More on trucks

Once again I have nothing to say about the Galaxie, in fact I am a tad pissed as I failed to buy an authentic aerial today. Well I could have bought it but I dropped out when it reached an outrageous $46. I shall just buy the cheapest that I can find in Autozone and that will look fine and should cost about $2.50. Bastards. Still on the positive side I did get a new set of locks and keys and a very nice authentic door mirror so that is OK.

Saturday was a nice day and I should of worked on the Galaxie, there is still much to do before I prime it. Still the urge to make money from the trucks was too strong and I sold my soul for the Yankee dollar. The 53 is just about ready for the auction block. Would you like to see some pictures? Of course you would.


This was after spending hours and hours and hours sandblasting and sanding. Now with a coat of primer she is looking good.

I was going to get her ebay this week but we may have a buyer and if I can get $1500 and a front end for this, I will be well pleased

This is the 55 and what makes her special is that she had a 1998 F150 engine, suspension and brakes. It is hard to imagine but by the time I am done I am looking to clear $3000. Finally here is a shot of the other two which are both 67s and of very little interest to me.

However I have a tentative offer of $1000 for the black one. My secret plan is to clean up the green one and drop in a spare 390 that I have. In English they are called Q cars. They look like plain Janes but when the local boys challenge you they eat your emissions, so to speak. Anyway this is our little secret as Gene wants to turn that into cash as well.

Watch this space.

The 1953 F100

OK so this has nothing to do with the Galaxie but nothing much has happened on the Galaxie as it has been too damned cold. If you have ever used wet and dry in 30 something degrees you will appreciate how arthritic my knuckles were feeling.

So here is my latest project. A 1953 F100 truck. My first thoughts were to restore it and keep it but wiser council prevailed and I need to finish the Galaxie before I build another keeper.

Since these pictures were taken I have sandblasted most of the truck and already it is looking a hundred times better. Another few days and it will be ready for sale although I think we may have already found a well qualified and motivated buyer.

Interestingly enough when I was pushing it with the tractor I discovered that the engine turns. So maybe, just for fun, I might tickle the plugs and points and see if I can make it a runner. That should add another $500 to the value.

Also, I have been offered a FE428 engine. Now I think that it would be wasted in this F100 but I have a plain Jane 1967 Ranger with no engine. To restore that and then drop in a monster engine would be the ultimate. Can you imagine sitting at the lights in a very basic truck next to a boy racer in a pocket rocket and then blowing his doors off?

I love this shit.

More Fords

Another full day at the body shop but not too much on the Galaxie. I got some more filler in some low spots and sanded down some old filler but that was it. The rest of the day was spent on a new (and hopefully money making) project. Gene and I have gone into business and bought 4 trucks. We now have a 1953 F100, a 1956 F100 and two 1967 Ford pickups. One of the 67’s looked to be in fair condition so we thought that it might be fun to see if it ran. The first problem was that the starter solenoid was shot but we easily overcame that with the aid of a shorting bar. With any old car that hasn’t run forever it is always best to check for a spark, pour some gas down the carburetor and see what happens. Unbelievably it fired and then died but not after puking an egg cup of fuel out of the bottom of the carb. After having run for less than 5 seconds Gene diagnosed that the plug leads were crossed and sure enough 6 and 8 were transposed. I took off the distributor cap and the removed the plugs and cleaned everything up. Gene had a carb repair kit so we replaced the diaphragm to cure the leak and we were set to go. I only mention this high tech stuff so you get an idea of what a high powered body shop we are. So it is time to fire it up again and could we get it to run, could we hell. I pulled the fuel line to find that there was nothing coming out of the pump. We blew it through with an air line and checked the connections and eventually came to the conclusion (two hours later) that there was no fuel in the tank. MERDE.

Now we are running, now I don’t know if you have ever started an engine that has not run for 10 years but it is very strange. It sounds like crap on wheels and thick blue smoke pours out of every orifice, but within 10 minutes the valves seal up, it starts to sound nice and the smoke disappears. Time for a test drive and as I pull onto the lane and gun it, it stalls. I pop the hood, walk around to the passenger side, jam my shorting line across the solenoid and she fires up first time. It appeared that I might have overlooked the fact that when you hot-wire a truck you also bypass the safety switch that prevents the truck from starting unless it is park. Can you guess what happened next? Yes indeed not so much in park as in reverse and as she fire she started to reverse towards the body shop. I am on the wrong side to hit the brake and the best I can do is to scrabble along the side and jam myself under the tailgate.

To add insult to injury everyone (including assorted wives) was watching and too busy wetting themselves to help. Eventually someone kindly jumps in, throws it in drive and without stalling the engine parks it neatly in its bay.

Perhaps I should stick to block sanding the Galaxie.