What's up guys, been awhile with no progress. I will have some more pics up soon. Just doing some tedious metal work now. The floor boards were A LOT rougher then it seemed originally so I'm just doing some cuttin and weldin now. We got hit with 20 inches of snow last week so I'm in no huge hurry to get her whipped out but I will have more pics to come.....oh, and she'll still have 3 pedals
Has anyone reappropriated and space taken up by the step up into the cab? I need more head room (wheelchair user)
[I have been toying with the idea of running some little T04b turbos' on it [/QUOTE] I turbo'd my I6 with a T03/4E . Do it!!!Put put twin hair dryers on the 272 y block!
Do a search for Kripfink (Cripfink?). He has the same panel as yours, and his is flat out amazing. He's over in UK, but it's still a LHD rig. PM him-he has LOADS of info and pics.
regarding the step removal. go to steve's auto restoration site. shows the build up of gary coe's red 57. I believe he filled in the steps.
Remember this thing?.....well it hasn't been totally forgotten. It got put on the back burner as much more important projects needed to get done but I am back to getting the ol truck back on the road. One of the things that stopped the progress in it's tracks was discovering quite a bit of rust in major structural parts of the cab. And the more I dug into it the more I found. So the once seemingly to good to be true deal was in fact not too badly priced. Here are some pics from the past couple days of work. As you can see the front cab mounts are 100% gone. most the sheetmetal forward of the seat was gone. And the steps inside the doors that SEEMED solid were a couple layers of sheetmetal pop riveted to the remaining metal. So I've been making new panels. Cutting, grinding, and welding away. I didn't get before pics of the passenger side but it looked just like the driver side with the exception that the bottom of the hinge pillar had to be totally rebuilt as the doors weight was making it sag. So here's the pics of what I've been up to since Sunday. Going to get all the sheetmetal work done this week and hopefully get some paint laid down and get behind the wheel. The driver side as it sits now Here's part of what was cut out of the passenger side. Note, the cab mount laying there. They do sell new ones....for $210 a side! So I made mine. New side step New floor board ready to be welded in. Once side almost done.....now I get to do it all over on the other side. This is all the junk removed from the cab so far. Rust, tin cover panels, and the styrofoam was glued inside the doors for sound deadening :roll:
Great thread, enjoyed reading so far, look forward to its continuation now that the weather is getting better.
man i did my old 60ty last summer and when i got it on the road the thing would get to about 25 and want to drive itself
Damn, what did you do to address the problem?? Sounds like some guys have problems and some don't...but more do then don't. Thanks man That's no lie! The door edge of both front fenders is pretty nasty also. I'm going to see if I can save them but it's hard sayin'.
This is a great thread - first one I've read from beginning to end in a while. Nice work on the cab and floor repairs. I love those 57 Fords. It's great to see your ingenuity in taking that truck from a find to the road. Too many projects get stalled out. Great job - thanks for posting!
Check this out...how did I miss your posts? http://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaygallery.php?userid=402689 SPark
It's back! In the past year and a half not much has happened with the truck. A LOT has been happening in my life though. Opened up my own shop specializing primarily in race car/ turbo system fabrication, got engaged, bought a house, and had a little girl....so my personal projects got back burned for a while but I am finally got the 57 dug out of the back room. I finally ditched the aluminum 80's truck rims that came on the truck and threw some tires on a set of steelies. The tires are staggered with 235/60 R15's front and 235/75 R15 rears. Still need to finish the floor pans I started then it's just a quick bit of reassembly and I am ready to get it on the road. The body and paint look MUCH nicer then they are. The body has a lot of mud slapped in some pin holes and it really needs to be blasted down to bare steel but that will have to wait. The truck looks good from 20 feet and I just want to drive it so the final touches will have to wait. The first pic is how the truck sat in the back room for the past 18 months. And the bottom pic is how it sits now after throwing on the steelies with new rubber and wiping off the dust.
Wow!!! Im really digging this truck!! Was there any issues with bump steer or any steering parts that need headed/bent for the dropped front axle? I'm helping a buddy with his '58 f100 swb doing all the rust repair, body/paint work. We live in the ventral valley of cali, and his truck looks like it spent most of its life at the bottom of a lake!! I pretty much reconstructed the whole front of the lower cab and floor, plus cab supports were nonexistent too. Still got cab corners left before paint prep.
Thanks guys, I'm enjoying getting back to work on the truck. Lead Footed - I will try and see if I can dig up some pics of the modified steering arm on the driver side spindle. You need to shorten it up quite a bit to get the tie rod from the steering box to the spindle as level as possible. However I have since ditched the steering box setup. I'm adapting a mustang power steering rack to the front axle. I will then custom fab a steering shaft that's splined and moves with the suspension. I figure this will eliminate all the bump steer issues and give me true power steering. One issue I did run into with the front axle flip was that on REALLY hard bumps the axle would just barely kiss the oil pan on the 272 Y-block. My plan was to sometime down the road put a notch in the pan. After looking at it again today I realized an easier/faster solution would be to just machine some spacers for the front motor mount to raise the motor up away from the axle. From the factory there are two rubber spacers about 1" thick. The factory ones were starting to crack and split anyway. Grabbed some aluminum out of the rack and 30 minutes later I had some solid spacers that were 1 3/8" thick. I also cut some 1/4" thick spacers out of aluminum flat stock for the trans mount. The motor now clears the front axle adequately. I forgot my camera so I snapped a couple pics with my phone. Nothing special here but it gets the job done. One step closer to being back on the road.
Ummm.. I'm thinking you just solid mounted your motor - not a good idea. You might want to make some thinner spacers and re-introduce some rubber into the system. You will soon get tired of the noise and vibration that setup will generate. It would be better to get some new mounts and then look at spacing them up. Mart.
I regularly Sunday cruise my Mustang with a big cammed 408 windsor that utilizes solid motor mounts...and honestly....I never understand why people always complain about noise and vibration with solid mounts. Perhaps I am too unrefined to notice such things. In my line of expertise (high HP street/strip cars) solid mounts are the norm.
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