Hitch is in

Finished installing the trailer hitch last week before the cold weather hit. Had to modify it a little to get it to fit. Cut off  8 inches of the forward mounting tangs and used those parts to beef up the other two frame mounting points on each side. Pretty strong now and if nothing else, it protects the gas tank somewhat. The weather has kept me inside and working on wood projects for a while.
Need to turn the chassis around in the garage so I can work on the front sheet metal. I would like to put in new front inner fender well panels. The existing ones have quite a few factory holes that would need to be welded up, and one side has a lot of rust pits. I think new metal would look nicer. The top of those pieces are curved and the outer fenders attach to them. I need to figure out how to make new metal while possibly incorporating the top part of those curves. Head scratching time.
Headed to Panama after Thanksgiving for another house setting job for a month. Will be back the second week of January. Gonna be colder then. Hope you all have a great Christmas.

New Stainless Bumpers and Grill Trim

The new stainless steel bumpers and grill trim arrived this week. All from Dennis Carpenter. Very happy with the bumpers. They are polished to a higher gloss than I expected.  I also didn't know how the grill trim was going to be mounted to  the grill.  There are a nice bunch of very simple stainless clips that slide into crimps in the back of each trim piece. A 3/16" threaded stud is welded to the clip and holes will need to be drilled in the grill shell for the clips.
Mounted the back bumper temporarily to get positive measurements for a trailer hitch. Looks good there, and I just ordered a Draw Tite hitch from Amazon. Should be here next week. Now I need to get back out and bump some more metal. Rain is here today but it's still warm out.

Gone Again

Did a three week stint in the New England States. Had a great time seeing the coast and eating all the seafood I wanted. Great stuff. Hit the fall colors just about right. Next, headed to Panama again for a 3 week house setting job in December. Should be better this time. (I hope.)
Got a little done on some of the front end sheet metal. Pounded out a lot of dents and cut out some cancer. Put some new pieces in and fixed some torn bolt holes. The weather is going below freezing this next week so that will slow things down again. Going to order the front and back bumpers in stainless steel soon. I need the back bumper to take measurements for a trailer hitch. I will also order the stainless steel grill bars for the front end at the same time. All that, except for the hitch, should come from Dennis Carpenter Ford Parts. Got to get the cab painted this next spring so I can start the wiring and interior stuff. How long is this going to take????