I got a ton done today. After such a bad day thursday, its good to get stuff done. I got the suspension in, the driveshaft, rearend, exhaust, trans and brakes. Everything is tightened down, and ready. I will have to align the front end. The wheels are still cambered and toed in, but Ill get that later. I still have the main brake lines to do, and the park brake to install. I went with the Lokar brake handle and cable after all, so it should work well. No surprises and nothing seems out of place, so its seems to be going okay. There are one or two things Ill have to change, like the upper a-arm bolt is not long enough to engage the thread lock on the nut because the rod ends are wider than the originals. Not a huge deal, Ill either get a slightly skinnier nut with the lock, or a slightly longer bolt. I also have to change the exhaust tip mounts. I had them in place, but didnt like them, so I cut them off. Ill make a new set, and bolt the tips to them.

The wheels are from my car. To make a long story short, they are polished as I never planned on driving my car in adverse weather. Well, life happens, and its my daily now, so the wheels are very corroded. Ill have to have them polished and repaired. The good news is, they fit the mustang 2 brake spindle without a spacer. We will see how they work on the truck when its together. I might have to add spacers anyway. And itll need longer wheel studs all the way around.


Suspension and wheels mounted. Itll squat a little with everything in. Its much lower.

Front suspension in, with brakes and lines. Still need an alignment.

Rearend. Everything fits well as far as I can tell. Wheels are exactly 6-1/2" from the frame, and I could go much wider with the wheels and tires. These are 275s. Itll probably get 305s

Now Im getting somewhere. Driveshaft, engine trans, and suspension all in. Up on the blocks.

The engine is very dirty. Ill have to clean it.

Trans and driveshaft. And the exhaust is in now too.

Rearend with the exhaust in.

Rear shot. Everything seems to be going back together well.

 

Coming together nicely! Wish i could work in my garage, This week the temps will go above freezing!

 

Wow, a LOT happened since the last time I checked this thread. Awesome progress. Congrats!

 

Its the visual stuff that makes it look like so much progress. Now its going to grind to a halt.

I worked a little yesterday and today, and made decent progress. I finished the exhaust finally, and the brakes. I also got the parking brake cable secured to the frame. I mounted the cab also, but its only loosely bolted on for now. Im going to get some washers and some different bolts to mount it, so I can level it better.

Now for the hard parts. I have to finish installing the wiring (Im adding some features that I didnt add before, and they have to be installed and wired) and then the fun of bolting the fenders, core support, front bumper, hood and doors to the cab begins. Ill have to remove the dash again also, but I think we are going to paint it when I do. I still have to deal with a ton of details also.

Im going to try and work a deal with a friend of a friend on some body work. I do wiring, and he doesnt. He does body work and I cant. Im hoping we can swing a deal at least for some reduced cost on the body work and prep.

Oh and I did some horse trading for a new tool box. Im going to get another one later, and split the tools up. The old box I was using was about 30 years old and a bit sketchy. Plus I cleaned the garage again.


Much cleaner. I still need to get some of the big stuff out in the building, but I have to get some concrete to do that.


Man its dirty.

 

Still, it's progress. And yes, It is indeed going to look like things have ground to a halt. All the little detail work that goes into a build of this nature, takes time, and there really aren't any visual cues that anything has happened. Still and all, progress is progress.

 

No pictures this week. I got some stuff done, but had a lot of other things to do, so I didnt get much on the truck finished. Im thinking about taking Friday off this week to make a good long weekend. The weather should be good here.

I got the parking brake mostly installed. It still needs some bolts here and there, but Ill have to swing by the hardware store. I went with the black billet handle from Lokar after all, even though I said I wouldnt. My thinking was this; I didnt have the right cable to go from the handle to the rear cables. I searched the interwebs and didnt find one. I could have had one made I guess, but that would be a hassle. This way if the cable breaks, I can get another one. Plus I want to add rear discs one day, and this should work with them. Plus the old handle mounts were all rusted out. I didnt want to fix them and have other issues to work around. It was expensive at almost $500, but it should work well.

I also got the dash out. Im working a few side deals to get some stuff done. I hope to get the dash painted real soon. I can finish the wiring while its out.

 

I took Friday off hoping to get somewhere this weekend. I got a little done, but had a lot of other crap going on.
I started on the wiring. I have been putting this off for a few reasons. When I installed the panel and harness I didnt know there would be so many changes. I have swapped the frame, moved the battery and gas tank, and added a bunch of other stuff. The wiring looks like amateur hour to me. I was going to gut it and start over. I contacted Ron Francis and they will sell me the wiring for under $300. But I decided to wait. Im not sure what engine Ill be getting. Im also not sure we dont have other changes to make. I might add a radio, or an A/C system, of even fuel injection. So....Im leaving it for now. It is working just fine, and I can make the necessary changes between now and the time the body work gets done or the engine decision has been made. Everything should be settled by then, and I can get the new wiring and run it like I know I can.

Things that I finished wiring this weekend; interior lights, neutral safety switch, line lock, heater blower, aux outlets. I also cleaned it up a bit, but it still looks like crap. I also wired the radiator fan in, but it isnt working. Ill have to look into it. I didnt get the electric fan wiring from Ron Francis because I didnt know I was going to need it, and the the fan came with a relay and harness, so I figured why waste the money. I had to do a little detective work on the panel which has a fan relay built in, but I got it figured out, sort of. Ill get it working.

One thing Ill have to look into is the windshield wipers. Ive read a few posts about them but I havent really looked into it yet. I have 4 wires coming out of the motor, but the wiring diagram I have only shows 2.

I also never got the blinkers working before so Ill need to investigate that as well. I did get the radiator support on, to check wire length on the fan. Im getting closer to putting it back together, and starting it.

Radiator and support are back in. I also have to mount the overflow tank and the horns.

This side is a little better. Ignore the big red wire. That is me finding out Im an idiot and didnt ground the starter relay. Oops.

This side still looks like wiring vomit. Ill clean it up a little more. Some of it is the dash mounted switches and gauges just dangling there.

 

I didnt do much electrical this week. I had started looking into the cooling fan, and hit a couple of roadblocks. I think Im not getting a good enough ground when the coolant switch closes, which causes the relay to chatter. The battery voltage is good, and the wiring is also good. Ill look more into it this week. I might buy a 2-wire switch from GM and wire it in. That would give me a better looking connection anyway.

I managed to get the fenders on. For those who dont know; its way easier to install the fenders without tires, and with the radiator support loosened. I have tried it every way imaginable, maybe even a few ways you couldnt imagine. Removing the wheels makes it a ton easier.

I love the way the wheels are tucked in on the front. This is without the 1-1/2" spacers I have. These wheels are from my charger, and you can see the corrosion in the pictures, which is why I took them off. They were leaking pretty bad. Anyway, the wheel offset is 24 mm, or close to an inch. The wheels are 20 x 8 front, and 20 x 10 rear. Front tires are 255/20s and the rears are 275/20s. This is the problem with modern wheels; the offset. I could get a wheel with a negative 24mm offset, and move the wheel out almost 2 inches, but those are expensive. I could run a spacer, but I dont want to do that either. I think Im going to drive it like this and see how it works. Its also very low, I know. It has about 2 inches from the top of the tire to the inner fender, and with coilovers, it will settle after driving. This is also the lowest setting, so I can raise the truck about 1-1/2" I think in the front if needed. The good news is, these wheels fit over the spindle of the Mustang 2 hub, whereas the factory wheels did not. Also the tires are toed in and cambered quite a bit because I havent adjusted the suspension yet. It will get slightly better after I adjust everything and drive it.

So some visual progress this week. I have a bunch of things to mount, and wire still. I was hoping for good weather from here on out, but we woke up to about 3 inches of snow, so I guess I still have a few weeks of cold weather left.

3rd brake light. This little sucker is bright

Inside mount. Ill add rivnuts to mount it, and replace those existing bolts for something that doesnt stick out as far.

Sitting nice and low. I like it, but it may be too much. Ill drive it and see.

Personal opinion, but I think it looks best with the fender line cutting through the tire like this. Itll look better on the ground, but I still need under the truck

The wheels are tucked about 3-4 inches in. I like it, but it may have to come out more.

Inside shot. I still have stuff to mount and add, but the wheel is way up in that fender well.

 

What is the white tubing? Heater core lines?

 

It just looks white, its actually aluminum tubing. I didnt like the rubber hoses just hanging out on the fender and being all floppy, so I used AN fittings, and bent some tubing. Way more expensive, but its cleaner. In the future when (If?) I can swap engines, Ill run these lines another way but for now this will work. Im not sure if Ill be leaving the factory heater box, or going to an aftermarket unit, maybe with A/C, so the location of the hoses might change.

You can see the hoses peaking out here.