Well, theres no turning back now. Dail up beware

[Caseys71]

, Nice progress, And as said before that cab looks great, if you think it's bad you should see mine . Nice score on the parts truck too, $450 is a crazy good deal for a truck in that good of shape . Good luck with the rest of your rebuild.

[71fordkid]

Heres some more pictures from today. Scraped off most of the grease and road crud off the frame. Gotta get a couple of wire wheels, some primer, and some more gloss black paint tomorrow and paint the frame.

[FLATBEDFORD]

Neat vid. Around here your old cab would be considered very repairable. If the roof isn't rusted you might consider cutting it off to sell.

That's what I was thinking. You are trashing some pretty good stuff, for the Northeast that is.

[OldRedFord]

What did you do to the bed?

[71fordkid]

Well we had a little bit of wind, and the hood for the new truck that was totally straight and rust fell over. i'm gonna try to fix it, but the dents pretty deep.


heres the latest with the truck. i got the frame painted...



filled in the trim holes from where it said "ranger" and re did the body seam filling the P.O. did.




i also filled the holes in the tool box door.


and out with the 302, in with the 390.

[Happy_Camper]

You're making great progress
Sorry to hear about the hood, but I'm sure you'll get it straightened out.
I'm looking forward to watching it go together. Should be fun!

[71fordkid]

Progress indeed. I'm only working on it on weekends to try to keep from burning myself out. I'm hoping to have it done sometime in july. A few shakedown runs, then off to an all ford show/race that a ford dealer here puts on in august. And after that, a 2000+ car carshow in long beach, WA!!

[71fordkid]

Well guys, i have good news and some bad news.

The good news first!
Bodywork is going awesome, got the ranger emblem holes on the bed welded up nice and smooth, and a little bondo to cover the oops spots. the trim holes on the toolbox door are welded and bondo'd up. the dent on the passenger side of the cowel just got a coat of bondo and will soon be smooth as a baby's bottom.

the bad news.

I have found some very bad rust in my "rust free" cab. the PO put a visor on the truck and didnt realize that when you drill holes in sheet metal, you can seldom get it to seal again. the water pooled right above the windshield and guess what! it has a rust hole covered by bondo that i can put my hand through on one side, and about a dozen quarter to half dollar sized holes.

Im trying to figure out how to fix this.

1. cut off the inside panel, weld in the one from my old cab.
2. cut off the front section of the roof and replace with the section of roof from my old cab.
3. ???????

I also wanted to take the dash pad out and smooth out the dash, and now that i have to take the windshield . I was looking in a boat parts catalog and found some round and rectangle 2 way (think: blows air two directions) vents. Weld up the radio speaker hole, and change the vents. i think it will look bad ass. I have some other tricks up my sleeves to make this more of a "custom" truck.

I'm also selling my jeep and possibly buying a 5.0 mustang . i need something thats more friendly to be my daily driver since work is 20 miles round trip and school is 40 miles round trip.

[71fordkid]

Well, i did some more diggin in the cab today.... there was rope put in above the windshield between it and the rain gutter. i took the rope out, and its rusted through all the way across. i can stick my fingers to the inside of the cab.

looks like i get to try to measure and cut out the section from my old cab and weld it in.

[69rangerf100]

i feel your pain on that when i bought my cab i was told that it was rust free but to my suprise the floors are swiss cheese holes, and rust in the door jams by the kick panels

[FLATBEDFORD]

How do you feel about dropping that old one on the ground now?

[twentyocho]

good luck, but you sure are getting along with it. Cant wait to see it done. Oh, and love the hub caps.

[71fordkid]

eh, the old cab was trash anyways. i did cut the roof off and put it in a safe place. the top of the cab didnt bend at all. the bottom of the new cab is perfect. no rust at all. but its just that one place that theres a ton of rust. looks like i get to do some "panel replacement" .

Ive also decided i didnt like how the bed came out, so im going to strip all the paint and bondo out and weld the seams.

[71fordkid]

Well, heres some progress. The top to the parts truck cab was cut off today. i saved the roof from the old cab, just incase something like this happened. i have some grinding and fitting to do before it all fits right, but i think i can make it look good. the biggest cap i have is about 1/2'' wide though.

I'm gonna get some 5/16 or 1/4'' rod and weld it into the seam for a "filler" so i dont have to try to weld the whole seam in with my flux core mig welder. that would take too much wire and too much time.

I also got a set of rocker arms, pushrods and valve covers for the 390. going for a factory look. factory 4bbl intake, valve covers, and air cleaner with 2 air horns instead of one. the air horns will be routed with flex tube down to the grill, with the tube ending by the turn signals.the motors going ford blue.