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

[Ranchero50]

I think you need to get rid of the weld seam for that emblem to look 'right' down lower. With the big FORD letters it looks cluttered. I wonder how it would look with a smaller set of letters?

I like it higher but it's going to take some work to make hood extensions to fit the wings and at the end of the day it might not turn out too well.

I wonder if you could get it to work in place of the red Ranger emblem on the grill? I think it would look cool there but would need some Tig work to make an aluminum base plate for it to mount to.

I think it would look cool on the center hump of the floor close to the firewall (similiar to the lightning bolt on the rubber mat). I had an idea to use a I6 one for my Cummins swap.

Jamie

[Calfdemon]

I think you need to get rid of the weld seam for that emblem to look 'right' down lower. With the big FORD letters it looks cluttered. I wonder how it would look with a smaller set of letters?

I like it higher but it's going to take some work to make hood extensions to fit the wings and at the end of the day it might not turn out too well.

I wonder if you could get it to work in place of the red Ranger emblem on the grill? I think it would look cool there but would need some Tig work to make an aluminum base plate for it to mount to.

I think it would look cool on the center hump of the floor close to the firewall (similiar to the lightning bolt on the rubber mat). I had an idea to use a I6 one for my Cummins swap.

Jamie

Thanks for the opinions guys.. I have thought out most of the suggestions and will still tinker with it to see what I end up doing. I agree that the smaller letters might look better, but the only problem there is the holes for the letters are not the same between the different size letters and I am getting so close to paint now, that I don't want to have to fill all the existing holes and drill new ones for the smaller letters. The bigger letters are not bothering me too much though with the hood ornament, but I will still consider this change.

As for the center of the grille, that might work if I was running a 67-69 grille, but I am running my 72 grille with the billet inserts from LMC that I originally purchased for my 72. The ornament wont work with the 72 grille. I will probably ground out the back a little to get it to form to the shape of the hood better and call it a day. We will see.

[Calfdemon]

So since I decided to pull the 460 out of the crew (pulling it on June 9th...), I have started looking for the upgrades I want to do to the engine. While compiling a list and keeping an eye out for the parts, I ended up getting some steals!! I had plans to buy everything new, but I just could not pass up these deals...

One of the items on my list was an Edelbrock Performer 460 intake manifold. Brand new, they are about $260. I went to the local pick-a-part last weekend when they were having one of their 50% off sale weekends. Look at what I found on a dentside that was sitting in the yard!!


Took this up to the window and $29 later, it was mine!!! Only issues it had other than needing a good cleaning was it had one bolt broken off in a hole, and the water pump bypass tube was broken. But that is a removable slide in part anyway. So a trip to my local machine shop for a good cleaning and to get the few little problems fixed cost me $98 in labor. Now, for a total of $127, I pretty much have a brand new piece! Just needs a good coat of high heat silver paint...


So the next item on my list was a 750 carb. It was between a Holley and an Edelbrock and I decided I was going to match the Intake, Carb, and Cam in this build and have them all Edelbrock. I just happened to check craigslist and found a local carb shop near my house that had a rebuilt Edelbrock 1411 (750 cfm) carb for sale for $175 and he was offering a 2 year warranty on it as well. Its a $325 carb brand new. Needless to say, I ran down there yesterday and bought it:


So for a grand total of $302, I knocked off $585 (plus shipping and tax) of parts from my list. Pretty stoked about these finds and they were the most expensive parts I was buying for the motor. I have a total of about $300 more in parts to get and that should be it!! I may end up porting the heads now if I keep saving money like this!

[sargentrs]

Congratulations! Great finds!

[Calfdemon]

Had a couple of hours free today when I got home from work, so figured I would knock out a couple of things on the to-do list...

Took the front fenders off the crew and pressure washed the front wheel wells... Then scrubbed them with simple green and after they dried (it was almost 100 today.. didnt take long), I sprayed the inside of the wheel wells with spray on rubber coating (bed liner). Cleaned the inside of the fenders and did the same thing with those. Didnt snap any pics of the wheel wells, but here is one of the fenders:



Then I decided to tape off the freshly cleaned up intake manifold and shoot it with Aluminum colored hi temp engine enamel. Figured since I didn't buy it brand new, I might as well make it look new!

Before:


After:


Not going to get a lot done this weekend, so took advantage of the few hours I had today... Next weekend though, the engine and tranny gets pulled.

[Calfdemon]

So I had a couple of buddies come over on Friday evening so we could get the engine and trans pulled from the crew. I spent Thursday afternoon draining all the fluids, pulling all of the accessories out of the engine bay, and removing the radiator and radiator support so we could get the 460 out of its nest. Here is the monster before anything was pulled. As you can see, the 460 takes up a huge space...




Got the beast pulled on Friday night. So Saturday was spent with a couple of cans of Easy Off, some Simple Green, and my trusty pressure washer... Wish I had some pictures of the black greasy mess before I started washing, but forgot to take some. Anyway, here is where the motor used to sit after some preliminary cleaning:




The motor after it was pulled, prior to cleaning and disassembly:



As for the trans... When we pulled it, it was solid black. I had no idea that there was any paint on that thing. After a good dousing of Easy Off Oven Cleaner and a blast from the pressure washer... Well, some of the paint is left anyway.


Once the motor was pressure washed, we got the stock intake manifold off (boat anchor anyone?):


And got the D3VE heads off as well:


Further inspection of the block shows a couple of additional costs that I will need (new timing cover, water pump), but overall, the engine is in great shape! New cam, hydraulic lifters, and timing set were already in the budget:



I also scored some D3VE heads that have a complete valve job done on them and are ported. These have not been run since they were rebuilt, so they will be put on my 460 and I will sell the heads that we just took off. Gotta post a few pics of this garage porn!





And the Crower cam that will be going in:



So, now all we have to do before sending it off to paint is a little welding under the bed. We will pull the bed and then get the receiver welded on to the frame behind the bumper, and then figure out how to fab up and weld in the spare tire holder from the 90's era Dodge truck. Once those are in and the 2nd gas tank is back in, then the bed will go back on and the truck will head off on its day spa vacation.

[maddogjohnson]

Looking good. I definitely like the 3rd location you came up with for the hood emblem. It looks like a pretty natural and flush fit there.

[CrypticRacer13]

Ummmmmm truck porn!!!!

[sargentrs]

Great job, Rich! I'd really like to see some pics of that receiver and spare tire carrier install. Going to be doing something like that myself.

[Calfdemon]

The last couple of weekends, Bobbyford came over and helped me out (more than he knows) with a transmission rebuild. I might have got more done than that, but my Firebird began to get jealous and decided it wanted some attention too, so there has been some wrenching on the bird lately. The bird feels better now so back to the truck.

Anyway, I did not get any photos of any work being done on the transmission, but I got a couple shots of the mini Fordification gathering. Unfortunately, due to how everything was parked, my photo distance, and the fact that my beast is 20 feet long, I could not get all 3 trucks entirely in the pictures, but I got part of all 3 trucks.

67 (CNM67), 69 (my beast) and 72 (Bobbyford's scary fast, barely street legal, race truck!!).




On a side note, a deal that just could not be passed up fell into our laps a week ago. Due to this, the paint on my truck may be delayed a little while. CNM67 has been wanting to turn his truck into a shortbed and we were contemplating cutting his frame and bed, and other options. We found a project truck on Craigslist not too far away that the guy had to get rid of. We scored a 68 F100 shortbed with straight body and everything but a motor including extra parts (4 doors, 2 tailgates, 2 hoods, 2 gas tanks, extra trim, etc...) for less than what we have seen just the beds go for. We are picking the truck up tomorrow and will be spending the next few Saturdays putting his cab, front clip, motor, and tranny onto the 68 shortbed frame with the shortbed box. Once that is done, he should have a driving shortbed bump!! Then his longbed frame and long box will be getting the cab and front clip of the 68. Once his 390 is done being built and we get his tranny rebuilt, they will be put in his shorty and the 358 and trans that he is currently running will be put in the 68 which will give us another complete truck. Already have some friends interested, and if they decide not to buy it for what we have into it, then I can always sell it for at LEAST 3 times what I bought the project for.

Some deals are just too good to pass up.

[BobbyFord]

[Calfdemon]

This probably should have its own project thread, but since it is impacting my build by delaying my paint job (I fronted the cash from my paint fund on this deal), I'm just going to use this thread to document it... This should go quick and only last about a month of Saturdays anyway (have to work on it off site and pretty much only have access to it on Saturdays).

Here is the 68 shorty that we scored along with a ton of extra parts (cab and front clip is from a 70 F250).



The bed of that shorty is full of parts which cannot be seen in these photos. But then the bed of my friends truck that we used to pick it up was also filled!!


The truck had these hubcaps on the steelies. Bobbyford thinks maybe they are 70's era? Anyone know for sure? All I know is they are pretty cool looking! Caleb is going to run them on the steelies, but will be sand blasting them and giving them new paint.


Got the truck unloaded and into the driveway that is being loaned to us for this project (2 more years of paying off the ex and then I can buy a house with some land and not have this problem anymore..). Its going to be a tight squeeze working here, but it will have to do:


When its all done, that shortbed, frame, and driveshaft will be married to CNM67's truck. So we will be swapping the drivetrain, cab, front clip, and probably the front and rear ends of Caleb's truck onto the 68 shorty frame (the suspension on the 68 is messed up).


Then once Caleb's truck is driving again, we will build a truck on the 67 longbed frame with the leftover parts. Only things really missing are a motor, radiator, and steering column. We can fix the suspension once it is out before putting it on the 67 frame. As for a motor, Caleb's truck currently has a 352 with a 4 speed. The truck we bought has a 4 speed in it which we will get rebuilt while it is out. We have been building a 390 to put in his truck in my garage, so when the 390 is done and the 4 speed is rebuilt, we will drop that into Caleb's truck, and then the the running 352 with the 4 speed will go directly into the 67 longbed frame. Funny, I have the title for the 68 truck, but when that truck is done, there pretty much wont be anything left on it that is 68. Oh well, as long as the vin is there, its all good. My brother-in-law already wants to buy the truck for what I will be into it when its done, so that all works out. I will get my money back off the truck and then make a little extra selling all the extra parts that came with it. My paint job will be a little delayed, but the money will be put back into the fund, so its all good.

Anyway, I will take pictures as we progress on this and put them in here. Hoping to have Caleb's shorbed driving in about 2 weeks. That is the goal if all goes well. Again, it would be quicker, but we only have access to work on it on Saturdays. So next Saturday we will be stripping the shortbed frame and prepping it... then the following Saturday, we tear into Caleb's truck and move everything over.

[CNM67]

Oh yeah! 67-8 short bed ford! So much work not enough Saturdays in a week.haha

[Calfdemon]

Well, my crew is still on hold while I gather money for the paint fund again, but in the meantime, we have been working on getting Caleb's truck swapped over into a running shortbed.

Got the frame stripped completely down, cleaned it up, painted it, and then rebuilt the front and rear ends. New rubber and new suspension components (lowering will be done later properly when the dream beams can be afforded). Still need to score some stock springs as the springs that were on this truck were cut. Just waiting on all new brake lines and components to arrive so we can get the braking system squared away before we put the bed back on and start the actual body and drivetrain swap. We will be doing the brake job on all 4 wheels this Friday. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the frame after we were done this past weekend.

[BobbyFord]

Git 'R Done.