Time marches on

It has been a while since I updated this blog. A follow up on the old truck I sold for 1000 dollars. It is still sitting in Lake Park, Mn and has not yet made it to Europe. Oh well. The summer was not too productive. I did manage to get the paint off of the rear fenders and the box. I completely took the box apart and cleaned and painted the box frame. I sandblasted the sides and removed the rusted areas and patched in new metal. A word of caution. I even know better. Do not get in a hurry when welding in the panels because you will be dealing with warpage issues if you build up too much heat on those flat panels. I finally got them patched up as well as the rusted areas on the rear fenders. My running boards were not rusted but one had a crushed side and I did not know how to fix that and I didn't want to spend the money to take it to a fab shop so I sold them on Ebay and bought a new reproduction set from Dennis Carpenter and they fit really well. I also bought a new tailgate and front panel for the box. I have been trying to get organized enough to prime the rear portions but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I am cramped for space in my double garage as I like to keep my real vehicle garaged at night. I was also having problems starting the truck whenever I wanted to move it so I made the decision to switch to a 12 volt system. It was relatively easy. The rebuilt engine has a lot of compression and the 6 volt just would not spin fast enough to start the truck and the starter seemed to lock up and the battery would die. I had enough of that. I replaced the new 6 volt electric fuel pump with a new 12 volt of the same brand. The new one is loud and you can hear it running when the truck is running. I will have to work on that. It is a Carter from Summit. I then lucked out and bought a 12 volt generator on ebay which was a converted 6 volt and it bolted right in without any modification. I replaced the coil, starter solenoid and battery. I kept the 6 volt starter so far but I may change it for a high torque starter at a later date. That was all I have done so far because I still do not have the gauges installed yet and I will need to reduce the voltage to use the original gauges. At least now I can install a 12 volt radio and have tunes. It really made a difference in starting. It fires instantly now without and grinding of the starter. Love it. I am now assembling the body parts for fit so I don't have to deal with problems after it is painted. I guess the winter months will be filled with more body work. I forgot to mention that I changed the starter plate because the one that came with the engine had a tapered mounting plate for the starter and it sat at an odd angle and the starter would rub against the bell housing. I put on a straight plate from Reds Vintage Ford Parts and it solved that problem. I took the truck for its first real drive tonight and it really runs well. The steering is good and I have adjusted the brakes and parking brake and they work well also. They are however not as good as power brakes. I have been contemplating putting in a different manual transmission so I would not have to use the stock double clutch unit but after my drive tonight the original tranny shifts pretty good so I guess for now I will keep using it.