Things have been kind of hectic around here but getting things done when I can. There is quite a bit of “traffic” in the passenger side of the engine compartment. Trying to keep things away from heat and such has been a bit of a challenge. But, I have the AC hoses sorted, I had to order a couple fittings, I gave mounted the dryer, have mounted the fan relay setup and one of the two horns. Still deciding on how to secure the battery tray and I will use an old belt to keep the battery from leaning out of the tray. Wiring on this side has been roughly run, I found my tach wire and have installed it, and we just keep plugging away on all the small things. Nothing really picture worthy but we are getting closer and closer to start up. Time in the garage tomorrow will be spotty again but I will take what I can get ….
Last couple days have been busy both garage and personal. Horns are done, electricals like the fan relay with manual bypass is in, horns done, battery tray is done, and I have been tie wrapping things up underneath and in the engine bay, and I should have my AC fittings in tomorrow. I will install the fittings before the battery tray is in just so there is enough room to work. I do have to move the front shack towers was gem the frame rail - it’s a bit of a struggle to get the inner fender panels on by themselves - I can’t imagine how it would be installing the whole nose. Little by little it’s getting done …..
Nothing got done today - took a day off to go to the local market with the wife, took it easy, she went off to a symposium, I took a ride in the coupe, and tonight I will borrow a hand crimped for the AC fittings - I should be on the AC fittings tomorrow and hopefully get them all done. Yesterday I set up ground cables for the frame, engine, and cab, starter wire is in, hot cable to the starter is done, from bushed the battery tray but I can’t put it in until the inner fender panel is in - good thing I made it easily removable! I charged up the new battery I have for it and I am contemplating running a second battery in the box I have lined up for the bed in parallel. I have a 100 amp alternator and I am thinking that should be enough to charge up both and handle any extra draw. We shall see ….. Just a couple “major” things left to do - measure for and order my driveshaft as soon as I put the bedwood in and simulate a full tank of gas. Pulling the trailer or at least hooking it up to see how far she lowers will probably have to be factored in some how; get the hood installed; install the front nose which I will both need help with. Yep - I am on the short list!
Well - the AC fittings are all crimped. I borrowed my buddy Koppy’s hydraulic AC fitting crimper you can use right on the car …. The tool worked fantastic. I have the old vice mount manual unit which I would have had to put something together to get the vice close enough to do the two lines coming from under the cab. First one …. Piece of cake! I started doing the rest …. I had to install the inner fender panel to do the dryer lines. I also found that one plastic holder holding the two AC hoses across the top - worked out perfect. I had to trim away a little for the lower condenser fitting and Ibalso had to remove the inner fender panel to get to it. There is just not enough room with it in place at this time - I may get to move a few things to be able to get to that fitting. I finished the water pump heater hose line with my neighbor Denise’s help. I have more to do today but I just had to post this now. This tool saved me a LOT of work and made life much easier. Another short list item off the list ….
Those crimps look tidy! I got my AC at Vintage Air and they said when I am ready to make the hoses they will send me the crimper to borrow and return. I hope it is as nice as the one you used!
So I have done a few more things - checked the fuel lines after putting in about 5 gallons of gas and fired up the pump. Just one small leak was all there was and I lowered the pressure to 5.5. I also got all the battery wiring done …. … and we have tail lights, dash lighting, wipers, cabin lights, fans work for both the heater and AC unit (they are separate units if you remember), but I do have some circuits that are not registering - I am working on them. It was a good day in the garage ……
Bandit - if you have not seen it all ready I sent you a PM a short while back. Check it out if you would … Thanks!
Today I worked on putting the bedwood in the truck. But, as it usually happens, I needed to make some mods to the two outer boards …. The kickup areas were giving me some problems and it took several tries on Borge sides to get them sorted out. Once they were good I laid everything in …. I then drilled the 4 corner holes for the long bolts that hold the two main supports to the frame, each one 9” long. After several trips to the hardware store for needed items - thank goodness ACE is 1/2 mile away - they were in. With the end boards fixed I put in a couple lag screws in front and rear to hold the two main boards in place. I also started drilling the holes for the stainless strips and the three closest to the tailgate are drilled …. I will need some kind of rt angle piece of aluminum or something for the outer edge but so far, so good. I will need another person to help with the metal strip bolts but I am liking things so far ….. I put the bedwood in now as they are heavy enough to affect the ride height. I had put in 5 gallons of gas and I have another 5 to put in tomorrow. But I need to come up with a pair of front tires. In my past experience with 40s you need to watch your backspacing so you don’t clip the front fender when going up a driveway with a dropped axle. I had a 40 dropped axle in my old coupe and I was close but never touched. The difference this time around is that I have a dropped 32 axle in it so I am tucked under and in a bit more. The 195/75-r15 tires would be perfect but they are no longer listed - it’s either the 185 or 205. Gabby had one 205/65-r15 hanging around that I mounted. It’s the same height as the 165/80-15s I have on now and the section width is good with the 4-bar suspension. I think a 295/70-r15 may be the tickets. Once I have a front fender installed I can work it out and then have my front ride height set. Then we shim the rear what is needed for my pinion angle and order a driveshaft. This is like feeling I am in slow motion, sneaking up on the completion of this project. It’s the dominos principle, right?!
Tom will you be attending any events in Virginia in the near future? I would like to meet you and discuss the building of the pickup and issues that I need to be aware of in my upcoming 40 pickup build. I live in the Gordonsville area of Virginia which is in driving distance to your area in a couple of hours. Thanks, Joe
Nice area around Gordonsville - used to be an old car place in an old block building close to the traffic circle where I almost bought a car at one time. But that was probably 20 years ago. The three immediate places I will be is first, Spring Carlisle the third week in April as a vendor as I have been since the late 80s, Jalopyrama the first full weekend in May where I could be in the new truck or my 32 5-window, and then the TSRA 50th anniversary show the second weekend in May in Williamsburg and there is a slightly better chance that I could be there with the truck. You can enter and/or come to the show by visiting their website, TSRA-Va.com, to get an application, directions, etc. I was there club president for a couple years and ran that show for both of those years …… I am glad you have enjoyed the build - I do not usually build a vehicle with AC, on, ps, etc,etc, but the truck is for my wife and I am trying to get it as close to feeling like her daily driver as I can. I will try and give you all the information I can but I am no guru. In actuality I have owned a lot and f 40 pickups but they were all mostly in pieces save for us be red one early on in my move to Virginia, another I picked up, Mae it all puffy, and sold it for a tuition payment for my daughter, and now this one. As a matter of fact this truck is a conglomeration of parts from nearly 5 parts trucks I have owned at various times, upgrading items as I went along. They actual build started some 7-8 years ago and then was stopped while I built my 5-window. This truck started up again as my Covid therapy so I could keep my sanity. I do like to keep busy. However, this is my last ground-up build though. I am into flatheads and I have a few of them to build and use my avatar as my test mule. That will then occupy most of my time and maintaining “the fleet”. Thanks for reaching out and PM me for my cell number should you need to call me. I do have some misc 40 pickup parts leftover from the build that will probably be at Carlisle in April. All the best to you, TomT
Between what I did last night and today, the bedwood is installed and done. Here is what I used ….. I used the lag screws pictured to hold the boards in position from underneath. The long drill bit was for drilling a pilot hole and the long extension and ratchet got them in place. If you know the pickups, the cross pieces have holes for the popular multi board style bedwood. With my setup, I actually hit most of the holes to attach the bed strips. They are on tight but mostly they function as a cover for the board joints. You see the long slotted bolts I used and I drilled my own holes in the strips. I drilled and tapped where I needed including into the oak bed supports. It just made things look nice. The aluminum strip pictured will protect the edge of the bedwood…. This piece is about 3” too short and I need to pick one up. And I will fess up - I did make one mistake drilling the strips right in the center of the bed. Fortunately I had one more bed strip so I cut about a 2”piece off, drilled it, and it covered my mistaken hole. A kick save and it was a beauty - lol! I started mounting the inner fender panel on the driver fender so I can test for tire clearance when I ran out of time. Tomorrow is another day …..
Yesterday I had started in the driver inner fender panel install. I used the stock fiber welting in between and the stock 4 carriage bolts. I taped up the cowl edge of the fender and with my neighbors help , got it on …. Things were not quite right and I had very little clearance with the 205/65-r15 I got from Gabby. Then, with my neighbor’s help again we got everything tightened up and I went back to the original tire ….. Tuff to tell in the pics but only my fingers passed the first go round and my whole hand into my palm passed with things tightened up. With just one fender it’s tuff to gauge but I think I will go with my original tires and wait until the truck is totally assembled. I am pretty sure I am using a 5” wheel with 3” backspace so that is about as good as I will find rim wise. I jacked up one tire and there was no real movement up into the fender lip. I am running a pretty stout sway bar and just a V6 so that may have some bearing. We will see once it’s road worthy …. I checked my pinion angles again with the bedwood in and 10 gallons of fuel. Rear is pointing 3 degeees down. I was able to raise the tranny up a bit and it’s now pointing 6 degrees down. With my 5 degree shins, that leaves me with only 3 degrees and that should be fine. Pulling the trailer will probably make it even a bit better…. they are next on the list …. Another good day in the garage ….
Not much to report as of late - just tightening up everything underneath, a little painting of missed spots underneath, zI need to take the front fender off and I need to set up for the shim install. I also may lower the truck up n back am either one or two inches while installing the shims. I am also think the upward pointing of the yoke end of the rear May sit the tire further back in the wheel well. I don’t know how much but if it’s noticeable I will need to make some adjustments to correct that. Just because I set in the Mod A truck I am gang to use call n the bed ….. This still leaves enough room for the roof top carrier I will use in the bed to keep everything dry. The bed cover was something I picked up for the one Orange pickup I picked up, finished, and flipped for my daughters final tuition payment …. … but never sold with it. You can see where I tried a lot of ideas for this build to be used again on my present truck. It was a really nice truck but with fiberglass front and rear fenders and running boards. But I did make the cheap paint job that was on it shine - it was a mile deep after wet sanding it down with 2000 grit and had my buddy buff it out. Used the same 93 Suburban 3rd seat in both and the same upper console. This truck also gave me all the patterns for the interior boards. We keep learning build after build …. and we all keep having waaay too much fun!
I haven’t been posting but I am still at it if not also involved with other things. The driver fender is now back off, I am prepping for the axle shim install and I happen to have another leaf I can install to firm things up. Throttle cable is done, working on the steering column, all among other things. It’s getting there - just nothing really picture worthy.
I now have the rear suspension suspended getting ready for the shim install. The extra leaves that I have are the same length and width of the lowest leaf in the spring pack. I want to install them to see how the rear spring looks afterward. With the helper springs installed the spring is nearly flat if not flexing upward. With the extra leaf per side I am hoping the springs will stay flat if not slightly cubed downward with the helper springs installed. I cleaned and painted the extra leaves today along with the hood springs…. Once the suspension was loose I changed the axle wheel lugs to one’s that were longer. I want to move the tires out with spacers but the original lugs were too short and I did not have enough lug nut bite …. Unfortunately the rear axle bolts I ordered should have been 3/8” but instead were the 5/16ths. I have the 3/8s on ordered and I already expanded the shim holes which were also 5/16ths. With the driver fender off I was also able to connect the steering column and u-joints …. … and the column is now back in …. I also put some fender welting on the the driver fender where it meets the cowl …. My wife likes how I use her old clothespins to keep the welting in place while the glue dries! Passenger side next …
Thanks, Tom for getting back to me so soon about your schedule. I believe the TSRA in Williamsburg will be the event that I will be attending. I also have a friend in our group of breakfast car guys in Culpeper who is also building a 1940 ford pickup and may be in Carlisle. He may also be interested in the parts you have for the pickup, if you have a list of parts I will give the list to him. He is retired and still drives a 1940 deluxe coupe that he drove while attending college. You can email the list and your cell # and vendor spot to fortyfordjoe1@gmail.com . I also have a 40 deluxe coupe that I purchased for $15.00 from a local junk yard when I was 14 years old . Thanks, Joe
I got my axle bolts this am so all the disassembling I did yesterday paid off. I worked on the driver side first and I ran into a problem right baway. The bolt that was there could not be removed from the top. There is just no room to do it. So I dropped the spring from the front and took this picture … …. and you can see there is a sleeve around the bolt as it goes through the axle pad. I called around and no one could understand what I was talking about. I have maybe done 6 or so 8” Ford rears and I never saw this. I was perplexed with how I was going to get it out - if I cut it, not a good idea. I still can’t get to the portion about be the axle plate and under the axle tube. So, I thought I might be able to pry it out. Using the closed end of a 5/8” wrench, I put the nut on the bottom of the bolt - maybe 4-5 turns - slipped the closed end over the nut and rested the wrench on the upper lip of the nut. Then, using a pry bar I was able to pry it out completely no problem. Here is the bolt and sleeve … My next hurdle was the new bolt head was too big for the axle plate hole. A little turn on the grinder straightened that out and I was able to assemble the shim plate, 1 1/4” lowering block, and the two lower leaves for both sides …. And that’s where I ended up tonight. I have to assemble the u-bolts and lower plate to then install the helper springs. With only the shocks and sway bar remaining, I can put the truck at ride height to check the pinion angle and how much suspension travel I have. I may have to trim down the lowering block to get my 3.5 “ of travel. I also put longer/taller axle snubbers on or I would have crushed the exhaust pipes in that area. One last thing I did yesterday before the rear shin disassembly was to glue fender welting to the grille … I haven’t removed the clothespins yet but here’s a pic of the cowl are of the front fender …. Came out pretty nice imho …… Another good couple days, for me anyway …..
I was able to get the truck back down on all 4s and at ride height. Just the sway bar and shocks were not installed but it looks like I have 4” of suspension travel, and will th the double bottom most leaf, 1.25 inch lowering block, and the helper springs the rear sits at 5 degrees pointing up, the tranny 5-6 degrees pointing down. So I am good to go. She does sit about and inch lower in the wheel well and slightly to the rear but I think I can live with that for now. I will try and get some pics tomorrow but suffice to say, I am very happy with the results. Like I always say, it was calculated dumb luck ….. lol!
Everything is back together but there I a problem…. … the tire looks s not centered n the wheel well opening. I like the height of the n tge wheel well but the lowering block has rolled axle back about 3/4”. I think if I remove the lowering block the wheel will be much more centered. Once I see how it all sets I might try longer rear spring shackles. We shall see. But, the tire needs to be centered in n the wheel well opening - it does not look really get if it isn’t. Back to work …..
Could you not redrill the locating hole for the spring center bolt offset in the lowering block to make up the difference? Probably have to redrill the locating hole in the spring bottom plate to correspond, so the u-bolts would line up. Bill
I did think of that but I decided to remove the lowering block …. It’s better but not perfect and I think it’s as good as it’s going to get. These trucks were not that perfect to begin with!
That's the challenge isn't it! Taking the mass produced, low QC and turning them into mechanical art. I am proud to be the guy that restores hate! We can make it better, stronger, faster!
Hotroda - you hit the nail on the head. We are working on that now - will let all know when it happens. Thank you!
I am loading up for Spring Carlisle from Tuesday-Friday, II29 - stop by and say hey if you are going …..
The Jalopy Journal
