American Racing Torq Thrust II's Arrive! What a Chrissy prezzie!

 Lucky bastard that I am, I am blessed to have these under the Christmas tree!

Even our resident panda was overjoyed.

I am glad my wife talked me into coughing up the extra for the chrome finish. Read a bit about the pros and cons of chrome compared to brushed aluminium finish and decided the chrome was the winner; easier to clean and, well, just more BLING! 

The tyres are still coming in. Once again, my wife convinced me to steer away from my budget choice. (I am trying to save money here, but my better half is talking me into buying the good stuff...so, why not?) 

I got a good deal on a set of Nankang tyres from some place in Sydney. These SP9 tyres seem to have a reasonable rating, although it appears their biggest complaint is that they are not durable and give up the ghost after around 20k. (And 20k of driving in this truck would probably take me five years to achieve) So, durability wasn't the main issue.

I guess a lot of it came down to brand snobbery. But I have to also confess I love the aggressive tread pattern on the B.F. Goodrich Radial TA's. And, of course, I love the white raised lettering. Just so old school muscle car style!

The other factor is getting them shipped to my address. Add an extra hundred bucks to the Nankangs and then pay for someone to fit and balance them and the advantages of saving money start to even up. Bob Jane T-Marts were my choice of supplier again when it came to tyres. So, I shook all the last coins from my green St George Dragon piggy bank and bought four new B.F. Goodrich tyres. Oh well, it's only money, and we can eat baked beans for a month. Once I decided on the tyres, the next natural progression is to what wheel lug nut do I use? I have the old Cragars sold off to a guy who is picking them up next week with luck, and I am giving him the wheel nuts with the sale. In any case, they didn't seem like a suitable choice for the new wheels as they were pretty scabby. Why buy new wheels and use old wheel nuts? Exactly. I have gone this fricken far. Might as well bite the bullet and buy new. 

So a quick look online convinced me nobody knows what they are talking about! Most shops are recommending the acorn style lug nut with the tapered thread. Here is a picture of the mag wheel.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but how could a tapered thread work in a hole that is not tapered? 

Do a Booger search and you will see what I mean. 

Here is a picture of the front Cragars. Notice they appear to have the same style as the Torq Thrusts?

And yet, when I took a wheel nut off there it was the acorn style? so what gives?

These studs are what came off the Cragars. Now, the rear one's are a weird unilug thing, so I have no idea about them. I can tell you they were absolute BASTARDS to get off and they did not feel good on the stud. I can't wait to get rid of these wheels. 

Top one from the rear unilugs that has a special washer that accompanies it.  The bottom one came from the wheel above. it has a slight taper on the end, but has that big tapered section that mates with the wheel. How can that create a good fit?

From the instruction sheet that came with the wheels, I found this information.

Which seems to tell me that the acorn style is NOT the right lug nut. I would assume my wheels are the shank style? No? If I put acorn nuts on this wheel wouldn't it compromise the tightness of the stud against the wheel? 

I am thinking this is the set I need? 

4/1/24

Well I spoke with a representative from American Racing wheels and was told to use the conical wheel nuts. In fact, they use them in all instances. I asked about the extended nuts and was told they were not necessary. So, there you have it. 

quick comparison of new and old indicator lenses

 The box said it came from MidFifty, and the serial number checked out as a  '56. But it nowhere near fits as well as the original when lined up on that lower tray, which in itself supposed to be a '56 part. Anyway, this is what happens when one aftermarket part meets another one. To be fair, at the end of the day I am lucky to have these parts. Lucky enough to be able to afford them. The alternative was a beaten up rusted out panel that I could never have straightened in a million fricken years. 

What is curious about all this, apart from them not fitting as well as the originals, is the top design. Just look at the difference here. This made me think I have a different model, say a 55 or something.? Dunno...

Handbrake replacement...what have I got?

 

So, when the project turned up, I was left with quite a bit of stuff in a container that only now am I sifting through. One of these things is the handbrake. I mean, I knew it was in the pile, but up until now had been more or less ignoring it. I decided to make this an over-the-Christmas-break project. Six months ago I purchased a Wilwood style handbrake kit, and only now have realised that it is not the complete solution.  This kit suits the rear brakes up until the piece I think they call the equaliser. 

This piece appears to be somewhat important. From what I gather, the cable from the handbrake has a long threaded end that eliminates this clevis arrangement and screws directly into the block at the bottom. 

This is an original style handbrake cable. I guess you could call it the upper cable. That is, the part that comes off the handbrake lever.

This piece here is what came with the project. The cable sure did look like an old vintage cable from what I can remember about the '54 cable, it seemed to be the right thing. However, it came with this peculiar looking bracket attached. It didn't take too much ferreting around to discover it wasn't off the '56. Bit of a giveaway with the disc / drum holes in the bracket. 

I was thinking it was a bit of a bitser, that is, a bit of this and that, but then I discovered when the new upper cable arrived today, this whole cable and its arrangement did not come from a 1956 F100. So, where did it come from? Well, the closest I came to it was an XC Falcon cable. Here's a picture of the underside of an XC Ford  for comparison's sake. 

So, cut a long winded post down, I have the aftermarket Wilwood style kit for the rear and a brand new original style 56 F100 cable from the handle. I connect the cable from the handle in the normal way and run it through to the block once I remove the clevis arrangement. Then I connect the rear cables up (or vice versa- I would probably start from the back and work forward) But the point it; this should work. However, my only concern is what allows the cable to spring back after you lock up the handbrake? Does it naturally just relax itself once you release the handbrake? 

I guess only one way to find out...

Test fitting tub, steering column and discovering Cragars are illegal!

 Well, we're slap bang in the middle of a heatwave here, guys, and I have gone and stuffed my knee up. Not sure how, but suspect it was due to an overly enthusiastic session on my new water rower. You would reckon an old fart like me should know better. I am definitely no athlete, but now, caked in Deep Heat, at least I smell like one. So, what this means is, I have been a bit slower on doing stuff on the old girl lately.

Still totally overawed by the new tub. Can't speak highly enough about the quality. Best decision I have made so far (and there haven't been many)

The good news is I am on annual leave now for about four weeks, so hoping to hit the truck a bit harder, although this knee is killing me, making it very problematic to do anything but sit on the lounge and watch DVD's. 

DVD's...remember them things? Yeah, you know I am old school. Sure, I still have video tapes as well and I even play records! Ha HA! 

The other thing I have done is not so much do work on the truck but put in place the sale of the wheels and tyres. This was an aspect of the purchase that I was pretty miffed about. The seller told me the tyres (Beautiful BF Goodrich Radial TA's - my all time favourite tyre) were brand new when I asked about buying his project on Ebay. He neglected to tell me they were brand new 12 years ago.

The other thing he forgot to tell me was the Cragars were unilug wheels. Might have been legal once upon a time, but now they are a big no-no. So, essentially, that reasonable buy I bought from this guy now looks like another dud decision I made (one of many I might add, in a short span of time)

So, no point in keeping them. I am selling them off to someone who might want to use them for an off road project etc. 

It's a real pity, because this is my favourite wheel/tyre combo and basically they are useless to me. 

I spoke with the engineer and he confirmed these wheels are illegal to use on the street, and no wonder, really. Just the mere concept behind this design seems fundamentally flawed. 

I was considering just replacing the rear wheels with a Ford wheel stud pattern, but I cannot find the same style Cragars anywhere, and the new style is crap compared to these, even though they might be shinier. 

The only option I think I have is to sell the lot and start afresh with a new set of wheels and tyres and go from there, hoping it won't take 12 more years to get on the road.

And what sort of wheel was I thinking of?

The only wheel that comes close to the style that I like are those American Racing wheels.

The good news is Bob Jane sell them at a reasonable price compared to a lot of other wheels. Probably because they are a 15 and most guys are going for anything above 19 these days I guess. https://www.bobjane.com.au/a/15x10-5-114-3-wheels/american-racing/american-racing-vn615-torq-thrust-ii-chrome-15x10-5-114-3-n44/30587?variant_id=30587

A set of Ford stud 15's Torq Thrust II's are a few hundred bucks each for the big wheels, and similar for the fronts. 

Just deciding whether it is better to go the polished look or go the chrome look. Just reading somewhere it is easy to polish out scratches on the polished wheel. As with chrome, once you scratch them, you can't polish that out. 

Here's an exciting picture of me getting the tape measure out and carefully measuring the distance between the lip on the firewall and the centre of that hole. That plate you see there goes on the inside, but it was easier to temporarily bolt it on the outside and measure it. This plate is a reinforcement plate. 10mm thick and going nowhere! To this I mount the brake booster and master cylinder.  I'm opting for the 8" booster to compliment my disk/ disk brake combo. Still haven't decided on the booster yet, but not many choices these days. It's either Procomp or Procomp or another brand that has been rebadged to confuse people.

Nice shot of the firewall in all of its Holy Glory. Bit of a job to weld all those holes up, and I am not sure of the best way to go about it. If I had an offsider, I could have got them to hold some copper pipe against the hole and maybe that would have helped making neater welds. But I didn't have anyone, so I just well ballistic.

Leaving a couple of them untouched because I am sure I am gonna need to have wires coming out of somewhere eventually. 

Hit the cabin floor with a couple of decent patches as well. They came out okay considering I was in pain with my knee and there was no soft place inside that cabin. Every time I went to rest my sore knee on something, I'd find a bolt or a nut or wire wheel or something bloody sharp and painful. 

In the meantime, guys and girls, have a great Christmas and New Year and I hope you tune in again soon. 

Sensational Mar-K Tub arrives! Check out how well this thing is packed!

 After an incredibly long wait (over 9 months), the Mar-K f100 bed/ tub has arrived. As usual, i wasn't here to receive it due to work committments, but my wife was home, and I was glad of this, because my instructions said if nobody was home, please leave it on the front porch. 

I mean, I knew it was gonna be big, but wasn't expecting how heavy it was, and I certainly wasn't expecting it to arrive on its own pallet. I was blown away when I started opening the boxes. This thing had been packed within a separate wooden framework to protect it all the way from USA to Australia. And it certainly did protect it. The tub arrived in perfect condition. 

Just check out the packing on this thing! 

Check out the cardboard! 

Well, here is something quite hilarious!

I wanted to get some bolts to fit up that big transmission inspection plate thing in the cab. I was sick and tired of stuff falling through the cab, so I dug into my trusty bolt kit for something to fit and came up with one bolt. I needed 16.

Anyway, I got on the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forum and asked the folks on there whether they knew the real size of the bolts. Someone told me i needed 8/32 UNC bolts, so I ordered a pack of them for $20.

They arrived the other day.

This is what happened.

The long screw at the bottom is the only one that fits this plate. This puny screw above it is an example of what they sent me.

Um, nup. That ain't gonna work.  After that, I ended up getting a tap and die set and rethreading the holes and the capture nut underneath

22nd Early Falcon Nationals Narooma 2023 October

 I wasn't able to go myself. However, a friend did attend and said it was a great show. He managed to take a few photos and send them to me. These were apparently just a small sample of what was there on the day. I'm a big fan of the early Falcons, especially the XP Coupe model (and I will always have a soft spot for the ute as well) I've never had the fortune to own a coupe, but have owned two utes in the past, and they were really charming old girls. Remind me to dig a photo or two out and show you sometime.

Meanwhile, here's some photos Rob sent me. Enjoy!