Restoring 1970's California T-bucket with Tube Frame

[Flatsman]

Just a quick update. I bled the brakes and I am real happy with the feel of the pedal. Under heavy pressure, I felt the pedal going down slowly and discovered the O ring in the adjustable Proprotioning valve was leaking. I will try to find a new O ring but I am sure that I will end up putting a new valve in. I started making the paterns for the Aluminum floor today and will get some pictures of that soon. My 9776 Holleys arrived today and they are much cleaner than I expected. I have a feeling that they would run right now but I will still go through them. Each carb has the 34 cc squirters. More later......

 

[Flatsman]

Just a quick update on my brakes. I took the proportion valve apart and the o-ring came out in two pieces. Rather than messing around with the search for that part, I put in a new Wilwood adjustable and retightened the fittings and bled the brakes again. The pedal only moves about an inch and is hard as a rock. No leaks either! I have made the pattern for the floor and modified it to make it fit better than the 3/4 inch plywood floor that was in the car. Here, I am departing from the period and I am putting an aluminum floor into the car. I will put up some more pictures when I have something worthy.

 

[Flatsman]

I forgot to mention this great little self brake bleeder that I found. One man operation and it does a beautiful job. The bleeder lines are clear and you can see the fluid flow clearly and it goes into a catch bottle that has a magnet that sticks to your rotor or backing plate. Cost is $10 and change! Hopefully this link will work for you.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...bleeder-kit/_/N-26qw?itemIdentifier=46839_0_0_

 

[Flatsman]

I reinstalled to body today inorder to make patterns for the aluminum floor. The body has been channeled and the floor has to come out before I can lift the body off the frame and likewise the body has to be installed inorder to check the fit of the floor.

The floor pattern has to be in two pieces in order to come out of the car. I am planning to go buy the aluminum tomorrow.

 

[sstock]

Fred, seems like I've had mine on and off many times for fit work too, takes all the guestimating out of it. Looks like she is coming along nicely.

 

[Flatsman]

I have been gone a lot lately but I have finished the new Aluminum Floor in the T-bucket. I like it a lot better than the 3/4 inch plywood that came out of the car. I will be using a Lokar Cable Shifter but haven't laid that pattern out yet.

I went ahead and boxed in the seat and I like the look. Right now I am just setting up everything with out the Body or bed being on. I am also "engineering" everything so that it comes apart easy. I installed the fuel tank this afternoon but didn't get a picture of that. The fuel pump, filter, and fuel lines are in and run all the way forward to the firewall. It is my intent to basically be able to start it like this before the body and every thing else goes back on.
That is the latest and I will get a picture of it with the gas tank in place tomorrow.

 

[putz]

Looks great summer us almost here.

 

[Flatsman]

Looks great summer us almost here.

It has been Summer down here for a long time. 90 today and we are having a strong summer thunderstorm right now! If you drive a T down here in the summer, it is a real good idea to check the radar because I didn't build in a drain plug on this one.
I am headed up to Mountain, Wi for the month of July so I am pretty familiar with your weather up there.

 

[Flatsman]

I still have to fabricate the hold down brackets for the tank and the battery.

 

[Flatsman]

I thought I would give an update on my restoration project. It has been so dang hot down here that I have pretty much taken the summer off. Yesterday I did order a new Lokar Cable shifter that will be here next week. I need the shifter so that I can finish mocking up the aluminum floor and know where to cut the holes. I still need to rebuild the 450 Holleys that I got months ago. I will really get rolling on this thing about the middle of October. No pictures this time.

 

[Flatsman]

The backrest upholstery in my T had some holes and tears in it, left over from over 40 years of abuse. The rest of the upholstery is in really good shape so I decided to take this one piece to a friends shop and have him do the job for me. This man is an old school guy and I think he did a fantastic job of helping the restoration along. Originally I was just going to try to replace 4 panels but after we got it torn apart, we decided to replace all the material with new stuff. I took this piece in on Wednesday and picked it up this morning. We even used new buttons and recovered these in the same material. Note the frame work for the interior. There has been a lot of work put into this T back in its day and I am really feeling good about bringing it back to the streets.

 

[sstock]

Fred, he did a great job. Restored back to 1970

 

[ford4ever]

WOW! your friend has some mad skills!! IT TURNED OUT AWESOME.

 

[Flatsman]

Thanks Guys, I will let Joe know that you like his work. I was mocking up the new Lokar cable shifter today so I am getting back into it again. It was a fun day!

 

[Flatsman]

I got the Lokar Cable shifter installed into the aluminum floor pan today. I have the shifter boot for it and that will clean up the look of it. I have to say that I think this is a real quality piece with really good hardware and it is very easy to install. Since my bucket is channeled, and I don't have a tunnel housing, I mounted above the floor to get clearance on the transmission. I did a lot of measuring and ended up puting it about 1/2 inch further from the firewall than I intended and about a 1/2 inch over to the left. I mocked up the gas pedal before the drilling and cutting was done so that I had safe transition from the gas to the brake without having the shifter in the way. While the body was on the car, I predrilled all the firewall holes that I will need so that when I install the aluminum firewall I can drill from the back side and everything will line up properly. As usual, here are a few pictures.

 

[Flatsman]

I picked up the body, tailgate, and dash from the paintshop today. Now I start with the aluminum firewall and inner firewall install and a few more things and then the body will go back on for the last time hopefully. The color is Ford Sonic Blue.

 

[sstock]

Love the Sonic Blue Fred, a good old Gen 2 color
Coming together nicely.

 

[Flatsman]

I got the aluminum firewall fitted and installed today along with the fuel block and coil.

I will be finishing off the inside of the bucket and installing the fuse panel and basic wiring before the body goes back on for the last time. I am installing the grounds that I will need from the frame to the body while the body is off, to make things easier. Here is the last picture of the inside of the firewall. The item on the inside is the gas pedal bracket, minus the pedal.

 

[Johnny]

Enjoying your build. Looks great!

 

[Flatsman]

Time for another update on my project. I was mocking up the new dash and could not live with the old gauges so I bit the bullet and ordered a new set. The dash is not wired yet and I have two more stand-offs to install but you can get the picture. The aluminum is actually standing off the fiberglass by 3/4 of an inch. I wanted to be able to get to all the gauges and ignition and light switches with out having to go through a dash pull.

I also got the gas tank in and held down with straps and the bed and bed cover installed.

I had some adjustments to make the interior fit properly after it was reupholstered. I have also installed the Black carpet and the shift cover so the interior is just about finished. I did move the battery out from the Pickup bed and bought a battery box that bolted under the seat and I like that location much better. This also leaves me a little space in the bed for personal items.