When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Whoops - forgot the link to the resto thread on Ford Truck Enthusiasts https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...storation.html
There are no Fred Mandricks, Patton Glades, Eric Jensen, etc... doing a 73-79 Ford Truck restoration back to exact OE standards. The vast majority of these trucks are resto modded - it has been quite a learning experience.
Is the plan still to have the F-250 Truck at the Dallas AutoRama? If so, I will try to be there to see this thing in person.
Hello up there (and when did you move from Halifax to Economy?)
I really do not know if the Mondello tool is in anyway a derivative of the GM tool. I called the guys at Mondello myself since the tool did not come with any specs and they told me all 455's should have .010 clearamce betwen the valve and the tip of the tool, Interestingly, 350's should the .035 - don't know if msybe the tool is also designed for other engines (307's etc) that have other assembled heights and that is why the tool does not touch the 455 engine tips,
Made for different engines explains it, I'm glad you called Mondello. You don't hear much discussion about this or the GM tool, considering it is a big help when redoing Olds heads.
Thanks for the info, very helpful.
As to your question, we sold our house in Halifax in April of last year and moved to our farm house in Economy, which we have owned since 2006. The deal was I got a new garage for leaving the city. Since then I purchased this 71 SX convertible and my wife purchased a one owner 87 Grand National that she saw arrive in her neighborhood when new. The garage is full already. You know Nova Scotia? Current project. Pictures cover up a multitude of sins.
Joe,
My '69 H/O has morphed into a body-off as well.
Just wanted to thank you for the photos, details, etc. regarding your project.
They're serving as helpful references for me.
- Tom
Thanks Eric. Hope you are enjoying life up there in OK. Going to start working on this car's parts again with a couple of weeks. Still have the exterior trim to straighten/polish, seat belts to evaluate, wiring harnesses to recondition, and a few misc. parts to work on such as wiper motor, condenser. David also has to get the interior ordered, and I'll need to do seat tracks etc...
Oklahoma is fine, need to get out and spend some time with Bryan. I've been setting up the garage, sorting and cleaning tools, bought a kerosene heater that works awesome. Next is to give the car/s some much needed maintenance. Looking forward to reading more on your project progress.
ok, thats a pretty common place for these cars to rust and I have same problem and got the same donor piece but yet to install. Ive been game planning and it doesn't look fun.
Hello Lance,
Not mucjh. As is aleays the case, the body is still in "painter jail" Still havent startsd the harnrsses nor the trim, but I'm about to. That Ford truck really took it out of me!
It looks like the paint and body shop have decided to get to work again on the car. I will soon be needing my storage space to work on my projects so this is good timing to let me finish parts refinishing and complete the reassembly.
So today began harness refurbishment (3 hours)
Since harnesses, misc exterior trim and seat belts remain to be done, today I started and completed the main body harness. The original on the car was total junk - extreme corrosion, frayed wires, so David found an excellent used one at the place he got the the original package tray sheet metal. Did the usual cleaning with the usual supplies and equipment seen here
This used harness was excellent except for missing the trunk light connector housing. I robbed a black one off one of my junk harnesses, but think the original is white or clear - Anyone know for sure?
There was the dried adhesive and rust stains on the bottom of the harness. This tool scrapes all the stuff off, but does not mess up the substrate.. Go gently
Finally the finished harness. I managed to mostly save the white tape stripe on the connector sleeve to firewall connector
Last edited by costpenn; July 9th, 2019 at 06:54 PM.
This used harness was excellent except for missing the trunk light connector housing. I robbed a black one off one of my junk harnesses, but think the original is white or clear - Anyone know for sure?
I just checked mine, it's actually black. this on NJ built Cutlass build date of May
I just checked mine, it's actually black. this on NJ built Cutlass build date of May
Hello and thank you so much for looking! This car is a Jersey car as well so black it is. I'm glad too - it's hard to find the white translucent connectors that haven't turned yellow or dissolved into dust!
Began and completed the tail lamp harness. This one need some work - more than the body harness but still better than buying new. Respliced or repaired several insulation free areas on the harness mostly on the turn signal hook up leads leading me to suspect thus car gas had several trailer hitches on it during it's previous lives. Wire wheeled all the connectors, cleaned the plastic parts inside and out with Simple Green and the reassembled. Used carb cleaner to clean all the exposed wire insulation and rewrapped harness as necessary.
Completed harness
An example of over the top detail. Somewhere along the years, the original harness to ground wife had been cut and a aftermarket part used .
We found the correct moldied terminal off another junk harness
spliced it in and we are good to go after a applying a repo harness ID sticker to it. Also, the white translucent connector that goes to the gas tank lead was in excellent condition - directly opposite what I was gassing about yesterday
Also today began work on the inside rear arm rest quarter trims. The originals in this car were junk. Material to metal backing adhesive was failing and the shells itself were very rusty and missing strength. At Nationals, I ran across Eric Pope and bought the these very good condition originals. With a lot of patience I cleaned the LH one to see how it would look. They have a few wear marks, but it will be covered up by the lower sear side anyway, This will be a money saver for Dave, but pissed I spent 80.00 for those hardshell repo trims - they are made of plastic and so tacky looking. Asht trays and covers are soaking in Evapo - these should be good as spares.
[QUOTE=costpenn;1185606]Back at the harness again (3 hours)
This was the front lamp/engine bay's harness turn. There were several spade connections in the firewall connector that were severely corroded. As mentioned at the beginning of the thread, lots of electrical stuff didn't work so I'm wondering if this might be the culprit. Cleaned them with an emery board and dremel wire wheel attachment.
Nest the AC high blower power wire feed had the electrical connector melted off it. Again another piece sourced from all the mostly junk harnesses. All connectors at the horn relay simply needed wire cleaning, and shrink tubing a little insulation at the connector itself. Problem area is the wires going into the alternator have been greatly modified. Will need to run new wires all the way from where they originate to terminate all the time.
Above pic show what the original cleaned,yet unjacked with screws, holding the armest drops to the trim look like.
Lastly finished up the lower side trims. Not perfect, But look way better and correct.
With the availability of good quality replacement harnesses, I just can't see the reason for reusing 50 year old wiring, especially when is has obvious issues. Wires do develop resistance over time and that contributes to voltage drops and heat issues.
I realize that they are not cheap, but since you are already doing a body off, it would just make sense to replace the old wiring.
I can tell you that the M&H under hood harnesses that I used in my 70 442 were top notch and I was very pleased with them, all the way around.
Front Lamp Harness done - almost along with the dash convinience light harness (3 hours)
After scrounging up all the individual correct wires for fixing the alternator connector, I got the rest of the harness completed. Decided to recover all the tape because of the condition.
In doing so, I uncovered the A/C high blower lead that had been taped to the main harness. It is usually loose and runs alongside outside the main wire bundle and now I know why
At some point in the car's past, the fuse in the fuse holder blew, and the guy could not find the correct short length high amp (30 or 35 amp) fuse, so he just jammed this incorrect fuse in and used the tape holding this wire to the harness to hold the fuse holder together. The metal qqconnectors inside the holder ends themselves are junk. Will be on the blower with Oldspackrat to see if he has one. Also, the ehgine harness (the half going to wiper motor, coil, and starter) is a fried mess. See if Scott has a good used one or maybe get a repo one.
Moved onto the accessory dash courtesy Lamp harness. Was in great shapr. Just cleaned well, wirewheeled the connectors came out nice
The only thing not up to snuff was the footwell lamp housings. These were pretty well corroded on the exterior so I'm soaking soaking these in evapo overnight .
Joe, After you soak and clean these lamp connectors do you have to paint/seal them with anything so they don't rust up quickly again? And as I have said previously - unbelievable work!
Joe, great job rehabbing as usual..question, are you going to use repro inner fender wells?
Rocket On
Hello Lance! Long time no talk. Yes, going to try the repo wells. The set I got look great. They have come a long way in quality since the first repos were introduced.
Took yesterday off to go to the Hurst Olds Nationals in Indianapolis. So awesome to see 50 plus 69 Hursts in attendance.
Finished up the courtesy lamp harness first. The footwell lamp housings didn't look very good after the evaporust dunking, so I washed them clean, blew them dry and coated the can with Boesheild.
moved onto the A/C harness. Like always, the connectors at the dash controls came out looking awesome. Pic taken after cleaning of terminals
Notice the short white stripe on the uppermost brown wire. Only place on any wiring anywhere I have seen this.
Got about half the harness done Unfortunately, the evaporator case end will be problematic. Lots of cuts due to the previous conversion to R134.
Got to go back to the W-30 thread to figure out how to do this right.
Almost out of the harnessi (4 hours)
I completed the AC harness today. It definitely required more work than I originally thought. In addition to repairing and putting back to stock a number of modified wires, the wire lengths in some cases had to be restored to OE length. Thank God I have some reference cars in my collection that really help with this. Not the right connector at the blower motor, but you can't see it inside the fender.
I then started looking at the dash harness - the last one left to do.I first marked everything with blue tape that will need some further kind of work on it. All the usual
But then noted these. I don't understand the reason for these wire connectors - buried deep the the main wire bundle at the fuse box. I can't understand why the P.O. had to do that. Making me worried about going ahead with this one.
Lasltly, cleaned up the back glass prior having it reinstalled in the next few days. Steel wool truly does wonders!
Last edited by costpenn; July 28th, 2019 at 01:45 PM.
Very nice! I just pulled the wire harness from my Jetfire this morning. I am lucky because it has not got a single cut wire. Just have to clean it up. Did you re-wrap the harnesses also? Most of mine is fine but I may re-wrap the one strand going to the engine. Sad thing about my wire harness, it is all one harness from the dash forward. Lights, engine, dash, charging and all.
Of course ai could nor leave well enough alone. I found the correct blower motor connector (I had saved it) and spliced it back into the A/C harness I had previously finished It is a sickness I guess.
So then onto the big enchilada - the dash harness. as shown in the last post, although the amount of work that was going to be required to fix the old harness wasn't too bad, all the butt connectors at the harness exiting the fuse block had me concerned. Turns out that for some reason the front half of the fuse block had been changed out at one point, but the rest of the harness had been reused. I did not like the way all of this looked, do I pulled one of my extra good harnesses out of storage and and am donating it to the cause. (Maybe I might get a open face alternator housing in trade hint hint..)
Got to cleaning it and got halfway done - completed up to the blue tape. Learned from previous mistakes and was able to save the original printing/silk screening on the fuse box. Also, a pic of what is left to do. Exactly one wire has lost it's connector and that's it. Have about two more hours left on this one and the engine harness when it comes in from Scott Winn.
Been communicating with the painter. Working on getting the different shades/sheens of blacks in the right places and test fitting various trims to the completed body work. Good news on wheel well trims and trunk lip molding - all fits beautifully. Not so much on the hood hockey sticks and rear hood trim. Still, it looks like we're going to meet my goal of completing my involvement with project by November 1. Got a couple of my own projects already slotted in to begin shortly afterwards.
Finished up the dash harness today. When you start out with a quality part, it goes so much faster. Also finished up the gas tank lead. It has the metal connecting button from the old sending unit stuck inside the connector, and the plastic connector housing where it attaches to the trunk harness was missing. Also the original sending unit ground wire had the terminal at the unit badly screwed up, but the new sending unit comes with a new ground already attached.
Tomorrow I start on refinishing the trim. David has decided to not install a vinyl top on the car which will save a little time on trim to re done. Also, the Legendary interior was ordered today. Hope they can beat the 77 day lead time they quoted since my last day on this project is very close to then.
i couldn't put it off any further, so yesterday I started exterior trim refirbing. Remember,, this car has no wheel well trims, no decklid trim and some other exterior brightwork missing when bought, so parts the hodgepodge of parts to be used are going to have to be well worked to make everything does look consistant.
First up was trunk trim. The LH shirt section had too big a dent in it for me to handle, so I used one of my spares
Got the ends done then moved onto the middle section. It too had a major dent to the left of its centerline. No one had one locally so I had to try to fix it. After a lot of tapping and sanding I managed tie get it presentable, but a better one would be preferable.
Next was starting on the well openings. Got the front DS one done, but the RH is going to need a fair amount of work.It does Mae it easier that the trims are not supposed to be polished on the "wide" flat area where the screws go through. I stop sanding those at 800 grit.
I can see the trim taking another two weeks to finish - partly thanks to the big heat wave that is about to hit.
Going to be running the fender coves, door strikers, hood hinges & springs down to the painter.
Last edited by costpenn; August 8th, 2019 at 06:03 AM.
Finished up the front RH wheel well trim. More dents and a couple of deep scratches to deal with. Almost done with the reats. Need to do the 400, 600, 800,1000, &1500 grit passes on the rears, but wide area already done. A pass with white rouge and they will be done. The wheelwell trims are the most difficult trim pieces to recondition - hopefully it is on the downhill side from here on out.
It is so freaking hot. Wife and I are exploring buiding a 50 X 30 shop to store the cars, store all my parts, and have a well designed, comfortable climate controlled shop to keep me off the streets.
Last edited by costpenn; August 9th, 2019 at 09:14 PM.
If you can pull a deal together for a shop - do it. After it's dome, you won't be able to believe how you did all that high quality work without one. Mine happens to be 30 x 50 just like you're talking about. I couldn't possibly work on my cars in the Georgia heat and humidity without a temperature controlled space. Your only regret will be that someday you will wish you had built it bigger!
Finished up the front RH wheel well trim. More dents and a couple of deep scratches to deal with. Almost done with the reats. Need to do the 400, 600, 800,1000, &1500 grit passes on the rears, but wide area already done. A pass with white rouge and they will be done. The wheelwell trims are the most difficult trim pieces to recondition - hopefully it is on the downhill side from here on out.
It is so freaking hot. Wife and I are exploring buiding a 50 X 30 shop to store the cars, store all my parts, and have a well designed, comfortable climate controlled shop to keep me off the streets.
If you can put the doors on the 50' side and stack the cars, it would work alright... you could have four cars of storage (on lifts) then one bay set up for "dirty work" so you don't contaminate the finished cars.
We built a 28' x 48', door is on the 28' side (had to due to property layout), and it's decent but already full, lol. We have to stack the cars double deep, so something always has to move to get something in the back out. It's really not that bad, just something to complain about
If you can pull a deal together for a shop - do it. After it's dome, you won't be able to believe how you did all that high quality work without one. Mine happens to be 30 x 50 just like you're talking about. I couldn't possibly work on my cars in the Georgia heat and humidity without a temperature controlled space. Your only regret will be that someday you will wish you had built it bigger!
Originally Posted by 83hurstguy
If you can put the doors on the 50' side and stack the cars, it would work alright... you could have four cars of storage (on lifts) then one bay set up for "dirty work" so you don't contaminate the finished cars.
We built a 28' x 48', door is on the 28' side (had to due to property layout), and it's decent but already full, lol. We have to stack the cars double deep, so something always has to move to get something in the back out. It's really not that bad, just something to complain about
Thank you both for your input and support on getting a shop built. It ain't going to be cheap. To do it at my house on the property I have available will require filling in half my pool and major remodeling of the the existing garage, but the wife is on board as long as the city building codes will allow it. Having a meeting soon with an architect to get a rendering of what it will look like.
Trim is done (almost!) (approx 15 hours over the last week)
Today finally finished up all the exterior brightwork.I keep improving through sheer practice on the quality of the finished product, but it seems I keep getting slower at it. Any pieces that have deep scratches require going down to 120 grit to work them out which will easily double the time required on a piece vs. one you can start at 320 on. Cant get away from 120' 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and buffing on a wheel with white rouge - any shortcuts and the piece will look scratchy. Still waiting on a LH windshield drip rail molding to come in from Scott along with an engine harness to get everything caught up.
Not in the above picture are the window weatherstrip channels. These are also done, but drying in the garage from the aerosol Plastic Dip stuff I spray on the "hooks" that are riveted in to simulate that rubbery dipped look the originals have.
Also cleaned and conditioned two of the parts that were in the best condition out of the interior - the kick panels and headrests:
The glass from Auto City came in. Sprang for the date coded option. The speed was unbelievable - ordered it on a Monday from their location in central Minnesota - had it delivered to by place of biz in Dallas Texas on Thursday - date coded and in excellent condition.
Have some seatbelt work and need to clean all the weatherstripping that came off the car, but this should not take more than a few days. I will then start reassembling the dash, air cleaner assembly, and side glass mounting stuff to fill the time till the car comes back.
The Team Chevelle site reports issues with the fit of their side glass. Please let us know how your install goers. I have used Pilkington on my cars but Auto City has much better prices so it would be a great choice if they fit well.
What did you use to get all the old rubber removed from the side window weatherstrip channel? I'm picking away at it but it's taking forever. I've tried 3M adhesive cleaner spray and that seemed to help a little bit. Did you have your channels polished?
December 4th, 2018, 10:26 PM
