Pat’s Truck, back to the Turbo, see post 497

[Higgybulin]

Nice bike!!! Truck sounds great too!!!

[Pat Landymore]

Just posted my final price drop. Please see FFR Classifieds.

[Pat Landymore]

Although I’ve had a few inquiries from people about my truck ( and thanks to those who did) the work continues on ‘35.

Got thoroughly disgusted with trial fitting the new door, then started rushing and getting sloppy with my cuts. I stopped before permanently damaging something and dug into the cab seams instead.

Will sand, fill and prime everything reasonably accessible without removing the front fenders and running boards. If no one comes to bat by that time I’ll pull the for sale ad for a while, paint the cab and re list later.

Work stops this weekend as a buddy is bringing his 1979 (1980?) Malibu over for an engine swap. We’re removing the 355 engine he built 30+ years and two hot rods ago; now installing a fully rollerized 383. It should move well afterwards 😁!

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[Pat Landymore]

A quick video of 35 starting up all wrapped in plastic. My buddy wanted me to show his 22 year old son what a real hot Rod sounded like.

Ok...

How could I say no??!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FGbzZ48J2Jg

Apologies for the sideways video...that was my pal, not me. ��

[Pat Landymore]

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My buddy had to head home and do some stuff with his wife. Meanwhile I got busy for a couple of hours on his Malibu and got the front dress assy., ignition and carburetor removed form his engine. The morning’s work should go quickly...I hope. As we all know...it’s the unknown unknowns that bite us where it hurts!
LOL 😂

[Pat Landymore]

Well so far my words about ‘unknown unknowns’ have been entirely prophetic.

I learned through the process of swapping my buddies engine that a Vortec block and heads small block Chevy is NOT a one weekend bolt in to where a legacy small block used to live. I say so far as today is day 4...and his car still not finished and taking up my garage so I can’t work on ‘35.

Some of the major differences between legacy and Vortec small block Chevys:

-the water pump flow path is different. There is not a bypass hole on passenger side of block for t-stat bypass. We accomplished bypass by drilling the thermostat.

-an aftermarket roller cam requires a different distributor gear.

-as the intake manifold bolts up differently we now need to fabricate an adapter for the kick down linkage for his TH350 transmission

-dipstick tube is a different diameter

-the valve covers to clear the roller rockers are too tall on passenger side and interfere with the heater box. I will do surgery on that this morning.

-the Vortec block has a fuel pump boss for a mechanical pump, but when one looks closely it is neither machined for the pushrod nor the drain back hole. So, we had to convert the car to an electric pump.

-and on a happy note, in a similar state of dress his Vortec weighs 429lbs vs his legacy at 465.

Hopefully we’ll have it running by Saturday evening and I can get my garage back.

The whole purpose of this post is to outline that what looked like a two day SBC to SBC swap has turned into a week long ordeal. It’s not just building our beautiful FFR pickups where something that ‘should’ be simple completely skunks us and takes 3x as long as planned...

Happy hot rodding everyone! 😁👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

...adding to the above list of differences between legacy and Vortec SBC’s

-a difference in exhaust port height/bolt hole location.

The headers that used to fit just fine in my friends car required a serious visit from Mr. Sawzall on both sides of the vehicle so they can fit again. Huh??? 🤨

Same engine mounts, bolts...everything. I did some internet research and found out that some casting #s have a slightly different port and/or bolt hole location.

The adventure continues today....hopefully to have it out of my garage by late tomorrow.

[Pat Landymore]

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[Pat Landymore]

Yesterday’s work included minor modifications to his power steering pump mounting as that no longer fit as it did before. Sigh.

My buddy will be driving down here today...so I’m quite confident that with two of us working the car will be running and out this afternoon so I can resume sanding and filling on the cab of ‘35 tomorrow.

This evening is a night off for me...I’ll be watching Cleetus McFarland and his Freedom 500 online pay per view. 20 nitrous equipped Crown Vic ex police cars all racing on a 5/8 mile track. It should be epic!!

Yahoo!
👍🏼😁

[Robodent]

That’s nice you have crown Vic race to look forward to tonight
Enjoy the race !!! Tomorrow’s a new day . Rob

[ztoolman44]

Yesterday’s work included minor modifications to his power steering pump mounting as that no longer fit as it did before. Sigh.

My buddy will be driving down here today...so I’m quite confident that with two of us working the car will be running and out this afternoon so I can resume sanding and filling on the cab of ‘35 tomorrow.

This evening is a night off for me...I’ll be watching Cleetus McFarland and his Freedom 500 online pay per view. 20 nitrous equipped Crown Vic ex police cars all racing on a 5/8 mile track. It should be epic!!

Yahoo!
������

small block swap- should be simple. LOL I didn't realize there were so many differences between the generations. Sounds like you are almost there. Enjoy your night off, I'll be watching the race on the various YouTube channels after the fact. Vice Grip Garage did a nice recap last year.

[Pat Landymore]

Thanks for the support guys!

Yes I’ll watch the VGG recap later as well...Derek’s dry humour is awesome!!

[Pat Landymore]

Well, as of 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon I have the garage back.

And my friends Malibu runs great too....fired right up first turn of the key.

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https://youtu.be/F6QlFygc2qI

https://youtu.be/u8QoQgCFVq4

So, back to work on 35 for me today. 👍🏼👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

‘35 in full Bad Truck mode! 😂


https://youtu.be/a8wqZ6qASl0

https://youtu.be/9BBOnunC-Vo

[Pat Landymore]

For those of you who have been following my build thread, you know I’ve struggled greatly with the fit of the passenger side door. What some of you don’t know is that after some back and forth with Tony...he agreed something was messed up and sent me a new door. (I paid shipping and customs to Canada...so by no means was it free).

I’ve struggled off and in for weeks about cutting and fitting a new door that didn’t look all that much better than the one I already have and transferring all the guts from my previous door. Every time I thought about the process it made me angry...and today that boiled over.


I thought what the heck!?? If this was a steel bodied truck I was rat rodding or resto rodding ...it would very possible I might need to skin and then re-skin a door or two. See where I’m going? Ha 😁

So off came the door, some eyeball measurements were made and I took out my frustrations on the door with my body saw.

The first photo is an old ‘before’, actually it got worse over the months.

The rest of the photos are cutting and afterwards. It’s a simple matter to epoxy and glass the door back together and only those who have read this will ever even notice.

It looks to me like I may have won this round!

I’m certain many will disagree with my methods but to me that is what hot rodding is all about...try, win, or lose, learn and finally win the battle.

Thanks for reading a long post...
Cheers 🍻
Pat

[Pat Landymore]

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[Pat Landymore]

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[Robodent]

Nice job !! It’s all down hill from there.

[Pat Landymore]

Thanks!!

You have to know...I kinda love it when my out of the box/radical solutions actually work out!!

Haha 😂

[Pat Landymore]

So today I decided to pull the same stunt with my drivers side door.

Here’s how much I took out of it... Won’t be able to post up ‘after’ photos till tomorrow when the glue has set. Once verified I’ll double up inside the door with a layer of woven mat.
Drivers side cut in the left...passenger side on the right. I made a few more sawblade width cuts on the passenger side so what you see isn’t everything I took out...

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And here is the drivers door glued up and curing. The excess is easily removed.

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[Pat Landymore]

And being honest...I’m still considering if...and where to place a few cuts in the cab to improve access to the door adjustments. I seriously dislike the way they are now.

One possibility is to weld a nut on the opposite side of the door hinges that are currently tapped and then make an easy access point?

This will be decided soon. I mean really!!?? Who the heck is going to ‘call me out’ if I do it, over a small metal patch panel or body plug generally hidden inside the door jamb?

To reinforce my point, I believe it’s a 1957-1962 Ford pickup door...look towards the front of the door and you’ll see two small panels to access hinge adjustment. I know because we had a ‘59 on our farm they are held on with a Phillips screw from the front.

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My thinking...if it’s good enough for Henry it’s good enough for me.

[VIRGIN MIKE]

Hey Pat, in re-wrestling my door I discovered I can access (almost) all the hinge adjustments from outside, with door closed (clamped) in place - seem obvious now but it just didn't occur to me before (and I have very short arms) - I was able to get the bottom rear corner tucked-in by torquing door and loosening and retightening crash bar and latch bolts - had to go back and forth between the two a few times but each cycle gained a bit of ground. and I can't over stress how much the rod going through both hinges helped (keeping the hinges pivoting
on the same axis)

[Pat Landymore]

Thanks Mike.

I’d already posted the idea of all thread rod through the hinges back on 01-28-2020, so definitely I’ve tried it. Because my truck was driven last summer, I have a windshield in there, the dash etc. Perhaps would have been better off fitting the doors prior but I wanted to be driving the darned thing.

My right hand doesn’t work as accurately and finely as it used to since my stroke, so fiddly assed things really get me aggravated.

I will try adjusting again before I drill or cut the body, but I’m not going to waste much time at it.

You have to understand, I had quite a decent fit on the pass side except for the rear bottom corner. That stuck out between 3/4 and 1”. There is no way I could have tweaked myself out of that one.

The other thing is I don’t want my truck to have things with the door stretched like a banjo string about to bust. It seems almost certain that driving her in -20 or +90 F temperatures will make things go sideways with a solution like that.

I’ll take my body saw solution ten times out of ten. Just wish I’d thought of it in December last year...likely would have saved myself at least a hundred or more hours of grief....

Anyways the doors are temporarily back on the truck and hopefully my fibreglass resin will set. It’s only a year old...hoping the catalyst is still ok. It seems a little slow but it’s only around 36 Farenheit here today. Ha!
Cheers 🍻😊
Pat

[Pat Landymore]

Here are some ‘after’ photos.

No twisting of the beam in high tension, Wile E Coyote - Acme - fashion. And no messing around with 100 interactive adjustments...just nice and simple.....slice, glue, fibreglass and voila!

If I feel like it (which I don’t!) whatever adjustment is required to get the doors more perfect actually looks to me within the realm of “adjustment”...not surgery.


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Here’s how it looked in progress:

Wax paper so I didn’t accidentally ‘glass the doors to the cab...

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Here’s me trying to get the fibreglass to kick off using my $3.00 Salvation Army Thrift store hair dryer:

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Please, no one ask me my real opinion of these doors for a few days!! LOL 😂 😂 🍻

[Pat Landymore]

I overdid the filler a little bit on my first pass over the cab seams. Mid morning tomorrow that will be rectified and I’ll downshift to glazing putty for much of the rest...I think. My plan is to have a heavy coat of primer on before Saturday morning and take her outside for nice wet sanding...supposedly it will be great out...around 65F. 🌞

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[Pat Landymore]

And another little point I might have very well missed in manual revision 1B I believe...

I didn’t realize I had to center the steering column itself prior to centering it relative to the rack and truck.

What I mean by that is if you don’t, because I didn’t, you can have the steering wheel centered (spokes level) and the truck driving straight but your signal lights don’t cancel like they should.

Doh! 😖😜.....only 7 or 8 months later do I realize this.

My solution will be to pull the steering column up onto the drivers seat so it’s clear of the uppermost U joint, roll the rack a half turn to the right and bolt everything back up again. Currently that appears to be the ‘least pain in the @$$’ way of sorting this out.

I feel dumb about this one...... Sigh 😞

[Pat Landymore]

So folks, I have a confession to make. All along my intent was to build this truck ENTIRELY on my own. I don’t count services like the engine shop boring the block or the custom (much longer actually) driveshaft dictated by my choice of engine and trans.

Even the cab I dropped on solo...two toques to protect my head while I balanced it there...and then climbed up on the frame and walked it into place.

Everything except the windshield installation has been done by me. And that made me happy.

But the body seams and sanding of the cab has me flummoxed. I’m struggling...a lot...and today I decided to give in and called a local ‘mobile body man’ to come in to quote me for him finishing the cab/doors to the point of priming, also to quote on him priming/painting them.

All the rest of the truck ( really simple work though) I’ve already primed/painted myself.

Kind of feels like I’m letting my old self down on his former vision of the project...but at the same time to warp sped ahead and be ‘DONE’ feels like a blessing. Time will tell what the answer is....

Happy Friday everyone! 😊👍🏼

[Robodent]

Pat, don’t get down on yourself! Doing body work is a fine art for sure. Knowing how much material to put on and when to change sand paper grit is the key and how to use a block. It’s ok to call in some help your doing great on your build . Rob

[Pat Landymore]

Thank you!!
😊👍🏼

[FF33rod]

So folks, I have a confession to make. All along my intent was to build this truck ENTIRELY on my own. I don’t count services like the engine shop boring the block or the custom (much longer actually) driveshaft dictated by my choice of engine and trans.

Even the cab I dropped on solo...two toques to protect my head while I balanced it there...and then climbed up on the frame and walked it into place.

Everything except the windshield installation has been done by me. And that made me happy.

But the body seams and sanding of the cab has me flummoxed. I’m struggling...a lot...and today I decided to give in and called a local ‘mobile body man’ to come in to quote me for him finishing the cab/doors to the point of priming, also to quote on him priming/painting them.

All the rest of the truck ( really simple work though) I’ve already primed/painted myself.

Kind of feels like I’m letting my old self down on his former vision of the project...but at the same time to warp sped ahead and be ‘DONE’ feels like a blessing. Time will tell what the answer is....

Happy Friday everyone! ������

I know how you feel. Building a hot rod out here in Vancouver and I never intended to do the final body work and paint myself. However, I've had similar feeling as yourself during the last number of weeks as the shop has gone through blocking, priming and such. I can't explain it but thoughts of "I should have tried more" and "why wasn't my filling of the mould lines good enough" flood my head from time to time. oh Well. Eye on the the end game! it's going to look amazing....

[Pat Landymore]

FF33rod:
Thanks very much for your words of support.
I’m certain yours is going to look awesome too! 👍🏼👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

Yesterday afternoon I engaged the services of a mobile body work guy. He will start tomorrow morning.

Will post up progress photos at the end of each day this week he is available to work on my ‘35.

Meanwhile...yesterday was brilliant sun, blue sky and around 70 F...today is a totally different matter...,


The day after tomorrow it will be somewhere in between.... Spring on the East side of the Rockies! Ha 😁

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[RuffShod]

Regardless of who paints it....its the truck that Pat built.

[Pat Landymore]

Regardless of who paints it....its the truck that Pat built.

Great point! That cheered me up quite a bit!
😊👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

Yesterday ‘Eli’ the mobile body man got the cab seams I messed up cleaned up. He is hoping to at least have the cab primed today....potentially the doors also.

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[House Money]

Pat, how exactly did you "mess up the seams" and what did Eli do to correct the situation? I've taken my seams down too far (through the gel-coat) in a few places and I'm not really sure what the fix is.

Thanks, Gary

[Pat Landymore]

Hi Gary,

How I messed up on my seams is that I put WAY too much filler on top of the seams after grinding them below the height of the balance of the cab. I used a fibreglass filled bondo and it took Eli hours to (carefully...by hand...) sand off the excess without going through the gel coat unnecessarily. That glass filled stuff eats sandpaper like crazy.

When he arrives today I’ll ask him what he would do in your situation. Or you could post up a new thread as a question. ?? I’m certain there are lots of bodywork guys on the forum that would be happy to help you out.

[ztoolman44]

[QUOTE=Pat Landymore;452110]Here are some ‘after’ photos.

No twisting of the beam in high tension, Wile E Coyote - Acme - fashion. And no messing around with 100 interactive adjustments...just nice and simple.....slice, glue, fibreglass and voila!

If I feel like it (which I don’t!) whatever adjustment is required to get the doors more perfect actually looks to me within the realm of “adjustment”...not surgery.


If this was a steel car, that is exactly what you would do.. Align as much as possible then start cutting, welding, grinding, filing... Can't see why fiberglass would be any different.

[Pat Landymore]

Howdy Matt/ztoolman44:


Thanks for your support of my seemingly radical position in “correctly” (by my thinking)...fixing the doors.

Honestly speaking for the first time; if I had known prior to ordering my ‘35 kit what I know now, I would have never ordered the FFR body parts. We had (before my sister and I sold it) plenty of 30’s and 40’s steel Ford truck parts sitting in the nearby cow pasture at our family farm. Yes, they were ratty as heck, but I always wanted a rat rod...so.. big deal to me. I never ever gave it a thought...and kudos to you Matt for thinking of it, the idea of only ordering the FFR framework kit and putting a genuine old school steel body on top of it.

That is how I would go (if...) I were ever to do this again.

But....now I’ve got a reasonably priced pro assisting me, the fibreglass cab and doors are coming along great.

Lesson out of this for others?

If you’ve never worked with fibreglass bodywork before...build the vehicle, leave the bodywork the he77 alone...and hire a pro. I made more work for him rather than less by my attempts to do what I could....a lesson in and of itself! 🤔

At the end of the day I’m still satisfied with my FFR kit purchase...but I would significantly change how I do it if another opportunity came about.

Pat...out

[Pat Landymore]

Eli got the cab spot filled today in the voids left behind from my bondo work. He started late so didn’t get a lot done...but still it’s looking better overall. He says tomorrow is door day. 😁

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