My Ford Truck Project (And Other Projects)

[olds307 and 403]

No hijack at all Darin, I could use a break from my truck anyways. These water leaks are pissing me off! The leaks are much less with the seam sealer, but there are still a couple. So I used.the weatherstripping adhesive to glue in the driver side door pinchweld seal too. I'll report back.

Hopefully your Regal is more watertight than my Cutlass. Good thing I have a pant saver floor mat on the passenger side, leaking through the vents. Not sure if it still leaks on the passenger back floor, I set that door tighter closing. sh*t, I might have opened a can of worm's here......

 

[joesregalproject]

Hopefully your Regal is more watertight than my Cutlass. Good thing I have a pant saver floor mat on the passenger side, leaking through the vents. Not sure if it still leaks on the passenger back floor, I set that door tighter closing. sh*t, I might have opened a can of worm's here......

Well fortunately the Regal is stored indoors all the time and it won't be going outside in foul weather either, so even if it does leak a little water it won't be a huge issue. It has really nice door gaps and the doors open and close nicely so I don't have to worry much more than that.

The truck however is stored outside 24/7/365 and gets driven rain or shine as long as there isn't salt on roads, so it needs to be water tight.

 

[joesregalproject]

I messed with it for a couple hours this morning and it's still leaking. I pulled the cab lights and sealed them off but it didn't make any difference. So I'm gonna step away from it and come back when I'm less irritated with it. I want to mess with the Regal anyway.

 

[joesregalproject]

Decided to get back around to this. I've had a lot going on lately but I miss having the truck at my disposal. It has been parked untouched since my last post.

I decided to start with fixing the broken radiator support mount. My cheap Harbor Freight Chicago Electric welder kicked the bucket about two months ago which is part of why I've been putting this off. I had been limping it along for a while but this last time it truly had waved the white flag. I was going to buy the exact same one again but it was out of stock at HF and I wasn't going to drive to another HF store for it so I went to Home Depot and bought a Century (Lincoln) FC90.

It's a nice little flux core machine. It's an inverter welder and runs on 110V. It's super light and small and very powerful for a 110V machine. Unless you are running it continuously for hours at a time, it's probably more than enough for most auto/home jobs.

Anyways I first removed the wheel and the front bumper to make some working room, then welded up the two cracks on the support mount. Then I fabricated two small gussets out of some thin bar stock, and welded them over where the cracks were. Then I wire wheeled a bit to remove some of the flux core spatter and gave it a quick coat of black Rustoleum from a spray can.

Welded, plated, painted-

Fender to door gap now back where it's supposed to be-

As for the water leaks, it has rained really hard several times and there has been minimal leakage into the cab. It poured for a half hour or so yesterday and there was only a very, very small amount of water inside on the driver's side. Passenger side was dry. I'm gonna call that good enough to put the dash back in and get this thing driveable.

I have a new cowl seal from Bronco Graveyard still in the box that I ordered when I started this mess.

Tomorrow I'm going to get a sword pinstriping brush from the local art supply place so that I can touch up around all the seam sealer I put on. Not sure how far I might get but I'll update. It only took me a day to pull the dash, it shouldn't take me much longer to put it back in.

 

[joesregalproject]

I got quite a bit of work knocked out today. I got the pedals, dash and the column back in and all the associated wires hooked up. I did reinstall the cowl panel with the new seal. It was a b*st*rd to get into place. I dropped a couple screws for it and can't find them so it's not completely fastened yet.

I have to install the a pillar trim, the kick panels and the outside windshield trim yet, and I'm missing a couple miscellaneous fasteners so I will probably just take a trip to the junkyard where I can get the right ones and they won't cost me anything.

I did get my touch up brush this morning and I already have the paint so I will have to do some touching up once I've got this all back together. These Mack sword pinstriping brushes are the best for touching up cars, bar none. There is an artist supply place in town that is the only place around that stocks them.

I'm going to take the battery out and toss it on the charger tonight just to be safe, but otherwise it should be pretty much ready to drive.

 

[joesregalproject]

It's been pouring rain all night and so I checked the truck this morning, and son of a b*tch if there isn't a little by of water inside. Not much. But definitely a little bit. Regardless, the dash isn't coming back out. I may get new vent window seals and see if that helps anything.

 

[Texas82GP]

You need a helper to spray the truck while you are inside so you can find where the water is coming in.

 

[joesregalproject]

Well I have it all pretty much reassembled. Took a ride to the junkyard and got those missing bolts and screws. Cost: $0. The only things I haven't reinstalled are the door sill plates and the windshield chrome trim.

I'm gonna leave the sill plates off for a couple weeks or so just to monitor any water intrusion, and I got new clips for the windshield trim but they don't fit very well. They are too tight and I can't get the trim to snap in. I may have to bend them a little bit.

I did take it for a little drive and it seemed to do fine, picked up right where it left off. Started right up and drove fine.

 

[joesregalproject]

Got to use the truck as a truck today. I used my new chainsaw to cut down a Bradford Pear that I absolutely despise. It smells like rotten p*ssy in the spring and drops these red berries all over the cars in the fall. Those berries leave a mess on the paint and it is a pain in the *ss to get off. Bug and tar remover, acetone, and lacquer thinner don't even touch it. Also it has a really low crotch and everytime it gets windy I get nervous it's gonna split and fall on the truck. So today I felled it, cut it up, loaded it into the back of the truck and drove it up in the woods and dumped it. That saw made quick work of the cutting.

Mark's from those berries-

And I messed around with the windshield trim trying to get it to fit. I bent those clips, filed them a bit, and they still wouldn't work. It just wouldn't clip in correctly. I even damaged one of the trim pieces trying to make them work, so guess I'll be making another junkyard trip for that. I was getting pissed with the clips scratching up the window frame as I was removing and reinstalling them, so finally I looked online and found some clips that are more similar to the originals from Bronco Graveyard, so I got a set ordered.

The clips I currently have are listed as the right ones for the application but they are ever slightly different that the originals, different enough to not work.

 

[joesregalproject]

My window trim clips from Bronco Graveyard finally came in the mail. I think they are gonna work. Unfortunately I still haven't gotten this thing washed or touched up the paint yet which I'd like to do before I install the trim. I think it's gonna rain tomorrow so hopefully Thursday. I have been driving it a bunch and so far so good.