Work on My F8, No. 11

[Jim Price]

Hello to all, especially the King of Obsolete!

Yesterday was a travel day. Did the following:

Stopped by the brake shop to check on their progress in finding the brake parts. My pile of parts has grown significantly! Was advised that they should have all by a week from tomorrow.

Went to the bank to pick up the cash for the engine. Am picking it up today. That's another story! Called a couple of friends who committed to help me and then one cancelled last night and the other this morning! Will have to go it alone!)

Stopped at a steel supply house to check on steel channel to replace the windshield frame. Had sticker shock over the cost of M-35 and M-37 frames! Have found some 3/8" ID by 1" channel and someone to cut the pieces down to a 3/8" by 9/16" at a cost significantly less.

Went grocery shopping after having put it off for a week; too busy on the truck parts!

Today my helper and I assembled several parts to take to the striper and painter: The four shock absorbers (anyone have any experience restoring these?), the steering column and gear box (emptied it of all the oil), the steering connecting rod and steering arm and the brake and clutch pedal assembly.

We did some more strong arm body work on the front bumper supports and the back panels to the bed and added them to the pile to take to the stripper.

Drilled out and tapped the screw holes in the windshield pipe frame. Only managed to twist off 6 when removing the channel frame.

Cleaned some more lug nuts; only 21 more to go (out of 72!).

Went to the tool store and purchased an engine stand; didn't have one and my helper couldn't find his. It's a beauty with 2,000 pounds capacity!

Am off in a few minutes to pick up that channel and then on to pick up the engine. (By the way, Howard, the seller, is from Manchester; nice fellow to do business with!)

Regards,
Jim

[Mike K]

Jim

rusted out windscreen frames is a common problem on these old vehicles . I bought three NOS cab 11 complete windscreens from Bill drew for 15 $ each years ago... I shipped one off to the UK to a friend who also owns a cab 11 C8 . I opted to keep the original glass , but he had it replaced with modern stuff .

Laminated glass windscreens in cars only came into regular use here in the 1970's , before then, the car makers used toughened plate glass , it was cheaper . When I was a kid a big truck passed us and a rock went through the windscreen of the Vanguard , it missed me by a few inches , straight through the toughened glass screen which shattered into thousands of small pieces , the driver couldn't see through the now white crackled screen . Give me laminated anyday .

Mike

[Jim Price]

Mike:

Thanks for the input! How right you are about that old style glass. As for both sides of the windshield glass, they are so badly cracked that thye'll need replacing anyway!

Regards,
Jim

[king of obsolete]

sounds like you had a busy day, any pictures???
it rained all day in the KINGDOM plus my daughter had 5 of her friends over. so it was surf the internet.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

[Jim Price]

Thnigs have been a bit slow over the past two days but for a couple of big events!

Picked up the engine night before last and hauled it home in my ancient Toyota pickup. Found that my seller had painted it a bright red in hopes of selling it to a hot rod builder. Have ordered the correct Ford engine green paint appropriate to 1940. Engine and it's innards look good. Will see if we can get it started! See the picture.

Began work on the engine by removing all the head bolts so that we can polish the valves. Lots of flaked-off rust in the water jackets and began to blow them out with some air from the compressor. Need to be sure we get that residue out before putting it back together!

Am giving some thought to going to a 12-volt system and having an electronic ignition/distributor installed. Will change to a negative ground system but with all the electric components out the only problem we may have is with the some of the original instruments. Any thoughts or comments out there?

Picked up the frame from the painter yesterday. The color looks good! The picture attached shows the color to be a bit lighter than it actually is.

Picked up the square pipe, 1/2" by 1", (not channel as I thought!) night before last and today we cut it to length and I took it over to a machine shop to have it cut to 1/2" OD by 3/8" ID for the windshield frame. It should be ready by the middle of next week.

No work planned for this weekend. It's hot, hot, and humid. Temp reached 105 F today. The garage is open with only a fan to cool us off! Must stop every hour to drink at least a 20 oz. bottle of water.

That's all for now!

Regards,
Jim

[king of obsolete]

the engine colour looks good since i'm colour blind, LOL check between the valve seats for cracking. my dad SiR HENRY rebuilds these engines and he goes through several blocks before he finds a good one to rebuild.

thansk for the updates during the heat. cool evening here in the great white north with the windows open and a nice cool breeze at +19C.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

[cletrac (RIP)]

There's two places that the old flatties usually crack. On some cylinders they'll crack between a water passage and a head bolt. These aren't serious and a bit of sealant on the bolt will usually avoid having any problems arising. The ones that go across the valve seat and into the port are a different matter. They turn an otherwise good engine into a boat anchor.

[king of obsolete]

cletrac, you can lock&stitch these cracks. also SIR HENRY is updating the valves with chevy ones.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

[T Creighton]

[Began work on the engine by removing all the head bolts so that we can polish the valves. Lots of flaked-off rust in the water jackets and began to blow them out with some air from the compressor. Need to be sure we get that residue out before putting it back together!]


You are certainly making speedy progress Jim.

Please keep up the running commentary.

While you are checking out the engine you should consider replacing the 4 expansion plugs (frost plugs) at the bottom of each side water jacket where the oil pan bolts on. They are usually brass but some engines have steel ones that will develop pin holes. While they are out you can give the water jackets a real good cleaning.

Cheers, Terry

[Jim Price]

Terry:
Thanks for the tip about removing the frost plugs. Will be working on the engine on Tuesday and knock them out!

Also, thanks for the kind words about my commentary on the F8 restoration project! It's fun and I hoped that others would enjoy reading about my progress on it.

Regards,
Jim

[Jim Price]

Days 46, 47 and 48 were spent recovering from the previous week's activities. We resumed today and accomplished the following:

Cleaned some more lug nuts. Am down to 6 to go!

Cleaned all 48 head bolts after my helper made the maximum effort and managed to get all of them out without snapping a one!

Began to clean out the the water jackets on the engine and heads and got one side almost cleaned out. Amazing what happens when an engine is allowed to dry out and the rust buildup turns into rust flakes!

Picked up the radiator from the shop. What a thing of beauty! Will post pictures as soon as I get it unloaded from the truck.

Went to the speed shop that specializes in parts for vintage Fords and Chevrolets and picked up a brake line kit, a 4 lb. pressure radiator cap, a can of sealant for the gas tank, a gasket kit for the engine and a book on rebuilding the flathead engine. Unfortunately the front seal for the differential that they had advised had arrived turned out to be the wrong one!
Will need to go back for it as it's already paid for!

Got a call from the chemical stripper that my gas tank is done; will pick it up in the morning.

Regards,
Jim