Grandad's "Old Blue"

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » March 8, 2010, 10:07 pm

Some of you have heard the story, but I figures I would post it here. I have a 1965 F100 that my grandad bought in about 1980. This was a really nice truck then. AS time went on, he had to replace the rearend. I don't remember why. He also had to put in a new engine, and I remember why on this! I was a young kid and Mom's car was broke down. We had the truck and Mom overheated it......enough to lock up.

Over the years everyone tried to buy this old truck. He would never part with his baby. He had one man that stopped once a month. Finally the old man asked him, "Do you have kids?" The man replied "Yeah, two." "Would you sell one of them?" The guy of course said "NO!" When the man said no, Grandad said, "Now, you know why I won't sell the truck!"

When Grandad had a stroke and had to be put in a home, I rescued the truck. Some of the family where going to scrap it and asked one of my uncles to haul it away, he said he didn't want me to kill him. I had worked out a deal to find Grandad another truck with power steering and automatic. I got the truck in 1999.

After tinkering with the truck for 11 years it has come time to get going. Last Saturday my wife totaled my car and I figured it would be cheaper to get the truck going (Finally) than buy another beater.

I bought a replacement engine because all of the freeze plugs had rusted out. After checking the block, I found it was full of rusty sludge. I got another 352 and have it about ready to put in. I'm waiting on my new clutch, which will be in tomorrow.

ezernut9mm · Post by **ezernut9mm** » March 8, 2010, 10:20 pm

excellent! the tradition continues.

weezle · Post by **weezle** » March 8, 2010, 10:29 pm

Awesome story Mellvis...Good to see the kids getting their hands dirty.

slickmainer · Post by **slickmainer** » March 8, 2010, 10:39 pm

Id like to get my little one working on my next project. It would be a good lesson in "See everyone makes mistakes, lots of mistakes, even dads" now lets redo this floorboard again.

jakdad · Post by **jakdad** » March 9, 2010, 7:08 am

Great project!!! Looks like you have plenty of help.

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » March 9, 2010, 8:41 pm

The help is great. I was about their age when Grandad got the truck. I was always on his heals when the wrenches came out too. I love it.

Today we got the clutch together, trans stabbed on (talk about a pain), and dropped in the truck. I think next time I'll stab the trans after the engine is in. It was tight and lots of twisting. I had to stop here because of the rain. Tomorrow if it's raining I'l push it inside and start putting it back together.

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » March 15, 2010, 6:42 pm

I'm happy to say that almost everything is going well on the old beast. Saturday my cousin came over and helped button up a few things (Thanks Brett). We got the clutch arm pivot on, the trans cross member tightened up, engine mount nuts on, shifter and linkage back on, and both drive shafts. in. Reading the list makes it sound like we didn't get much done, but it took about six hours for both of us. That includes a trip to Lowe's for cotter pins and some bolts that had to be replaced.

I'm still trying to decide on a carburetor. I have found a Holley in good shape for $50. it's a 600 with vacuum secondaries and a manual choke. That's what was on my 66 F100 and it ran fine. My replacement engine is SUPPOSED to have a RV cam (275/480). I think my 66 had a small cam in it. I have no way to know, but at 700 RPMs it had a bit of a lope to it. Does this seem like a reasonable set up? most of this truck's life will be daily driving at about 55 MPH tops. I will do some light hauling, like an occasional motorcycle or some furature, but that's about it.

I'm not having problems staying motivated! My kids, wife and mother are rooting me on. It's nice to have that!

428blown · Post by **428blown** » March 20, 2010, 7:04 pm

The stock 390 cfm 2 barrel that came on this motor would be my choice. Easy to rebuild and adjust, it is the best stock carb ever made. I've had over a dozen 352s and they run great with the 2 barrel and small tube headers. If you have a couple hundred dollars to spend upgrade the intake to an Edelbrock Performer ( flows efficient plus removes a ton of weight ) and a late model electronic distributor. Thanks for the story and thanks for getting kids involved with the hobby.

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » March 21, 2010, 1:08 pm

I'm trying to keep it basically all Ford. I know the upgrades are worth the time and money but I like the nostalgia of stock parts. I'm only using the four barrel because it was "cost-effective", meaning I have nothing in it.

Getting the family involved is a no brainer at my house. The garage is a great babysitter for them as well as for me.

low6t4 · Post by **low6t4** » March 31, 2010, 12:56 am

great pictures... let them kids get good and dirty.. it promotes good health.

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » March 31, 2010, 1:55 pm

low6t4 wrote:great pictures... let them kids get good and dirty.. it promotes good health.

It also promotes a healthy truck!! I want to teach them the beauty of old vehicles and the simplicity of taking care of them. I hope they want old (cheap) vehicles when they start driving.

thenephilm · Post by **thenephilm** » April 4, 2010, 10:31 am

looks good...if you ever need any parts, let me know cause i live in cincinnati which should be somewhat close to you

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » April 4, 2010, 3:47 pm

thenephilm wrote:looks good...if you ever need any parts, let me know cause i live in cincinnati which should be somewhat close to you

Thanks, you are close to me. I'm in Morrow. What I need now is to figure out this clutch problem. It will not disengage when I push the pedal down.

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » April 17, 2010, 8:57 pm

To update what's going on, I found that the disk is in fact backwards! HOW DID I DO THAT? Well, I guess I should have listened to you guys. A few of you told me that it was! I hope to tear it back apart tomorrow.

Alan Mclennan · Post by **Alan Mclennan** » April 18, 2010, 2:31 am

great pit crew Mellvis!, in the second last pic you can plainly see them saying " Dad it`s in backwards!"

Mellvis · Post by **Mellvis** » April 18, 2010, 9:09 am

You know, as good as they doe in school I should have listened to them. Seriously though, I needed the humor. My wife thought that was hilarious! She says they took it apart backwards.

64shortbed · Post by **64shortbed** » April 19, 2010, 11:37 pm

I have a similar story. My grandfather entrusted me with his 64 f100 when he could no longer drive it. I have been slowly bringing the mechanicals back up to snuff these last several years. We are finally at the point where we have begun to strip it down for body work and paint. My oldest (11) is helping me out and taking quite an interest in it, as I hoped he would.

BarnieTrk · Post by **BarnieTrk** » April 20, 2010, 7:57 am

Mellvis wrote:To update what's going on, I found that the disk is in fact backwards! HOW DID I DO THAT? Well, I guess I should have listened to you guys. A few of you told me that it was! I hope to tear it back apart tomorrow.

I'll bet it works better with the clutch disc switched around!

Don't beat yourself up too bad, we've all messed up somewhere along the line and we'll likely do it again sometime; we just try to keep the frequency to a minimum.......

BarnieTrk

Grandad's "Old Blue"

Grandad's "Old Blue"

You'll be sorry if you over carb!