Project Street 1.0 (revisited)

[DeanMLFlame]

Holes drilled in the bed...need to cut away some bed support to make room for the nuts...dad grinding away on the cage

here are some the my very first welds...i started yesterday. i probaly should've cleaned up the steel a bit more but hey i was itchin to try..my hand was a bit shakey on the picture...

 

[chrwilkins30]

you'll get better with practice. Good for the first time though.

 

[DeanMLFlame]

yeah the next day...new years i guess...i went out a did some more practice and these welds came out awesome...for a MIG to..you can see and little bit of layered coins in it.

Anyway...not much to report on...Fired the truck up yesterday just to use up any bad fuel in the lines...get some oil flowin'. After a battle with an electrical grimlen..she started right up...let it run for about 10-15 minutes...40-45lbs of oil at idle. Not sure what it was idling at cuz the tach was so jacked up...Stays at 500 rpm then when you rev it, the needle moves backwards!!! temps only hit 190* and was a bit low on coolant...Trans fluid was almost none existent for a while then finally showed up on the dipstick.

So far...the cage has been fully welded, drilled and now painted...it's dark and raining so i have to wait till tomorrow for install...

I also decided to clean up the grille with some sanding and fresh Flat Black!

 

[DeanMLFlame]

Here is the result of bedside strap hook...so they're getting filled. 6 sets of holes totalled, 4 done

Here's an hour or 2 of chemical stripping and 80 grit on a drill disc.

here are some dent that were poorly covered by filler

 

[TheTopher]

What all went into the stripping process? I'm gonna be looking at probably doing that to a tailgate in a few weeks.

 

[DeanMLFlame]

Get some JASCO paint and epoxy remover (good stuff)...i think ACE and Home depot would have it...slather the crap on heavy...(if it's evaporating like lacquer thinner, then you need to go heavier) wait about 3 minutes total...paint should be bubbling up right before your eyes...scrape it into a bucket. There will still be spots that didn't come up, get of 80 grit, put it on a electric palm sander or a drill disc. make it clean...WEAR GLOVES...this stuff burns like hell

 

[DeanMLFlame]

progress so far on bed.

stake holes being filled

1/8" plate with the sides beveled to make it seems like thinner material

Most of the bed is stripped...ran out of stripper

Got a order form filled out for Summit Racing...it's got a fuel level gage, vacuum gage, 2 lighted switches, valve breather, fuel cell tip valve, ect....

 

[DeanMLFlame]

parts came in today, putting those on tomorrow after work and only thing left of the bed to do is fill the fuel door in and shave the "FORD" stamped in the tailgate! I want this truck to be hard to recoginze! then just primer, paint, and get the custom tonneau made!

 

[DeanMLFlame]

Yeah It's Warm!

plans have been changed alittle...the FORD stays on the tailgate and i'm buying a tonneau cover soon... but more progress now that's it's warming up!
Gauge panel i made...This will also be flat black

It will sit here

Primer has gone down

Clean and straight

NO Stake holes

First coat of Flat Black...yes it's wet

Notice no fuel door

Clean tail gate

that's were it's at right now...I got little odds and ends like. re-connect tach signal, move oil pressure line, run fuel level signal wire, mount/wire gauge panel and shifter cable adjustments. before a possible trip around the block...we might have a screwed trans so i can only hope...

 

[RangerFabWorks]

did you end up putting the flowmasters in?

 

[DeanMLFlame]

i still have the glasspack at the moment...flowmasters(maybe) will be a ways away...Plan is to get diffenent heads(raise compression)...then build my own headers, 1 5/8" primary and 3" collectors,build a new trans x-member so just simple bends and dump under the cab. I'm leaning to more of a race truck you can take to work so volume is no problem

 

[DeanMLFlame]

Herculiner went on an hour ago...Really messy and very noxious for a while...then i decided to open the garage door...it really helps
After work i'll do the tailgate, final touch ups and try to fix the paint...not very even.

 

[94xlt4.0]

the truck looks awesome, its come a very long way. keep up the great work and i look forward to seeing more

 

[nuclassic]

forgive me for being an ass, if I am and missed it in an earlier post but what's with the hole in your bed? Since this is a race truck is it for NOS or a second battery or are you planning on dropping it?

 

[DeanMLFlame]

*nuclassic*...no worries if you would come across as an ass...i do all the time! but the hole is for the fuel cell which has the 2" sump.

After work i did the tailgate done...did touch paint on one side of the bed....looks beautiful for only using a Central Neumatic mini gun