f100_dreamin

Got all the welds ground down, pin holes filled and ground, and epoxy primered slapped some bog down. Sanded most of it off, did a second thin skim, sanded most of that off too, filled the little pinholes and sanded them too, finished it off with some epoxy primer it’s not perfect, but it is only a boot floor, next step is to cover it in stone chip and move onto the outside.

Been plodding along with this, had a day off last week so put it to good use and got most of the floor welded in Obviously as a mechanic this isn’t something I do at work so don’t judge the welds haha, you can probably see in the last picture that the rear left corner has something of a gap, not sure if this was due to the cut or just the way I’ve welded it in. Either way I had a gap to sort, I’m sure there is probably a better way of doing it but here’s what I did I used the hammer and dolly to get it as close as I could then I made the worlds smallest filler panel and tacked it in Near enough is good enough aye? then welded it in, it ain’t pretty but it will work. luckily it’s the boot floor so once I’ve got it with the grinder, slung a bit of bog and seam sealer it will be acceptable and not a very often seen part of the car anyway, feel free to comment in the discussion thread to tell me if I did it the ok way or what I should’ve done so next time I decide to do something I’m not qualified to do I’ll have a clue haha

Been a while but an update we have, Thai thing has just been a workhorse, before the last wof I went over the vehicle and found the driveshaft required rebuilding, so it got 3 new UJs and and new hanger bearing, I also replaced the pinion seal, the diff has always been noisy and when had the old seal out the pinion bearing looked average, I fitted the seal, rebuilt driveshaft and went and got a wof, next weekend I filled the tank, went for a cruise and got home to find an axle seal had let go and ruined the brakes, So I figured it was time to rebuild the diff and do some other needed repairs, after 6 years of abuse it was time to replace the boot floor Aside from the self inflicted damage, some rust had come though so I bought a replacement floor pan from Chucks, pulled the fuel tank and cut the floor out trimmed up the replacement Trim fit trim fit repeat Got it tacked in today, fit is pretty good, got one corner that is not as happy as the rest but I’ll work that out in due time Diff is getting dropped off at Diff specs drury tomorrow to be rebuilt, was going to do it myself but time is just getting away on me and I need this car back together so I can make a move on some other projects, which will free up the funds to finish my Plymouth Talk about this here: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/53628-bens-61-belair-talky-talk/

Talk about this here

Been a while since there has been anything to update on this old girl, the plan had always been to upgrade the 6 cylinder and manual to a V8 and auto for the ease of cruising, it will also provide the opportunity to upgrade to power steering and allow me to run an AC compressor as an air compressor for the Airbags. So just the other day I was able to pick up this from a friend, who had removed it from a customers pick up to replace with a crate 350, apparently it was a good runner when it came in to be replaced (aren’t they all though haha) my mate had planned to take it to a swap meet to sell, but never got round too it, and he ended up just wanting it gone from his workshop, so a deal was done and it’s now sitting in my garage, The numbers break it down to a 2 bolt 283ci (4.6 litre) engine. Nothing flash, but with a freshen up and a little cam it should do the job nicely luckily he also had a bunch of spares to give me too, Including an old school Offenhauser inlet manifold on top of that one of my friends has been stripping a VN V8 station wagon for the engine to put into his VL sedan. so in exchange for doing the wiring and a couple of the shit jobs he doesn’t want to do I now have a 700r4 to go behind the engine. will be a while away until anything gets done from here as the Plymouth is the main priority, but I’ll slowly be collecting bits and pieces for when the time is right!

Had a delivery from Rockauto a couple of weeks ago, Diff rebuild kit and Rear wheel bearings for the explorer 8.8, Engine mounts and a new water pump for the 318, Started with the water pump today, which then let me fit all the ancillaries, cleaned up the engine mount brackets and put the new mounts on. I was originally planning on ditching the AC and running a set of gilmours, but I can’t make them work with the PS, and I’m not willing to ditch that for now. So I figured if the PS stays then the AC may as well too! still need to get a new harmonic balancer, and I’m taking the belt pulleys to work to run through the turbowash, I’ll get them cleaned up, painted and mounted so I can work out belt alignments etc.

Shit that’s awesome Clint! Nice work!

Sweet cheers @cletus, If there’s no one local then I guess that will be the go to,

More small jobs have been done , I’ve cut all the old brackets off the diff housing now so I just need to order some spring perches for it now. Has anyone got any suggestions of a local supplier to save me having to source them from the US? I also put my big boy pants on and started cutting the rear 1/4 panels off as marked by my metal guy (so that the inside structure can get blasted too) Before (you can see the lines drawn by my metal guy): after: No more rust than expected, which is good I suppose haha, one side down…..one to go……..

Shit that’s an effort and half! Nice work!!

Took the axle tube to work and cut it down, then when I returned to our Wiri site I used the press to push the axle tube back into the housing luckily it just fit then I welded it back up, I plug welded it where the factory used plugs to hold the tube in, plus I also welded both tubes to the centre as with it being a press fit it’s not unheard of them seeping. Bloody handy having these tools at my disposal at work. I’ll order some spring seats soon and make a jig based on the old diff to weld them on, not a huge amount of progress, but better than nothing.

Thread dredge….. aside from scraping more under seal there’s not too much I can do to the body for now, so I’ve been working on the Ford 8.8 I pulled out of an explorer. everything looks good inside, so that’s a plus I wrapped it up to limit the stink, Because there isn’t much that stinks worse than diff oil haha I drilled out the 3 bungs that hold the long axle tube in and took the diff housing to work, with a bit of persuasion from the 10t portapower and the gas plant I pressed the axle tube out, tomorrow I’m going to work at our Drury branch where the engineering department is so I’ll use the drop saw to knock 3” off the axle tube, and then work out how I’ll press it back in so i can weld it up, then I’ll be one short axle and spring seats away from a shortened super strong rear. feel free to discuss here

Very cool, looking forwards to watching this build!!

Rear 1/4 panels have arrived, shipping and GST was $950, which is more than I expected, to be fair I had nothing to base my expectations on so not a surprise haha. sat one of the panels on the car, they look good and the lines seem to line up good so I’m happy. the side marker lamp hole at the back of the guard is different because these are technically earlier year Dodge Dart panels, not that it matters as they will be getting filled in anyway,

Well rear quarter panels have been ordered and should hopefully be on the way to my shipper in the next week or so. ended up going for Goodmark panels through getallparts.com after a recommendation from an American mopar site I’m on (FABO) so far they have set me back about 790 NZD shipped to my shipper in California, so once he charges me the GST and freight, I think I’ll still be pretty happy with what they cost me.