Ford Bronco engine it seems

 I had a mechanic, a very knowledgeable Ford mechanic duck down and have a look at the engine to ascertain whether it's worth continuing on with or to dump. The mechanic, (let's call him Phil) says there is a little question mark over one of the bores but should be okay. The rest will hone out alright. He is preparing a quote for me soon. Plan is for a mild rebuild, stage 2 cam, something with a bit of poke. Phil also said the heads will be okay once they get a service. He said they already have 4v flat top valves and new springs and should be good. 

One thing I noticed when I ripped the sump off the other day was this bolt protruding through the piston  rod. Phil noticed this and said he thought it was because the engine came from a Bronco, and asked me whether it had a Bronco sump. I said it did come with another sump and when I showed him he said yes that's the one. 

You can clearly see that "one bad stud" poking down there. No, this is not something from an Alien movie. It is the under side of the engine showing the crankshaft. Phil tells me it's perfectly normal... for a Bronco engine. 

Think I have finally worked out the neutral safety switch on Hurst V matic 2 shifter

 I think I have finally nutted out how the neutral safety switch works on the Hurst V Matic 2 shifter. 

Here is (I believe) the correct neutral safety switch for the shifter. I can't seem to find one of these anywhere in the country, and I can't find a supplier from the USA who is willing to sell me one. Go figure that out?

Anyway, undeterred, I am determined to get this shifter working one way or another. I think I finally understand how the switch works, as I was never sure I had the complete shifter. It arrived with the truck in several parts and took quite a while to piece together. What was missing was this switch. (Which I still haven't got)

What confused me was how it worked, but I think I have finally got it sorted.

Here is a photo of my shifter and a couple of arrows in yellow point to where there are raised sections on the shifter. If this switch is mounted to the side of the shifter with the raised nodes on the switch, then I can sort of see how it would work.

 2/4/23 ** Yeah, so like the DILL that I am. The bracket arrangement is ALREADY there! and ALL I need are two neutral safety switches and I am cooking with gas! 

A rare view of Mars?

 Nah, it's just the top of the old truck!  But if you stare hard enough and zoom in, you could almost mistake the roof for the surface of some faraway planet. Well, the project is far enough away from me as it is, thanks.

This is the result of soaking the roof for about one week in white vinegar. It did a sterling job, but there are still stubborn areas. I re-did it the other day and hit it hard with a wire brush and sander with 180 grit but there are some patches of rust that are refusing to budge. 

Someone told me on Facebook the other day that I should try some gel. I don't think he was talking about on my hair as it's about twenty years too late for that, but, I think he means something like this Metal Rescue stuff. I found some on the Repco website so I will be checking that out tomorrow. 

I have also ordered some Raptor 2k epoxy primer and once the roof is ready, will be hitting that with a mini roller and then hopefully forgetting about it until painting stage which will likely be many years away. 

Still waiting on the welding guy to make a date, and am pretty keen to get things underway there. 

Still uncertain about which way to go with the engine, but want to get the body in shape first.

She's just a mess at the moment, that poor old Clevo! I feel sorry for the thing! But I did buy an engine stand and crane and plan to put it on the stand and maybe tear it down and see what we have. 

Attacking the roof with Metal Rescue Gel

A guy from a vehicle restoration group on Facebook put me onto this rust repair gel as he said he did his whole roof with the stuff and it came up like magic. Well, I toddled off to Repco down the street and forked out about thirty bucks for this Metal Rescue Rust Remover Gel. If it did what it says it's supposed to do, than I am all for it. Main thing the pack suggests is remove as much surface rust as you can before applying the gel. I had already had the roof soaking for several days with a thick blanket soaked in white vingear with reasonable results. However, there was still a hell of a lot of heavy rust on the roof that the vinegar just didn't touch. 

I dug out a cheap paintbrush and gave the roof a decent pasting of the stuff and, as the instructions tell you, cover the whole damned thing with cling wrap and leave for a while. Well, I am leaving it on for a couple of days. I plastered it last night and  will have a look at it tomorrow morning. I did check a small section of the roof but it doesn't appear to have done much, so I re-coated that section. 

Check back tomorrow for an update! 

I was messing with all the pedals Garry sent with the project and couldn't decide which one to use. I ended up tossing them all and went in search of my old favourite tried and tested VL Commodore brake pedal box.

This particular pedal box was the same one I used for Dorothy, my 54 way back in the day, and it was a simple and effective pedal, so I decided to ditch all the ones I had here and find a Commodore pedal. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to score one for a very reasonable price (most people are asking hundreds of dollars for pedal boxes, but I scored this one for $45. Gotta love a bargain when you find one. 

As you can see, simple and elegant in a light weight design. 

I lashed out and bought a Daytona Engine stand from Sydney Tools for $135, but I don't think it is anywhere as good as the MechPro one I bought six months before (and stupidly sold thinking I would never need one again) Two of the bolts wouldn't thread, so I had to duck down to the local engineering shop and buy some decent bolts and while I was at it, grab some bolts to mount the engine to the stand (5/8 grade 8 from memory) 

Rustbuster results 1956 f100

 Well, the verdict is still a bit hung when it comes to the rust busting products. I am sure they work to a certain degree, but I think they are somewhat beneficial especially if you paint over the metal as soon as its dry to prevent the metal re rusting, which it will do eventually, I was advised not to let the rustbuster settle on the metal for very long as it creates pitting and continually eats at the metal, but I left it for a couple of days and then painted over it with KBS Rust Seal to really give it the best treatment I could.

Here's a picture after the Ranex Rustbuster has settled. 

That milky section is because I spilt some vinegar on the floor. No harm done. 

You can see more of the cabin's final result with the Rust Seal here

Ford XD diff for the F100

 Have just managed to remove the wooden box that the previous owner used to pack the parts in for the big haul from Victoria to NSW and here is the first peek at what is under the rear end.

The guy I bought it off says its an XD Ford Falcon rear end from the early 80's. I'm thinking it is a Borg Warner LSD on account of a tag saying Slip Resistant Diff 2.72 ratio. A fair bit of work has gone into fitting it up.

The thing that concerns me is that it appears wider than factory and and wondering whether this custom work is going to be poking out of the new bed that I have yet to order? I guess the good thing is the chassis looks to be in excellent health.

Ranex Rustbuster on the fifty six cabin floor

 A couple of before and during shots of Ranex Rustbuster slowly working on the cabin floor of the old girl. Not much has been going on this week as it has been too damned hot over 38 degrees the other day and 34 the next and I think it cracked 30 again today. Tomorrow it's a bit cooler but I am back at work for a couple of days. 

I managed to grab a cheap engine crane from a guy in town for the princely sum of fifty bucks. He even delivered it with his son and carried it to the garage for me. How can I complain about that?  The plan next week it to get the engine to PK head reconditioning and get the boys down there to check its condition out. I really don't know a lot about engines, so no point in me stumbling around like an idiot. I do that well enough most of the time, anyway. 

Looking like a hive of activity around the truck, but the reality is not much yet. 

I was amazed at how well a mildly rusty strip of steel came out after soaking it in vinegar for two days. It came out like a new piece of steel. Check out my video here 

Another alternative way to mount the Jag IFS to 1956 F100

 "Speaking" with a mechanical compliance engineer the other day, I learnt that it was best to ditch the whole insulting mess that the front end is in and start afresh. That is, remove the front mounts entirely and cut those extension pieces off that rubber mount to the body and do the same with the rear mounts and create a structure that is welded to the front end as well as welding to a plate which is then bolted to the chassis, thus eliminating things like movement and the necessity to have a telescopic steering shaft.

Damn! And I spent ages sourcing one of them! (A mid 90's Ford Courier intermediate shaft - or Mazda Bravo as they are also labelled)

Troy, the engineer, sent me some photos as examples of what he means, and I am sure he won't mind me sharing these great designs with you. Troy made them himself and apparently sells them as a kit for Chevy pickups only at this stage. I would have thought Ford pickups were more popular, but it doesn't appear to be the case as there seems to be far more Chevy pickup projects going around than Ford ones, and I don't really know why. Maybe it is just because there are more of them available?

So, what this means is that ridiculous abomination that that Butthole created on my chassis gets cut out. I am probably going to have that section boxed as, due to his lack of understanding of the basics of physics, his straight cut welds across the chassis have created weak points. That fool must have been on drugs when he designed that. Also, those horrible front brackets are going.

In its place will be a nice plasma cut plate with a style and shape similar to the ones you see here, only the Ford chassis is wider than the example shown here which is an early model Chevy, but the principle is still the same.

I particularly like these round boss style bungs. Troy makes these as well, so will have to order some from him. Not sure of the bolt size, but they look substantial, and they have Allan key heads for a nice touch. I guess high tensile bolts with a nylon thread would be just as effective, but this style looks very cool and purposeful.