Re: 1951 Ford boooosted pickup

Keep the pix coming , you gotta love those old trucks

 

Re: 1951 Ford boooosted pickup

The pics would come quicker if I had my Mustang sold!! Im low on funds until then , did get some drop springs for the rear ordered

 

Re: 1951 Ford boooosted pickup

ok, so the Mustang finally sold last night Now its time to get working on the truck.

Last couple weeks I have gotten the suspension completely off the truck and found some other little things that need fixed too. Ive done more smoothing on the frame and have started buying new parts. Should have some more pics and updates in the next couple of months!

 

Re: 1951 Ford boooosted pickup

That is awesome, that guy is hillarious. By the way the guys on the HAMB like doing something similar except they use Vinegar. I'd look that one up too. The Molasses has to smell better though

ED:

In retrospect I had forgotten all about this:

http://www.chip.com/buick/techtips/rustremoval.html

The electrical way to remove rust is easy, the only thing I will say about it is BE SURE THE POLARITY IS RIGHT. I used to use this technique to make hydrogen and if you had the poles wrong I could honestly see the part going bye bye in a few hours.

 

Re: 1951 Ford boooosted pickup

ok, ive been lazy on updates but the truck is coming along nicely. working on getting some pics up by tonight, but ill give you a quick update to get yer interest peaked.

i found a good deal on some rims. 17" budnik famosas, 8" in the front and 9.5" for the rear. i got the entire set for $800, so not really cheap but im running a 6lug chevy suspension so used rims dont come up often. and they do look kinda retro. they might get powerdercoated black, more on that later on.

i also changed my motor. gone is the idea of a boosted 351....i know, its the turbo forums and im not running boost. the awesomeness of this motor should make up for the lack of boost. i found a 460ford in the local junkyard, and it still had the crosshatch in the cylinder walls and the bearings looked new. so ok, that nice. i built a set of headers for it and for my first set they turned out badass imo. ok, the best part is i found a dual quad intake on ebay, WITH two holley 500 carbs and a cobra air cleaner. it looks so badass i alomost passed out when i first set it on the motor!! and its not a blue thunder intake either, ive seen those before...this one is old.

so...im really pumped right now about the truck. ive got the color scheme finalized and found a good deal on some used leather seats and im working on getting them mounted right now. like i said, pics will be up by tonight!

 

ok heres some pics.

once i got the motor positioned in the frame, i mounted the cab and made the headers. theyre 1.87 inch tubes with 3" collectors, so it should rumble with the 460. this was the first set of headers ive made from scratch, turned out ok i think.

started with....
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ended up with this...
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so after that i moved onto the floorboards. i bought the fronts and just patched the rears and made a new trans tunnel for the c-6. i started looking at that ugly firewall and thought about welding and grinding all those dumb holes and just decided to make everything easier, and made a new firewall from some 16ga sheet

heres what i started with on the floors


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also started cleaning up the dash. the glovebox didnt shut right and there was an ashtray in there and it just wasnt working for me. so i welded them all shut and made a few peices to smooth everything out and its not bad. im not overly excited about it, but...i dont have an english wheel so my options are limited for this. ill go with it for now.

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fuel tank mounted. its a 15 gal with gm sending unit. i used hinges on the underside straps that bolt to the frames crossbrace in front of the tank.

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Leather seats out of an eddie bauer explorer, full power. $75 for the set and the console from craigslist. steering column is an 80's GM tilt floor shift

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heres hope my steering shaft worked out, i made the support bearing myself with an old sector shaft bearing from a saginaw box and a peice of flat stock. getting the headers around this was a challenge but worked

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so everything was going along fine until i saw this setup on ebay and i had to have it. set me back $650 but well worth it to me. it looks killer in the truck, you dont see many 460bbfords with this intake setup. with the headers, induction, bright red paint and a nice lopey cam the motor should get some attention

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so right now ive got some finish welding on the drivers side header, then i can mount up the front fenders and grill and make mounts brackets for all that. get the radiator mounted and find a place to set the battery and start patching the front fenders.

i also got tired of looking at all the repairs that needed to be made on the box that came with the truck, so i found a 79' box and fenders that has two silver dollar sized holes in the tailgate. ill make the fender edges of this box more similar to the 51 style fenders so it doesnt look out of place.

for color combo im set on a seafoam green kinda old looking color, with the tan interior and a red engine with chrome accents. i may leave the rims polished but am thinking about powdercoating the centers black. well see how i feel when i put them on after the truck is painted.

i tore apart the rear last night, its got a 3.73 gear open diff. ill buy a posi and stick the old gears in for now. i may want to go to a 3.55 for better highway cruising

im actually ahead of my planned schedule, might have it running by late summer 2012, at least running and driving, probably wont have the paint done yet. but at least get some road miles in before winter.

enough computer, time to

 

did a good job on them headers

 

so ive been getting some work done as i can on the truck, heres some shots of my rust/hole repairs. im not real good at this but itll cover with some filler

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rust in the cab corners, got to try out my new shrinker/stretchers from eastwood...works nice
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also working on the diff, got my eaton posi installed with the 3.73 gears
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so i got some cheap tires from ebay, just to try out some different sizing before i ordered up the nice new stuff. ive got 275/65's in the back on a 9.5 rim and then 235/55 up front on an 8"rim. theres no suspension actually on yet, just got them set up where they will be, but i really like em. i was unsure how theyd looked on the old truck at first but im happy. you can also see the running boards, got them on craiglist for $200. they got some rust in the top so ill probably smooth the entire top of them, not sure yet. and no, thats not how the radiator will mount, i just havent gotten my support rods fabbed yet...im going hoodless!

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now i need to finish the rearend, get it mounted to the frame and put the bed on to see how it fits. remember the bed is a '79 stepside, so well see how it works, later!

 

So Ive been working on the truck fairly hard. I got the suspension front and rear mocked back up, and realized that the combination of the mid 60's chevy frame and the 4.5" backspace rims equals tires that stick out of the fender wells

So I had to do some cut and paste on the front fenders, and then i made ne wheelwell openings to resemble the '79 rear fenders. after some hammer and dolley/ fiberglass filler it turned out ok. custom body work is definately an art, and im not quite there yet


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Wheelwells...

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I also worked on smoothing the running boards and fitting them to the wider front fenders and the '79 rear fenders. and since the track of the truck is now 3" wider front and back, the running boards wanted to hit the cab underneath the doors. so i had to cut some notches for clearance.

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I decided to do some caddillac tailights frenched into the rear fenders....i know, some people hate it, some are ok with it. I love it, ive always liked the styling of those taillights so the haters can suck it :raz:


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I pulled the old truck outside in the sun to check out my progress and set the hood on there. didnt care for the pelican-ish look of the hood. stuck up way to high and looked clumbsy...

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So i went at it with the cutoff wheel too. took four inches out the the front height and just tapered it down. the original 'ford' trim that goes on the nostrils still fits so itll work. ill need to redo the transition between the hood and cab but thats no big deal. it looks better this way imo

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Some more welding, grinding, and fiberglass and itll suffice. im also going with a centered exhaust outlet, and i made a rolled pan for the back. i still havent decided on dual 4" round pipes or maybe a custom dual inlet single outlet tip that fits the shape of the cutout int eh roll pan. and then have it chromed, that would be the more difficult options but maybe the best?


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So thats where she sits right now. im thinking about selling that dual quad intake/dual holley450/cobra air cleaner combo and going back to forced induction. im looking for a centri charger and going blow thru, but that may change. if i can find a charger for the right price ill go that direction and sell the dual quad. more later

 

Nice body work!