Another update
Obviously I'm ahead of my posts progress-wise on the truck although I'm starting to get them aligned with current time so most posts will be up to date or current progress.
So with that in mind yesterday I drove the truck to work for the first time and here are a few observations.
First the truck is a ball to drive, it's both weird and fun, weird because I still remember driving it when it was a '98 CV and basically it runs and drives just the same but has a different feel or vibe, first reason is the CV has VAPS which is a acronym for "Variable Assist Power Steering" which changes the amount of assist the PS pump provides, it basically takes inputs from the steering column, the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor), and the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) and the ECM decides on how much assist to provide in turning the car, this supposedly makes the CV more stable doing high speed maneuvers (less assist) and easier (more assist) to turn in low speed turning like parking or slow speed city driving.
In the chassis swap of course I didn't use the CV steering column opting on a aftermarket column, I did notice the "hall effect switch" on the CV column that tells the ECM about steering wheel position and rotating speed but didn't have a clue what it was for. While driving it last week to the gas station and around the neighborhood (posts from yesterday) I noticed the PS acted a little odd, not bad like no assist although turning while idling was harder than I remembered but nothing really bad just different, driving down the road at say 30 mph the assist is what seems to be normal, at highway speeds 50 mph and above it is stiffer than I remember like it has less assist.
This pic shows the hall effect switch on the old CV column....
Technically that is how it is suppose to work, the PS pump has a electric solenoid valve in it on the pressure side that limits the amount of fluid or assist that the pump can provide for steering, the loss of the hall effect switch from the CV column has it relying on just the VSS and TPS for input signals telling it what to do, and so far it while different seems to be safe and OK to drive normally but it is something I need to keep a eye on and pay attention to how it is reacting.
If it is going to be a problem or be unsafe I'll have to change the PS pump out to a non-VAPS pump to make it act normally, not a real big deal but something I hadn't considered or even thought about doing this swap. It's just going to take time behind the wheel and some miles to see what happens, and again I'm sharing this to maybe help others in the future so down the road in a future update I'll let everyone know how it turns out.
Everything else works as expected, we have what is left of Irma dropping rain on us yesterday and today so I got to see how the truck reacted to rain and wet streets, I was concern about the weight on the rear tires since most of the bed floor is gone and we shed several hundred pounds off the backend from when it was a CV, on dry pavement it will of course light the tires up because of this if you have a heavy right foot, but it did just fine and the longer I drove on wet streets the more confident I was that there was adequate weight to keep the rear tires planted unless you got stupid. lol
Even the wipers work well enough with new blades on them to keep the windshield clean and vision clear, cab stayed dry with the exception of around the doors since I haven't replaced the door gaskets yet which is going to get done this weekend along with rebuilding the passenger door windows like I did the drivers a few weeks ago. Lighting is just flat out fantastic, the combination of the halogen headlights and LED bulbs make everything bright at night, the headlights are great compared to the old seal beams...like night and day.
The fun part? it's a '62 F-100 SWB uni, it's sits low, it handles and rides like a CV, has a shit-ton of power compared to the old 292, it has 4 wheel disk brakes with functioning anti-lock so it'll stop on a dime, it's not something you see everyday and although the body of the truck is just wasted it's going to be a cool old truck to drive everyday that will be very reliable. I won't have to worry about parking lot dings or some idiot opening their door and scratching the nice paint job, my goal is to make people not want to park next to it in fear that I'll open my door into their $50k rig...lol So the worse the exterior of the truck looks the more I like it, yes I want it mechanically sound and safe to drive, but look pretty...naw.
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A couple other observations, the brake pedal is too high off the floor, I knew this might be a issue but wanted to have a seat and actually drive the truck to make a judgment and yes I'll have to cut a notch in the back of it and move it closer to the floor then weld it back so it's nice and strong, I should have done this earlier but just wasn't sure how much to move it, now I have a decent idea since I can sit in the seat and move my feet back and forth between the pedals.
The truck rattles around a lot, granted I only have about half the bolts in all the front end sheet metal holding it in place, and the passenger door of course the window is flopping around since all the weatherstripping is wore out, it has its creeks and moans since it's settling down to it's new body mounts with new rubber that is compressing finding it's home....but all in all the transplant seems to be a success and I'm looking forward to putting some miles on it.
The last thing is the seat, we opted to keep the original bench seat and have a new cover on order for it (4 weeks away), we have the seat right now with 3" of foam rapped in burlap hog ringed to the frame with a blanket covering it, while it's comfy I think it's too much foam, the original cover really didn't have much in the way of foam padding just some cotton fabric covering the springs and a little bit of foam in the seat cover itself, I guess we'll see what we can do when the seat cover arrives.
When we took the slick apart the headliner had a mouse nest in it with live mice, it had been used for a nest for years and you can imagine what it was like, we were able to trace a pattern off of it before throwing it away, I have sound deaden-er yet to add to the cab roof which should cut down on some noise, we are just not sure yet what we are going to use to replace the headliner but I do have a few ideas floating around..
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So I'm on my second day of driving to work and it was raining pretty good this morning, but the truck did fine, funny thing everyone keeps asking what color are you going to paint it or are you just going to shoot clear on it to preserve the patina, when I tell them I'm leaving it as it is (well aged) I get the funny-est looks...lol
Jon