Mar.15-30,2001

I've been working on the 55's fender for the most part. Trying to get it as straight as possible, which, since it's fiberglass is pretty hard to do. I was ready to prime it for the final time when I noticed another rock "star" in the rear of the fender. As this was the only untouched paint on the fender, I am now doing an entire repaint. While waiting for primer to dry, or when I was bored doing bodywork, I welded the 4 speed hump in solid on the 66 as well as cut a slot in the frame for the 1/2" lines to run through and built a open ended box to weld in the hole.
I am in the process of getting a loan to finish off parts of the 66. I am trying to decide on several different aspects of the car. On one hand, I would love to build a stroked 360 and use one of SDE Concepts ATI Procharger kits and was almost ready to write a check when I thought about Keisler Engineerings 5 speed TKO tranny. 3 grand for a blower, 3 grand for a Tranny, and 3 grand for a stroker. Not to mention the grand for n2o. So, I think that for the time being, the 340 will stay, with a n2o system, and the Keisler TKO tranny. Thats where I stand right now. Hopefully, I will get some basecoat/clear on the fender and get that done this weekend.

Mar.14,2001

Worked on the fender again today. Smeared on some glass and built up the heavily damaged areas. Once those were done, I mixed some "powdered" glass into the resin and used it to fill the hairline cracks. It will be interesting to see how that sands out. I cut several pieces of 'glass into powder. It should be a very strong repair and not nearly as thick as a full piece of 'glass. While that was drying, I worked on the 4 speed hump. I recieved a picture of a 66 hump (thanks Dennis!) and figured out what I needed to change on the hump that I have. Cut and sectioned the opening from a circle to an oval. Welded the hump in but forgot to cover the frame section before doing that. One step forward, two back

Mar.12,2001

Cut the floorpan for the 4 speed hump. Still have to do a little modification to the hump in order to use the later Hurst shifter with it. The 65 hump has a small round hole and the 66 ups had a larger oval hole. Going to POR-15 the inside of the frame while I've got it open too.

Mar.9,2001

Worked on the 55's fender for a little while today. Took it down to the gel coat in the problem areas. Found that the cracks extend into the gel coat. I was hoping that it was only in the clearcoat itself. Oh well, more work ahead. Messed around with the driveshaft loop on the 66 a little. Started planning how to run my fuel lines as well. I bought an additional Mallory 140 gph fuel pump used for $85 to use for the nitrous system or a backup pump should I not go with the happy gas.

Mar.8,2001

I have to take a break from the 66 for a little while. My Dad and I decided that we need to fix one of the fiberglass fenders on our 55 F-100. A couple of years ago, we had a minor incident that cracked the wheelwell lip and spiderwebbed the clear. I am going to attempt to fix it and some rock "stars" that have showed up.

Mar.7,2001

Finished off the front driveshaft loop. Ended up welding the hoop solid to the arms. Origianally, it was going to be a bolt together unit, but was becoming to hard to engineer. The hoop/arm assembly will still be removeable.

Mar.1-6,2001

It has been a very productive week. I finished up the floorpan to frame connector welding as well as the wheelwells. Reattatched the package tray to the tubs. Finished up the welds on the fuel cell box, sump relief and welded the pan in solidly on 3 edges. Still have to trim the back edge by the trunk lid. Had the fuel cell straps and front driveshaft loop bent up by my father and modified them to fit. Still in the process of making the D/S loop. Installed the fuel cell straps and fuel cell. Bought a new Mallory 140 gph fuel pump and have another used pump in the works as a spare or if I should decide to go with Nitrous. I also received my "new" 4 speed floor hump! This one fits much better since the old one looks to be from an E-Body. Bought a 40 lb. pressurized sand blaster for when I finally wrap all of this undercarraige stuff up.

Feb. 28,2001

Finished up the fuel cell box today. Added the relief for the sump. Started welding the floorpan to the frame rails.

Feb. 27,2001

Made up a pattern for my front driveshaft loop. Pretty tight in the tunnel. Going to have my Dad make it for me (he's retired...what else has he got to do?). Ordered a Mallory 140 gph fuel pump. That should do even if I do end up putting Nitrous on it.

Feb. 26,2001

Ground some more in the wheelwells, started stitching up the fuel cell box edges and did some re-welding of questionable welds. Also did a lot of research on electric fuel pumps. Think I'm going with a Mallory. Haven't decided on the 110 or 140 yet.

Feb. 24,2001

Helped my Dad install a polished aluminum intake on our 55 Ford. Looked amazing when we got it bolted up! What a difference it made in the look of the engine compartment.

Feb. 23,2001

Messed with the tranny tunnel and reshaped part of the area around the gas pedal linkage. I had mangled the area years ago trying to get the 727 to fit. Cut the questionable stuff out, flattened it out and welded it right back in. Started trying to figure out the 4 speed hump. Had to remove the console shifter bracket and the front console mount. I then figured out that the hump that I have is not the right hump. Put a call out on moparts.com for a new hump. We'll see what turns up. Hate to cut up a good hump.

Feb. 22,2001

Crawled under the car and started grinding on the drivers wheeltub. Didn't take long for me to decide to switch the rollover bars around to flip the car over the other way (onto its pass. side). Had the bars flipped in under a 1/2 hour. Put it up on some dollies to make rotating it easier. Had it turned in under 2 minutes. It was trying to fall off of the dolley on the back and if I let go it would have. I needed a jackstand to put under it but they were up on the drivers front side and I was supporting it on the pass rear side. Hmmm... Only way to grab a stand was to rotate the car! Naturally, by the time I got to the stand the car had recentered itself on the dolley. Tacked in the fuel cell pan while the car was horizontal. While I was on a roll (HA!), I decided to attempt to roll the car back up on its side by myself. After two attempts to figure out what I had to do, I was able to roll it up single handedly! Would have been really easy with another guy, but I couldn't wait! Welded some of the suspect welds that used to be overheads or were just awkward to get to.

Feb. 21,2001

Ground down all the welds in the trunk compartment and fit the fuel cell pan. Also scraped off all of the factory seam sealer.

Feb. 20,2001

My father brought over the parts for the fuel cell pan. Bless his heart. He made the pieces out of 16 ga!!!! The thing only would have weighed about 60 lbs! Decided to keep the 16 ga. main piece that the fuel cell sits on and use 20 ga for the rest. Turned out really well. Especially considering that I don't have a Metal Brake.

Feb. 19,2001

WOW!! It was 62 degrees here today! Going to have to take a break on the 66 for a while and work on my Dads 55 F-100 and get it ready for the show season. Also have some things to do to the 65 to get it ready for some spring crusing!

Feb. 18,2001

Mounted the Lakewood bellhousing on the 4 speed and put it up in position in the 66. Marked the area where I need to cut for the floor-hump and found one area that I'm going to have to modify for the bellhousing to clear the tranny tunnel.

Feb. 16,2001

Figured out the placement of the fuel cell trunk "box" and how I'm going to form it up. Should be able to use one piece of 4'x4' steel.

Feb. 15,2001

Rolled the 66 back down to weld up everything that used to be overhead with it upright. Also going to slip the tranny up in place to check on the clearance on the Lakewood bellhousing and placement on the 4 speed shifter. It's good to see it back on the ground again, even if it's only temporary.

Feb. 14,2001

Mocked up the fuel cell box and trunk floorpan. Was going to go and buy a cheap bead roller but found out that my Uncles company makes them! Woohoo! I'll have him run some for me then have the box formed on a break.

Feb. 10,2001

Decided to cut the tire well out of the trunk and make a replacement trunkpan which will house the fuel cell. Tacked a piece of angle between the frame rails to hold support the car and cut away. Had the 3'x3' square cut out in no time with the plasma cutter.

Feb. 1-9,2001

Ground down and rewelded some of the bad welds that I had made over the last couple of weeks. Still need to turn the car over to make sure they're all good. Remade the tranny crossmember and tranny frame to clear dual exhaust on the pass side.

Jan. 28-31,2001

Finished up welding in the drivers side wheel tub. Welded the frame connectors in solid. I need to roll the car back down, switch the rollover bars around and turn it up on its pass. side. All of this overhead welding is for the birds!

Jan. 24-27,2001

The drivers side went pretty quickly as there was no rust through where the wheelhouses and trunk extension join. I had the wheelhouse cut out and tacked in in less than 5 hours. Started fitting the frame connectors and have them almost ready to tack in. My friend Jude has some extra rollbar tubing so I'm starting to debate a roll cage.

Jan. 22-23,2001

Started putting the inner wheelhouse back together. Was able to get it 90% together in under two days. The drivers side should go much faster now that I know what I'm doing

Jan. 20,2001

Took a trip up to a scrap metal dealer and bought some stuff for the 66. Bought some 18 ga. sheet metal for the wheeltubs and other patches, and some 3/16" stainless tubing for the brake lines. My friend Darren bought a bunch of steel tubing to make a rollover like mine for his 67 Chevy II.

Jan. 13,2001

Put the 66 on hold again and installed a mandoor in my garage. It was harder than it sounds as my garage is made out of real concrete block, not cinder block. It went fairly well and much faster than I had expected it to. No more opening the double wide garage door just to walk into the garage!

Jan. 12, 2001

Did more work on the floorpan of the 66 this week. Was able to get 98% of the undercoating and flash rust off of the sheetmetal. I decided that I might blast the bottom again just to make sure I got everything. I could spend the next 2 weeks trying to get every nook and cranny when I could have the whole undercarriage done in less than an hour.
I decided to go ahead and start doing some structural work to the Dart and started moving the inner wheelhouse in on the pass. side. I used a plasma cutter that a couple of friends and I went in on and it was amazing! I had the wheelhouse in my hand in less than an hour. Most of that time was spent gawking at how easy the plasma cutter made the job.

Jan. 6, 2001

Actually got to work on the 66 again! Hard to believe how long it's been. My friend Todd and I got to work and cleaned off the rest of the undercoating out of the wheelwells, axle area and tranny tunnel. Might get some work done on it this week as it's supposed to be pretty warm.

Jan. 2, 2001

Finally received my pass. fender for the 66. I had it shipped all the way from California. It made it to Kansas and then was sent back to CA for some reason. It took a total of 20 days to get it but it was worth it. Some surface rust but in great shape!

Jan. 1, 2001

Finally got to put some exhaust on the convertible. It's been so cold here that I didn't even want to leave the house. I had to get the 65 out of the garage though to work on my daily driver.