Technical You gotta draw the line somewhere. Just where, I don't know.

I'm working on my 65 Ford beater truck. The whole (theme) if there is one, is simplicity, fun, low buck... just a fun ride.
The 65 is the closest...it needs the least done. Yeah...you know how that goes....Anyway it's got to be done first because I refuse to have 3 broke down in the garage at the same time. One's got to be running and driving.

Ethanol killed the 1100 Autolite on top of 300 six. Floats stuck, gas going everywhere... so the solution.
Dust off the Offenhouser C series and put a 4bbl Holley on it.

Might as well paint that side of the engine under the manifolds.
If I'm going to paint one side of the engine, I might as well paint the whole thing.
PO was sloppy on gasket sealer for the lifter galley....might as well get a gasket set.
I really need to paint the fan and stuff so I might as well pull the radiator.
Might as well change the timing gear.
Might as well...port the exhaust manifold.
It's a 75 300 so I might as well add Chevy 250 Rockers.
I have a 1965 engine so I might as well pull the 65 head ( higher compression) and use it.
There's some oil around the PCV valve...Blow by. Might as well re ring it.
If I'm going to re ring it...might as well change the bearings.
300 pistons are bad about cracking so I might as well get new pistons.
If I'm getting new pistons and bearings...I might as well have it machined.
If I'm going to have it machined, I might as well pull it out.
If I pull it it out, I might as well clean up the fire wall and do the brakes and wiring.
Might as well do the clutch.
Maybe I need to get that High flow truck manifold.
Since the firewall is all cleaned up...I might as well paint it.
If I paint the firewall, I might as well replace the drivers side fender.
Might as well pull the bed so I can clean up the back of the cab.
Might as well repair the bed panel.
Since the bed if off, I might as well clean up and paint the frame.
I might as well rebuild the rear axle.
Since I'm fooling around with the axle, I might as well change out the rear springs.
Since I have done all this to the frame and bed....might as well do some body work.
Might as well paint it.
Now for inside the cab........

Now wait a minute. This was just a fun beater project.

 

Sounds like you’ve got some serious thinking to do.


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It's called Mission Creep

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You are not the first person that has happened too. At some point, (sooner is better) you just have to draw a line in the sand, or garage floor, and not cross it. Good luck.

 

And you want it...........When?!

 

At the above point, STOP working on the truck and start working on your vocabulary. You just need to delete "might as well" from your memory bank. A small modification that will solve all of your problems. Be careful that is is fully deleted and not just temporarily overwritten, as it will rear its ugly head again and again.
Ask me how I know.

 

Ethanol killed it?

 

I couldn't even read the post!

 

I was in the same boat with My '65. $6000 later I finally stopped.

 

I’ve been there
Trying to stop a small repairs from become a full on project is hard.

Like you said “ since I’m here I might as well..... “

 

Draw a line somewhere? Nope, no way, cannot happen and never will. Accept the fact and keep moving.

 

Sounds like you have a project, they are all alike and it's like stacking up dominoes, knock one over and the rest will fall unless you remove a few from the center.

One thing always leads to another. HRP

 

There is NO line. You start with something that looks OK as it is. As soon as you repair one thing it sticks out like sore thumb so what was OK now looks like crap. Now the only logical stopping place becomes when you have redone the whole thing.

 

Don't forget the part where you buy another similar truck in a bit better shape & start replacing stuff on it with the parts you built for the first one after you pulled the cab to clean the frame ...

 

Do you enjoy it? Might as well do it then

 

At that rate you "might as well" start with the one that need the MOST work.

 

(Looking up snow covered hill) "Hey, look at that little snowball up there."

 

I do believe my dad's favorite saying has always been, "While we're at it...…"

 

Well...there is the other end of the spectrum.
I've seen engines painted...over grease and grime.

 

I'm into year 4 of a gas tank replacement.. plus a whole lot of Might as well fix this too.
Car is in bare metal, lots of new or reworked parts. still trying to draw the line. might be close....

 

I'm going to let the truck tell where it needs to go. Right now it's telling me it needs and exhaust up grade since the manifold cracked.
It should tell me a lot more after a compression check.

 

This is it.
I have a '64 that I have been gathering parts for years.....That stuff has already found it's way on to this one.

 

There's that "Sanity" thing again!

 

I just finished a compression check.
1. 170
2. 170
3. 165
4. 160
5. 165
6. 160.

Stock specs for car 240 (all that was in my manual) is 150. This was a dry test. The engine appears to be sound. The Starter bendix is sluggish and the key and switch is really worn.

 

Im really tempted to bedline everything in this new frame/running gear that i pulled out for a frame swap.

The valve covers leak, carb leaks a little bit, manifolds look a bit crusty,gas filler hoses are a bit dry.. .
If i start fixing shit, i will end up cleaning and painting everything on that frame... Figured if i bedline everything in black, i wont know whats oil, dirt grease, fuel line,gas line etc...
Show ready baby...

 

My mission creep begins with getting out of the chair in front of the computer and out to the garage to work on the car.
Maybe tomorrow.

 

I'm in this boat with my wagon. Was supposed to be a simple engine/trans swap. Then I decided to detail the engine compartment. Then the wire harness was brittle and fuse block rusty so now a rewire. And the dash was crusty, so seemed like a good time to pull out the dash for a repaint.....etc...etc.. Now it's a BIG PROJECT!

 

I've never seen a stock daily driver street motor with 240 lbs of compression per cylinder. You might get that with a 14.5 to one race motor but a stock 300 six with 8.9 to 1 compression?
High to low compression between cylinders is within 10 lbs and 160 is the lowest so I doubt there are any real internal issues in the engine. Surely not enough to call for tearing it down.
What I am finding in a search is that most used 300 sixes can be expected to have between 100 and 150 lbs of compression

 

Uh, specs on a 240 cubic inch 6 cylinder he said was all he had to go on, with 150 psi compression being what the book called for it. He wasn’t saying his 300 had 240 psi compression, he was using the 240 figures for his 300. You kinda missed that one I almost did myself.
Happens to all of us sometimes!

 

""It's a 75 300 so I might as well add Chevy 250 Rockers."" Why?
""I have a 1965 engine so I might as well pull the 65 head ( higher compression) and use it."" What?