Moosestang Update

[Agnem]

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I know I did. I was off Friday as well as Monday, and both Friday and Saturday were spent exclusively on the Moosestang Bronco project. I started out by completely gutting the interior. I took out all the seats, carpets and undercarpet bunks. This revealed a very healthy floor and floor pan, so the rust is not out of hand. This was a relief. Under the carpet and bunk in the back of the truck, I found the build sheet. Always a cool find! I never know where to expect one, but I usually find it eventually. I wonder if Ford actually had a proceedure for where these things went, or if it was just the whim of the crew on duty that day. In any event, I had to go through all this to get to the rubber plugs covering the body mount bolts, because I had some goodies to install. The task was to replace the body mounts, and add a 2" body lift at the same time. This was made a good bit easier because there is no front clip right now, but needless to say, doing it myself, this was an all day job. Here is a look at it before, and here it is after. It was a good idea that I did this, not because the rubber body mounts were shot. Oh contrare. I was surprised to see how good a shape they were in. However, the holes in the frame where they passed were starting to rust out, and I took the time to clean up these holes, and treat them with rust stopper and paint before adding the new parts back on. Day two, found me swapping the springs out for the ones from the F-350. Here we see the front end up on the jack. I removed one spring at a time from the Bronco, and then went to the F-350 and took that spring out, and put the Bronco spring in it's place, to keep the F-350 chassis mobile. I was surprised at how identical the two springs were. The primary difference is the diameter of the rod stock used to make them. The F-350 stock is a good bit thicker, but the height and overall diameter of the spring are identical. I'm please to say they fit perfectly, in both trucks. Here is the Bronco with a spring removed. I had also removed the front sway bar, and associated bracketry. I've read over on FSB, that most report no difference with the sway bar removed, and since the rubber was shot on it, off it came. The F-350 spring was then installed, and the process repeated for the passenger side. I also resolved the issue with the motor mount, and found that once I torched off the riveted mount, that yes indeed, there is one bolt hole where it needs to be, and I will simply drill two more. I was also very pleased to discover that the Bronco has a factory installed in-line fuel pump mounted right on the frame. This plays into my hand excellently, as I had already planned on an electric pump from the beginning. I believe this gasser pump will pump diesel just fine. I also remembered that I had some gas in that tank, which I needed to remove before firing up the torch, so I hot wired the fuel pump, and pumped out 12 gallons which were fed to the boat and Windstar in turn. Wow! $36 worth of free gas! Yea! I then put 6 gallons of diesel in the tank, and ran it through the lines to purge the rest of the gas. The diesel was also free, having been in the parts truck for some time. It's probably not the best, but I'll burn it anyway. The next phase of the project will be to sand blast the frame and paint it. I also have a date with one of my Stoner-Wade buddies, to meet over there at S&W this Saturday, and he is going to walk me through rebuilding the C6 I got from Darrin. So, after this weekend, I should know a thing or two about the C6!.

 

[John Haggerty]

Good post! Keep up the progress reports.

 

[pafixitman]

Cool! I spent 36 hrs R&R rotted window molding on a house in Ellicott City!

 

[ericboutin]

Yah keep it up!! Man that looks like fun!! Wish I was closer so I could get my hands dirty too!! :Sly For those keeping score...how long has the project been going on so far? Looks like we are seeing a full compliment of seasons in those pics. When would you like to have her up and running? And how you gonna drive 3 vehicles to the next IDI wkend?? Maybe the boys can trade off - one steering and one mashing the gas!

 

[Exekiel69]

Lots of fun you are having Mel , remember to leave something for Me.

 

[Dalvaras]

Lookin' real good Mel. Wish I lived a little closer I would come help.

 

[F350camper]

Nice work Mel! Looking good so far..

 

[Freight_Train]

hmmmm,where are the build sheets usually found on the trucks?Might have to go exploring before I get white Lightning back running this weekend(yea you read that right!Will start another post for the Fun I have been having with this engine I got from BJ and Tanya!)......hmmm,wonder if the Enterprise might have the build sheet hidden in her too......Would love to find out the exact day both came off the line.

 

[budtoh3zo]

good to hear its getting closer to getting done

 

[Agnem]

Thanks guys. I found the build sheet for the Moose Truck taped to the bottom of the hood under the hood blanket, so you might look there. Those hood blankets need to come off anyway. The project has been a long time in the making, but really not much activity until now. It's been very bursty. About a year ago, I got the donor truck, so the motor has been in my garage since then. The Bronco became ours last April, and I've needed a 4X4 C6 which I got at the rally in July, so really you could say it has taken me about a year to gather the parts. Now I'm really starting to do the job, so I'd say I've really only spent a total of about 4 days on it so far, but if you count man hours, it's probably been about 40, thanks to friends who have helped thus far. I'm looking forward to the C6 rebuilt this saturday. The only other thing I will need before I can proceed, is a spray gun, and the paint to put in it.

 

[Exekiel69]

I have one, but it is electric if it makes a diference for you.

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

T The only other thing I will need before I can proceed, is a spray gun, and the paint to put in it.

Just got me a new spray gun last week Mel, come on up on the 24th and we'll GITRDONE!

Need to freshen up my skilz on something for Goldie goes straight.

 

[pafixitman]

Spray paint

I have a Campbell-Hausfeld gun that you can borrow. Remind me next Saturday. The 17th, a week before Ron, when we install MY TURBO!!! :draw

I was going to test it on the Chevy trailer in the spring!

 

[Michael Fowler]

Mel,
I have a harbor Freight HVLP gun gravity feed. I also have an old Binks model 7. Both work OK. The Binks puts out a finer pattern, but uses more paint. Either one ( or both)is available for your use, also a cheapo detail conventional gun with a 4 oz cup. You need at least a 5HP compressor, or you'll be waiting for the compresor to catch up.
I just finished the paint on my Mercedes---I sprayed it in the late spring, but its taken this long to sand and polish the clear coat. I would really recommend a base coat/ clear coat finish; its very forgiving. When you spray the base coat, all you look at is the coverage, and the pattern--if metallic. It also dries very quickly; almost like lacquer. Then you spray the clear which is where the gloss comes from. I got a fair amount of orange peel in the clear- either too much air pressure, or not enouigh reducer--or both. It was glossy enough, but I didn't like the texture. The advantage of BC/CC is that you can sand the clear. I sanded with 1200 grit to get it flat, and followed that with 2000 grit before polishing with Meguir's machine glaze. Keep the rpm on the polisher below 1500 , and use a foam pad and you can be pretty agressive without burning thru the paint. I learned about the foam pad after two small burns. I have some small spots to fix, but overall, it looks very good.
There are better paints, but I used Kirker from SmartShoppersinc.com. and I like the results. I had to buy a single quart of white to repair a company vehicle from a local supplier ( Kunkel's) and paid MORE for that quart than the gallon of base and the gallon of clear, all the activators and reducers.
On the other hand, painting is a very labor intensive process, and many people choose to shoot paints of higher quality. I priced some mid-grade paint at another local supplier, and to do my Mercedes would have cost about $600 for the materials.
Some people also feel the same way about spray guns; feeling that the Harbor Freight stuff is too chancy to risk for an all-over paint job.
The choice is yours.

Michael

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

I have a Campbell-Hausfeld gun that you can borrow. Remind me next Saturday. The 17th, a week before Ron, when we install MY TURBO!!! :draw

I was going to test it on the Chevy trailer in the spring!