My dad and I have started working on this project today, his idea for it is to leave it in its original patina, and to take the complete drivetrane out of his old bracket car and put in it to make a new, cooler bracket car. His old mustang bracket car was in the low 12s high 11s in the quarter, so the old truck ought to get up and go just as fast. We pulled the truck up to the back door of the shop, and I was shoveling the snow out of the bed and I found a fossil! Well, more of a mysterious piece of trim incased in frozen leaf matter. Here's after we pulled it into the shop and got it up on Jack stands We pulled the wheels off, and also the front bumper and the passenger side fenders and running board. Cool picture here We're in the house now, grabbing a bite to eat and maybe an hour nap or two. But after we get back out there, next on the list is the drivers side fenders and running board, then off with the cab and bed. I'll update as I we get farther along with the project here. Ccd
Basically, it's an excuse for my dad not to have to bother with bodywork and to spend the money on painting everything. He's got a paint booth and everything to do a top notch paint job, but not enough time to do it. We're going to do some bodywork to it, like take the big wrinkles out of the cab roof, and then just leave it. I honestly want to paint it original ford blue again, but that would take a bit.
I'm watching,but all I see is rust,pealing paint and I think I see moss..not what most of us consider patina,,more as found! HRP
Okay, dad wants to leave it in as found condition lol. I'm really excited for this project, because I get to use quite a few of the original parts off of the 37 on my model T. I want the shock absorbers, and I really hope I can unlock them. Maybe the acetone/atf juice trick will work for this. Ccd
So ur building a frame for the bracket car drivetrain and transplanting the sheetmeral on top. Or boxing this frame and beefing up the suspension? Subscribed
I think we're going to go over the frame with a fine tooth comb and make sure there's no cracks, then box it and transplant the 302 and transmission out of the bracket car into this frame. But on the chance that this frame is cracked somewhere, we might just build a new frame all together. The motor we're using is pretty beast, it's a 302 bored over to a 308, lots of cam and I'm not sure what else is done inside of it. We're going to put either an 8 or a 9 inch ford under the truck, and dad is still deciding on whether or not to use the stock buggy spring in the rear, or to go to 4 link.
We got quite a bit done today, I popped the socket joint on the torque tube off and separated it from the transmission, and my dad and I "rowed" the motor ahead to get everything apart and off the mount bolts. Then we wrapped a chain around the block and hooked it up to the skid loader and picked the motor out. I don't think this is the original motor though, isn't an 8ba flathead a 85hp? The heads and bell housing both say 8ba. After we dropped the front and rear axles out, and torched the brake cables (i wanted to save them but dad got impatient) we carried the frame away. I was amazed at the amount of fine dust that fell out of the center of the x member I think the auxiliary spring pack on the rear end is really cool, and i think it would be a good thing to put under a shine running car. Here's the frame. After this, the battery in my camera died so I don't have any more pictures. So, we put the frame up on the Jack stands and I popped the shock absorbers off, and got the brake clevis thingy off too. Now all's that's left is to mentally try to narrow the front end to accept the mustang 2/pinto front suspension. I'm making off like a bandit parts wise, I'm keeping basically everything my dad wants to throw away. Ccd
The bracketry holding the auxillary spring is unusual. I have never seen one like it. Does it appear to be a ford add on or something cobbled up by a farmer? Any closer pics of the rear axle?
It's a legitimate foundry made casting, so I'm unsure if it's a Ford add-on, a sears and roebuck catalog thing, or something else all together. I'm gonna keep it unless someone wants to make a cash offer I could run past my dad to see if he'd accept it. Ccd
As the intelligent junior in high school I am, I just got back inside from completely boning out the v frame and setting up the shocks in a bucket of the ATF/acetone juice. I was amazed by how easy the nuts and bolts came off, only had to torch the fender mounting bolts. Everything else spun off with the impact. If I can't get these shocks to free up by soaking, how would a more experienced HAMB'er take them off and save them? I got one to unlock by spraying liquid wrench into the little fill hole in the top.. Ccd
Dad and I spent about 2 hours in the shop today, and in that time we got the windshield crank and the cowl vent de-seized and hammered out some of the major dents in the cab. it wasnt high precision dent removal in any sense, more of a chunk of High Density plastic and a 2 pound hammer kind of dent removal. Check out the front cross member! I thought that was pretty funky, the whole top of the member is broken out. Next I decided to remove the two ruined frame braces going from the rail to the center of the X member. The braces were toast, and I'm not sure what caused both of the braces to be bent and broken like they were. That picture was taken before I removed the second one. But we're out of liquid wrench, so while I'm at school tomorrow dad is going to run to town and pick up a few cans for us to use. We're planning for a channel for the cab and box anywhere from 4 to 6 inches, and to mount either a 10 or 12 inch sub in the old heater core thing. One of my classmates is big into car audio so I can call in a favor from him with assistance for wiring the sound system. Ccd
The Jalopy Journal
