Calf's 69 Crew build, and CNM67's 67 shorty build

[Calfdemon]

I went to check on the crew today and a little more progress... They now have the exterior of the bed pretty much down to bare metal and have begun sanding the inside of the bed. The body is pretty darn straight now and they seem to be moving right along...








But the biggest surprise of today was when I got the call from the upholstery shop telling me that the front seats are done. I had "settled" on a color once we were unable to exactly match the rear seat which had good upholstery on it that I wanted to keep. They had redone all of the cushions in the front seats as the foam was shot, and put the new upholstery on that I selected from a little swatch of color.

I went to go see them for the first time and I was blown away! The color is amazing and it actually has like a black marble in it that I did not see before. The seats look SOOOOO good that now I have to save up money and get the rear seat done to match. I dont care that the other seat is in great condition with almost new upholstery, I am going to have to rock this color on the other seat as well... The photo does not do the color justice and does not show the hint of black marble that runs thoughout the material:

Before:



Now:




While I was there and looking at the seats, he decided that he is going to cover the center console lid with the same green using some leftover material. Its getting things like this that make me want the paint job to be done so I can start putting it all together and see how it is going to look!!

[sargentrs]

Wow! Those seats are great, Rich. Did I miss it or did you say what they came out of?

[Calfdemon]

I got them a while ago used on Craigslist. But they are custom seats and I believe are from this company right here: http://www.discountvantruck.com/truck40 ... sLotus.htm

The seats they sell are extremely close to what I have and even have the hidden "ice chest" beverage storage under the middle seat. So more than likely, those are the seats.

[sargentrs]

Thanks for the info, Rich!

[CNM67]

Got a little done on the 67 today.

[fbomb100]

hey them seats are sweet Rich , would you mind if i borrow them intell you get your truck painted I think they'll go nice in my bump!!

hey cnm67 ... looking good like to see it start soon!!

[Calfdemon]

hey them seats are sweet Rich , would you mind if i borrow them intell you get your truck painted I think they'll go nice in my bump!!

hey cnm67 ... looking good like to see it start soon!!

I would loan them to you, but I dont even have them yet! They are still at the upholstery shop getting the center console lid covered.

As for starting the motor, that is on the list for today. Hopefully it starts right up and breaks in with no problems.

We worked 12 hours straight yesterday to get done what Caleb posted... Started with the truck in the driveway and pulled the front clip, pulled the old 352, pulled some parts from that motor that are being reused, washed and painted those parts, pressure washed the front clip and firewall, painted both, swapped the clutch and bellhousing to the new motor, fought to get the motor mated up with the transmission and finally last night at about 8pm, we got the motor in the truck.

Today we will get the rest of the parts on the motor, try and figure out some fuel linkage for the Edelbrock carb we are putting on it, get everything wired and topped off, and then cross our fingers when we try to start it for the first time. We will post more pictures tonight with and update on how it goes...

[Calfdemon]

Well, it has been a long 2 days on the 67, but finally got everything taken apart, cleaned, painted, and the new motor in and all hooked up. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem with the throttle linkage and had to come up with a new idea, so we ran out of time to actually start the truck and break it in. That will happen tomorrow morning I guess as Caleb needed to be at work at noon today.

But we started this on Thursday morning with this:


And finished last night (throttle linkage this morning) with this:
(Sorry for the crappy picture, but its bright out today and washed out the photo)




It looks pretty, and hopefully tomorrow morning it will run pretty!!

[Calfdemon]

Aaaaaand everything turns to crap... All the fluids were put in the truck last night and a little while ago, we noticed fresh oil under the truck. Crawled under the truck to see that there is oil leaking from the rear passenger corner of the oil pan. It is a very slow drip from the edge of the pan, onto the clutch cover. It is then running down the clutch cover and dripping on the ground. I tightened up all of the oil pan bolts and wiped up all of the fresh oil to see that it is still leaking from the same spot very slowly.

Sooooo... 1 of 2 things... Either the oil pan is leaking at the gasket ( ) or the rear seal is leaking

I was so pissed that tightening the oil pan bolts did not fix the leak (and the fact that I had no time), I gave up and will look at it again tomorrow. Once I pull the clutch cover, I will be able to see if the leak is coming from the pan or from above and then form a gameplan. Right now, the lip of the clutch cover prevents me from seeing anything above the edge of the oil pan. But either way, this is going to be a major PITA. If the entire truck was not put back together and everything hooked up ready to run, this would not be quite a big of a deal, but of course, it had to happen at this point.

Would the rear seal leak on a motor that hasn't been started yet? I know that if the rear seal was going to leak, it would leak under pressure. But there is no pressure yet as the motor has not been turned over. Either way, this sucks... But am I safe to hope that it is probably just the oil pan gasket? When I pull the clutch cover tomorrow, we should know a little more...

[Fordnatic]

With oil just sitting in the pan (engine not running) would the gasket even be exposed to oil? I would think the oil level would be below that.

[sargentrs]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. But the engine and compartment made a great transformation!

[Calfdemon]

With oil just sitting in the pan (engine not running) would the gasket even be exposed to oil? I would think the oil level would be below that.

Well, it is a front sump pan and the truck is sitting on an incline with the rear of the truck down towards the street. The truck took 6 quarts before it even registered on the dipstick and then we added one bottle of break in oil. So it has enough oil in it that it should see the gasket. And with the truck on an incline, more oil would be towards the rear than on level ground. So it is very possible and this is what I am hoping. Either way, the motor needs to come back out, so major pain no matter what it is. But I would much rather re-tackle the oil pan gasket than have to worry about a leaking rear seal.

[Calfdemon]

Well, upon further inspection, it looks like it probably isn't worst case scenario... I took the clutch cover off and from what I could see, it does not look like it is leaking out of the back at all. It appears to have a slow leak from the oil pan on the passenger side and due to the decline in the driveway, the oil is running to the rear before dripping down. Once we get the motor out tomorrow, we should have a better idea exactly where the leak is coming from, but it looks like it wont be as bad as it could have been.

On a side note, the radiator decided it wanted to leak as well. We have another radiator that we will be putting in and then I will get this one fixed and put it in the crew cab when it is ready. So no big deal there, but another cost that I did not count on.

Anyway, we should have the motor back out tomorrow evening and then on Wednesday, Bobbyford is going to come over and help us get it squared away and then hopefully started and broken in. With his expertise present, we both feel a lot better starting and breaking in the motor.

[BobbyFord]

A few minor setbacks today but Caleb's truck finally made noise

[fbomb100]

YEAAAAAH let them pipes roar ..I bet he was all smiles with a little I hope it don't blow up going though his mind