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1978 F-fun hundred 3/4 tons and 37s

Game on, I’m furloughed for 7 days starting Monday

The list: EDIT 11-25
Apply body filler to roof✅
Prime✅/paint all areas concerned
Finish fan, choke, gauge wiring etc✅
Tint✅/install windshield
Apply sound deadener and flooring
Assembly of interior
R&R steering gear
Add bullet resonators to exhaust
Reset passenger hub preload EDIT: —> bad ball joints

Drive!
 
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Turns out the lower ball joints are flippy floppy. It wasn’t a bearing preload issue.

Disassemble each hub for the trouble of ball joints or delete with American Iron kit? $100 vs $500

Sand these spots and hit with house of krylon and install flooring tomorrow. Windshield Wednesday night?
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Joints or deletes wouldn’t happen this week anyways. They’re “new” but 37s must’ve been too much in the 100 miles I’ve put on it. I didn’t install them and don’t know anything about them except the lower has a shit ton of play.

Waiting on primer to dry. Sand and maybe apply tan to roof tonight?
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Prepping windshield right now. Probably won’t install until Thursday or Friday pending paint cure.

Wiring is finished (for current state of project)

As I jump around with paint stuff I’ll finish the floor and R&R the steering gear.

Once the glass is in, the dash and seat are easy ticket items.

Probably gonna push off the exhaust until this weekend or another work block. It works don’t mess with it.
 
Rust oleum ‘sand’ is pretty damn close….no it’s perfect for this bang up job. Rust oleum primer is garbage. I’ll never buy a can of any flavor again. Nothing but trouble. Sprays like garbage, always drips/spatters from nozzle and doesn’t cure or sand worth a darn.

The tan went down perfect but moisture came out of the primed body filler spots. Oh yeah. Forgot, it’s 20* outside and 70% humidity in the shop.
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Marked the rear view tab location with a cardboard template, raced with paint pen then a 1/4” pinstripe tape border. Ram a 1/4” border around the entire glass. I’ll trim the film to this size and cutout the mirror tab after heat shrinking the outside profile.
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Yeah yeah, it’s a dry heat :lmao:

Hopefully can move away from this garbage climate in the next 2 years

Shrinking film is something I’ve never done before and to begin with a highly curved windshield definitely added a few new gray hairs. It went ok until the gasket disturbed an edge.

Rough cut
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Shrinking and chasing fingers
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Now you cut the exact profile along the pinstripe. It also helps guide the stainlesss blade. Never lift the blade. Always follow through with a continuous cut.
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With the pinstripe gone, finish the shrinking
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Applied and squeegee’d
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The gasket is much more difficult than the rear. Once a corner is started it goes pretty quick. This is where I made a mistake and disturbed the tint. I worked across the entire glass but then it’s too tight to get the opposite short/vertical edge. Get both verts started/completed then work the top and bottom flanges. I worked from the outside surface and utilized my plastic weather stripping tool just like a tire spoon. Grip and twist the gasket from the inside like a motorcycle throttle. It’s real easy to tell when the glass squares up in the channel.
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Mirror button. Photos look more subtle than it really is. It’s gonna be :smokin:
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Pulled the trigger on American Iron BJ deletes. They were on sale.

Too much hear say on the latest quality of Spicer, moog, dynatrac etc that I’d rather only perform the major work once and just replace a uniball when needed.
 
ACC vinyl floor installed. They say it has to rest for 48hrs at a minimum temp of 70* to work with it. They ain’t kidding. Left it inside for a couple days and rushed back and forth to the garage a couple of times trying to get a rough fit/trim.
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24 pcs of 10x15 mass barrier sheets barely completed the floor. Wasn’t too bad to work with. Lots of careful planning the grid to minimize waste and work around the curves of the floor pan.
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Heat gun was my friend
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There’s just enough room to service the tcase shifter through the floor. About near impossible from the underside
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Calling it a night.
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Front diff was leaking from the spot welds for the tubes. Burnt in some new plugs. Hopefully no more leaks.

BJ deletes arrive Monday. Install in the next couple weeks.

Glass tomorrow. Finish out the dash afterwards and some cleaner temporary hacked up gauge mounting.

Engine still needs antifreeze.
Steering gear swap
Glass packs
Bumper license plate lights
 
Installing the front glass was not fun. On the second attempt we found a few tricks that were working in our favor. The issue is always getting the glass to go down. I was using a white rubber mallet along the top on the gasket and the glass was seating wonderful. We were both so excited. I stopped to see the progress inside. When I resumed I forgot how and where I was striking the mallet and that magical sound of broken glass happened.

The rope was more difficult as was the gasket on the glass.
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Bought these glass handles so I wouldn’t have to sleep in the doghouse and turns out they were 200% unnecessary on the front glass. Probably would’ve helped pull/drag down the rear glass.
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Ooooooooh
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Ahhhhhhhhhh
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Phuuuuuuuuck
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Gonna keep pushing and finish this weekend as I need this truck for work. Sable lost a blend door actuator so it hasn’t had heat at all this season.

I’ll find a glass shop to replace this window. Not putting myself through that again.
 
In my experience that rope was way too thick. I ended up using some twine
I found at Home Depot soaked in dawn dish soap. Worth a try next time.

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As much force as we applied (wife and I with a wrap of cord around each fist x4) anything smaller would’ve broke or sliced the gasket I feel like. I didn’t use soap but a healthy amount of silicone spray and Vaseline. Only reason I didn’t spray a soap solution was to keep the glass “dry” so my palms hand grip to smack it downward etc.

Both windows just want to ride up the cab vertically. In the limited amount of videos on YouTube covering this subject, it takes 2-3 guys with Christmas ham fists to persuade the glass downward while someone operates the rope.

Idk how they built hundreds of these in a day

As much as I’d like to try it again for independence sake, I’m just gonna find a glass shop to fix this.

AMD has a Black Friday special of free freight etc etc so I purchased another gasket and window

Cleaner temp solution for gauges. Eventually want a custom cluster but very undecided which way I want to go.
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3D Printed Ford Parts glove box :usa:
Also note the 3D print hub tool for those days my labia just won’t lock in the hubs.
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Tach mount
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Tach mount is sweet. Yeah, after the last windshield I’ll pay someone to do it going forward. And I agree, any time I saw them go in easy it was done by my friends with bananas for fingers.
 
I like the tach placement enough that it might be permanent.
 
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I love the Indian blanket seat cover. Every pick up from 1955 to 1988 needs to be equipped with one.
Absolutely. Just a random idea and I found one in the perfect color. Couldn’t let this northern Minnesota hide my western roots
Screw taxes and long live the republic, nice build so far bro
Thanks, Austin

Did you re-enlist or go full time again? Think you mentioned that in your build, which the dust is covering the awesome colors
 
The afr/hm mount is choice. Great build!
Thanks JunKU
Temporary solution for now but still wanted the practice in making something half nice
What does the hour meter count? Ignition up time?
Correct, ignition run time. Just something to geek out on. Easier to track maintenance or engine life etc. 9hrs on this rebuild so far.

AFR because I’m getting older and time is harder to come by and rather have a tool assist me in the right direction (or tell me I made the wrong decision)
 
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