"The devil's in the details!" somebody once said; this certainly can be applied to the restoration process of a vehicle!
The past two days we've been following up on a number of these:
Picked up all the new brake parts, imcluding the drums with a newly-machined brake shoe surface on them from the brake shop. A couple of the drums had already been turned in the past and could not be fully turned to remove all the pitting.
Began cleaning all of the original brake parts which had been deemed early on to be reusable and took an inventory to be sure we had everything needed to install the hydraulic system. (The emergency brake cable will be next on the list of to-dos.)
Picked up the gas tank from the chemical dipper yesterday and today we gave it a preliminary washing with water. Tomorrow we'll use some MEK to clean it some more and rid it of any water. We then plan on pouring the sealant in it and giving the interior a good sloshing! (sp?) Then it's on the painter for a coat of paint!
Stopped by a gas tank fabricator to get an estimate on making a second tank (only one arrived with the truck!); the estimate was from $400 to $500 USD so shed a tear and wrote that one off the list!
Dropped off the engine heads, intake and exhaust manifolds, and some more major engine parts at the stripper for cleaning. Hope to get them back either tomorrow or Monday for repainting by ourselves.
Sent a helper over to a local auto supply store to pick up engine oil, anti-freeze, brake fluid, cleaning rags, and enough other stuff to start my own branch of that store!
Also picked up some engine flush to clean out any remaining rust from the system. This followed a final thorough probing of the deepest, darkest recesses of the water jacket after which my engine guy opined that we ought to give it a try first before making a decision to have the engine professionally cleaned.
Cleaned off all the red paint off the oil pan that had been added just previous to my purchasing the engine. Will give it a coat of Ford engine green paint tomorrow.
Checked on the status of the springs. All springs and shackles are ready but a set of the front rear mounts are being repaired/fabricated as well as some of the pins and bushings. Hopefully all will be ready by early next week. As it stands now, not having these will be preventing us from doing much of anything more to either the brake sysem or installing the engine for a test run. (Don't have an engine test stand.
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Has been over 110 F the past two days so quit work at 2:30 PM today.
Regards,
Jim