1936 Ford Pickup Refresh

[DRIVEN]

Well, this is a case where we just need to draw the line somewhere. It's really easy to get "while we're in here" syndrome. But in reality, this is more of an accident repair than restoration.

I actually talked to my brother right after my last update. He's been working on opening his own body shop and it's looking like he opens the doors February 1st. The upside is that he'll finally have a place to work on it. The downside is that it may be hard to find the time.

 

[DRIVEN]

We haven't been hitting this too hard the last couple weeks but progress is being made. The wiring appears to be done and I cleaned up a bunch of the routing I wasn't happy with before. The battery has been relocated under the seat. All the plumbing is connected except for the radiator. The fuel pump and transmission cooler mount to the bottom of the bed so they're just floating there right now. I have the steering mocked up but need to order 1 more piece. Last thing I did today was attempt to vacuum bleed the brakes. My dad is going to install the toe board (hopefully for the last time) before the pedal can be hooked to the master. It's almost time for the exhaust.

 

[1evilregal]

nice progress! love the idea on the battery mount!

 

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, that's an experiment. Hope it works out as planned.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Our old 56 Fargo 1 ton had the battery under the driver's side floor.

 

[DRIVEN]

Both my brother's '36 and my '35 originally had them under the wooden floorboard on the passenger side. It works okay there but exhaust routing is tight and access is a PITA if it's screwed down and carpeted. The '37s (which are essentially the same as '35 & '36) had it located on the firewall. Now that technology has given us smaller dry cell batteries, under the seat makes more sense.
I have plans to build a wooden storage box to go behind the cab on my '35. It will hold a fuel cell and I was going to put the battery in it as well. But if my brother's is a success I'll probably do the same and use that space in the box for storage.

 

[DRIVEN]

Finally mopped up the steering on this thing. A top mount turbo probably would have simplified the steering quite a bit.



We also adjusted up the pedal and bled the brakes one more time. They're 90% there. I'm kinda thinking once the pads are bedded it might be GTG. Muffler shop next week.

 

[DRIVEN]

Minor update; This has been moved aside while I work on my wagon for a while. My dad did get it into the muffler shop and picked it up this morning. I think they did a pretty decent job.







They followed our directions to the letter, which is a nice change. The routing looks good too. Of course it's kind of underwhelming next to all the old grimy/crusty parts. Once I get my car out of the way we should be getting back on it.

 

[DRIVEN]

Fail day!
We had planned to spend the day working on this. The plan was to calibrate the new fuel sender. Since my brother has always been famous for running out of gas we were going to put 2 gallons in it and set that to "E". My dad put a little gas in it and found it had a pinhole in the bottom. Dammit. Problem is, it goes on top of the frame so we can't put the bed on until this is fixed. Anyway, my dad scrambled and found a place that agreed to take a look today but said probably Tuesday before we get it back. He's dropping it off now. I suggested a cash tip/bribe to do it while he waited.

Barely visible just below the bottom rivet.

 

[DRIVEN]

Tank back in. New sending unit calibrated. Bed back on. Fuel pump and transmission cooler reinstalled.



That's pretty close to ride height for now. The rear sway bar end links are actually interfering with the bed substructure just a bit so some minor clearancing will need to be done, then it'll get all the rear travel it needs.