I, too, had lost track of your truck thread, Dave. Glad to see you out of the garage and rolling down the road. Are you keeping this, or completing it for someone else as it seemed? The '48 F-4 is a masterpiece. What heads do you have on the 351W, and what's been done to the AOD? So many things on this truck are helping me do much the same thing on my '29AA (the World's Slowest Build).
Thanks Osage, honestly it's almost surreal to have the F4 driveable! Unfortunately the truck isn't mine, it belongs to a good friend but Fortunately I was able to restore it without having to pay for the parts. I'll have access to it and plan to debut the truck at the Emerald Coast Car show Sept 8th, which means I got to get the bed wood finished! There's nothing special about the engine and transmission. They came out of an 89 Grand Marquis and are completely stock. The only difference about the 302 is I changed the distributor to a Dura Spark and put a carb on it. Even the accessory drives are stock Grand Marquis. I was really curious how it would all work with the factory rear end/gearing because it's pretty steep, 5.44:1 if I remember. The most important thing on the AOD is making sure the TV cable moves in perfect symmetry with the throttle cable and that you get the trans pressure at 35 psi. So far it shifts great, the only oddity is going into OD; at times it wants to hesitate. I plan on taking it to a really good trans guy Friday to have him check it out.
Well, I’ve been plugging away at the wood for the bed. I put three coats of gloss black paint (sanding between each coat) on the spacers and I think they look pretty good. I’m also thinking about putting some welting on them to eliminate any squeaking of the wood rubbing on each other. Thoughts? I also started varnishing the wood stringers and flooring. Some of the flooring had some coats of varnish already applied by an employee of the owner but I wasn’t sure how many coats so I took some 120 sand paper and sanded all of the wood. I have all the pieces laid out in my garage and as you can see there isn’t much room for all of it. I have one coat of varnish on the top sides of the wood. The boards that are glossier than the others are the ones that had some varnish on them already. And for fun, here’s another toy the owner has. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The wood for the bed is almost ready! Sprayed the final coat on the bottom of the boards yesterday and am hoping to spray the final coat on the top tomorrow. Maybe next weekend I’ll have the bed on! I set the stringers on the truck for teaser. I know a lot of you guys don’t like these, but the owner wanted some step plates so I put these on today. I like them. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Just got caught up on the thread, the truck looks great and its cool to see you got it on the road! Its kinda surreal when the thing thats been in the garage for years suddenly becomes something that can move under its own power.
It’s about to get real! Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, the bed is going on tomorrow!! I have everything (I hope) ready for the task. Wood varnished? Check Stainless strips cleaned? Check Bolts and nuts? Check Bed frame and truck washed? Check (is it sad that I washed the truck for this?) Can hardly wait!! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Not at all sad it just extends the extreme skill and care that you show in the finished job. If there were dust between the wood stringer and painted frame rail that someone discovered 60+ years from now knowing who did the previous work how would you feel? Be proud of your efforts and skill, they show, beautiful truck!
The bed is on! Took me all day! Holy cow there are a bunch of bolts on it. I don’t have any pictures of the finished product yet because it got dark outside but here are some pics of the bed mounted to the truck. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
If you weren't using an air ratchet your arms must look like Popeye's. Kudos on a job very well done.
I used my father-in-laws cordless impact when attaching the bed frame to the truck and used my air ratchet when tightening the bolts holding the wood flooring down. I would not want to tighten all of the bolts/nuts by hand. Thank you! I don't have the stake sides built yet but the owner of the truck does want them. I got to the point where I just wanted the truck done and driving, knowing I could go back and finish the stake sides. I know the sides will be "half height", meaning the top of the sides will not exceed the bottom of the rear window. What I can't decide on is what material to make the vertical stakes out of. I'd love to have some original metal ones and have thought about trying to make some, but we'll see. Thank you so much! Thank you! Thank you!
Awesome!! Nice work, the shine on the wood is top shelf! I vote for the stake sides out of the same wood as the bed, finished just as nice. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's definitely the plan, use red oak on the horizontal pieces of the stake sides. Just trying to determine what to make the vertical pieces from. thank you so much.
Thanks brEad. It is bitter-sweet. I've had that truck in my garage for 11 years and have invested a lot of time into it so it's odd to not have it now. Thankfully the owner and I are good friends so I should have visitation rights and we've already planned a few car shows to take it to. I've driven it pretty much all over town and it drives pretty good considering the chassis is 70 years old. The bed definitely "smoothed" out the ride. Before I had the bed on, the back of the truck would buck pretty bad. Still, you want to avoid dips, bumps and potholes as much as you can. The drum brakes work "well". I'd like to have a bit stiffer pedal but it does stop straight and smooth. I try to make sure I leave plenty of space in front of me. With the OD transmission, it keeps up with traffic very well. I don't have a speedo gear yet, but I believe I've gotten it up to 40-45 mph. Having power steering also makes driving it more enjoyable and it tracks very straight. I have 1/8" toe in on the alignment. Some things that still need work: - The transmission's shifts are a bit off. 1st to 2nd is good. 2nd to 3rd is to soon and the truck boggs down. 3rd to OD has a bit of hesitation. I'm running right at 40 psi of TV pressure on the transmission. - The pinion seal is leaking and I have no idea how to change that. I never took the rear end apart for fear of not being able to put it back together. I did clean it out with diesel fuel and a good bit of nastiness came out of it. Here's a pic of the rear end. - I need to increase the idle speed of the motor a bit. The engine definitely has to warm up before you start driving or turn the AC on. - One of the pulleys has a bit of a squeak to it. I think it's the AC idler pulley.
Took the truck to its first show today and came home with two awards, Top 75 and Best in Class for classic trucks. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The Jalopy Journal
