December 9, 2005
It's been a while since I have written anything. I've accomplished
a few things in the last month or so:
-
Replaced the somewhat mangled headlight bezels or rings with new
ones from Dennis Carpenter. They look great.
-
Replaced the instrument cluster lens. Not only does the lens
look new, the entire instrument group looks brand new now.
-
Adjusted the timing a bit to eliminate the ping. I'm down to
medium unleaded now.
In addition to these changes, I spent the week of Thanksgiving building
a driveway next to my garage. I was parking the truck across the
street at my neighbor's house, but now I have room on my property.
I'm actually planning on parking my camper in the new space, since it
will get it a bit out of sight.
I built the driveway myself for about 10% of the cost estimate I had
from a local landscape company to do the work. There's no doubt the that
their estimate was for a more durable construction job since they would
have used reinforced concrete for the retaining wall, but for the
difference in cost, I think I made the right choice. The wall and
driveway look great, and I got the satisfaction of building something.
I used both trucks to haul materials too, so the f100 saw some action in
building the driveway.
We got a new puppy a couple of weeks ago. A rat terrier.
She's a little intimidated by the truck, but I'm sure she it will grow
on her. It better, because I'm keeping it!
November
13, 2005
Lori
and I took a spin down to Stinson Beach for breakfast. The truck
ran great, and the ride was quite safe. :-) It was a cool
but very beautiful morning. I marvel at the beauty of where we
live every time I break out from the forest and see the ocean on the way
to Stinson beach. It's paradise.
Sometimes
I wonder about selling everything and moving to the islands. But
if we did that, would what would happen to paradise?
November
12, 2005
When
I bought my truck, it had replacement lap seatbelts installed.
They're fine, unless of course, you're actually in an accident.
I'm not planning to wreck my truck, but who does? I replaced the
belts today with universal three-point shoulder belts from www.sealtbeltpros.com.
Their kit includes the hardware kit. I didn't know exactly what I
would need, so it seemed like the way to go. I probably could have
gotten by with less, but lowering the hassle-factor was worth it to
me. There were cheaper options without the installation kit, but
they included sales tax, so it was a pretty close call anyway.
It
took about 20 minutes to upgrade the seatbelts. I moved one of the old
lap belts to the middle seating position. All-in-all, much safer.
October
30, 2005
Well,
I got my new wheels and tires yesterday. I'll post a picture when
I get the chance, but I think they look really good. The wider
tires 'fit' much better, and the wheels are traditional enough to 'fit'
too.
After
fixing the neutral safety switch on Friday, I still had to hold the gear
lever over towards the 'reverse' position to get the engine to turn
over. If you weren't careful, it would slip into reverse while
starting. Not too safe! So, I adjusted the switch position
this morning so that the switch actually works when the gear position is
on park. Hey, now it's safe.
While
putting the new tires and wheels on, I had them pull the drums and check
the brakes. They look fine, so that's good. They also
checked the king pins. The right one has a very small amount of
play, so I guess I get to fix that next. One of these days.
October
28, 2005
It
sure is nice to have defrost and heat in the truck!
Yesterday
I was going to get new wheels and tires for the truck. It turns
out the wheels didn't come in, but that's another story.
The
real story is that the truck wouldn't start after I stopped at the
hardware store to pick up some high-temperature paint for the brake
drums. The drums will be somewhat visible through the new wheels,
so I thought I would dress them up at the same time I put the wheels on.
The
problem with the truck was the neutral safety switch. I guessed
that this was the problem, because, before it broke, you had to hold the gear lever hard
against the stop in park to get the truck to start. Unfortunately,
I didn't know where the switch was located, so I ended up getting the
truck towed home. Good thing I bought that towing insurance!
I
found the answer to my questions about the neutral safety switch on the
67-72 forum on www.ford-trucks.com.
The lever attached to the steering shaft had popped off. I put it
back on and all is well.
I
also adjusted my idle speed on my Holly Street Avenger carburetor
down. It was set too high, making it hard to keep the truck at a
standstill at stoplights. Now that's better too.
October
26, 2005
I
didn't drive the truck to work today because it was raining. I had
put new windshield wipers on my 2000 F250, and decided to try them
out. It's amazing how easy that big truck is to drive after
driving the '69. It really makes you appreciate modern technology.
This
evening I pulled the heater fan out to see if I could get some flow to
the windshield. It's kind hard to drive out of the fog up here
without some ventilation. Anyway, my ventilation cables are not
connected, so I repositioned the baffle next to the fan to direct the
flow to the windshield and heater system. I set everything on
'bi-level' and now we will have heat and defrost.
I
also noticed that the left door is leaking somewhere. Probably the
wing window, which doesn't clamp tight. Ah, another little repair
job.
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