Steve's 64 Short-bed Project

[SteveCanup]

Camera SD card not working, so used my wife's cell phone to get pics...
Carpet installation.
Removed seats, center console, seat-belts, etc. and vacuumed thoroughly...
Set the new carpet in and lined everything up

Blurry Image...but looks good

Got the passenger side trimmed, seat bolts lined up and the chrome edge strip in place


I had removed the gas tank to under the bed; here's what I did behind my seats, a piece of 1/8" plywood covered with Walmart black vinyl and I used the gas tank bolts to hold it in place.


I set the passenger seat in and tightened it down...ran out of time today....

[Blanger]

Looks great Steve, we are thinking about buying carpet like you did for the '65 (from the same people), the price is really good but I'm curious about the carpet does it have jute on the underside like some carpet does? I'd be interested in hearing what you think about the quality after you get it installed.

Jon

[SteveCanup]

Jon, the carpet is high quality, there is some backing across the middle of the carpet, but it does not cover the entire back. I don't know if it is jute, but it is thick and gray colored. The fit is like a glove, I was really impressed with how well it fit and there was several inches of extra carpet all of the way around. I was able to tuck it way up under the dash and had about 4-5 inches extra at the sides and back that needed trimming. I am going to finish the installation sometime today as it is already 60 degrees here this a.m.

[Blanger]

Thanks Steve....carpet ordered, I like the fact that it fits the entire floor and doesn't just stop at the seat, the excess will make for a nice custom install.

[SteveCanup]

Here's a link to a video of the "Cafe Bella" unibody F-100....pretty cool video...


https://www.facebook.com/cafebellacoffe ... 285883655/

[SteveCanup]

Nothing new to report...just driving and enjoying the truck.

My wife and I were at a gas station a couple of days ago in the '64. It has been rainy and snowy here and my truck was nasty (in my opinion.) I was at the tailgate pumping gas...my wife sitting in the passenger seat was looking at Facebook on her phone. Suddenly I hear the loud exclamation, "NICE TRUCK!" Looked up and it was a 20 something young lady walking over (she scared/startled my wife), "You don't have a Chevy engine in it do you?" Before I could answer, she was asking if she could take a picture of it. She had left the big Ryder truck she was driving sitting in the middle of the entry drive into the station. She snapped off 4-5 pics from various angles...jumped into her truck and was gone. Needless to say, it made my day...this is what it is all about...I love my truck.

[shipwrecked]

Nothing since March?

[SteveCanup]

April....I began a renovation of a small house (650 sq. ft.) which we bought that was next door. Mom passed last October and we moved dad into the house around the end of May. So I was busy with a gut remodel which included rewiring (btw, I saw your post of your electrical panel ) replumbing, new sheetrock, etc. etc. Then after moving dad in, we spent most of the summer cleaning up the exterior of the property. Then, dummy me had to buy a '66 Corvair from a friend which needed much rust repair. I bought it for $700 and if I can repair all of the rust and paint it, I will probably sell it and try to make some extra $$$ from it. So the truck has hit the back burner for now. I did drive it to a couple of cruise-ins this past summer. I am still loving the Jaguar IFS which makes it drive and handle like a sports car. My son-in-law just obtained a '65 from his dad and I am helping with the wiring on the truck and later with some bodywork. My grandson will be 14 in February and it will be his first vehicle. You probably saw my post on Facebook. They took it to a cruise-in last week-end.

I am a little bummed about the pics on this site. I know you worked hard to get pics posted of your build, as did so many others, including myself. It just seems easier to just go to the Facebook page and post pics of my truck. I've noticed traffic has slowed tremendously on here. Anyway, your truck is looking great. I am on here just about every day seeing what progress is being made. Keep it up. I will probably try to post up some pics here....

As I always say....stay tuned....more to come!

[SteveCanup]

Sold the Corvair...I wasted 2 months on the car and wanted to be working on my truck. It needs some love. I installed a new power steering pump today, which I purchased off of eBay for $24.95. The pump that came with the Jag IFS was starting to whine and moan and wouldn't shut-up...so it had to go. I re-ran a ground wire on my gas sending unit under the truck and now my gas gauge is working properly again. I am going to rework my exhaust as right now it stops about 12-18" short of the rear axle and everything is covered in exhaust soot. I was about to pull the trigger on a '79 302 with C-6 auto with 84K miles for $350 and talked myself out of it....which I will probably regret...regret....regret. But it's Christmas time and winter is coming and I don't have a garage to work in and it will take some major work (fabrication) to install a different engine in the '64. I would have to weld in motor mounts, move the tranny cross piece, and shorten the drive shaft. And I'm getting to old to be working out in frigid weather. I installed the Jag IFS last January in the frozen tundra and I'm am done fighting the abominable snowman. Anyway, I am going to wait (I can wait...lol) until Spring-time and look for an engine/tranny. Otherwise...I'm driving and enjoying the truck...

On another note...I am bummed about the picture situation on here. If the admins want to keep this group going without everyone bailing out to Facebook, they need a better....and more consistent, way of posting pics. I have reworked my build thread and redone the pics...and they're gone again. SMH....I like to post pics to hopefully help someone else out...but, it takes an act of congress to post pics anymore....really not worth the trouble.

[Mr. Jones]

Steve,
After a little practice I've been posting pics using a app called VGY works really well on my Apple phone,bought a new lap top last week.Gotta transfer a photo album into it,I haven't a clue how that works.....PM sent
Dan

[SteveCanup]

Lowered the rear another 2 inches today. It still has a slight rake to the stance, but looks much better. Drove it to town and then to the gravel pit and hauled 1420 pounds of gravel home. With 55 degree weather today, I gave it a thorough washing and tweaked with a few minor things. I'm getting rust spots here and there...so next Spring it will definitely need a repaint.

[SteveCanup]

Rebuilt the carb. Discovered from the tag on the carburetor that it is a '66 carb. It had an inch and a half thick, weird looking, aluminum spacer under the carburetor. Below is a picture of it (I'm surprised that I could post a pic!)....anyway, removed the weird spacer and it turned out to be a velocity governor. They installed these on 'medium duty' trucks in the '60's, as I understand. Someone at sometime undoubtedly needed to replace the carb and put this on the truck. I do not think that it was original to the truck...as per the little aluminum identification tag. So, I tossed the velocity governor and fabricated a 3/4" spacer, rebuilt the carb and it runs like a top. I have been disappointed with the performance of the 292 in my truck. I now believe that this governor device was robbing me of power and the gas mileage was horrendous (10-12 mpg). I've only had opportunity to drive it about 5 miles so far....so we'll see.

[04sd]

Interesting, I never ran across one of these. Found the following on another board when I searched, easy to see why a 50 year old governor could be hurting performance.

Ford used three different style governors on their truck engines, velocity, vacuum and mechanical. It sounds like you have a velocity governor, that's probably the most common one.
Here's what Ford's shop manual says about the velocity governor:
"The velocity governor is a single unit mounted between the carburetor and intake manifold. There is no provision for repair of this governor. It should be replaced when damaged.
The governor is operated by a combination of manifold vacuum and air flow past the governor valves. The governor throttle valves are offset in throttle bores so that the combined force of the manifold vacuum and the fuel/airflow through the bores has a greater effect on the larger, upstream area of the valves. This forces the throttle valves to move toward the closed position restricting the fuel/air flow. The closing action of the throttle valves is opposed by the control spring. The control spring is attached to the throttle shaft cam. The cam provides a balance between the closing action of the throttle valves and the action of the control spring at all engine speeds.
Under operating conditions, the governor throttle valves do not close, but remain open enough to allow the required quantity of fuel-air mixture to flow into the intake manifold to maintain the governed engine speed.
To maintain the proper vacuum to the distributor, the governor has two interconnected vacuum transfer ports and a vacuum transfer plunger. When the governor throttle valves are forced towards the closed position, vacuum from the lower port is supplied to the distributor to maintain sufficient spark advance. When the governor throttle valves are open wide enough, the plunger shuts off the bottom port and the top port supplies vacuum to the carburetor distributor vacuum passage for sufficient vacuum to the distributor."
It then goes on to give the speed adjustment procedure.
So, bottom line is, air flow velocity through the carb is the signal for the governor.

[JeffinMooresville]

Hi steve, just catching up on your thread, really nice truck. Love the video. I am just getting engine started after rebuild and trying to figure out sins of the po.

[SteveCanup]

Thanks Jeff. I used to manage the Cracker Barrel there in Mooresville right across from the 'race shops.' I lived in Salisbury. That was almost 15 years ago. Anyway...I rebuilt my carburetor last week and installed new points, condenser, rotor button, and cap. The truck started and ran great, so we, my wife and I, decided this past Wednesday to drive the truck over to our daughter and son-in-law's house. It is a 75 mile trip. Truck ran great, and got much better gas mileage. I worked on my son-in-law's (Joe) '65 F-100 while there. He is working out some issues from the previous owner (as we all have to do) to get the truck running and road worthy. Long story shortened....on the way home Saturday we had driven about one half way home when my truck, which was running beautifully by the way, started stumbling and sputtering....and then died. It would turn over, but would not fire more than a few seconds at a time. Not sure if it is an issue with the carburetor, or it jumped timing (original 292) or something else. It was getting gas to the carburetor and there was spark at the distributor. Luckily a local guy came by in a roll-back and offered to tow us home. It was meant to be...He owned 3-4 old Ford trucks, so it was an interesting ride home.

So today...or tomorrow...as time permits, I will troubleshoot and see what the issue is...it might be time to install a 302 with a T-5 or AOD...

Stay tuned...

[SteveCanup]

Turns out that I overtightened the carburetor bolts. One of the mounting ears on the base of the carb had broken off. Drove 45 minutes today to get a free (used) carb from the guy that towed me home. Turned out to be an unuseable carb also...

Ordered a used rebuilt '63 Autolite 2100 from ebay this afternoon. It's been rebuilt...will be here by Monday.

Stay tuned...I am....

...and Happy New Year!

[SteveCanup]

Update....it's been two weeks today...since my truck quit running. Comedy of errors...and perhaps a lack of maintenance on my part. The carburetor base that was made of MDF warped and broke the ear off of my carb. Ordered another carb off of ebay...rechecked points, replaced the AdvanceAuto Chinese condenser, distributor cap and rotor button. Then new plugs...would not crank or stay running. Replaced the coil and bingo...it started! Ran okay, but still having problems getting the idle correct and it floods easy. I did drive it down the road and back...clenching the whole way waiting for it to break down on me again. It ran great! Had so much more power...but, the carb is not right. Soooo....I did what I should have done at the beginning...bought a brand new carburetor today. It will be here Tuesday and we will see. I have exhaust welded up and ready to install on the truck and some other things I want to do...

[unibody madness]

Steve, my past experience with the 292 tells me that you have either put smaller tires on the truck or have really low gears or both. I put 3.50 gears in mine and a T 5 trans and she turns just over 2k rpm at 70 I average 18 to 20 mpg. I am also sure I would do much better if I followed the speed limit, but what's the fun in that?

[SteveCanup]

i'm running 265/70-15's on the rear with 3.73 gearing in the axle. 265/70-15's are 29.61 inches tall. I don't know what stock size tire these trucks came with in 1964, but I figure that the size I am running is close....if not a little bit taller.

[SteveCanup]

New carburetor installed late this afternoon. Initial thoughts...it's great! Fantastic! My 292 has new life...and lots more power. I had no idea that the velocity governor was choking the power from the engine. Lesson learned. Tomorrow I will install new Accel #4040 8mm ignition wires and give it an oil change. If time allows, I will also adjust the valves. I have a nice set of 2 1/2" pipes with tips welded up to add to the exhaust which will then exit right in front of the rear tires. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance....it's always been important to me. I let myself get to busy last year with other things and didn't take the needed time for my old truck. I've also "staked" off my backyard for a new 24x24 garage...construction to begin in the next week or so...

Stay tuned....