MyF100 Flareside Project (Take 2)

[bjde0b]

Dablack00 suggested for me to create a Project Update post. I currently have a website that I have created to track the progress of my project. I will be posting the same project update to both Fordification.com and my webpage.

The history of my truck can be read on my webpage. It is too long to include in here. The brief history is that I have had this truck for 11 years and my dad and I rebuilt it in 1997/98. I have decided to rebuild it again and try and improve on a few things.

I have a lot of pictures on the webpage and I will display some of them on this post as well.

[FoMoCo]

Your truck looks great. All the stepsides look great from the side veiw. Keep us updated.


Nick

[bjde0b]

I have successfully started the motor. I put a new fuel pump on and it fired right up. I say right up. I had to figure out some electrical stuff because I pulled all the fenders off. At first the starter solenoid wasn’t working because I didn’t have it grounded. Then the battery wouldn’t turn over the engine while it was still in my Tundra so I had to pull it out of my Tundra. After getting all of the kinks out, it fired up with a little starting fluid and then full on with gas.

After I got the engine running I was ready to finish breaking down the truck. The cab is completely gutted now, I have pulled the wiring harness and the auxiliary motor equipment has been removed. The rear cab mounting bolts are half way out. I need someone to hold the bottom washer with some channel locks to get the bolt all the way out. Once it is pulled the cab is ready to be lifted off.

I have found 6 mouse houses. One in each door jam, two above the headliner, one in a rear cab corner and one on top of the glove box. I only saw one mouse, he just sat there and looked at me. I put out some traps but he must be one of the smart ones. The worst thing is that all the pee and poo on top of the headliner has made it stinky. It is plastic so I will wash it, but the problem is I am storing truck parts in the spare bedroom and now it smells a little funny.

[FordTruck]

The rear cab mounting bolts are half way out. I need someone to hold the bottom washer with some channel locks to get the bolt all the way out. Once it is pulled the cab is ready to be lifted off.

I ran into that same problem you can put some vice grips on that washer and the vice grips will hit a cross member and hold them selves there until you get it all the way off. I ran into that same problem when I did my cab sawp. You invent new ways of keeping stuff like that from spinning when working by your self. There's a few bolts that I welded to keep from spinning

[bjde0b]

I have the truck stripped down to the frame. I bought a sandblaster last weekend and I have been trouble finding good sand. I bought sand at Lowes, but it was to thick. I also bought sand at The Home Depot, but it was the same problem. I cannot find sand in Houston, TX anywhere (hopefully someone will point out where I can find it). I am going to buy an engine stand on Criagslist.org and pull the motor very soon. Then I am going to start blasting away at the frame and get ready to paint it with Rust Encapsulator.

[bjde0b]

I decided to clean the engine and replace all the gaskets while it is out of the truck. I pulled the heads tonight and I couldn't believe how good of condition the cylider walls were in. You can actually see the cross hatchings from when the engine was rebuilt eleven years ago. There isn't a lip at the top either.



I am not planning on pulling pistons or anything. I am just going to give everything a good cleaning with carb cleaner, paint, and then reassymble.

I had a problem with the flywheel touching the engine stand and you could not turn the engine. I put an extra washer between the stand spacer and the engine block and it allowed me to crank the shaft. There is less than 1/16 clearance.



Once I pulled the heads I was trying to drain the water out of the block by rolling the engine on the stand. I forgot I hadn't pulled the lifters yet and a few fell out. I used educated guesses to figure out which one came out of which hole. I know you aren't supposed to mix them up, so hopefully I got it right.

[dablack00]

Sorry I just now saw this.

Here is a place to get sand. It has been about 4 years since I have bought sand there so tell me how it goes.

http://www.ttexindustries.com/

Also, please remember that sand is VERY bad for you. Get a good mask and make sure it is sealed up all the way. Sand in your lungs will kill you.

Really let me know how the sand blasting goes because I'm close to doing it myself.

[bjde0b]

Thank you for the information about the sand blasting supplier. I will call them in the morning. I have also read Grainger, but they seam very proud of their sand. I have filtered general purpose Lowe's sand and it appears to be working okay for me so far, I will know more in the morning.

I worked on cleaning the engine and the heads tonight. Everything went pretty good. I know there was some opposition (Dad) about me pulling the heads, but I feel pretty good about it. The picture below gives a good example of clean versus dirty.



The one alarming discovery is the cap that goes on the valve stem. I don't know exactly what these are called, but this one needs to be replaced.



They probably come in sets so I will replace them all.

I rolled the frame out in the driveway tonight and I am going to attempt blasting tomorrow. I know there will be more to report later. Hopefully since it is my birthday, God will shine some light on me and the blaster won't plug up. I am sure it will, but that will be B.J.'s fault, not God's.

[bjde0b]

I have been working on sandblasting the frame for the past few days. I have two compressors running into another portable air bottle and then running out to the sand blaster. I picked up a pretty good sand blaster from Craigslist.org. I have problaby put 500 pounds of sand through it so far. I wore out a nozzle and the little rubber tube in the gun.

I started off blasting the frame with the wheels still on. I would roll it in and out of the garage every time I worked on it. I would blast at night under the halogen lights until 9:00 so I wouldn't make the neighbors too upset with the noise of the compressors. I pulled the wheels off tonight and now I will be covering it with a tarp. I am going to flip the frame over tomorrow night and begin blasting the final edge. I am going to blast the radius arms and springs and such as well. I am tentatively planning on planning on beginning to paint the frame on Feb. 13 which is my next Friday off.

You can see more pictures of the before and after at this link.
http://www.bjandkristen.com/myf100/phot ... ry/frame1/

[papabug71]

Man, its looking good! Did you sand blast the frame or did you have it done at a shop? I wish we would have done that back in the day. But, all we did was scrape all the junk off the frame & hit it with wal mart spray paint. Now it looks like poo.

[bjde0b]

I am doing it myself. I am going to do the entire truck by myself. I have more patience by myself than with others. I also am willing to spend money on parts, but I don't want to pay anybody for anything. I am going to get a valve job done but that is it.

It is a fun, long and tedious job doing everything like this, but I love it.

[dcbullet]

I love that style of aftermarket wheel.

[dablack00]

Looks great. Really great. Make sure and wear a good mask when blasting with sand. A dust mask won't cut it.

[bjde0b]

I built a paint booth in my garage. This was more complicated than I originally thought because of the garage door (that, and I didn't have a helper). I framed up the sides in the driveway out of 2x2's that I ripped using a circular saw. My neighbors all watched in amusement as normal. The side frame was a bit flimsy and I had to navigate it around the frame and other stuff (sand blasting cabinet and table, paint racks, misc parts). The second side was built a lot faster because I had already figured out the measurements to allow me to still open the garage door. The "ceiling" has two levels. I wanted to maximize the height, yet enable the door to be open. Once I frame gets past the door position when open, the ceiling height is maximized to near the garage ceiling.

I went to Harbor Freight and bought three tarps. One to wrap around the sides and the top and two others to cap the ends. I stapled them to the frame and duct taped the seams. I ripped 3/8" strips (not easy to do with a circular saw) and I used them to frame a cardboard door. These doors are actually really good. I have rope door handles and velcro keep them closed, along with the vacuum created by the blower. I started to put weather stripping around the door then I decided there were enough other air leaks that it didn't really matter. I have a blower pushing air in through a hole with a air filter over it and a box used to disperse the air into the booth. Then I have another blower sucking the air out. This one is taped tight to the tarp (say that four times fast) and is much more efficient.



I built two doors, one to allow me to get into the booth from the house and back garage door, the other to allow me to get into a cramped area to use my workbench and access my shelving. I hung three shop lights, but I could use a couple more.



You can see all the pictures in the http://www.bjandkristen.com/myf100/phot ... ry/frame2/ of the Photo Gallery.

I put an initial coat of paint on the bottom and sides of the frame. The paint I am using on the base metal is Rust Encapsulator. I was using a new paint gun and I was not impressed. When cleaning it, I found a peice of wire that was in the area that the air and paint mix. This was definitely causing some of the problems I had. I also didn't follow the paint manufacturers directions. The directions say to cut the paint with up to 20% lacquer thinner. I thought that using acetone, and the faster drying, would make the finish harder. The paint would be dry in the air before it touched the frame. It ended up rough and dusty. I spent 4 hours cleaning up the mess I made on the frame with sanding and wiping it down.

I put a second coat of paint on tonight. The paint laid down real nice and smooth. I realized I didn't have any pictures on the computer of any of the painting yet so I will do that soon. I am very pleased with the new coat of paint and I think I will continue to get better. I will need lots of practice before the body BC/CC.

I think I burned up my air in blower tonight. I got five of these things from a friends dad for free, hopefully I can get one of the other three to work.

[dablack00]

Again, great work and you are cruising right along.

One thought. Since you will be painting with BC and CC later, why not use something similar on the frame? RE isn't going to spray like other stuff. You might want to pick up some black epoxy and paint with it. It protects the frame great and is what you will want to use as one of your stages under the BC/CC.

Just an idea.

Austin