Projects 1934 Ford Pickup in England

Nice one Charlie/truxdelux, I've used clear Raptor, tinted with 2K paint on other projects, with great results.
I suspect my bed will get some of that when the time is right.

 

Now for some necessary evil - LEDs
Modern motorists are myopic, and don't co-exist well with old cars, so some improved lighting is somewhat necessary.
I bought a pack of these from Amazon, at the time they were about £1 each ($1.30) and claimed to be 200 lumen.

I also had a reciever hitch with no cover.
I fired up the 3D printer and came up with a mount.
It is on a quick release wiring plug - just in case I need to connect the tow ball for any reason, or to look a little more period correct.

It is fairly subtle when fitted, and of course quickly removable if I feel the need for any reason.

But in use, it is considerably brighter than a regular 21W filament bulb.

I still had plenty of left over LEDs from my 10-pack.
I experimented with some higher level brake lights.
First attempt with a flange was a little clunky.

By turning down the aluminium bezels that hold the LEDs I was able to make a smaller mount
Tried another 3D print that was 100% recessed into box section.

They seem to work, and are just wedged into position, so a safety modification, with few changes to the base vehicle, I'm going to call that a win.
I say few changes, routing the cables was a bear. I had to drill some holes in the box section running parellel to the back of the cab, but I was able to weld those up and refinish them, after making a route for the cables, between the pickup bed and the cab.
But throwing out this much light - can't do any harm.

 

Moglite, really like your addition of third, fourth and fifth brake light idea of small leds in end of bed rails but explain again how you ran wires to them?

Also like your tailgate hinge rods with acorn nut covers. Gonna steal that idea for my 34..!!

 

That aught to bring way more attention! Can we see the hitch, tail lights and bed rail lights all lit at the same time?

 

Having trouble with quoting....but to taeheelrod

The wires are run through the box section around the pickup bed.
But it was tricky to get them out to the rest of the loom.
I drilled a hole where the orange arrow is, from within the pickup bed.

I ran a couple of temporary wires throught that, and down toward the chassis.
Then I welded up and bodyworked, the hole on the inside of the bed, as that wasn't needed anymore.
Then I used the temporary wires to pull the final ones through, as I didn't want any weld near the final wires.
There is some heatshrink to protect against any chaffing, but when either the body or bed is off, I'll be able to tidy it a little, and get a proper grommet on there.

Does that help ?

 

Here you go Tim, with and without the garage lights on.





One day I'm going to extend the brackets to the original lights, by an inch or so, they are partially obscured by the pickup bed.

 

yes, got it. Thanks

 

Thanks! I’ve been coming up with some creative lighting for my A project so I always like seeing what others have come up with

 

Where are you based mate???

 

South Coast - Fareham

I've just updated my profile

 

Agreed on the lighting additions. I'm working toward something kinda similar - don't fancy being had up the rear!

Interesting use of 3d printing on the splash apron!

Chris

 

Wiring on old cars in generally grim. By this stage indicator and starter solenoid wiring had already gone in the bin.
Wago connectors too have no place on a car too - except this one!!
This was the final straw, a filed down large spade connector into a scotchlock.
Yes all the wires are just black too.

Nowt for it but to strip out every last wire.
It was as grim as could be expected.
A full loom is on the cards to my own design.
But there is no point starting that until the firewall/bulkhead is tidy.
Behind the GRP cover was a combination of old school sound insulation, and some kind of particle board panel.
Is fire-hazard hyphonated - I don't know, but this bulk definately was.

From the engine bay side, I've circled loads of holes that need to be welded up, for a cleaner appearance.
Quite a few of them were hidden behind stickers FFS.
One of the holes - marked with a B is a bullet hole !!
I've found a position for the fuel pressure regulator, to the right of the steering coloumn - which I'm happy with.

The offside of the bullhead didn't need too much work.
I did get a nice simple bracket for the coil, and welded in a couple of captive nuts for mounting.

The offside needed more work as there were way more holes.
But the metalwork went largely to plan.
I added a bracket for the fuel pressure regulator, seemed the quickest and easiest solution, to weld this into place.
Not like it is ever going to need to come off.

I'm not aiming for perfection here, but a bit of filler helps a lot.

The inside was cleaned up, and here it almost ready for some zinc-rich paint to be brushed on.
I've also now got captive studs to keep the interior trim in place.

With the bulkhead/firewall in good shape.....


I can start on the wiring now, but that really is a different story for a different day.
Thanks for looking.

 

Another huge upgrade

 

Before I can get to actual wires, I can get to one of my favourite parts of this project - the dashboard.
I had this add on setup, the digital voltmeter was literally just clipped into place.

The main dash had a non-working ammeter and speedo, but a decent fuel gauge.
I wanted a complete set of matching gauges and switches.
But I didn't want a billet panel, I wanted to follow the curves and contours of the original dash.
Imagine if back in 1934 you could tick a box, when ordering your pickup, which was for a delux gauge set - that was my aim.
There is a lot of 3D printing to come.
But first it was old school, and a paper template.

Which gave me this

After several iterations of 3D print, I had one I could use to cut the dash.
It was centered around the center of the speedo, to give me a datum.

I had thought long and hard, about doing a major cut, into a largely original 1930's dash.
My compromise was to do the cut as neatly as I could, with a jigsaw and retain the panel.
Should I or anyone else wish to revert the changes in the future.

This allowed me to glue in another early prototype of the dash into place.
This was printed at home in 3 sections.

There had been one business/shopping trip to get the dash that full, but another trip was needed to finish it off.

 

I'm going to stay on the dashboard for a bit, not how it happened in real life, but I think the continuity should work here.
One thing I noticed at was the gauges. They really could have done with being angled to the driver a little more.
So I experimented with putting and angled bezel in, to tilt the gauges 7 degrees.
Yet another test print.

Yep - still good.
But now the black Autometer supplied gauge mounts were too long.
Easy fix of printing some shorter ones - in white this time.

Now I was able to commit to the final dash panel. I got it professionally printed, cost £117 and took about 10 days to arrive.

The rear is a little rough, but I told them that would be fine.
That is where the support material would be, as this could not be printed flat.

I then bonded and screwed it into place.

and set about bodyworking it, to make it beautiful.

I had huge problems with the filler cracking. I think this was because I was using a heatlamp, to cure things.
The different rates of contraction/expansion was causing the cracking. Hopefully it will survive a summers day.
But I still put in a steel panel at the last minute to support the pulling loads from the switches.

But we are getting somewhere.

 

I'm working in a small space, in the autumn at this time.
But I got it to 2K primer filler, and guide coat.

Then it is top-coat time, 2K direct to gloss.

No runs I can spot, but a few bits of grot, as my garage is hardly clean.
I don't think I can be bothered to sand and polish those out. It isn't a show truck.

But super happy with the way the instrument bezel has come out, now it is all blended in, and one colour.

It was then the longest couple of days of my life, waiting for that to harden up before refitting.
I didn't really have a fast enough hardener for the temperature, so I just had to wait.
This is the intial fit up, I still need to align the screws, and put in the a-pillar trims.

A close-up because it has taken me exactly a year to get this far - albeit on-off with other parts of the project !!

I couldn't be happier how that has turned out.
I will probably do matching pull knobs in the future.
But it all works !!
The story of the wiring is next.

 

That looks AMAZING!!!!!!
Great work!!!!

 

Man you just continue to hit it right on the head! The whole time I was thinking “he could print some switch knobs to match/ be lettered like 40’s ford stuff” and sure enough you mention it.


Very cool

 

That looks fantastic, great work.
Greetings Harald

 

Just read all this, impressive work with all the 3d printing, specially that dash.
Like the extra rear lamps, and the horn flashers, but can they be seen from the side, will you be adding repeater lamps?
Those greedy boards are a big improvement to the side profile, I always think the bed sides are too low on those.
Great thread, great pickup.

 

That looks great. I love the way you are using new technology to make old hot rod parts.

 

Your truck is really looking great! Nice work.

 

I like it! Especially the horn mounted turn signals. Tacked-on amber signals always spoil the look for me.

 

Thanks for the kind words.
There is a lot of stuff I don't know, but now I know the boards on the side of a pickup are called greedy boards - brilliant
None of my original or LED lights are visible from the side, something I'd like to rectify at some point.
Some kind of running light would be easy and subtle. As I could put something like this between the cab and running boards.

But for the indicators/turn signals - more difficult, as I personally hate the way LEDs flash on an older vehicle.
Fitting a traditional bulb and light fitting without making it look like a dogs dinner - is much harder.
But it is on the list - I'll see what I can do......

 

Here's what I did to get around the flasher problem, cant be seen from the side either so I'm vaguely thinking about repeaters.

Scroll down past the sad under wing effort!
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/31-sports-coupe-making-it-mine.1306036/page-2


.

 

I've been there too
It just accentuated how squiffy my front end was before I trued it up a little.


I liked what you did with the cowl lamps - I thought about those too, but decided against them in the end.
Maybe I need to go for the vintage wrecker look, so I can put a lightbar on the roof

 

Great thread!

I love your attention to detail. So nice to see you working through stuff that you know isn't right particularly with the suspension. So many builds have issues that people just accept as "that's just the way it is" or "its a Hot Rod, they're meant to be like that" which is total BS as you've shown.

 

Very nice work

 

So to the rewire, by this stage I had already tidied and reworked the main battery and cut-off switch wiring, along with the starter solenoid - a modern one under the seat, with a semi-hidden starter button.
Ignition points have been replaced with a Petronix ignitor system, with matching flame thrower coil, so that can stay too.
Ignition switch and steering lock is period correct and super cool IMHO, so that is staying too.
Pretty much everything else is in the bin.
I plan to go to a powered steering column at some stage, so the headlamp switch on the steering wheel got removed.
I tried so hard to get it out in one piece so it could go to a restorer, I even took out the back window !!

It still got bent, and putting the window frame back in was so tricky, especially as somebody had used a combintion of UNF and UNC fixings !!
But various shopping trips have netted this little pile.

Main item is a 12-way fusebox, it is a design I've used before, it has busbars built in, which simplifies the wiring.
I'm going to power that off of the original ignition switch, but feed it though the big relay.
Fusebox is rated for 75A which is plenty.

I'm going to try and future proof the wiring, there will be some spare circuits with a 12 way fuse box.
One will be for an electric fan, should it ever prove necessary, that will be driven by the relay in the piccie.
Another will be for electric power steering, which is a long way off, but now is the time to provision for it.
Also a heater fan but I haven't got one of those yet either.

Also in the piccie is a retro style column indicator switch, along with a flasher relay. That switch is a bit more user friendly than the switch I had from the previous owner.
The red button also provides hazard flashers, which can't be a bad thing in an old car.

I'll be designing a bracket(s) so that all tucks up behind the dash, and out of the line of sight.
The bulkhead/firewall and cowl first got a layer of bitumen style sound proofing. Then the first run of loom

The original soundproofing was quite thick, so I added another layer, this time a close-cell foam about 10mm thick.
This was cut around the loom to the multiplugs, and gives a nice levelling up.
I've used two 12-way connectors here - waterproof Deutsch ones. With the idea I can pull off the cab, without cutting wires.
With the correct but expensive crimping tool, they are easy to put together, and take apart - recommended

Then the GRP trim could be fitted onto the captive studs I've added.
The panel is a bit battered, but will do for now, I may well trim it in carpet at some point in the future.
I've also got my electrical panel in place - out of any line of sight.

Spent a long time wiring up the fusebox and the relays.
1/2 decent wiring takes ages.
With that fusebox, the bottom line of screw terminals give me earth connections.
The top row fused postive connections - nice IMHO.


More in a mo......

 

I had the GPS speedo, and a GPS antenna/sender, but I wasn't 100% sure how it all worked.
So I hooked it up temporarily in the daily and went for a drive.
The sender has 3 different wires, one outputs 16,000 pulses per mile, the others 8,000 and 4,000.
I found out by chance my Autometer speedo comes from the factory calibrated to 16,000 - happy days.
I used used some Wago connectors and a Milwaukee 12V battery to smash it together for the test drive.

It worked perfectly, but there is also a manual calibration, where you drive for 2 miles, had I not been so lucky.
I wasn't so rash as to take a picture at ~70mph !!
The sensor has a little button that replays the peak speed for that journey.
That is a bit of fun, I'll have to find a spot behind the dash for that little button.
One unknown off the list without getting cold in the garage

Not particularly photogenic this piece, but progress is progress.
The off-side kick panel had two layers of sound insulation applied.
The wiring was secured, and the two fat cables run through the cab floor, ready to be routed along the chassis to battery box
Before I covered that lot up with the kick panel, I slathered some Dinitrol into the cab seams. I believe that is the first rustproofing this truck has ever recieved !!

Time to delve into the belly of the beast, or less poetically, remove the floor to help with the wiring.
At the top of the shot are the "big" cables. I use 110A flexible welding cable.
One from the alternator
One from the fusebox/ignition relay
A smaller 10# cable for the future power steering.
The big red cable was from a previous round of electrics, and goes to the starter.
The 110A cables are a little big as the fuse box and alternator are rated for 75 and 63A respectively, but it is better to go larger.

These lead into the seat box, and onto a buss bar, I hate screwing multiple connections to studs, so this whilst a little OTT works for me. A 3D printed label in red and white - because that is what I do
On the left is a modern starter motor solenoid - again I'd fitted this in a previous bodge removal session.

There is also tucked under the seat, a 50A breaker ready for the power steering, doubt it will ever pull that much with skinny tyres, but that is how I believe it should be wired.
Finally a 70A fuse which protects the main fusebox - overkill ? Who cares