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.

The Bumpers

In an earlier blog I drastically under estimated the cost of re-chroming the bumpers. I had thought it would be a buttock clenching $350 each. It turned out to be a colon cleansing $475 each. Apparently the cost of nickel has gone through the roof. I am currently lying down in a dark room softly sobbing.

PS. I also took assorted door handles, the original mirrors and some chrome trim that had to be re-chromed. Needless to say the handles and the mirrors came back with me. I can't work out how it is cheaper to buy reproduction parts than get the originals re-plated. Has the entire world gone insane?

The tires are on!

Well, due to the fact that Saturday was colder that a whore's heart, it was kind of a short day. However in terms of instant gratification it was a good day as we got the tires mounted on the rims. There is no way that I can make this sound interesting but let me tell you we struggled to get those damned beads seated in the rims in order to get the air to complete the seal. Still all's well that ends and Kimberley and I got the job done; now those 15" Lincoln wheels with chrome Ford caps look very sharp. In addition I saw in my local tire store that they charge $14.50 for mounting tires and $8.50 for balancing. (Times 5 equals $115 saved, woohoo).

As we were clearly on a roll we spotted that Gene's 51 Crown Vic had a flat, so we popped it off, found the leaking bead, sanded the rim and sealed it all up. Not bad considering that it felt like minus 200 degrees.

The longer this goes on the more I realize that I should own a junk yard/body shop/tire service. Cash only and the IRS can kiss my big fat botty all over.

Wheels and Tires

Apart from the vast knowledge Gene has of old Fords another major plus is the fact that he has all the equipment necessary for all manner of tasks. Case in point I managed to pick up 5 new tires for $40 each this week. Now I know that they are nasty Chinese imports but ;

The car will not be driven above local speed limits.

It will never be out in anything other than perfect weather.

The insurance restricts use to less than 5000 miles a year so the sidewalls will probably crack before the treads give up.

Anyhow the tire retailers make an arm and a leg on fitting, balancing and valves all of which, courtesy of Field Autobody, I get for free. I had hoped to fit them tomorrow but the weather channel calls for more snow tomorrow and a high of 27 on Sunday. I may well spend all weekend in front of a big log fire.

However progress will be made on Monday as I am driving the bumpers and assorted small chrome parts to be replated. I have already been warned that re-chroming the bumpers could be a buttock clenching $350 each! Still to offset the costs I am also re-chroming the original remote control mirror. In the 60's they did not have little motors to drive the mirror so this thing works with a joystick and three wires. Some of this original equipment in show condition is worth a fortune to collectors so I shall post it on eBay when it is done and see what happens.

Watch this space.

The New Year Continued

The cleaned up, replaned, primed and aluminum sprayed exhaust manifolds.

Pretty aren't they?

A New Year for the Galaxie

Well as you will see I haven't blogged for the longest time. It's not because nothing has happened but mainly because all the work that I have done since the engine came out has been exceedingly tedious and hardly worth writing about. Still, lest you think that I have spent the last 4 weeks toasting my butt, here is the latest report.

All of the front chassis and underbody has now been sandblasted, primed and painted in rust inhibiting black. The front suspension and wheel arches are also done. As you can see sandblasting is hugely effective as well as being hugely messy.

I can tell you people from painful experience that you have to wear that orange face mask. It's not just to protect your eyes but when the grit hits the metal it bounces back at about 100 mph and damn does that stuff sting when you sandblast your face. Even with the mask you still end up looking like this. (click on the picture to enlarge).
When you are done with all of this it is best to accept that you will never be clean again. The best protocol I have is to be hosed down with the air line and then take 4 showers. Even after all of that, I still end up scratching grit out of my head all the next day. It is like the worst case of black dandruff ever.

Following more good advice for the boys, I took the exhaust manifolds to a machine shop and had them planed flat (apparently they have a tendency to warp). Because I secretly love sandblasting, I cleaned them up and sprayed them in high temp silver (photo to follow). The end result impressed the boys and a few asked where I got the paint. Whilst all the equipment was out I sandblaster the jack and sprayed all the parts black. I have to say that I made it look like new. The engine bay is now newly sprayed in black and looks real sharp. With all the chrome and silver on the engine one of the boys suggested that I should spray the engine a contrasting color. Now as you know I didn't want it anything other than black, to show the world it was a 390, the boys suggested that it was going to look sharp enough to leave the hood up at cruise ins. Ever the show off, that tipped the balance and we are back to blue.

I have also decided not to replace the generator with an alternator (well for the moment). I realized that as this car will only be used on high days and holidays and never at night I probably do not need the extra power that the alternator offers. Instead with the generator sprayed black and the brackets in chrome I think I can make this work. Having said that I still will (against advice) replace the front brakes with discs so the car will not be quite stock.

What else? Well much more block sanding. The good news is that we are nearing the end and finally the car is looking better when I finished than when I started. I should be ready to put the base coat of primer on in a few weeks. Now this will depend on the weather as I will need a day in the mid 50's. Still if it is too cold I always have work on the engine to do.

Onwards and upwards