Projects 1965 F100 father and sons project

Hey Mike, the journey certainly continues. And to those who are limited by what the herd thinks - they don't know what they are missing. And with that, I'll be sitting over here in the corner reading my book - an actual flip the pages book. To quote the esteemed intellect Red Green, 2 lines never heard in conversation. 1. 'I don't know anything about this topic so I'll just sit over here quietly by myself; and... 2. Oh, that's the Banjo players Porsche!

 

Waiting for some more parts. While we're in a bit of a lull, I thought I'd knock the ride height down 1-2" out of our 9 leaf rear spring pack and maybe soften the ride a bit while we're at it. I took the short bottom overload out and the #6 leaf counting from the top which is the last spring before the overloads. Total 9 leaf spring pack height was 2-7/8". Including a 6 degree wedge in the rear it's now 2-1/4" for 5 leaves and 2 overloads. The wedge is pretty fat so I have meat to grind it down to 5 if I need. Just thought I would get the 6 degree because I don't know how low we will eventually get to. The centre pin for the leaf spring needed to be a bit longer to compensate for the shim so grabbed some Grade 8's and did the double nut at the bottom. With everything fresh and painted it all came apart fairly quick then - I couldn't get the pin to seat into the spring perch on top of the axle. Burned up a ton of time messing with it then had to wrap up for a social. I'm tempted to leave the old 1-3/4" exhaust stub hanging out behind the wheel for camouflage and run our 3" exhaust under the box pointing down behind the rear wheels. All merely for my entertainment.

 

There are center pin bolts available and every spring shop stocks them in various lengths. They are the correct round head bolts. Grade 8 will work but specific bolts are designed for this purpose. Sometimes doing with what you have is acceptable and definately "Hot Rod" worthy.

 

Most real parts stores have them available in Dorman also

 

Thought they would be available but, Dendoff Spring from my place is an hour plus so I got lazy and bailed on that idea. I laughed and thought how would a 'Hot Rodder' do it that wouldn't be a total hack job. I read once building a Hot Rod is a series of puzzles - short term/short cut and long term. We'll call this one mid term and as I write this I acknowledge I spent over an hour between thinking and doing the pin thing? Looking at the perch and remembering I turned the GRD8 bolt head on a lathe the last time I did this in High School. For this one I tightened the first nut to 25ft lbs with thread locker. Instead of grinding the perch hole so it can be retro'ed later, I ground the 2nd nut to fit snug in the round hole, threaded on by hand with thread locker with the intention I'll track down the pins later. Necessity is the Mother of invention. The trick will be remembering these 1/2 measures.

 

Agreed. I went to a parts store yesterday and asked for them along with some other misc items. I was met with - I can order them', for virtually everything. They had a 195 deg thermostat, no gasket in stock. What the hell was the other item I asked for.......? Oh ya, screw on vent cap - nope. Head gasket for a Ford 300 - nope. I paid another $66.00 and have to wait for everything to come in. Only in Canader Man! Get this though, the Parts Store guy spies me walking in with my Valve cover vent cap in hand and said - Oooh, early 70's Chrysler - I knew I found 'My Guy'. All parts store people should aspire to be 'That Guy'.

 

Yesssss! Now we're in the right territory. The 'other' side always goes so much quicker. Here's what I did for pins, hand tightened the ground nut up to the torqued one. We knocked another 1-1/4" out of our ride height which I think is our limit to still get some work out of the truck. Next up, the front. Note the 'Powerfist' creeper in the foreground. If I was a tech writer, even on a good day, I couldn't have come up with a brand name like that!!

 

Looking good Will! Good to see you have no snow on the ground.

 

Ha, ha, Indeed - no shoveling since Christmas! If I lived out your way I'd have a Hot Rod Snow Blower.

 

Does rebuilding a rusted out 48 inch snowblower count? Works like a charm now. It is for my diesel JD tractor. My driveway is 275 feet long and 16 wide opening to 35 wide. I hope we never get snow! Gonna have another 50 degree day today!! Yay!

 

Counts in my books.

 

Off topic front suspension but, the Jag front end is lowered by a fussy process whereby you unthread a pan retaining bolt and replace with a 8" threaded rod - Four per Coil spring. The pan bolts retain the coil from the bottom and as you slowly back the nuts down the rod it SLOWLY lowers the pan - takes about an hour per side going SLOW and akward access. I've done this a couple of times now. The photo shows 2 x UHMW (white) shims that need to come out then I will make a 3/16" steel shim I will position between the lower pan and the lower control arm. Two on the passenger side and two for the drivers side. For those of you who want to know how this is done I'm not showing the whole set up as it is documented all over but, it's time consuming , cheap, with only just the shim rails to make. Read where some guys just put washers at the bolts but, that's not how we roll. This is supposed to lower the front by 1/2 - 1". Cutting the coils will get us 2" which is what I want but, will try this and if we need to go lower we'll do it again - Slowly. There are some examples out there where you can make an 'invench' and power this process with an impact gun but, we don't have the 'invench' which is an uber deep socket sort of thing.

 

Dropped the spring, pulled out 2 UHMW shims, which is good because I thought I only put one in during the rebuild. Grabbed my 3/16" steel strap to make lower shim plates and - wait...Took all my grinders to work and left the one with the bad switch at home - Bahh. OK, will drop the other side. Top of wheel well was 26-1/4" passenger side and 26-3/4" drivers side.

 

1/4" shim plate for our spring pan and new Grd8 hardware. Had some extra 3" wide galvanized plate left over from a jobsite task -$0. Ground the galvo off and $8.00 in hardware and we're in business. Hoping that'll get 'er a little closer to Mother Earth..

 

Update on the David Vizard Porting Cylinder Head book. Bit of a dry read. Complete understanding of Flow Dynamics isn't attainable from one book but, it gave me enough knowledge to carry out this task. Need some flow balls (epoxy some ball bearings to wire) to help me nail the unshrouding of valves but, it's mostly a cleanup I'm shooting for. Found a specialty Head shop and I have to provide parts, namely new valves and roller rockers potentially but, I'm about to take the plunge. Still want to Chassis Dyno before we blow it apart just to know definitively our start point. Not expecting anything profound I just want a number. Accumulating gaskets and parts to make it so when it comes apart we can have it put back together with minimal down time. We have some major fab work about to start at the jobsite which will have some top notch welder fabricators prowling around installing a high end steel structural steel wall with cantilevered stairs/no visible stringers. May have them weld up my intake tube as I don't want to screw up my aluminum fab work by unsuccessfully trying to weld aluminum. Soon.

 

Got exactly 1" of drop in the front after our shim show. For now that's it, will get onto the engine next once I wrap up the drivers side. Still a few seized bolts I wanted to swap out that are not complying. Hit the bottom of the shock mount bolts on the OT front end. I imagine part of it's life after death was laying in a swamp for years because two snapped the nut end off and my air hammer couldn't budge them. Have new hardware so will attack them when I have some energy.

 

First you lower it so you can't get under it, then you do the exhaust and stuff.

 

That spring pocket is a pretty cool feature! From what I've read on your build here, that Jag front end would be a more desirable assembly than the Crown Vic that a lot of guys use.
The 1" drop you got looks good. A nice rake without being too much.

Just a side note....
If you lived close enough, I'd re-drill a 4.5" bolt pattern in your rear axles and drums so you could have matching wheels. It's your truck, but the different lug patterns really jars my mild OCD tendencies! Not to mention the different color!

Just yankin' yer chain of course Will!

 

Keep yankin @Mike Lawless. Next time it's back on the road it'll have all 4 stock gold wheels. Hey now that you're retired shouldn't your truck be done.

Happy with the Jag and would recommend. Runs tight and flat in the corners. Wheels are well inboard. 5" from tire to inside of fender lip. I'll be mounting 2" wheel adaptors up front that will convert from Chev/Jag 5 x 4-3/4" to 5 x 5-1/2" so I can run stock wheels all around. Never cared for the wheel offset the Crown Vic forces you to run so given Ford owned Jaguar for a few years I thought it's almost stock. Found the stock jag swaybar. Going to adapt it and run on the back so mounting as much junk out back now to make sure I leave room.

Check out the tread on those white walls.

 

Har har har!
It's almost done.....but are they really ever done?
Been working on some nit-picky details. It drives really nice right now, since I trimmed some fuel out of the cold run mode. I've seen a significant improvement in fuel mileage in town too.
I have all my paint materials. Just waiting for warmer weather.

So, I thought Jag was 5 on 4.5" At any rate, the adapter on the front would be a good way to go, especially if you can find some that pilot on the hub register

 

I guess I missed a few updates here Will! Didn't know you had a jag front on the truck...Tres Cool!

Love the rear snow tires!! Like you'll ever need them....looks like summer there.

 

Give'er shit Mike. Tuning fuel mileage makes mine seem miles from that level of completion.

It might lookit in that photo but, It's definitely winter here! - I could see my breath under the truck for the day messing with OT stuff.

Here I thought I was being all sly pointing out the tread on my whitewalls Hint, Hint, Wink, Wink. Meanwhile dead centre in the photo is our Hair Dryer hanging out. Oh well, no need to worry about getting banned. Scientists say Winter tires on a truck are proof of transplanted origins. Both Urban daily driver 4x4 trucks in our driveway roll on big knobby tires ready to crush the Urban landscape

 

The temps here this past Friday and Saturday was 6 below zero F and 28 below with windchill. Needless to say I did NOT go in the garage to work. Lol. Then Sunday it was back in the 40s and I was back in the garage. No snow yet this year (and no snowblower use)...im loving it!! Car stuff update...currently rebuilding the vent windows on the 55 chevy truck. Also trying to find alternator brackets to mount on the pass side with short water pump. Aside from billet crap I can't find it anywhere online.

 

As a long time hair dryer user myself, I feel the need to question mounting it in back. The resulting lag will be significant. I know there are a few installations like that out there, but it does take a while to spool it up. I looked at a kit for my late wife's late model Challenger with a V6. That kit put the units in the back.
But, it may work out for what your own goals are. In a flying mile type situation, running it at Bonneville, or pulling up a long hill, it'd probably do OK.
If I were to ever do my own, the unit would be as close as possible to the exhaust ports, and the header tubes would be as short as possible. On my own deal, there's room. I don't know what all you have going on on that side of the engine bay.

 

I would have a hard time getting into the garage in the winter without cooked in Scottish stubborness. If billet is the option maybe paint it black? I just bought the tools and with no prior experience started burning wire and made stuff ourselves. Maybe not always the best results but, deeply satisfying! Now get those vent windows done and get that truck on the road.

The reason for out back initially was limited fabrication skills. I didn't feel I could make a setup under hood look good enough for my standards especially with the intention of being a 100% driveway build. I bought the hair dryer before I did most of the fab work on the truck. That then morphed to a plan where if I did everything out back first, I could take my time under the hood while driving it. I tripped on a guy doing a web search who was running a black '79 F100 rear mount on a drag strip and figured I could still flash traditional shots under hood with a carb hat change. When Power Nation put their hair dryer on the drivers side I thought I could live with that but, elected to stay with the rear mount for simplicity - no intercooler required. The guys on Fordsix reinforced the commitment to stay rear mount especially if it runs good. I am still accumulating parts for a full engine build but, figured I could get everything done out back then make a dyno run. Same day, plug in the hair dryer and make another run then put it all back on the trailer and start into the engine build. The propane regulator and vaporizor crowd everything on the passenger side inner fender. They are holding our intake up but, you can see the regulator below it in the photo. With limited room there as a result the rear mount allows me to possibly skip a muffler. I am building the muffler to allow me to install with hairdryer not hooked up then for the full install if I want to drop the muffler I undo a few bolts and I have a flexible system. To me it was all about simplicity.

Lag. Hoping with the right cam choice and better flow by doing the port and polish plus roller rockers, I can maybe minimize the Lag. I drove a 6.0 Powerstroke for years so the experience I had from that is what I'm expecting from this. We are knocking weight out of this truck with everything we cut off.

 

Are you gonna keep propane fueling?

 

Yup. Propane is still at $4.00 gal CDN vs $7.24 gal CDN roughly.

 

Picture just 3 years before our 1965 F100 was born, you walked into an Oldsmobile Dealer and found yourself staring at the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo Rocket V8 and thought Yessiree, I'm going to do that to my next pickup. This would be that pickup. (I've been worrying over here in my cave I was going to get found out and now I find out it's traditional - well at least if it was a 61 year old turbo - which it's not. Anyway I won't show this thing again because it's not old but, I'm going to wrap everything in header wrap on the hot side.
The 3" single exhaust doesn't package that well in tight spaces. Maybe should have left this to a professional but - NO.

 

As much room as you have under the hood, it seems it will be really become complicated, plumbing wise, to mount the tur... in the rear?

 

This might go down in history as a bad idea as my skill set is stretched and as the great debate rolls on, the pros are in minority vs. the cons. Photos show what I'm shooting for albeit with much more emphasis on aesthetics. It all started with my fueling setup and it's challenging location on the passenger inner fender. I'm going to either run a spare power steering pump for oiling the turbo or a mechanical fuel pump for oil given I have a block off plate where the mechanical fuel pump was given our fuel system is on propane. Mounted up front I would need an intercooler and out back I don't. The truck I swiped the photos from runs 12's in the Qtr. In the end I want the under hood show to be clean and uncluttered.