Friends.

Hot rods, old cars, customs and the such... without friends, it would be a lonely ride. It's amazing how much people are willing to help just for the sake of having another friend on the road with a neat old car. We have had a lot of luck with people supporting our project with time, advice or just kind words.

Now we have even made new friends just by the virtue of going to grab some lunch! A recent trip to Rico's Tacos Lupe led to the spotting of a really fresh F1. Lowered, white walls, and a tough sounding Flathead. Most impressive? This sharp looking 1950 is a DAILY DRIVER! That's doing it right.


Speaking of friends, the shop can get a little lonely without some helping hands. This is how the car bug is planted.


You can also see a small piece of our next project in that first photo. Good thing Lil' Buddy has had his tetanus shot.

Happy feet.

Patience is a virtue... A virtue we haven't had much luck with. We kept putting off the alignment with each new piece of the puzzle. This of course destroyed the already very sad front tires.

Solution: Wide Whites! The F100 is now properly aligned, and feels great. Not bad looking either!

Daily Driving.

It's official, Spring has sprung! The weather has now permitted driving, and ice on the road seems to be a memory for the next few months.

So far this spring: My brother came to visit, as well as our good friend Klem. Being the Midwest, those first few nice days of March led to an impromptu ice storm. One of the hazards of daily driving the ol' F100 is walking out to a snow covered truck!


Luckily the Ol' F100 seemed unfazed by the ordeal. Chris, however, seems less happy to be left in the elements.

In the wild!

On the road again! Our plan was to be driving by Spring, however as you can see by the lovely white covering, we are a bit ahead of schedule! The F100 was able to make it out and about, and we even had time to take some pictures while we waited for one the Midwest's seemingly mile long trains to pass.





One of our first stops? World of Wheels! The Punk Rods did a great job organizing the Motorama 1961 section, and we were in good company with a lot of cool old DRIVABLE hot rods. There was no shortage of muscle cars, and undriven street rods, but come load out time, the real stars were our compatriots in the 'Old School Rods' section. The cacophony of roaring engines, and antique metal were really the stars of the show.

Special thanks to the fella in the bare metal DIESEL hot rod pickup for helping us out with a spare fuse!

PAINT!

Our good friend Justin Tanner came by and freshened up the engine bay, the inner fenders, and the rims. As you can see, it came out amazing! The blue we used was 'Diamond Blue', and was the original color of the truck. Being as how the F100 will probably keep it's patina, the blue is nice throwback to it's birth color.

Smooth it out...

This was the firewall a few weeks ago. It was obviously the biggest clue in determining the Ford's original paint job. Years of neglect had left her dinged and dirtied, but in decent shape. Pat figured that if she was going to carry around her new power plant, why not give the engine bay a fresh coat of paint?


I understand that some people might think that concentrating on an engine bay while the rest of the truck ages less than gracefully, might be a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We however, politely disagree! So first things first: Getting rid of the holes that no longer contain essential wires and components. Pat filled, sanded, and smoothed out these now superfluous holes and indentations, and then coated the firewall in primer.



Next step: PAINT! The firewall will be restored to it's original 'Diamond Blue' glory of the past. A nice reminder of it's youth, whenever you are staring at it's newly transplanted heart.

Paint pictures to follow SOON!

Cool it now...

Partly due to nostalgia, and partly due to delusion, we some how thought we could run the original radiator. The radiator shop was slightly less enthusiastic than we were about using the rusted relic to keep the new engine cool. They were even less enthusiastic about putting a core into a radiator that was eroding before our eyes. Thankfully the internet and our good friend Dan were able to help us procure a new radiator post haste. Pat then did some cutting and adjusting to make room in the engine bay. Hello properly cooled V8, goodbye giant puddles of coolant underneath the truck!