toe setting for excessive toe-in. If no scuff, check the camber setting for excessive positive camber. Normally worn kingpins or steering linkage will let the tires toe OUT, resulting in scrub wear the opposite of what you have. Replacing the front springs and shackles will help only in maintaining an accurate CASTER setting.

 

I prefer the domino effect!

 

I do, I don't want to have to take this all apart later on down the road to do it all again.

I feel better knowing that too, now my frame won't fall out from under me unexpectedly.

It started as a snowball but now feels like an avalanche

Thanks. I'm happy I caught it before it needed to be completely chopped up and pieced back together. Now I can do some welding and grinding and bring it back to its original thickness.

The shop wouldn't do it. And seeing as how the springs were as bad as they were I think waiting till after all the new components are in the truck is the best option. After this there will be no question that everything in the suspension is 100%.

Ha! After the fan belt maybe I'll find a place that I can pull the cab and front clip off. I looked at that part of the frame. Aside from some grease, grime, and rust it looks solid enough to blast and paint as well.

Some day wicarnut, some day. I need a better place than where I'm at for the cab forward portion.

The kingpins are new, I did them last year. I know for a fact that it's camber. The bald portion is smooth. In order to get the old kingpins out I had to use a torch and air hammer to drive them out. They had become one with the axle. Pretty sure the heat and air hammer knocked the camber out of alignment. But it caused me to find so many other issues so I'm happy (kinda) that something non catastrophic forced me to look into it.


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It always seems to happen this way doesnt it? You start out to do one thing and end up finding 40 other things you have to do. You have a nice old truck there,well worth fixing IMO.

 

Thank you, I'm quite happy with this old truck myself. Story of my life; now there's this, but that lead to this, and this caused that so now I have to do everything because if I don't this and that will get worse. It's all worth it in the end though.


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Good news, got the hangers all patched up and got further into cleaning up the axle components. I have a new pinion oil seal, two axle shaft bearings, and two axle shaft seals. This shouldn't leak a drop after this if I do it all right.



Cleaned out the jagged torch cut edges



Got the patch all welded in and filled/re drilled the slopped out mounting holes.



A huge pile of nope



No more nope, they've been beautified.

Soon as the rain stops around here I'll be back to work on it.




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While the bed is off take good look at the cab corners .They a famous for rusting out . Much easier to do with the bed off. Just trying to add to list. Good luck.

 

I'm the same way, I like everything to be done right, painted, new hardware... whatever it takes. It makes a difference when you touch 90% of the hardware on your ride.

 

Good job on all the fixes and cleaning stuff up. It is the snowball effect, but once you get it back together you have the knowledge and pride it is fixed equal or better than new.

I don't think doing the kingpins bent the axle and messed up the camber, but the fix is to bend the axle back.

 

I love how those little projects snowball.

 

You should paint the brake drums and all the other parts on the kitchen table cause you loose less paint to the wind.

 

Made some more progress, in between the rain and snow there hasn't been much though. Got the repaired spring hangers bolted up, the holes in the frame welded in, and got a rubberized top coat over the primer on the frame.




I should be able to start hanging springs soon. And after that it's on to axle reassembly.


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Looks good, what undercoating are you using?

 

Umm, it looks like you painted your jack stands.

 

Sure did! I also media blasted them so, the paint is probably a good thing to have on there.

I'm just using rustoleum rubberized underbody spray. I know it's not ideal but it's what's in the budget at the moment. I don't know when, but I do plan on doing a proper frame off at some point.


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Well, got it back on all fours again finally. Looks better than what I thought myself capable of to be honest.













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So now that the springs and everything have been taken care of I can say that I gained 3" in the front and about 6" in the rear. The truck doesn't ride like a horse cart anymore either. Leaf springs and solid axles still don't ride like Cadillacs but at least my kidneys aren't being beat to mush every time I go over a bump now.


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ha. i totally understand. decided to do a quick master cylinder swap on a falcon one friday night before a Saturday show...by the time in was done i'd replaced the entire brake system and pulled the transmission...one thing often leads to another.

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That's the nice thing about HAMB! You find out your not alone, many of us have been there and have a personal adventure of our own that helped us grow old. I admire your garage, reminds me of my first few years and how my work (like yours) revolved around the weather and work.