Thread: Project Special K

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Took Pat and a few other's advice and scrubbed the new leaf springs down with lacquer thinner and a red scotch pad. Then etched primed them. Have to leave it there until tommorrow(buddies Mom's funeral in a few hours). But before work tommorrow if the weather is as warm as today I'll hit them with some rustoleum spray can black. Worst part of such a simple task was getting all the shipping labels and tape off of the crevices in the leafs. After getting a close look at them I was pleased to see some friction slip pads under the buttons imbossed in the leafs. I guess they make the individual leafs slide free of each other a little better.

Less friction smoooother ride

First coat of black rustoleum looks good, few runs to sand and then one more coat. Didn't get more done, as more projects got in the way including plugged sewer line. See tool of month club for that solution. Took a wide angle shot of shed, shows that some cleaning needs to be done before anymore truck work can be done.

Nothing wrong with that shop, looks great to me!!!! I'm going to clean mine out and reorganize things------someday.

Called Eaton Springs and talked with Kim today. Found out the missing spring bushings were the rear hanger bushings, which fortunately Sacramento Vintage Ford has. The guy at S.V.F. was super helpfull. He invited me to visit their 17,000 square foot show room. It would be like going to the candy store for me! They also have a bed conversion kit there. 1948's had a wood subfloor on the pickup bed, with a metal top pan. All of that was missing from mine when I got it, so trying to figure out what to buy and where it goes is a bit confusing, and very expensive. The wood floor conversion kit is a bargain, since it takes care of using a metal floor, with wood subfloor, and just replaces everything with 5 oak wood panels, and stainless steel strips. Time to save some more pennies, even though I don't need the floor for a long time yet!
Well soon as the hanger bushings get here I can start on replacing the rear springs. As Dave say's waiting on the Brown Truck!

Dusting off the truck today. I called Sanderson yesterday and spoke with Donna in the tech dept. about the left hand header for my motor not fitting, and maybe going the custom route vs. pulling the engine and creating a hornets nest of problems. Donna is great! I sent her a few digital photos and she came up with two possible fixes, one involving a right side header from a different set online they have. She is sending me the header free of charge to trial fit it. Option two is switching the right and left sides that I already have so that will be todays task. If the sun shines, the leaf springs may go on too. It's exciting to get past this sticking point! Been stuck and indecissive for too long!

Yup, time to get back on the projects and enjoy some nice weather!!!! Sounds like Sanderson is going to come through for you, good bunch of people and never have had any trouble with their products!

Yep they are great with customer service. I have no complaints and would recogmend them highly to anyone.

I also had a good experience with Sanderson. Went to their South SF shop to get my blockhuggers because a coworker said they give a discount for picking up in person. At first it seemed they were out of stock and weren't scheduled to make another production run for a week or more. The guy searched the shop for 20 minutes and found the very last set of the last run, in perfect condition. He then gave me one discount for waiting, another for picking up and dropped the sales tax because I paid in cash.

No need to say where I'll be getting my next set of headers.

I played with multiple sets of headers for the left side this weekend, including reversing the right side. I then measured my motor mounts from the bolted rivet firewall member where it attaches to the frame to where the back of the motormount hits the frame. It turns out it is about three quarters of an inch closer to the firewall on the driver's side. Phase 2 engine removal, motormount removal, and install of new mount. I have a much better idea of how to do this properly, now that I have done it incorrectly!
I had stated a while back this seemed to be where I was headed, I just have stewed about the implications for a long time! While the motor is out I can change the height of the mounts too to get better clearance in front, and remove the harmonic balancer(timing marks not right on new balancer) so I want to see if the old marks line up in a different place, and if they do will use the original one that came with the engine. If not I'll keep the new one on.
The reason I've been so hessitant involves the need to adjust the driveline length, and change the tranny mount, but it just needs to be done. The worst part is draining the transmission which has about 150 dollars worth of mobil 1 synthetic fluid in it. I'm contiplating getting a new oil pan to drain the fluid in. Then filter it back in when I'm done. Any thoughts on this?

Originally Posted by stovens

I played with multiple sets of headers for the left side this weekend, including reversing the right side. I then measured my motor mounts from the bolted rivet firewall member where it attaches to the frame to where the back of the motormount hits the frame. It turns out it is about three quarters of an inch closer to the firewall on the driver's side. Phase 2 engine removal, motormount removal, and install of new mount. I have a much better idea of how to do this properly, now that I have done it incorrectly!
I had stated a while back this seemed to be where I was headed, I just have stewed about the implications for a long time! While the motor is out I can change the height of the mounts too to get better clearance in front, and remove the harmonic balancer(timing marks not right on new balancer) so I want to see if the old marks line up in a different place, and if they do will use the original one that came with the engine. If not I'll keep the new one on.
The reason I've been so hessitant involves the need to adjust the driveline length, and change the tranny mount, but it just needs to be done. The worst part is draining the transmission which has about 150 dollars worth of mobil 1 synthetic fluid in it. I'm contiplating getting a new oil pan to drain the fluid in. Then filter it back in when I'm done. Any thoughts on this?

No problem reusing the fluid. I would for sure.

.

Thanks Pugsy. I had visions of reusing and somehow screwing up my newly built tranny, vs. visions of wasting perfectly good, expensive fluid! Now to figure out when and where to do the swap! Garage is getting very full. Might need to take some time off work and do it over the couse of a few days, verses trying to do it in spare time around work schedule and other obligations!. I think while I'm at it I am going to try and find a c6 tranny pan with a built in drain plug, would make it a lot easier to drain than having fluid pour out while unbolting the existing pan.

don't know about ford trans but if you pull the drive shaft out of a GM the fluid will EXIT quickly. Maybe easier to catch it there than out of pan.

yep it drains there too, unfortunately not all the way, and as I found out last time, as I hoisted the engine out, a couple of quarts came pouring out. Option B I guess would be to leave tranny in place, and unbolt it from the engine, tying it up to the firewall in front. Just a real paint to reconnect latter! I guess if it was easy everybody would do it huh?
The more I think about it, leaving in place sounds the way to go! Sometimes it helps thinking out loud, and getting advice from you guys.

I have a few extra yokes just for the trans's so I can pull them with out loosing the fluid.