Getting Moving Again!

Gosh, it’s been too long!

With a home renovation, kids, summer vacations things just have been too busy to work on the truck. I have been able to do a little here and there, mostly sanding though. Now that we have put all that other stuff behind us we are ready to get this truck done, and on the road again!

Before we got side tract, with life, we were working on the fueling system. We picked right back up where we left off. Rich decided it would be a good idea to fabricate the fuel filler door. After talking about it, thinking about it, drawing it – we finally decided on a location and cut the hole.

Once the hole was cut we could then place the new filler neck housing into its new home. In order to keep everything tight and in place several holes are drilled and clecos (A cleco, also spelled generically cleko, is a fastener developed by the Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company. Widely used in the manufacture and repair of aluminum-skinned aircraft, it is used to temporarily fasten multiple sheets of material together before the pieces are permanently joined.) keeps the new filler door tightly pressed up against the body. With the new fuel door held in place, it is time to make a few tack welds. Then a few more. Until there is pretty much nowhere else a weld is needed. When doing this thought, it is important to move your tack welds around, not to focus in one place for too long. It is important to move around because the metal gets hot and then warps; which isn’t good.

Along with making a modification to the outside wall of the bed, we also needed to make a modification to the bed side also. A bit of the filler neck shows on the bed side, so we decided to wrap it in some sheet metal and make it look a little better, and discreet.

Continuing with the fueling system, we needed to find a home for the fuel pump, and filter. While consideration is being taken for the placement of the pump and filter, we also needed to figure out which side of the engine the high pressure is in and which side of the engine is the low pressure out. Once that research was done, we could then run the lines. In the case of the 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, the high pressure in is on the passenger side and the low pressure return is on the driver side.

Before we put the bed back onto the frame, everything under the bed needs to be sprayed with primer sealer. We took a lot of time cleaning the frame; we want it to last for another 40 years. That is why we spray the primer/sealer on the frame, to help protect it from the elements and help it last.

Now that the bed is done being sanded, and all of the modifications have been made, we can seal the front side of it before we put it back on. After the front side of the bed was sealed, we were ready to finish the filler neck and fuel tank connection. We decided it would be the easiest if we strapped the bed to the lift and move it up and down to adjust the filler neck. This was a difficult task, because the bends and pitch of the hose had to be correct. We ended up needing to modify the filler neck that attaches to the fuel tank, as well as, notch out the frame. Since we weakened the frame we needed to reinforce it in the same spot. We did just below the notch.

It is so nice to be back in the shop making some progress on the truck. From here on out things should be getting crossed off the list! Keep checking back every two weeks for an update on progress. Also, don’t forget to check out the ‘ Pictures ‘ tab to see more pictures of the build!!