Ford F-100 Down to the Wire

(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Eric)>> Welcome to Music City Trucks. Today we're getting down to the wire with Clint Black's 1960 F-100 and there is still a ton of work to be done.

(Joel)>> That's right. We've only got two weeks to hit our deadline and put this project to bed. Just getting the truck to the state that it's in now has been an adventure in itself. Only 64 more to go. [ Music ]

(Joel)>> Nothing cooler than an old pickup, am I right? [ Music ]

(Eric)>> Underneath all this dirt there's probably a pretty good truck.

(Joel)>> Well guys we're still chipping away at the to-do list on Clint Black's 1960 Ford F-100, and the first thing we're gonna address today is this old truck bed. If you've ever tried to tackle a job like this you know it can be a real bear, but we've got a few tips and tricks that might make it easier than you think.

(Eric)>> And since everything else has been such a pain to get off the truck taking the bed off is probably gonna be the hardest thing we do today. If you think it looks bad now wait until we get this plywood out of here. [ wood scratching/scraping ]

(Eric)>> Wonder how long that's been there? No meat left on it though. [ drill humming ]

(Eric)>> Woo, that's noisy! [ saw buzzing ] [ impact drill vibrating ]

(Eric)>> By the time we get done with this we should have enough wood for a nice, little fire.

(Joel)>> Just wait until we get it out to start the fire if you don't mind. [ saw buzzing ]

(Eric)>> I've got to get the wood out of here before I can do that. [ Music ] [ hammer banging ]

(Eric)>> Electrical tape and zip ties, pretty much all that held this truck together.

(Joel)>> Electrical tape and zip ties built America buddy. [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ]

(Joel)>> Well we got all that old crusty wood cut out, and now we can take a step back and just kinda analyze the situation. Overall this bed's not in too bad a shape other than some corrosion on the front part here, which I've already taken the liberty of building a patch panel with some 16 gauge sheet metal. We'll cut this out, weld this one in, and then we're ready to start prepping it for some paint. [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ]

(Joel)>> When I'm doing this I usually like to cut just below the marked template line just to give myself that perfect gap between the patch and the panel. Also, if you can, cut about an inch above the corrosion to prevent any issues in the future. [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ]

(Joel)>> I'm just gonna tack our sheet metal into place here and go back over it and shape it with our hammer and dolly. [ welder crackling ]

(Joel)>> We've got our patch panel tacked into place, ready for final welding. Now before you guys go to do this it's good to keep an air blower by your side to help control the heat so that you don't cause any warpage. [ grinder buzzing ]

(Joel)>> Looks like our patch is blended in real nice. Next thing to do is get this whole thing over next door to the prep booth so we can start setting it up for some paint. As we mentioned before, Clint wants this truck to look as close to original as possible. However there are some things that we just have to compromise on. Now we've already had to do a little bit of rust repair here in the front, and we don't want to have to do that again. So I think the best course of action is to strip all this down to bare metal, seal it with some epoxy primer and flat hot rod black, and I think that is gonna prevent future corrosion and really make our new bed wood kit really pop. Let's get started. [ sander buzzing ]

(Joel)>> I'm wearing a respirator while I'm shearing down all those old metal and paint. Gonna keep all those old, nasty, antique particulates out of my lungs, which I am a fan of because I do enjoy breathing without the aid of a respirator. All those layers of paint shining back through on that bed. Almost looks like a Picasso painting. This flat black is pretty forgiving. It doesn't have to be as smooth as Eric's pick-up lines, but it does need to be even. We're gonna make sure to buff out any imperfections that he might see upon closer inspection. [ sander buzzing ]

(Joel)>> Well pretty much got everything ready to rock 'n roll. Got a few more spots to touch up, but the next thing to do is get this over to the other paint booth, mask it off, and start prepping it for some primer. Up next, it's prime time as we get our truck ready for bed.

(Joel)>> Well guys we got our truck bed all masked off. I cleaned it up with some wax and grease remover and a tack cloth. So we're ready for some primer. Get this stuff laid down and we're ready for some Hot Rod Black. Now I know I'm not exactly painting the Sistine Chapel here. A steady hand, smooth motion, give you a nice even spread once you lay down your primer or your paint. [ spray gun hissing ]

(Joel)>> Just stick to the basics, like making sure your gun is clean, handle all the drips accordingly, especially in these tight nooks and crannies around the tailgate. [ spray gun hissing ] [ Music ]

(Joel)>> Guys I think it's safe to say we have made a dramatic improvement on Clint's old truck bed back here. Polished out all the uglies, did some rust repair, and I think this Hot Rod Black is gonna give it a nice, deep finish. Now some of you may be wondering why we went through all that trouble to remove mother nature's handiwork. Well there is a reason for it. We are replacing this bed floor in its entirety, including the hardware, bracing, and wood itself. All that fancy new stuff inside a junky old truck bed just wouldn't look right. So to dress this up we're adding this bed wood kit that we snagged at Summit Racing. It has all the holes pre-drilled along with slotted chamfers. We also opted for the HydroSatin finish, and since this is Clint Black's truck we went with black walnut for the lumber. But before you guys just go stuffing this into your truck bed there are a couple of measurements you need to make. First things first, you want to make sure that your bed is square. 90 and one half. Ideally you want the corners within one-sixteenth of an inch. That should do it. We also need to find our center point so we can evenly space out our wood and strips. So 28 and a half is our center point. [ Music ] Now sometimes when you put these boards in you've got to peel this lip up just a little bit. The best way to do that is with an adjustable wrench. Just kinda gently pull up on it ever so slightly. [ Music ] Alright, we've got our bed wood replacement kit kinda roughed in and it's starting to look really sharp. Next step is to go ahead and bolt in our center supports, and then we can adjust our gaps from there. Eric cleaned up and sand blasted our old center supports. So if yours are in good shape try and reuse them if you can. Otherwise you have to build some new ones. [ Music ]

(Eric)>> While Joel was working the wood for our bed I was back here minding the metal so that we could freshen up this frame before we get the bed back on. What we're gonna do that with is POR-15's Rust Preventative Coating. I've already gone through, cleaned and prepped it with their solutions. So all we've got left to do is brush this on and we're ready to go. Now you want to be careful not to over-do it with this stuff because a little bit goes a long way. You might be wondering why we're going through all the effort of painting underneath here when it's probably never gonna be seen again, but this POR is not just paint. What it is, is a rust preventative coating that's not gonna chip, crack, or peel at any point. So it's gonna keep the moisture off of our frame so that we're not gonna have to worry about any rust holes popping up. That's about the biggest safety concern you could have driving an old truck. The frame might look a little bit rough right now, but thankfully it is all just on the surface. This is gonna keep it from getting any deeper than that. [ Music ] Less is definitely more with this stuff. It's only gonna take us about a half a quart to do this entire frame. So if you get a quart or more you're definitely gonna have some left over for other projects down the road. The reason we didn't fully strip this frame is because POR stands for Paint Over Rust. You're not gonna have anything to worry about once this stuff cures. [ Music ] Well with all the frame coating that we can do for right now finished up it's time to move into this interior. Now as you can see, we've already got it mostly gutted with the seat, the gauges, and all the dash components out. Wiring's almost out of here. So all that's really left is these layers of floor mats, and more importantly this old fuel tank. The fuel tank is one of the most important things to inspect when you buy an old car or truck because you never know what kind of sediment or rust build up you could have in there. That is the last thing you want running through your fuel system. Now replacing this tank is a pretty easy choice for us because when we pulled the seat out, it hit the tank and put not one but two holes in it because it is full of rust on the inside, and I think I know why. Because instead of gas it's full of water, just like the engine and transmission. So we're gonna get this out of here and get a new one in.

(Joel)>> Swapping out our old fuel tank labor-wise is not gonna be that big of a deal. In fact it's a fairly easy and straightforward process. However finding an o-e replacement 1957-1960 Ford F-100 fuel tank, that was a whole different headache in itself. Luckily the guys at Dennis Carpenter not only had a new tank and sending unit in stock but they had a bunch of other restoration components that we will eventually need to finish out this project. Now some of you may be cringing at the idea of us putting the fuel tank back in the cab of the truck. Totally get it. This is basically an 18 gallon bomb cruising down the highway with you. A solution to that is to relocate the gas tank back to the rear section of the frame. That's actually what we did on our old 1964 Ford Flatbed that we built last season. Relocating your fuel tank has many benefits. However it can come with its own set of obstacles, including having to replumb your entire fuel system, not to mention welding up that giant filler neck hole there on the driver's side. At the end of the day Clint just wants his old truck back exactly the same way he remembered it. For right now we're gonna get our o-e style tank slapped in there and get this thing one step closer to getting back on the road.

(Eric)>> Coming up, our flooded out Ford gets a shocking upgrade.

(Eric)>> With the filler neck installed all that's left to finish up this fuel tank is to get our sending unit wire hooked up. But with the fact that the truck has been flooded and this wire is just really old in the first place it's probably a good idea to replace it. We know that there's been water in here, and that can lead to shorts, blown fuses, and it's also a fire hazard. So replacing your wiring on something this old, especially if there's water damage, is one of the best ideas that you could have. Instead of buying a whole bunch of wire, connectors, and other supplies and spending all the time to build this harness out from scratch we went and found this American Autowire Classic Update Series wiring kit at Summit Racing. Now this is a complete kit that comes with everything you need to rewire your entire truck front to back. It also comes with its own fuse block that's gonna allow us to update to blade style fuses rather than the original glass fuses. Every single wire in this kit is labeled. So even if you're still a beginner and learning this is gonna be the easiest, safest way to make sure you get this done right. Now the first step to getting this installed is gonna be mounting this fuse block exactly how American Autowire recommends. [ Music ] Depending on your build, you might have some unnecessary wires in a kit like this, but make sure you read the instructions and the labels before you start cutting. The wiring's coming along pretty good so far, and I've got the interior mostly buttoned up. So I've moved out here to the engine bay to start getting some of this stuff run. Now a lot of it can't be terminated until we get things like the engine and the lights actually put back onto the truck, but that's okay because we can at least get the wires close to where they're gonna live once all that's done. Now we're gonna need to take care of these screws that we used on the inside to mount the fuse block and couple of wiring clamps. Not only is this gonna keep you from getting your hands all cut up, but it's also gonna make it look and blend in a lot better with this fresh black paint. With all those capped off we've got one more thing we need to do before we can start looming these wires together, and that is fill in this hole right here. The best way to do that is with a grommet, but with the wires already being run we can't slide one over. So we're gonna have to make some modifications to this to make it fit. We're gonna take a pair of cutters and make a nice, clean cut. This hole itself is a little bit too small for that big ole bundle. So we're gonna need to trim this rubber off. Very carefully work our way around. With that done we can get this put on and move on to getting the wire loom done.

(Joel)>> When it comes to wiring up the ignition system on one of these old Fords it's about as simple and easy as it gets. Pretty much everything runs along this passenger side inner fender, and I've got a battery sitting in here just for mockup purposes so that we can measure how long we need to cut our terminals that will run down to the solenoid switch, which will run as our primary hub for our entire ignition system. Now this little guy has four terminals. The first one is where you're gonna tie into the positive side of your battery. It's got one just like it on the other side for a hot wire to the starter. On the front here you can see two letters, "S" and "I". The "S" is where you'll tie into the key hot on your ignition switch, and the "I" is for the positive terminal on your ignition coil. All of these components have to work in harmony in order to get your engine to fire, but once it is running how does it maintain that electricity? Back in the day these old trucks had what was called a generator, and these things were hefty, beefy, and man they could put out some current but they did require one thing, voltage regulator. If Clint wants to cruise down the highway with the headlights on, radio blasting, and the windshield wipers flapping he'll have this thing to thank because basically what it does is it evenly distributes 12 to 14 volts throughout the entire electrical system so that one component doesn't get overloaded or underloaded. There are some companies out there that offer alternators that look just like generators, and they're internally regulated. So for you guys at home that like that old school look but want a few more modern conveniences it might be something you look into. No matter what route you decide to take first things first, you're gonna need an engine. Up next, fire in the hole! It's time to see if this straight six will turn over.

[ mechanical humming ]

(Joel)>> Well guys it's finally happening. We're stabbing that inline six back into Clint's old truck permanently. If things go well we'll be test firing it by the end of the day. First we've got a few components that we still need to install, including our flywheel, clutch assembly, bell housing. We're gonna kick things off with a good ole pilot bearing. [ Music ] [ hammer tapping ]

(Joel)>> Thread locker is crucial here. Once everything is torqued to spec you won't want those bolts to back out and cause damage to the clutch. [ Music ]

[ drill humming ]

(Joel)>> Now I've got a little flywheel holder here because you don't want this thing to spin while you're torquing these down, especially if you've got your crank sitting at top dead center. If you don't have one of these a pry bar works just as good. Alright next thing we're gonna throw on is our clutch disc. Usually these things come with a little specialty tool that'll help center it on the pilot bearing as well as hold it in place. Now I'm gonna advise you guys before you put this on here go ahead and set your clutch disc on your input shaft or your transmission just so you double check and make sure you've got the same spline count. Don't ask me how I know. If the spline count doesn't match you're in for a whole host of issues such as the clutch not engaging, premature wear and tear, or the input shaft itself gets damaged. All very bad things. Torque spec on these is 30 foot pounds, but it's a good idea to make sure they're all seated first before you go to that next step. Gonna get our mid plate set in here. A lot of modern bell housings are actually made out of aluminum, but on this old Ford it's made out of cast iron. So gotta bring in muscle man Eric, set this thing on here.

(Eric)>> It's definitely a little heavier than some of the newer stuff. I think you've got it from there.

(Joel)>> Thank you sir. If you guys don't have an Eric I recommend hitting the gym or get some new friends. Now I don't know if any of you guys have seen one of these old Ford starters before but they're kinda funky looking. Basically they have this little Bendix drive that sits on top of the shaft, and then when the flywheel's turning over and the motor fires it'll use centrifugal force to retract the gear back into itself. We've come a long ways in 60 years as far as technology goes.

(Eric)>> I hope this thing runs.

(Joel)>> It's one of those ran-when-parked kinda deals.

(Eric)>> Start going down. I'm gonna crawl underneath there and grab that tail shaft. Okay, hold up a second. Let me see if I can get these, at least one of these bolts started.

(Joel)>> No hurry, I get paid by the hour!

(Eric)>> Down a little. Hold up right there.

(Joel)>> She's in.

(Eric)>> You good up front?

(Joel)>> Yes sir!

(Eric)>> I'll feel better once we hear it run though. [ Music ] Today we tore into this old F-100 and had to get rid of some battered parts.

(Joel)>> This is like household wiring for your outlets and stuff.

(Eric)>> Definitely does not belong on here.

(Joel)>> We dove in like a surgeon and sawed out any and all components we couldn't repurpose to make Clint's truck drivable once again. Cleared one brace!

(Eric)>> That's half the fun.

(Joel)>> We installed an all new bed with a signature Clint Black coat of eye popping paint.

(Eric)>> We also treated the frame for rust so that the bed and the rest of the ride should stay rust free for years to come.

(Joel)>> And with our all new suspension finally installed we're ready to kick start the heart of this fubar'ed old Ford.

(Eric)>> With our engine dropped in we've still got a few key components that need to get hooked up before we can call it finished, like the cooling system, the belt, a few other things that we'll take care of later. For right now we want to test fire this thing to make sure that we got a good engine. Joel I think it's about time we find out if this thing's any good.

(Joel)>> I'm nervous and also a little excited. Ready! Here we go! [ engine starting ] [ engine revving ]

(Eric)>> No exhaust, this thing sounds pretty rowdy.

(Joel)>> Especially for a six banger. We've still got a whole lot of work to do my friend.

(Eric)>> I'm gonna get some coffee. You want some?

(Joel)>> That sounds awesome! I hear Clint makes a pretty mean cup of joe himself.