Slick 60's

Nice job!! Like the color and two tone.She's be super when done.

been working on wiring quite a bit. trying to figure out all the switches, and how to make the CV run the 61 original gauge. the fuel sender requires a custom circuit. The alternator light requires a custom circuit. Same with the oil pressure light and temp. I've got the dakota digital ECD100 running the speedo, seems like a nice setup so far.

I replaced the Ididit column knobs with 61-66 ford knobs, and they look much better. swapping the billet stuff for black plastic is better.

More sanding, got nearly all the rest of the parts ready for color soon.

you can see the plug coming off the back of the OEM gauge, stole it from the CV. now the whole panel can be unplugged with that single plug. Also I've got a photo of the wiper setup. I bolted the CV wiper motor onto the 61 mount. I welded the CV gear to the 61 arms. That way I get the 2008 parts that work really well and cost nothing, combined with the old wiper mechanism to make everything fit. The only hard part was getting the arm length from the motor just right to set the wiper arm swing, took a couple tries. Now the question is what switch to use and how many speeds I can get from an OEM appearing wiper switch. Seems like 2 speed is all I can find, that will probably be ok

That is exactly what I tried and failed at with my instrument cluster.....guess now I can try again with whats been shown here!

BTW, that color is awesome

got some more painting done. here's a photo of the hood during color sanding. wow, the hood is massive, took forever.

also, a couple photos of my tailgate cables. the OEM bar type ones were missing, and I couldn't really find any to replace them. I used Ford Super Duty cables, mostly because the length seemed about right and they were the cheapest cables I could find.

I used the stock hole on the tailgate, and drilled a new hole on the bed end, near the taillight. It was really easy to reach in through the taillight hole and attach them. They work great. I have no idea how the stock system works, but Super Duty cables are nice, if you need something to use. They were only $20 for the pair if I remember right.

tailgate is back together. finally starting to make some progress putting things back how I found them. maybe I'm even done making a mess, but probably not. the taillights, blinkers, and brake lights even work....amazing.

I like the OEM tailgate latch system, works great 55 years later. easy to adjust, easy to reassemble.

the speedo is in and working. pretty cool to have the electronic VSS running the mechanical gauge.

also here's a photo of the seat. I'm about to drop it at the upholstery shop, but have the headrests built up like I want. I figure nobody here will like the headrests much, but it's mine! I'm going to daily drive this. any easy stuff I can do to make it safer I'm doing.

windshield and rear window are in. the windshield is new, had to be replaced. The rear window is the original one, i took some glass polish and a power buffer to it and got it looking nice again. install was a bit tricky, only because I had no idea what I was doing. Once you get the right sized rope and put the weatherstripping on the right direction, it's actually pretty easy.

started playing with the hood fit. first installed the cowl lacing, then the hinges. I think mine are in good shape. I cut on them some to make everything fit, but I think they'll be great in the end.

Man, that's looking nice! Great job!

some more of the dash. making the oil light and alt light work correctly was sort of a major hassle. but sweet success! since you can notice in the earlier photo that both of them are off while the engine is running and speedo is turning.

insulation and AC going in today. I like the look of this unit below the dash, and we've used it in another car so we already know it works really well. i suppose I could have hidden everything behind the dash, but I just like this look.

I got this insulation from here: http://www.lobucrod.com. seems like people like it, I'll let you know how it turns out. so far it's really easy to work with and seems like good stuff.

you may notice the green glove box door. Oops. I'll say that I gave it a green base coat to ensure it has the exact same tone of white as the lower half of the dash, sure, that seems like a good explanation.

The AC unit I chose had no heater, so I put a small Mojave heater next to it. Still trying to figure out if I want/ need to attach the defog vents on the dash to it or not. Not super often in AZ that I need to defog the windshield, and I really don't want hoses sticking out from the front. Hmm..

doors, finally! My brother has had lots of trouble with the door seals on his 56 F100. He used the technique from this site's tips and tricks, but it just didn't work very well. He's fixed most of it with silicon sealant, so I'm using that from the start.

The hinges, latches, and handles all work great. The door fits nicely and has a solid feel to it, should be nice.

the goal was to reuse as much of the stock 2008 CV AC stuff as possible. Turns out the compressor is way too big, and that will likely cause it to fail at some point. So, we decided to replace it with the correct sized compressor now, rather than in the middle of the summer half way through a road trip, which is when I'm sure it would have gone.

Using a Sanden compressor, same as we've used a few times before. looking at the photo, you can see how tough it is to access, and moving the radiator back 3" previously to fit into the truck didn't help any. Its the one there in the far lower left. Crazy, but this is the first time we've removed the radiator. Made it all the way to here without taking it out. hopefully we can leave the pulley in exactly the same spot so we can use an OEM sized belt, but we will see how it turns out.

Got the Sanden compressor in with a new mount, was even able to use the OEM belt. Mounted a new receiver/drier and charged the system. All of a sudden I've got heat and AC, nice! Adapting the Ford specific lines to normal aftermarket style lines turned out to be a hassle. Looking back, just starting the whole thing from scratch with Vintage Air stuff may have been preferable. Condenser is really all we ended up using from the CV.

I suspect you won't be a fan of the inner fenders. I adapted the CV inner fenders to fit. Let's be honest, the OEM 61 steel inner fenders are really cool. They may even be even more beautiful than the outside of the truck. For my motor, they didn't fit well at all. MIne were also totally thrashed, as the previous owner cut them all up with tin snips for some reason. To make them fit the 4.6L, I would have had to either cut the inner half of them completely off, making them useless as fenders, or totally reshape them to the point where it might have been easier to just start over. The CV inner fenders fit much better and already had mounts for a bunch of parts like the computer, airbox, and fuse box. While the look isn't quite as nice as the OEM 60s steel stuff, it matches the 2008 OEM look of the rest of the engine compartment. I'm happy with how it turned out, even though I'm pretty sure you aren't. That's ok, if I wanted it all to be pretty I would have built it like it was in 61. Then, I would have let it sit in the garage and driven new cars daily instead.

On the outside, the front end is going back together nicely, looks so good. This is more together than the truck body has ever been since I've owned it. Feels like maybe I'm just days away from hitting the road with it.

The bench seat is now at an upholstery shop. When I got the truck it was a rat's nest. Had it sandblasted, and then I painted it. I'm planning to use 4" foam on the bottom and 1" foam on the back. I want a stitched pattern, which drives having another .5" of foam on the vinyl to make it look just right. I hope to get it back in a week or so.

I like what you've done. This is a great resto-mod. Exterior has all the great looks of the uni while underneath its current technology. We all have our preferences, but you deserve kudos for the effort and results!

glove box. white coated aluminum bent over the box and pan brake to create a sturdy glove box and spot for the radio. still a bit of room left for... gloves and things.

getting close. brought the truck back to my house in preparation for driving it! got 5 year registration and insurance.

Really just need the bench seat back and I can start driving. the boys love it! They're sure that it's theirs.

Thanks for sharing your build, you have done a phenomenal job on the truck.

I had a 57 sedan delivery years ago that had a section of the roof cut out also. A previous owner used it for night hunting... didn't have to leave the vehicle to shoot , just stand up to fire..

Randall