Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

So far so good. I've been driving the truck daily now for over a week. We've been in a cold snap here this week and she's been starting well. One morning it was about -3F.

Got some mud flaps on order & I want to get them installed soon before the roads get real sloppy/ salty.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Daily driving it! any pics to share? I'd be interested to hear what parts you used to recurve your distributor.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I'll post some pics later.

The parts I used for the dizzy were new bushings for the weights and the crane cams adjustable vacuum kit.

As far as setting it up, I made my own plate to limit the advance to 10* (stock is 20*) on the advance side. The kit comes with a plate to adjust it on the return side which requires resetting the base timing with an adjustment of the limit point. I set the timing can 9 turns out from being turned fully clockwise. Then I installed one medium and one heavy spring from the kit.

Also if your going to do this I recommend to pull the dizzy and clean/ lube it as well as replacing the electronics while its out. This will help to make sure that you get consistent results.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Helped my uncle move his Mustang today. Truck pulled the car well.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I bet it did! Looks great!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Man, that's a tough-looking truck! I love it. Great job!

I have nothing against anyone's projects whatsover--if you love it and make it your own, I am thrilled for you--but personally, my tastes run to old farm rigs, plow trucks, crummies, law-enforcent vehicles, military stuff, etc...

I love seeing a sweet 'bagger and a chromed-up show-truck, but what the thing that always gets me fired up is a truck doing what a truck is meant to do.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks y5mgisi & Oregoon, I appreciate the compliments.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Here's a pic of moving a boat around. It's definatly convient to have a receiver on the front of a truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Back on track with the story, I pulled the heater core and blower housing knowing they needed to be cleaned out and also I wanted to replace the heater core and blower while they were easily accessible. After pulling the blower housing I found some more rust to repair on the firewall.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I also got the cab corners welded in. I had to get a bit creative on holding them in place so I could weld them. A ratchet strap and c-clamped worked out well.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also got the fire walled patched.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Then the new tanks hangers, tanks, and sending units.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Removed the windshield and rear window to find some more rust in the bottom of the windshield channel.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Windshield channel was patched.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Nice work! I'm excited because I see we have 10+ months of updates coming based on the date stamped photos. :-)

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks. I do have a lot more progress to post. I got a lot done on it last year. It's a continual process, I keep finding things to do on it.

A couple of weekends ago I tore down the steering column to replace the wiper and multi function switch. While I was in there I also replaced the turn signal switch as preventative maintenance.

Also installed a stereo over the last couple weeks. So I'll have some pics to post of that.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Looking good! Love the high boy look!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

The truck's been serving me well as a daily driver. It had been getting into the 20's & 30's below over the last few months and she ran well.

Also time to continue the story:

After getting the windshield channel repaired I hung the doors to see how they lined up with the repaired rockers and cab corners.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I was happy with how they turned out and started on painting the firewall.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also, I had chiseled out the dry seam sealer from the cowl and re sealed it. The cowl was painted with the firewall.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Previously I had mentioned adding a stereo around Christmas. I made a board to mount the sub and amp on and got it in behind the seat. There were also 6x9's powered off the amp installed in the original locations behind the seat.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Also got my mud flaps installed around that time. They do a good job of keeping the winter slop off the truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Then it was time to haul some lumber. The truck rides pretty well with 600 + pounds in the bed.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks for the continuation!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

It's been a couple months since I posted about the build. Here's some more....

Once I got the cowl painted, it was time to set the box on the frame. It had been stored upside down so I could paint the under side so the 1st step was to get it vertical.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Then came the fun part, getting back down without damaging the lower bed sides. With some carful use of wood blocks we were able to get it down. I was fortunate to be able to borrow a bobcat to set the bed back on the truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I also found a couple more pics that show what I started with, as far as the rust went on the rockers.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Been a few months since I posted on the build. I've been driving the truck daily for about a year with a bit over 10,000 miles on the rebuild.

I decided to go to an electric choke vs the divorced choke. So I rebuilt the carb that was original to the truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

I also found this pic of the 1st time the bed was put on the truck.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Amazing work. Thank you for sharing.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Looks awesome. Glad you have been racking up the miles.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks!

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Thanks. It's been a fun vehicle. A lot of people like to stop and chat about it in parking lots.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Made a bit more progress on the finishing touches today. Got the new AC components in and charged. Man it's nice having working AC.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Helped a fellow car guy get his new project home today.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Looking tough. How's it tow with the lift and lift springs in the rear?

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Tows pretty good. The trailer is well balanced.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Just did a 300+ mile trip to pick up an engine for another project. The old rig performed well. Forgot to take pics.

With the last few months of driving in warm and cold I I've found the electric choke to be a good improvement over the divorced.

Also noticed once I started using the heater that there was a a lot of air coming from the dash vents with floor selected. Turns out the plastic bracket the connects the vacuum actuator arm to the mode door broke. When the dash vents were selected it would pull the door fine but when floor was selected it wouldn't push the door closed. I was able to find the bracket online. Heater is working good now.

The only other update is the what looks to be the original steering box started leaking. So there's now a rebuilt box installed.

Re: Minnesota Daily Driver
 

Here's an action pic from last winter plowing one of the few snows we got.