ALMOST THERE

ALMOST THERE

This is a redo of a post from December of 2012 which I had to do because I inadvertently deleted the original post from my blog.  Luckily I was able to find it in my browser history and make a copy.

Since my last post, which was a while ago, I have reassembled the truck and have taken a couple of short drives.  The blue flame metallic color seems to suit the truck just fine.  Blue was my first choice when I started thinking about colors and after a lot of mind changing I came back to blue.  After I got the truck home and started putting it back together I found places where my body work could have been better but on the other hand  considering where I started from and the fact that I was not building a show truck but instead a driver it is not too bad.  I was very careful during assembly not to scratch or chip the paint but even the best of intentions are usually foiled by Murphy's Law.  I had my fenders laid out on the ga5rage floor and above one of them I had a freshly painted vent window frame hanging from a wire.  Well the wire straightened out and the frame fell hitting the fender putting a small chip 1/4" in the paint.  That was the only one and my painter said not to worry if I chipped it because he could repair any minor damage.  Everything went together pretty easily no doubt due to the fact I had had it apart and together so many times.  That I found is one of the necessary steps to any rebuild because you don't want to be making very many adjustments after the paint is done.  The most difficult step was putting in the new glass windows front and back.  I ordered them from a ebay source and they just would not fit with the new weatherstrip.  I ended up taking the laminated glass windshield to a local glass shop to be trimmed by about a 1/4" and I had to have them remake the rear glass because the new one I ordered was tempered glass and could not be modified..  The door glass went in easily.  The vent window glass went in OK but I had to readjust the glass in the frames so that they would seal against the vertical divider.  The door weatherstripping was relatively easy.  I used 3M weatherstrip adhesive to attach it to the doors.

One of the harder decisions was what to do with the wheels.  My original intent was to use mag wheels but then everyone does that besides they just wouldn't have fit the character of the truck.  I wasn't building a hot rod.  When you come right down to it there are not a lot of wheel suppliers out there and even less that make a wheel for the original F1 bolt pattern.  I kind of liked the original painted wheel look with a chrome trim ring and hub cap.  I also liked the chrome reverse look.  When all was said and done I went with a 7"x15" chrome smoothie with a Ford logo hub cap and 235/70R15 tires.

What remains is finishing the interior and getting the wiring in place.  I only have temporary wiring needed to drive the truck.  I have no lights or gauges.  I am going to install electric wipers and at some point and a heater.  I need to get this done so that I can get the truck registered and get plates so I can legally drive on the highway.