62 Ford Unibody Roof swap to big back window.

[James__WC]

On to the White:
From John:
I can't type much cause my fingers are so goddamned sore. Going to do taxes tomorrow till its done, wife and I both. Fingers need a few days off. Turned out over my expectations so I am very happy.

This is what painters call a "Flow Check"

John's comment on that:
"My fingers are sore from the cracks on the ends from winter and dryness and working them to the bone as well. I'm going out to do some unmasking after my morning porridge. So far, it looks nice. The run, I really would like to find a pinstriper that could draw a tiny snowboarder as though it were a ski run. That's the family heritage. And it would be my honor to show off my first paint job with that. I'm only half joking on that. "

 

[James__WC]

Some pics after the whole body was unmasked:

John's comment:
"Going to let it harden up for a couple days while I do our tax returns. Then its back on the frame and put the meccano set back together. "

"My fingers are sore from the cracks on the ends from winter and dryness and working them to the bone as well. I'm going out to do some unmasking after my morning porridge. So far, it looks nice."

 

[ssmustang]

Very nice. I like the stock type paint schemes, back when the 'in house' design guys did amazing things. The hint about the 'trials and tribulations' of a good Mercury tail gate should be interesting, would like to hear the story. When I built mine that part was the hardest to find! Most looked like a U as they were heavily overloaded, and it were beyond my talents to straighten. Finally found a good one out at the 'Ponderosa'.

 

[JohnnyBgood]

That looks great..very nicely done. So I don’t know if I missed it but what do you do on the bed that’s under the rotisserie arms ?..repaint that area or are they already painted?

 

[jvo]

Okay, I said I would never do this on my phone cause I can type 70 words a minute on a keyboard. Yes, there are two strips down the bed floor that are not painted. But, this whole exercise of painting was just to paint the interior of the cab while it is stripped on the rotisserie. Just the inside of the cab was all I needed to do. Buuuuut, what would I have to lose while doing that if I continued to paint the whole thing? The firewall needed repainting also. While I’m learning how to paint, might as well do it. Only down side was it slowed me down on getting it on the road but the finish body work needed to be done at some point. If I have to repaint the whole bloody truck when all is said and done to get a good Color match on all the parts, so be it. We all know when I paint the doors and fenders there is a high likelihood they will not match. I’ll repaint it all but not the interior. I’m considering that part done. And a big thanks to James for posting the pics and good advice.

 

[PG409]

John. Glad to see that you are back posting. Thanks and hang in there!

 

[shaune]

Looks real good in pictures and as for that run…..there is a run in every can.

 

[351CFalcon]

Thats a good idea with a snowboarder skiing through some moguls to cover up the run.
Looks good from the pics for your first paint job.

 

[GFaRT]

My thought on runs was to stand the vehicle on end while painting and deliberately encourage runs so it has that high speed windswept look.

 

[John in Oz]

Man alive that has come up very nice, well done, I have heard guys use a razor to cut the runs out. That has been a nice job alright so good for you.

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO), as his MAC PC has left the building.....

Here's the latest update that I just received from John, there are a whole bunch of pics, and some text, so you may have to scroll up or down to see text relating to pics...........

First text email:
A couple weeks ago, I got as far as I could go with the body mounting rubbers. I needed Dave to drop by so he could hold the wrench on top, while I crawled underneath and put all the rubbers, washer, and nuts in place.

But Dave wasn't coming around so I got busy doing a lot of other tasks. Next up was the rad support so I could finish the front of the cab mounting procedure with the fenders, inner fenders and rad support all mocked up. I got busy and did a bunch of the metal repair.

Rad support needed some new metal on the bottom. Got that done and painted. One inner fender needed the bolt on strip replaced. Did that, and some welding in the middle where something heavy had been bolted on and there was a huge spyder crack there. Its all spotted with the mig, ready to weld.

The front cab rubbers I am going to use are cobbled together from stuff I already had. The large rubber piece is the bottom rubber from the old bellhousing rubber mounts from both of these trucks originally. This particular rubber was on the underside of the crossmember and is in beautiful shape. The piece that fits right inside the underside of it is from a CAT 3406 motor mount, if I remember correctly. They have been laying around for a long time. I haven't owned a KW since 1986. I took the metal spacer out of the inside and cut the length down. Took a knife and sliced the bottom of the rubber off so it only came through the steel part of the cab frame mount. I used a soft hockey puck on the bottom of that with a huge fender washer under that. Four and a half inch long bolt. I used a thick washer on top also for spacing. It ended up being 1 1/8 tall or something like that. Hopefully it will make the front fenders line up with the rad support like Ford intended it to.

**More to follow, buy maybe not all until after I get back from A & W Cruise Night

James

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

I will not grind in the shop now with the fresh paint on the truck,.......just in case. So, I have needed nice weather to do my grinding outside just because I'm a wuss now in my old age. Probably got the arthritis in my fingers from putting tire chains on my Kenworth in the winter every day without gloves, cause gloves were too clumsy.

So, I got to fixing the dents in the front fenders as well, One needs a couple patches, and the other one, after i knocked out all the dents, is just like brand new. Beautiful fender. Its ready for the last metal repair before paint.

CYA on the next post.....

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

Got the bottom welded on one of the doors now. I'm using the blue door skin from the door that was sprung also. I took most of the dings out of it, and there is no rust on it. If I can get the surface back to perfect after I tig up the ugly spyder crack in the middle life will be good. If not, I'll have to break down and buy a sheet of 18 gauge cold rolled so I can make a new door skin from the belt line down. We'll see after I weld it how it turns out.

The bed picture I threw in so you can see the "touch up" I'll have to do where the rotisserie was bolted when it was painted.

And the inside of the door I used up some of my daughter's project paint. That lovely silver I used to call "clothes line pole silver". You know, that shit that rubbed off on your hands when you touch it. Its rustoleum so it should keep the rust down even if it looks like shit for anyone who looks inside the door. It will be covered with stick on insulation anyway.

b'bye 4 now......

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

It was taking a while for Dave to show up so I got at some of the wiring also. I'm using a GM module with the NOS duraspark distributor from James. Thank you. Put it inside this old regulator. Should hide the uglies somewhat.

This wiring is my rubiks cube. I'm using the wiring from the red unibody truck, cause it was still in pretty nice shape. I took the other harness and removed all the tape, and marked and traced it all so I could think about it staring at the ceiling at 2 AM.
Jer gave me a fuse block from a kit that was smoke damaged from his garage fire. I cleaned it up, and took it apart to see what makes it tick, and had a really good laugh after I figured it all out. Pretty simple really.

It took a lot of time to trace the fuse block wiring and put it against the original harness. Not that hard if you think it all through and do it one circuit at a time.

The whole problem here was I didn't want to use the original Ford F100 headlight switch. My wipers quit last winter and I haven't taken it apart to change the fuse yet on my daily F100.

I wired in a GM headlight switch, and in a nutshell, the fuse block takes the place of the Ford light switch, as that is where all the power originates.

I don't have a problem with wiring. I tore all the Lucas bullshit out of my 69 Cooper S, and rewired it negative ground like a hot rod with a fuse block. The original Mini only has two fuses. Blow a fuse and half the car quits. I'm confident that my wiring will still be better than any Lucas system on a good day.

And believe it or not, I think the end result behind the dash will still look much more tidy than it did originally from Ford.

on to the next bit.....

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

One extra, relevant to the text in last post.....

onwards and upwards??? errrr downwards??

(***John, please don't EVER send me this many pics in one day again, it's a LOT to chew on.....)

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

After 3 trips to pic a part with a tape measure and note pad, I finally settled on these Dodge Ram pickup seats. The plan is to cut them down to somewhat resemble the early Mustang buckets, but they are fully powered, and will make travel much nicer.

These seats come with seat belts attached on the inner points, as well as a jump seat. My grandkids come in pairs, and I don't want to leave anyone behind, so I needed a third seat, with seat belts. I will have to narrow the jump seat / arm rest in the middle as the actual seats are getting wider foam, 1 1/4 inches wider on each side.

I didn't realize until I mocked up the seats to build mounting points, that the steering column in these trucks are not centred. It looks to me to be a compromise, as the steering column mounts directly into the steering box, which is on the inside of the frame rail. The original appears to angle to the left a couple of degrees, I suppose so you aren't sitting in the middle of the cab if you were sitting dead centre to the steering box.

I decided to move my column mount on the dash to the left 1 1/8 inches. Again, after much measuring and contemplating, was just a compromise. In one of the pics from the front of the truck, you can see the steering wheel is not centred to the seat at all.

That is why I decided to add 1 1/4 inches to the outside of the seat to fill up the gap between the seat and the door so it wouldn't look goofy. And then try to mount the steering column so it isn't 2 inchs to the left of the centre of the speedometer. All a big compromise no matter what I do. I think it will all look just fine in the end. Hope that makes sense.

To widen the seat I found it easier to go back to pic a part and buy another set of buckets for 50 bucks each. Now I have two sets of foam backs and two sets of bottoms to make the widening procedure easier.

The pics should be self explanatory on how the seat frames were widened. I am putting the same amount of foam on the inside of the seats to match. Time will tell I guess on how it all looks in the end.

And my shop is so full of miscellanous parts I end up doing yoga all day long just moving around the shop. Soon it will all be in one place, but maybe not quite enough time to make July 14.

more seat related pics in next post......

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

MORE seat pics...........

one more to go..............................

 

[James__WC]

As before, THIS IS NOT MY WORK, OR MY PROJECT! I'm just posting on behalf of John (aka: JVO)

One last seat pic, then some more stuff relating to brakes, etc.....

A couple shots here of the braking system. The Jag ifs used a 7/8 bore master cylinder and that is what I am using. The calipers are very similar to the 60's Corvette Girling calipers and a lot of those vettes had manual disc brakes. My brake pedal has a 5 1/2 to one ratio for manual brakes. My grey F100 weighs 3500 lbs with me in it. I am hoping I won't need a booster. That is the same Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve I used on my grey truck, cause it has the brake light switch on it, and all the connections are right there and easy to make and adjust. Works well.

Finally got around to putting rubbers on the shock mounts. Those are the original XJ6 shocks, look to have been very recently upgraded to Bilsteins shortly before I got the suspension. Poor Jag probably died. (I had a weak moment a couple decades ago and bought a used XJ6. Pretty little black car. Like they say, you can't walk away from a Jag without looking at it) Until the son of a bitch leaves you sitting a couple times.

Finally got around to drilling some holes in the bottom of the frame rails for the XJ6 sway bar. Looks like it belongs there. I bought a set of urethane mounts locally, with grease nipples on them. They were lots of fun trying to pry apart to get onto the sway bar without poking a hole in the palm of my hand with a screwdriver, and we all know what that feels like.

Oh, and by the way, Dave finally showed up yesterday. We bolted down all the body mounts just snug until i get the doors built and bolted on. Now I can get back to mounting the front clip again.

Cleaned the "Rubik's cube" off the table this afternoon. I'll be grinding and welding again soon. I have to fix my front cab mount rubbers on my grey truck cause the clip has never been mounted properly. (previous owner built it that way, long story)

So I am dying to finish mounting the front clip. Once it all lines up, it will be mostly a bolt together meccano set, with the exception of upholstery jail, but I have a GM split bench seat I can rig up short term if necessary.

That's concludes everything I've received today, time to inhale a burger!!!

 

[PG409]

Or a beer !

 

[JohnnyBgood]

Top quality workmanship..very nice….