Daddies Little Fatty is Back Home

Jeff and Tony brought the F1 back today on a trailer. Jeff has another truck to paint ahead of mine. He was doing the body work and prep on mine until the other guy was ready. He will probably come back and get it sometime in August or September. Meanwhile I will continue to do some of the multitude of little things that need to be done. The plan now is to have it painted by November.
Jeff has done a great job on the body work. Things are lining up and gaps are looking good.. Still a ways to go, but This little Fatty has come a long way from a farm truck. And she gets prettier every day.

Stainless Trim

Well, since the truck is down in Warsaw, and it's cold out again, I decided I better get to polishing up some of the stainless trim. Some of the pieces are salvageable, but had to order the F-1 pieces and the F-O-R-D pieces that go on the front just below the hood. Looks like the side strips will be okay and the parking light trim will be alright. There are a few other items I left down in Warsaw that needs to be addressed like the headlight rings.
Headed to Paris for a week, so another break. (Love these breaks). Spring should have sprung by the time we get back.

The Bed goes together

Jeff, Tony and I put the bed back together after Jeff primed it. Also put the rear fenders on and the running boards. Took some time to get everything even close. Also aligned the cab doors. It's all in the prep work folks. A lot of work gets done before the paint goes on. Still more hours to make sure everything is right. She is looking like a truck again, but still a long way to go.

Putting the body together for final fit

Jeff , Tony, Bob and I put the cab back on the chassis yesterday, and then added all the front end parts.  Took a bit of tweaking to get fenders hood grill running boards all together.  Jeff will now do the final massaging of the body parts and get it ready for paint.
Tomorrow I will take down the headlight buckets and some other small parts that will need painting.
Jeff also primed all the parts for the bed yesterday. We will put the bed back together tomorrow and set it back on the chassis.   Daddies Little Fatty is lookin good.

First Start on engine.

Been a busy week.  Bob, Van and Jim came down for the first start on the engine. Jim and Van did the top dead center and timing first. Got the battery hooked up and took a few cranks to get her started. Fired up and sounded good. Ran it for 20 minutes for break in time. That was a very happy moment. Good oil pressure. had a couple of water leaks at the head plugs. Pulled the plugs later after cool down and put some sealant on the plugs and cranked them down tight.  I had pulled the thermostat out for the run in and replaced it after cool down and draining the water. Added half and half anti-freeze and water back in. Had a leak at the hose clamp on the goose neck that was just a tighten job. Pulled the oil filter off and cut it apart to check for any filing from bearings or camshaft. Had a very small amount of shiny filings, but nothing significant. Was very happy to get this part done. Thanks for all the help boys. 
Next is bleed the brakes.
I wanted the run the engine one more time after I had good brakes so I could shift the transmission and check that it was working and the rear-end would turn over all right.
Next day Nancy helped me bleed the brakes. I found four leaks. I had to change one short piece of brake line and just needed to tighten up the other two.
Jeff (the Painter) called and wanted to come pick up the chassis that afternoon.  Bob showed up and we started the engine again. All worked well.
Tony and Jeff showed up with a trailer and we loaded it up and sent it off to Warsaw for a final put together and tweaking. Will do that tomorrow.

Got back from Pensacola Saturday March 7th and brought sunshine and heat with us. Was a great two month. Really enjoyed it and Nancy's knee got some healing time in.
Went down to see how the body work was coming on the F1.   Jeff Crow has done an amazing job on most of the metal work. This guy is amazing. He can make any piece of lumpy metal look straight. We decided that now I will bring the chassis down to him and we will put all the sheet metal together one last time to check fit and gaps and so forth.
First I want to get the engine fired up to make sure it runs and fix any leaks necessary.
Spent the rest of today wiring up gauges and putting fluids in. General get it ready to fire up.
Van Aldershof and Jim Luther will come down tomorrow along with Bob Ertzinger to help me fire it up and do the run in.  First fire up, cross your fingers.