Got Bored

[Nash]

Your last update was the 16th August Mr G. I'm assuming the next one will be of the completed project?!

Talk about building tension! Much longer and it'll be like reading Beefy's thread!!

Just sayin'

Cheeky fooker... Mines an epic, the ending of which will be tomorrow at 2 pm.. (one way or another..)

Ash looking good mate, ignore these numpties and take your time, looking forward to the update same time next year??.. About the same time as mine

[AshG]

ok bit of an update. been really busy since we got back from holiday but managed to get a bit done on the truck.

managed to get the rest of the engine bay pretty much cleared.

im guessing when ford built these trucks they didn't ever think anyone was every gonna take them to pieces and that really showed when taking the dash and the loom out, what a frigging pig of a job!

started with the steering box, you know how separating ball joints is on a car is difficult. well turns out trucks are even more fun especially when they havent been changed in 30 years. took an extra large puller and some hammer time to get the steering joints and the pittman arm off the steering box, managed to do it but i was exhausted! don't forget its about 35c outside and no matter how many fans i still cant cool down lol.

the following day i cracked on and got the master cylinder off then the brake servo.


next up was the ac system. for the 80's its quite an neat design. the ac parts are on the outside and the heater stuff inside behind the dash. you undo the bolts and you can separatethe inside from the outside.


had a bit of a go at cleaning up some of the crud on the chassis there was 30 years of oil and dirt to scrape off. i found a plastic scraper best, in some spots it was nearly 1/4 inch thick good thing was that it stopped the chassis rusting.





next step was get the dash and the loom out.

think i will be needing a new interior for it. the top of the current dash has had a little too much sun.



clocks out


dash loose





wiring loom was real fun to get out. it was wound in and out of the dash and the bulkhead, i had to get the dash away from the bulkhead then unpick it bit by bit.



all finally out on the floor.



Nice shot of the stripped bulkhead.


found a bit more rust on the passenger side floor. think i can just get away with a small patch on this side.





the real fun one i found to fix is up under the dash. its in the rain drain channel underneath the windscreen wipers. im guessing this was the second culprit letting water in other than the door seals. don't think anyone makes repair panels for the scuttle so wil have to get inventive with the sheet steel.



hopefully the next stage is repair the rust on the cab. my dilemma at the moment is do i just repair the cab in still attached to the frame or separate the cab and the frame and fix the rust on the floor. part of me thinks it may be easier to do o the chassis as it will be easier to get at the body from below. anyone got any thoughts?

[Wingco]

Take the cab of the frame, do the job perperly and do it once
Says he who hasn't got a clue !!
Great post though Ash

[zxr400]

making me feel tried reading about it lol.hat of to you be nice truck when finished

[AshG]

well after some serious procrastinating about taking the cab off the frame i bit the bullet and were going all out. everything off everything stripped sand blasted and made to look new!

here are some more picts. i had to make an over engineered frame to get the cab off as its way too heavy to lift on my own. funny thing i have noticed about trucks is everything is twice the size of a car but some how they manage to make it three times heavier.

sorry if the pictures are a bit on the dark side i have a bunch of new lighting that is getting put up this weekend as i'm getting fed up working in a dark garage.