Friday, March 16, 2007  -  It was a slow day at work today, so I took a vacation day in order to spend some time in the shop working on the choptop. When I started this project, I had a springtime deadline to have it finished, but as all things go, I'm running a little behind. I just haven't been able to spend as much time working on it as I'd like, and Spring hits us officially next week, so I really need to get cranking on this project. Let me catch you up on a few things that's happened since my last update.

I got to spend about 4 hours on this project last Friday after work, when I got the engine/tranny transferred over to the choptop (but not bolted down yet) (Fig. 01). Then last Tuesday evening I got the small-block's engine perches removed from the donor chassis and bolted into the choptop chassis and got the motor/tranny completely bolted in solid. Then I got the radiator support and inner fenderwells mounted (Fig. 02). I was originally planning on using the front fenders that came with the truck, but after thoroughly checking them out and finding them full of body filler, I dug out the spare pair I had that are almost perfect, with just a couple very minor door dings and one 1/2" rust hole to repair. I got both of them stripped down to bare metal front and back, so they're ready for the minor work necessary.

I then got started stripping down the steel '68 grille that came with the truck when I bought it. It was a little wavy in spots, and the previous owner had done some repair welding on it. At first I was just going to straighten it out a little better and use it, but after giving it some thought, I've decided to instead use the perfectly-straight rust-free steel '67 grille, the one that I was planning on using on the '67. (I've got a straight '67 aluminum grille that will now be used on that project.)

So I spent this morning (Friday) stripping the '67 grille down to bare metal, and then sanded it smooth, gave it several coats of Rustoleum gray primer (Fig. 03), and then several coats of Krylon Semi-Flat black (Fig. 04). It wasn't until I was completely done before it dawned on me that I'd completely forgotten to strip and sand the headlight doors. However, since the paint was drying on the grille, I didn't want to created any dust that might settle on it, so I'll do that in a few days.

Fig. 01 - On Tuesday evening after work I got the engine set into the choptop chassis, but not bolted down yet.

Fig. 02 - On Friday I got the engine and tranny mounted and the radiator support and inner fenders bolted in.

Fig. 03 - A shot the '67 grille after stripping, sanding and adding several coats of primer.

Fig. 04 - A view of the finished grille

I was then going to mount the steering box. At first I was just going to use the box from the '72 donor chassis...which, interestingly enough, already had a '79 steering box on it. When I went to pop the Pitman arm loose from the steering linkage, I had to jerk the wheels a little to the side to give me adequate clearance for the removal tool. When I did, there was a very sudden shot of fluid that hit me right upside the head and into my right ear! When I was cleaning myself up, I noticed that not only was the fluid brown and burnt-smelling, but it also smelled more like hydraulic fluid than power steering (or Type F transmission fluid), so since I didn't want to have any problems down the road, I decided to just use another box from inventory. However, it needed to be hit with the power washer, and since it was too chilly outside to to it today, I just set it aside until a warmer day.

Fig. 05 - The rear spring's front perch.

I'm also planning on using the 9" rearend and the front suspension from the donor truck. I decided to start on the rearend. (The donor truck's rearend has the rear brakes and e-brake cables, which the choptop's rearend was missing). Knowing I would be removing it, the last few times I've been at the shop I've hit the U-bolt nuts with PB Blaster to give it time to soak in and make removing them a little easier. It worked too...I was able to run them all the way out very easily. I got the rearend out from under the donor chassis and then headed back inside to drop the rearend from the choptop...only to find that the previous owner wasn't really paying attention when he relocated the front spring perch. He simply cut the rivets on the perch, slid it up a few inches and welded it onto the frame...but he didn't flip the spring bolt around first! With the head of the bolt now up against the frame, there was no way of removing it (Fig. 05). At first I was thinking I'd have to cut the perches back off the frame in order to remove the bolt, but then found that I could get a cutoff wheel between the spring bushing and the perch, which allowed me to cut the head off the bolt and pull it out.

I then got the donor truck's rearend inside the shop and slid under the truck. It was then that I really noticed that although the donor truck's rearend was complete, the housing was very rusted and pitted, and would never clean up and look good. Therefore, I decided to just gut this rearend and put all it's components into a good rust-free housing. But then I got to thinking about the front perch for the rear springs. First of all, I was planning on doing this anyway...however, the previous owner didn't really move them up far enough. They really should have been moved up several more inches. Granted, the rearend's pinion angle would've been off more than it is now, but if you're gonna do it, then do it right. Therefore, I've decided to cut the front spring perches off the donor frame and weld them onto the choptop's frame, but raising them up several more inches, for more of a drop. Along the lines of "doing it right", rather than simply using some angled shims to correct the pinion angle I decided that I really should just cut the springs' mounting pads off the housing and re-weld them to the housing in the needed position.

OK...well, that means I need to get the springs ready to bolt on. Since I'm also planning on using some lowering shackles in the back, and since the lowering shackles won't work with the Flex-o-Matic spring setup that both the choptop and donor truck had, that meant I had to improvise. The only standard spring setup I had was from a '67 F250 Camper Special (Fig. 06). This spring pack has seven leafs, in addition to the thick bottom overload spring. Since this would obviously be WAY too much for the choptop, I could eliminate some of the leaves. So I got started disassembling the first pack (Fig. 07).

After studying things carefully, I've decided to eliminate 5 of the 8, leaving me three. While you might think this wouldn't be enough, keep in mind that the F250 spring leaves are substantially thicker than the F100 leaves (Fig. 08), so I'm thinking that three of these thicker F250 leaves will be roughly equal to 4 or 5 of the F100 leaves, which is how many an F100 normally has. Using Fig. 07 as a guide, you can see that leaf #1 has the pigtails, so obviously that one has to be used, and leaves #3 and #7 have the riveted-in spring clamps, one on each end respectively, so those will be the other two I'll use. I'm going to begin by installing just these three and see how it goes. I can always replace another one down the road if it looks like I'll need to. I considered leaving the #6 leaf in too, but it's really no longer than the #7, so we'll just see how it goes.

So...I went to bolt the three leaves back together, when I noticed that the center leaf-spring bolt which attaches everything together was now too long, and wasn't threaded down far enough. No problem, I thought...I'll just grab the bolts from the Flex-o-Matic setup I just discarded from the choptop's springs. Whoops...they're all rusted up. No problem, I thought, I'll just grab the pair from the donor truck's springs. Whoops, those are ALSO rusted out and unusable. Hmmm...no problem, I thought, I'll just rethread the existing Camper Special bolts. Well, either it's some REALLY hard steel, or my 3/8" fine-thread die was already messed up, 'cause the die barely scratched the surface of the bolt, and when I looked at the die, the cutting threads were half gone. (Of course, I only have a cheap tap-and-die set, so it might be a combination of the two possibilities.) Either way, I'm going to either get a pair of shorter bolts or get another die. However, by this time all the parts stores were closed, so that task will have to wait for another day. However, as I was getting ready to go home I ran across another 5-leaf Flex-o-Matic setup in the attic I'd forgotten about with good bolts, but I ran out of time this evening before I was able to get them removed...and they might not be threaded down far enough either anyway...we'll see.