It actually doesn't look all that much different than it did two weeks ago, but there has actually been a lot of work done. There were a lot of things just mocked up before, that are actually installed now.
Here's a shot of the picture window in the garage on Christmas eve morning. That was a cold night! I parked my snow covered F150 inside which melted off and really got the humidity up. I figured it looked kinda pretty.
First plan of attack was to get the rear brakes finished up completely. First step was to run the e-brake cables, and then I could install the brakes. I've done a lot of drum brakes before, but this was the first time using all new parts. Almost seemed like a shame to cover up all the shiny multicolored bits with drums.
Then I ran the hydraulic lines for the brakes. Like everything else in this project it seems, the stock ones did not fit. The traction bars totally got in the way. I was able to bend up some lines though... just killed time.
Next I did the throttle cable and pedal. And mounted the valve cover breather.
And made an aluminum plate to mount the MSD box.
While into fabbing aluminum, I made the surround for the shifter, and mounted the shifter boot. This also took way longer than I expected. You can see the throttle pedal here as well.
And then... I took the cab off again. I pulled off the intake manifold to replace the gaskets, since I needed to use gaskets with larger ports tp match the heads and intake. I also primed the oil pump, running it up to about 45psi oil pressure on the gauge. I figured I should turn the motor over by hand while oiling, just to make sure it oils all the way around the journals. So, I pulled out the plugs to find that the domed pistons interfere heavily with the spark plugs. I guess I'll need to run short reach plugs.
Water temp sender was easy to mount, it actually came with all the adapters I needed.
Oil pressure sender was a PITA. Spend about a day finding all the little fittings, elbows and adapters I needed to get this thing mounted. I finally settled on 1/4NPT brass union, 1/4NPT 45 degree elbow, which I had to massage to clear the block to install, then a 1/8NPT adapter and short pipe into the sender.