Awhile

Well its been awhile since I last posted. Probably cause I've been busy being Mr. Mom, maybe cause I haven't had much to say, more than likely its cuz I've been lazy.

I've found that the longer I am unsuccessful at finding a job the more I am not wanting to do the things that usually make me happy. That and all my hobbies are crazy expensive. Its a weird correlation.

Thats why I've decided to throw one of my projects up for sale. My '63 F100. I know, I know, its not finished. Thats why I'm selling it. Once its finished it will be worth 3X's the money and this way someone can pick it up and finish their way and then tell all their friends that they built it from the ground up. It will be a bummer to see her go, but it frees up money for other things.

Here she is:

Its been axle over converted so she sit low. You can't make it over a beer can without the front axle knocking it over.

I've done the interior in this off white and red.

Frenched the gas filler.

Vacuum Brakes.

Front tilting hood

Crazy clean engine compartment.

I've got all the pieces for the bed, minus the wood.

All she needs is painted and reassembled.

All the exterior trim has been powder coated black.

Bad Ass!

I've got it running online at http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/14761301 if you want to read the ad. 

Don't worry I'll start cutting, stretching, and welding another project real soon so stay tuned.

C

Gone

Well I sold my little Hot Rod Bike last weekend. It was a 1969 Triumph TR6C Tiger that I chopped up and built an old school bobber.

She came to me as a '70s chopper. Molded frame, tiller bars, chrome swing arm, the works.

This would never do, so I started tearing her apart. Pulled the motor, swing arm, and the tins. Bolted on the 4" over 2" drop hard tail. Cut the rear fender. Hung the original tank on the wall (ZigZag Man kicks ass), and built a bad ass seat for her.

I procured a Mustang tank from my good friend Ray.

Painted it up with a beautiful black paint job, and then...

...took 3000 grit sand paper and sanded through it to make a nice patina.

All the wiring was ran through the backbone. The points were replace with a Sparxx ignition and all the remaining dead weight was removed.

The result was an old school bobber, debuting in the middle of the winter.

Pictures from a photo shoot.

I put her up for sale and right off the bat I got contacted by a kid in Elko. He wanted the bike real bad and started digging up the cash. In the mean time I was getting calls from all the "experts" trying to talk down the bike and low ball. 

Wanting the Elko buyer to take the bike home I went onto the online classifieds that I had it listed on and raised the price to detour people from calling, giving the first guy a chance to procure the Triumph. Low and behold, a couple months after first contact he showed up. He was so geeked out for the bike he didn't even take time to go for a ride. I showed him a few of the things you need to know to own a British bike and away they went.

She was a fun build, a good looking bike, and a learning experience. Now that there is some real estate freed up in my garage it is time to think of what is next.

Thats my story.

C

Continued

Alrighty, back to the story. The first thing that you need to do after you buy a perfectly good truck out of a field is drive the hell out of it. Really get to know it.

Next, pull the bed off and move the axle from the bottom of the leaf spring to the top. This is not going to be as easy as you think it will be.

Now you will notice that the spring perches are on the wrong side of the axle. Easy fix. Run down to the Trailer supply store and buy new ones. They are going to run you about $2, and well worth it.

Now, you call your good buddy who is a genius welder. I know you think you can do it, but trust me this is a pretty structural part, so call him. In my case I know the manager at a local metal shop, a guy named Dutch, if you know him you too are lucky.

Mark the frame and cut out the section that will be replace with a piece of pipe cut in half.

Cut and weld the outside (leave the bottom attached for now, structure)

Then cut out the bottom.

Now your going to find out that the drive line is too long. So back to the welder buddy to shorten it. This is probably something to have done at a machine shop, but hey your reading a blog from a redneck what do you expect?

Lower the truck, pull it out on the street and admire your handy work.

Bad Ass.

Next time the start of lowering the front end.

C

Dropped the Ball

The Beginning

I’ve looked and looked but I can’t find the pictures of the truck the day I brought it home. I figure they must have been taken with a camera that requires film, and who knows where I would have put the developed copy. So we are going to start the pictures and continue the stories from shortly after the truck got home.

As you can see I cleaned her up, threw on some new tires and shot some primer.

As I mentioned in the previous post this is the second ’63 Ford that I owned. From the experiences of the first I know that even with the safety latch these hoods blow open at the most inopportune times (such as running down the interstate at 80 mph). So to be preemptive, I cut the fenders, built a bracket, bolted it all together and now have a front tilting hood.  

I cleaned up the motor and firewall. Shot a fresh coat of old Ford red on the motor and rattle canned the rest.

As you can see I went through and painted the interior (nice quick job, used Krylon).

The next post is going to show how I threw all this away and started cutting, till next time, same Bat time, same Bat channel.

C