Rob to the rescue!

 Rob came over and hit the front panel hard. Brought a cool spot welding drill bit with him and that did wonders. He also managed to figure out how to fix my wife's silly beetle boot cover and between the three of us got it clipped in in under 20 minutes. We had to actually take everything out and fit the big panel last. Never would have imagined that, but that is modern cars for you. 

Anyway, Rob got struck right into the front cab corner and made a big start on the thing. It is not an easy undertaking that is for certain. I never would have tackled it myself, but Rob has inspired me. 

The hardest ones are those in the inside of the cabin. How you get to these without removing the dash is beyond me.  Fortunately, the dash was already out. Rob did the ones on the outside and I had a crack at the ones on the inside. You see that big hole in the metal at 1 oclock? Yep, that's my effort there...right through the metal. I also did these ones you see here with three in a row and then realised I didn't need to do those. I only needed to drill out the spot welds further up, because this panel actually stays where it is. 

Rob's handiwork. Fun fun fun! Good news! there's another side!  

This sump has me stumped

"Wanna take a baaaath?" (Pink Floyd The Wall lp)  So, what have I got here? Just started pulling the motor down and discovered this sump has what appears to be provisions for a dipstick. I thought only Windsor engines had these.

So, I had to go back out and double check that I actually have a Cleveland engine and not a Windsor. Sure enough, it appears to be a Cleveland as the water neck is vertical off the block and my rocker covers are 8 bolt. 

So, what do I have? A Cleveland with an oil dipstick. Why aren't aftermarket ones fitted with them and how do they check the oil?

Checking out the chassis and considering the Jag XJ6 front end on the F100

 Okay, so while I am waiting for the mobile welding guy to come and check the project out, I thought I might as well just climb under the truck and see what is going on under there.

To my surprise I discovered a few interesting things.

The rear end looks like it has had a lot of work already done to it.

It has an XD (according to Gary, the previous owner) rear end. Disc brakes. 9". Looks pretty good. Shouldn't take much to finish it off. 

One thing that hit me was that this mount doesn't look like a stock 1956 F100 mount. At least as far as I know. The 1954 was quite different. I am thinking this one has been changed over at some point because the bolt holes don't line up. 

This is the current setup of the front Jag IFS. Um, no. That's gotta go. 

Here it is again just for shits and giggles. 

So, mister smarty pants, I hear you ask, what is wrong with that?

Well, basically, apart from the fact that it is Butt-ugly, it's not the best design. 

And this is why. The mounting brackets don't secure the front on either side of the rubber mount. 

How did we do it all those years ago? Well, Stuart did the work, but we arrived at this design which was engineer approved. 

This was how we setup old Dorothy back in the day.  A bracket both sides of the mount and a new piece of plate to support the bracket 

Nice little collection of pedal boxes. I've turfed two out and am mulling over the other two. Still got a long way to go before deciding what to do here. 

I pretty much finished the radiator mount piece. Came up pretty well. All nice shiny new high tensile bolts fitted up. 

Annabel's seat stripped Rainexed and stored

 Stored until time for Peter to reupholster the thing that is.

It was very rusty that old Dodge seat. I hit it hard with the wire brush and then high pressure washed it and then hit it with Rainex and then a couple of coats of cheap black paint from the two dollar shop. 

It won't win any awards for the neatest job in the world, but it's not like anyone is gonna see it. Springs seem okay and the frame is still good. Just heavy rust, If it had been much worse I would definitely have needed to bin it. 

Notice how black the metal went compared to the other half of the seat which I have yet to do. 

Action shot! I love action shots! Don't see enough of them! This is me actually doing something! I love the smell of phosphoric acid in the morning! 

Other things? Well, thanks for asking! 

Been cleaning up a few parts. Here are those side plate things that support the guards and sit behind the grille.  Before and after

Oh my god! Don't tell my wife I used her clothesline for drying car parts. My ass is grass already! 

Work has begun slowly on Annabel starting with the stinky seats

I guess you could say work has been tentative.

I am presently writing out an appeal against the NCAT orders and if I am successful we'll see what happens then. For the moment, I am just trying to fathom how a low grade dog can suck the court of arbitration in so effortlessly and make me out the ass. 

So, while we are on the subject of getting screwed, here's a nice lead-in to my latest effort

cleaning out the rusted threads in the radiator housing. 

The old Dodge bench seat I bought for the truck ages ago is a stinky old thing full of rat's pee and poop and all sorts of dead things, so, the only thing I could do was rip the stuffing out of it and turf the stinky stuff. It was so bad it was wafting through the garage into the house.

super rusty and super stinky. It was a tough session cleaning this stuff off. Took hours to wire brush too. 

Pepe la pew! Man, did that seat reek. It's covered in significant rust. Everything is rusty, but at least the springs are still sold. Just heavy surface rust. Any worse and this seat was heading for the recycling center. 

upon investigation, have found a seriously crappy section here. This is gonna need some serious skills to fix. I can't show you a better pic as the truck is hard up against a brick wall. 

After the greatest nightmare of my life the truck has come home

 I am not even going to make a comment about the rogue workshop that pretended to work on my truck, nor the corrupt NCAT department that defended an unlicensed and therefore illegal motor vehicle repair shop, ripping me off of most of my hard earnt money. I have now developed a massive distrust of the legal system and am totally disgusted and appalled at the treatment I received at the hands of this scumbag fake fabricator guy and the organisation that supported a lawbreaker. Put it this way, when my wife (who was watching the proceedings) almost needed hospitalization due to being in deep shock because of the disgusting way the defendant was supported by NCAT, you've got to ask some big questions, and believe me, I AM asking them. So, there is more to come on this outcome.

In the meantime, Annabel is at home. Ironically, this was where I wanted her in the first place. It just took nine months and several thousand wasted dollars to arrive. Incredibly, I haven't even had much more than an hour checking the old girl over. Pretty sad, when you think about it. 

Life, it sucks sometimes. It really sucks.

But at least the truck is here.

Having said that, there ain't a lot of positives I can find at the moment. Feel free to start playing a violin any time. 

Life goes on, as they say. I just have to pick up what's left of the pieces and somehow move on...

I thought about selling the whole deal, and walking away forever, but then, I would be letting the bastards win, and I think those gutless bastards have won enough. It's time to get stuck in...

So, I already have made contact with a mobile welding guy who hopes to come down next week and check the project out. He has a fair bit of work ahead of him! 

Here's an example!

Well, one question was answered...does she fit in the garage? Yes she does! 

Just starting to pull stuff out of the cabin. Stuff I have never seen before. 

1956 F100 Pictures