New 63 owner

[JeffinMooresville]

Dad, Chris and the grandsons came over today. When is my truck gonna be finished Pop-Pop ? It don’t get no better than this.



Dri-fit the hood, looks ok... now tear it back apart, clean up the pieces and final assembly. Gotta get this thing on the road by spring.

[SteveCanup]

Great build thread! Don't know how I missed this....but I just read through the entire thread. Great job on your truck and you will enjoy it immensely when you get it on the road.

[JeffinMooresville]

Thanks Steve, i have had a lot of great advice and direct help from people on the forum. I am ready to get this thing on the road, but there are so many details. Just have to pick one thing , work on that then move to the next.

Appreciate the encouragement.

Jeff

[JeffinMooresville]

Picked up wheels and tires and even tho not ready, i had to put them on.

See old vs new profile - old ones on right.



I went with 17x 8 wheels with slightly wider tires on back.

[grump]

I like the looks of those wheels. I'm building a '66 flare side and have been checking out wheels, those are something to think about. Lookin' good.

[SteveCanup]

I like those wheels too! I had considered a set just like that....maybe in the future.

[JeffinMooresville]

Old school,look, and there are not many that fit the 5x5.5 bolt pattern.

Ok, it may have taken me 1/2 the day, but i finally got the hood hinge bolts out. I had to cut them because the insert was spinning. I drilled, ground and beat and finally got them out.





One of the holes is 5/8 and one is 1/2... think i will use nutserts...

[shipwrecked]

god that happened to me on the passenger side. I couldn't get a good nutsert to stay in there, so I put a regular bolt through it. It is a pain though to get a nut in there. I put the bolt through the front, reached my arm up into the cowl and put a nut in from that end. I put a small wrench in there, and tightened it down. I did mine myself and would love to get another person to help me as I need to take it off to adjust my hinges so my hood will shut now. I made it work but dang it was a pain. Cant really do anything about mine now.

[SteveCanup]

god that happened to me on the passenger side. I couldn't get a good nutsert to stay in there, so I put a regular bolt through it. It is a pain though to get a nut in there. I put the bolt through the front, reached my arm up into the cowl and put a nut in from that end. I put a small wrench in there, and tightened it down. I did mine myself and would love to get another person to help me as I need to take it off to adjust my hinges so my hood will shut now. I made it work but dang it was a pain. Cant really do anything about mine now.

April...can you get your welder up under there and put a 'spot' weld (or two) on the outer side of the nut to hold it to the firewall? Just a thought. I don't really know how tight it is under there so this might not be a good suggestion....but I do feel your pain.

[longcabjohn]

weld a nut to a washer, get a bolt about 4 inches long and a piece of copper tubing about 1/2 inch shorter than bolt (mig weld will not stick to copper) use bolt as handle and weld in hole.
if washer is a little big file notches top and bottom and work washer to back then weld. The longer the bolt and tubing the more your holding hand is out of way welding. I did several this way on
my skyliner trunk lid 20 years ago and no problem yet. I hope this is understandable but I can't do photos


Johnny

[JeffinMooresville]

Got sidetracked, but back to work a little on the truck. Got nutsert installed for hinge bolts in cowl area, been working on finishing everything thru firewall before i put fenders on, while easy to get to. Got ebrake cable, speedometer cable, and got wiring tied up and attached to firewall.

Also working on finishing up interior. Had to make a cover plate for the steering column, old one was rusted out. Used the new seal as template, with some slight adjustment for the column placement ( i moved the column up slighly) to provide some extra room.



Also started to put down the rattletrap per recommendation from local truck buddy, i am just doing the floor at this point so i can get carpet down. Pretty east to work with, like 1/4 rubber with thick foil over top. Cuts easy and adheres well.



Ordered new carpet from Stock Interiors, laid it in for test fit, matches up to floor contours perfectly, but looks like i will need some patience to get installed.



Going to try and finish the rattletrap install and get carpet installed tomorrow.

[shipwrecked]

Looking good,

I had to build a new column plate back a long time ago. I made mine a two piece one, and thankful for that as I’ve had to remove the column a couple times since.

I just pulled that same carpet out. Same color. It was purchased a few years ago, I put it in, but I wanted the darker grey, so I have it coming from stock interiors,

Keep it up!

[JeffinMooresville]

Got a pretty good lick in today, weather is getting nice, ready to get this truck on the road.

I finished the fatmat install. I bought 50 sq ft package, cones in 18” wide roll 33.5 ft. I only did the floor from the bottom of the gas tank to the seam in the firewall under the dash. I used 19’ of the 33’ roll or 29 sq ft. I have 14’ left, i think i can probably do roof, behind the tank etc. with what i have left.

Used a a hole punch set to uncover bolt holes in floor for seats, gas pedal, shifter etc.



Worked on th carpet and made pretty good progress, i got in position, got gas petal bolts in and shifter in place. Did some rough trimming and relief cuts , but decided to allow it to lay flat for a couple of days, and maybe wait until i get the seat in for final trimming araound the door wells.





Also worked on loose fitting the fenders and front end components, starting to look like a truck again.





I like size of the new wheels, but need to figure out how to get a couple on inches of drop on the stance , riding a little high. I have heard people just remove some of the leaf springs, i dont know if that actually works or not.

I had my grill soda blasted and in the process of repainting. Have to finish that up before i do the tweaking and tightening of front end.

[SteveCanup]

Sweet looking truck! I love those wheels. Carpet install is looking good too...I used the same carpet (black) from the same company. You're showing great wisdom in letting it relax for a few days before cutting further. I did the same with mine. And, Yes, you can lower it some by removing some of the leaves from the pack. There is a method to the madness in doing that, but I can't remember for sure. I was thinking that I had read on here under the "Hints the Tricks" section that you would want to remove every other leaf. That truck would look awesome lowered...just my

[JeffinMooresville]

Was out of town last weekend, so back at it this weekend. My dad came over on Saturday and we finished up carpet install and did some work on the front end. My dad is 87 and still loves. To turn a wrench and makes saturday working on the truck really nice experience.

We pulled the tank so we could tuck the carpet under for a clean look. Doug came by on Sun and gave me a hand getting the tank back in . Thanks !







Also did some work on final electrical and getting the dash buttoned up.





Have most of engine compartment wiring done, still need to get everything tied down.



Got the front end sheet metal tightened down and installed grill, headlights, parking lights etc.
Little tip, put parking lights on grill BEFORE installing grill and valance.

[My wife's nightmare]

It was a pleasure to help put your tank back in. This is really going to be a nice truck real soon. I need to get busy to catch up so we can go riding, but this dang job keeps getting in the way!

[JeffinMooresville]

Continuing to button up, tighten down, seems like there is always something else to do.

I made a little rig for brake light switch. Made a little contact tab off of the brake pedal to activate the switch and then a bracket that i could just bolt to the underside of the petal assembly.



I canted it over a little so it would not interfere with pedal travel, and seems to work fine.



Rigged the brake lights up to bumper brackets so i test drive while i am working on the bed.

I had bought some frame clips from Au-ve-co that i had planned to use for brake lines etc, that didn't work out, but was able to use to secure some of the wiring in engine compartment.



Laid the radiator back and with the help of rubber mallet, got the clips installed and also got the FORD letters secured while i had access.



Was such a nice day decided to put the seat in, put drivers side door on and took it out for a test drive. I have taken around the block, but this was first both doors on, put the tag on drive drove overs to buddys house and it seemed to fine, but cut off on me on the way home.

Looks like it might be carb or maybe fuel pump. I did not rebuild the motorcraft 2150, when i had motor done as it was running. Perhaps it is time to rebuild or replace.

Also prior to rebuild, you could see fuel being pumped thru the clear filter in-line from pump to carb, but not so much now. So perhaps fuel pump is crapping out. I guess it i will start diagnosis next weekend.

Oh well, making progress i guess, was nice to get out for a ride.

[JeffinMooresville]

alright, i replaced the fuel pump, but still does not fill the plastic filter the way i think it should, but starts and runs so we will see. I have not rebuilt the carb since the rebuild, so perhaps that is a factor. I am concerned with it running hot. My temp gauge (stock) says not, but i don't trust it, so might need to add a mechanical gauge to get legit reading. Gauge did not work connected to the sending unit in the manifold, but did get a reading from the one on the water neck. I ran today to see if the thermostat is opening, and i expected it to slurp in and start gurgling with rad cap off when it kicked in, but instead it gushed antifreeze out of the top. Perhaps i can just run without thermostat for test, it is 90 degrees out in Mooresville these days. Any advice. In any way, i see a radiator upgrade sometime in future. I think it is running the original 6 banger radiator after previous owner, upgraded to 390.

On a positive note, my son came over and helped get the hood on. Fit was ok, looks like it could use a little adjusting at the hinges, seems that it is sitting maybe 1/4 low at the edge of the cowl.

As i indicate in previous post, i had issues with the original hinge nuts in the cowl. Previous owner had used wrong bolts and a couple of them broke loose and spun out. I tried to retap for coarse bolts, and had it bolted all up, but when i went to tighten up, they stripped out. So i was certain, i was going to have to pull the hood and start all over again, but, i pulled the surround off of the fresh air vent in the kick panel, and voila, had plenty of access to at least the 2 outside hinge bolts and was able to simply add washers and nuts from the back of the cowl. Tied a wrench retrieval string to make sure i could recover the wrench and worked like a charm.



So pulled out, and washed some of the shop dust off. I pulled the badges off the hood, because i am going to have guy down the street compound and buff the truck and see where i am on paint job. There are some ruff spots, major chips in the paint so not sure what I am going to do about those. The truck was painted at some point, and my plan is to just go with it.... i kind of like the old school paint job, and just going to live with the imperfections, seems to fit the truck.







Ok, so while i continue to troubleshoot the fuel, carb, cooling issues, I think i will switch to the bed, and start the tear down and rebuild of that.

[JeffinMooresville]

For those that have for followed this thread, may recall that my dad has been my biggest helper on the project. Saturday mornings has been our day to piddle on the truck, shoot the breeze etc. Dad passed on June 29th and i have had tough time getting back in the shop.

we started the project as a family affair since day one, when we took off the front clip, we even got my son Chris involved.



Some car buddies of his came over and we pulled the motor.



Then we pulled the bed off.



Then the cab.



And a couple on months ago, he came over and helped me put the front end back on.



The next weekend we got the doors and hood back on went for a celebratory ride, so while i wasn't able to finish, i am thankful that we were able to take a ride in the project.

Well, time to get back to it, i can hear him saying, that water pump aint going to install itself.

I miss you dad.

[SteveCanup]

Condolences on the passing of your dad...it is difficult at best.