Spent about 8 hours today with an angle grinder,wire wheel and 30 dollar HF sandblaster.I am about 1/4 of the way done cleaning the frame.Long way around,but its cheap.
Rainy today.I spent the day disassembling and stripping the dashboard.it turned out to have a bunch of holes in it both from people mounting things and rust in the bottom.I welded a bunch (4) small patches in and stripped the dash to bare metal.tomorrow I will fill over the patches and sand.
Ended up picking up the frame with the cherry picker today so I could get at the bottom.Put in around 6 hours on it and am at about the halfway point.If I can keep this up I should start painting the frame Friday afternoon.Then I will have something to take pictures of!
Well,I put in about 10 hours today and have the frame stripped and cleaned! I haven't done one this way in a long time! I reckon I will coat it with metal prep tomorrow and then prime and paint. I am not finishing the very front portion of the frame until I am done with engine mounts.
Actually got the frame done today! I am glad to be done with this part.Now I can start on something more interesting.I have POR all over me,but gasoline and a brush gets it off I found a 3rd member,still hunting a steering box.
I grew to hate shubox ford rear axles. Man! They were so weak. I blew axle shafts, ring and pinions, spider gears and I can't even count how many 3 speed and 3 speed overdrive trans I shelled out. All with merc flathead engines.. I would replace the old, blown rear end with something-anything else. The 10 bolt rear would be a huge step up. I've also used Maverick 8 inch rears in shuboxes with good luck.
I have broken a couple with modified Y blocks and slicks,but I was very young then.What I broke a lot of were transmissions-usually on the 1-2 shift-the one where it either went in or you busted your knuckles on the windshield.This car will have not much tire and an automatic.and I am 65 now-----
That caddy is a 79.It has a fresh engine and trans that are going into the Ford.Once I get that out I will happily give you the rest of the car .It should be out in the next 2 or 3 weeks.It has been sitting in the yard for about ten years now.
Well I am going tomorrow to look at a 51 ford parts car.Its a rusty and mostly empty hulk,but it is supposed to have a steering box and rear end in it.I can buy it for 150 dollars.Obviously I am going to do so. Finnrodder if this 51 has any heater cables in it I will be sure to get them off of it.
I bought a parts car today.150 bucks for a badly rusted 51 four door.It has everything I need to get the 50 rolling and steering and a lot of other stuff besides. Good steering box,shaft and column,good rear end,complete front end(spares are good!)ETC.This should speed things up considerably.
Went over today with a generator and cutoff tools,got the front end off,rear end out and one door off.I will go back and get the rest of the sheetmetal in a few days. Long,hot day!
Hot day today.I stayed in the air conditioned part of the garage and finished rebuilding the brakes and disassembled and cleaned the new steering box.It looks real good.Tomorrow I will get the rear apart and see if it needs anything but gaskets and bearings.
Thank you! Got my roll of leaf spring liner today,so I am putting the rear springs back together.Any suggestions on what to use for spring clips?
Worked on cleaning up the rear end from the parts car until it started raining on me.I should have taken a "before" pic.I have never seen one quite so heavily encrusted!
Made some progress today! I got the steering box,steering and front brakes back on it.Feels good to start putting pieces back on instead of taking them off.Tomorrow I will tighten everything and put the cotter pins and grease fittings back.
This is likely a dumb question but does anyone know if a 50 and 51 Ford use the same pitman arm? Thing is I don't have one for a 50 for comparison.
I think all the front suspension parts are same from 49 to 51. Except steering shaft,49 is keyed and later shafts have splines.
So I finished buttoning up the front end today,new grease fittings,new cotter pins,everything torqued etc.I also finished pulling the rear end of the parts car apart.It looks just fine and is a mid 3 ratio! YAY! I am kind of at a stopping place until my spring clips and other roll of spring poly get here.I believe I will get the body on the "redneck rotisserie" tomorrow,dont worry I will take pictures I picked through the sheet metal pile and think I will start on this front fender.It looks mangy but in fact has only the rust on the bottom where they usually get it,one small dent and no filler ever.Out of 3 front clips this one has the best left front fender.I will have to make a little patch panel and try to work the dent at the top out.I am actually looking forward to a day not working on that frame.
Well,I got the body up on the redneck rotisserie today.This actually works just fine and costs 25-50 bucks depending on how many 2x4s you already had.just work down until you get to the middle,then Flip Over and Read Directions Before anyone asks the body is x braced and cross braced inside.
Thats a bit cheaper than mine,i spent few hundred for the rotisserie project... It sure does make life easier when working with the body.Keep it up!
I started scraping undercoat today. To my utter amazement it mostly came right off!This pic is after about an hours work.
Note the row of holes from the rear of the new rocker panels(PO install) to the front of the rear wheel well in the above photo.I took the whiz wheel and cut that out,lots of old bondo ,a dead window winder handle and a LOT of dirt came out of this hole.I cleaned it all out with the little sandblaster and coated the inside heavily with por 15.
The Jalopy Journal
