sgart80's 64 f100 rebuild

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » November 17, 2009, 9:12 am

Yeah, thanks for the advice. I'll take all I can get.

johnzmu · Post by **johnzmu** » November 17, 2009, 9:36 am

greg d wrote

put some good rosette welds there

.
Just curious as to what a rosette weld is.

bluebolt · Post by **bluebolt** » November 17, 2009, 10:48 am

johnzmu wrote:greg d wrote
put some good rosette welds there
.
Just curious as to what a rosette weld is.

Drill a hole in the top layer and then weld up the hole welding to the bottom part at the same time.

64low-n-slow · Post by **64low-n-slow** » November 17, 2009, 11:20 am

I have a support that is in MUCH better shape than yours sitting in my garage. It has already been sandblasted and primed but you will want to do some patch work to finish it. If you are interested I'll make you a HECK of a deal on it. It would be good to see somebody else make use of it. I stumbled onto a 100% perfect one from Tom at Flashback F-100's and bought it. PM me if interested and I'll send you pics.

64low-n-slow · Post by **64low-n-slow** » November 17, 2009, 11:21 am

BTW - your patchwork and welding look really good. I wouldn't want to have tackled your cab!

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » November 17, 2009, 11:58 am

64low-n-slow wrote:BTW - your patchwork and welding look really good. I wouldn't want to have tackled your cab!

Thanks for the compliments. The cab was bad, but after looking at Anthony's project, as well as a few others, I don't think I had near the headache I could have had.

After getting the welder to tack the way I needed it to, the metal work has been gratifying. I'm going to try to patch the core support as best I can. I’m trying to refrain from buying extra parts and spending extra money. I do appreciate the offer on helping me out with a good support. I know it would be less of a pain in the butt to get a good one, but I’m going to try to fix what I have first. If it all goes to hell, I’ll give a shout out. I seem to be on a roll for now.

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » November 19, 2009, 10:39 am

I finished up the passenger side cab corner.

[albumimg]7074[/albumimg]

I started cutting out the driver's side and piecing in the new.

[albumimg]7075[/albumimg]

[albumimg]7076[/albumimg]

[albumimg]7077[/albumimg]

Hopefully I can get some more done tonight.

jammck66 · Post by **jammck66** » November 20, 2009, 12:19 pm

wow!! looks great! i am up against the exact same thing. the pics look great and are an inspiration to get off my butt and get started!
cant wait to see it finished!

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » December 4, 2009, 10:59 am

This week's progress:

Drivers side floor is in. I still have to finish filling in all the little holes, but it's almost there.
[albumimg]7172[/albumimg]

Still need to close up the corner.
[albumimg]7173[/albumimg]

Post by **Greg D** » December 4, 2009, 12:21 pm

That is some pretty ambitious metal work there. You are doing a good job. My old 64 lwb was rusted like yours was - I parted it out. I think it's very cool that you have the tenacity to say "I'm gonna fix it" and get it done.

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » January 12, 2010, 8:21 am

It's been a while since I've made any progress on the truck, the holidays and the cold weather has slowed me down quite a bit. I haven’t done any more welding but I painted the steering column. I don't have any before pictures. I'm switching to a floor shifter eventually so I'm leaving the shifter lever out. I'm thinking of going back and hacking out the tab at the top of the column where the shift lever attaches and welding the hole closed, and then welding up the hole at the bottom by the grease fitting. I haven't made up my mind on whether or not it’s worth the extra effort to close up the column. Has anybody done this, or when you guys converted to the floor shifter did you just leave the holes there? I was at least going to try to cover the lower opening so it kept dirt from getting in there.

[albumimg]7411[/albumimg]

[albumimg]7410[/albumimg]

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » March 3, 2010, 1:51 pm

I picked up my engine from the machine shop yesterday

. not much else to report.

[albumimg]7769[/albumimg]

[albumimg]7770[/albumimg]

sgettin · Post by **sgettin** » March 4, 2010, 9:00 am

my truck is similarly "rusted". with all the support via the floor pan and pillar support gone how do you keep your cab from flexing or warping out of shape?. from the pictures it doesn't look you've braced it up started putting in the panels. on mine i'm worred the doors will end up missaligned or something as she's sagging pretty bad up front (floor pans and pillar supports etc are gone, for now).

and my compliments on the work your doing.

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » March 4, 2010, 3:07 pm

I'm planning on rebuilding the cab mounts, here is an article I found online with dimensions and a write-up on how to replace the front mounts:

http://myweb.cableone.net/jusatad/CabMount/HowTo.htm

There was also a thread on here that I saved and I'm going to use for reference when I get back on the cab, I like what Fanatic did with his, he used 2 X 3 tubing and 1/8 plate. it's overkill, but it looks real solid.

http://fordtruk.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... ht=measure

Also, if you go with trying to reproduce the stock style mount, take note as to what charliemccraney said about the floor being sloped and the mounts not being 90 degrees. There are a couple of odd angles under the cab, just take note if you decide to go that route.

I hadn't really done anything to keep the pieces in place while I was welding and cutting and refitting. I just prayed that the metal that was left would keep things in place, and be a good base to refit metal off of.

good luck with truck.

slickmainer · Post by **slickmainer** » March 4, 2010, 3:55 pm

thats a nice how to on the mounts

62uni · Post by **62uni** » March 4, 2010, 8:12 pm

This is one I made from a single piece. Just draw your pattern on the side and use a saw to cut the lines. cut at the top of the channel in a straight line and then fold down into place and weld.

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » March 5, 2010, 7:48 am

That's an awesome tip, thanks 62uni

sgettin · Post by **sgettin** » March 5, 2010, 8:02 am

sgart80 wrote:I'm planning on rebuilding the cab mounts, here is an article I found online with dimensions and a write-up on how to replace the front mounts:

http://myweb.cableone.net/jusatad/CabMount/HowTo.htm

There was also a thread on here that I saved and I'm going to use for reference when I get back on the cab, I like what Fanatic did with his, he used 2 X 3 tubing and 1/8 plate. it's overkill, but it looks real solid.

http://fordtruk.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... ht=measure

Also, if you go with trying to reproduce the stock style mount, take note as to what charliemccraney said about the floor being sloped and the mounts not being 90 degrees. There are a couple of odd angles under the cab, just take note if you decide to go that route.

I hadn't really done anything to keep the pieces in place while I was welding and cutting and refitting. I just prayed that the metal that was left would keep things in place, and be a good base to refit metal off of.
good luck with truck.

thanks for the links and information. it has me wondering if i wouldn't be ahead to find the entire setup in a salvage yard (hard to do in iowa) and weld it in so i don't have to worry about manipulating incorrect aftermarket.

concerning warping etc my cab is still on the truck so obviously i'm driving it around alot. i can feel the floor and door flexing alot and if i park with a wheel in a pot hole or something chances are the door either won't open or won't shut. i guess cab mounts and floor pans will need to be my next priority.

sgart80 · Post by **sgart80** » March 8, 2010, 1:09 pm

I posted the other day that I got my engine back from the machine shop. The engine I pulled out of my 1986 donor f150 was shot. My machinist found me another truck engine, and rebuilt it for me. I went to my local auto parts dealer and bought 8 spark plugs for a 1986 f150 302. When I got them home, they wouldn't fit in the block. I called my machinist that told me that I just needed a longer reach plug and to check a newer engine. He was pretty sure it was a truck motor that he rebuilt. Back at the auto parts store the guy behind the counter said the plugs on the 89+ year trucks were the same plug. He also checked on plugs for a mustang, which was a longer plug and he said it sounded like I had high output heads. Which I thought was a load of crap because from my understanding, the trucks don’t have high output heads. I did some research and found some websites that had information for casting number breakdowns for engines and information on where the casting numbers were located. I found the block casting numbers on the engine and after decoding it I came up with a 1987 truck engine, but I couldn’t find any casting numbers on the heads. All the information I read said the head should be stamped 302 on top, and I never could find it stamped anywhere. I did stumble upon this post http://fordtruk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15214 . Basically it says that the high output motors (the mustang 302) has a different firing order than the truck engines and that if I have a cam for an HO motor and a computer from a truck the stuff won’t work together. SO, I called the machinist again and he said it looked like the engine that he rebuilt had never been apart and they should be the original heads. I went back to the engine and turned it over manually and watched the lifters to check the firing order. The firing order turned out to be the one for the truck motor, which is good, but truck spark plugs still won’t fit in the head. I then got on summits web site because you can search for parts be engine size and you can narrow and broaden your results by the information you put in, and you don’t have to have a year make and model (unlike the local parts stores, where they can’t tell you anything without that information). Basically summit listed 8 different motorcraft plugs for the ford 302, three of those eight were platinum tipped, so I ruled those out, and at least one was for a ford truck, so I again went back to the local auto parts place with my list in hand, and I took the one that had the longer threads. The part number was AWSF44C. Short of looking through a spark plug book at the parts store and writing down every ford that used that plug, I doubt I’ll be able to find out any more information about the heads. I did put the plug in and hand rotated the engine, and I didn’t smash the end, so I guess I have a plug that will work. If anyone thinks they might have any information on those heads, it would be nice to hear.

My uncle donated some chrome valve covers to my project, so I got those cleaned up and put on. I also got the distributor in and pointed at the #1 cylinder.

[albumimg]7801[/albumimg]

[albumimg]7802[/albumimg]

I pulled out boxes of engine parts and sorted through some of it. it’s going to take me a while to figure out where all this stuff goes.

[albumimg]7804[/albumimg]

I took aluminum wheel cleaner (the etching kind) and sprayed it on the intake, then I power washed it for about five or six minutes. the inside still has some build up in it, but I got a lot out. How are you supposed to get all the crap out of the passageways?

[albumimg]7803[/albumimg]

Post by **Greg D** » March 8, 2010, 1:48 pm

Get one of those ball shaped wire brushes with a handle that looks like braided wire - should clean it up good.
If you really want to melt up some wire on your cab mounts you can throw together a couple of these - weighs about 8 lbs, lol.

sgart80's 64 f100 rebuild

Hole

cab mount