Freightrain

I know of the fellow in Jerome that has the old mine and the trucks. He is a member of the ATHS and a fellow made a video of him and his trucks about 15 yrs ago. I'm trying to find it, I have the VHS version and there are a few that are put on Youtube.

Well, I got to pull it out of the garage last night. Got the passenger fender stuck on. Still got need shell and hood, but it looks more like a truck now. Cleaned up the mess that was growing under the truck all winter(ugh). Bet there was 20# of crud/oil/dirt I scraped off the front framerails. I actually found a few places where there was shiny black paint on the frame under all the mess. Hmmm. I'll get more pics.

Another box will take some frame length. What is the wheelbase now? What model 10 spd? TRDxxx? Is it overdrive? What is your current ratio out back? 5.xx? Need to get it into the 4's. An OD trans with 4.62 rear will get you 65 mph on the floor.

Sounds like you have a direct transmission. My triplex(single over) with 4.62 gears would go just about 65 mph flat out. You will have to change rear end housing to get a better ratio. I think 4.00 was the fastest you could get in a B model double reduction. I would find an overdrive transmission, that will get you near 70 mph with your present ratio. Right now I have same triplex, 4.10 gears and it will go about 72 mph in OD. 65 mph is about 1800 rpm in OD. You will have plenty enough power to pull a single car trailer. My trailer is 14K lbs and it will go 65+ easily. Get it on hills and it starts to suffer, but in all not a problem running with traffic. (I've had it 80+ mph on level ground-my aux box gives me 85 mph).

Good looking truck. I like the old 5 hole wheels! I know Mack is suppose to have wobble wheels, but I like the 5 holes better. Nice work. Like the colors also. I like those shift tags. I'd like to make something up for my truck with the 3rd stick. Might have to just have it printed(vinyl). Right now I just drew a picture on the dash for my back box just for those "oh shit, where is it suppose to go" moments. Not that I shift it much, but that is why I had to make a diagram.

Looks like an expansion tank from a Galaxie! Only the outlet is on the drivers side. The top picture looks more boat oriented? Is that an outlaw car in the upper picture? Some good motor porn for sure! Ya, the wagon runs pretty good for what it is. That is just the car, throw another 180# worth of driver to that number. I leave A LOT on the table with this motor. When I put the 4.25 crank in it a couple years ago the shop kept bugging me to CNC the heads and put a big roller stick in it. Nope, no money for that crap! Still running the same flat tappet since 2000! The edelbrock heads are just rolled and gasket matched, nothing special. They only flow 280 Intake/220 exhaust. They go north of 300 on the intake now pretty easily. Glad I was never big on going fast. I just enjoy the driving part.

Congrats. It will be second nature before you know it. Just take your time, pay attention. Like the old story goes.........you can go off the pass(hill) slow lots of times, but you can only go off the pass too fast once.

Good looking car. Already got those installed. I bought the 60" kit and found out they still just barely make the back bumper LOL!! I'm still at a stealthy 3850#. Down from the original 4600#. I had a chance at an all alum 482 FE, made just under 800hp for PENNIES on the dollar. I knew what it cost to build and it came on the market a year later, never installed, only dyno time. Ugh, just didn't have the cash to piddle away on it. My motor makes 625hp, for a plain, flat tappet, no CNC work motor it isn't bad.

I'm thinking the old brownie box will fall out long before the front wheels get in the air................LOL!

My ol boat. Running a 428 block, 4.25 crank(462ci), Edelbrock heads, flat tappet cam, 2x4 intake, doug nash 5spd. Best 10.83.

Ya boy!

I'm thinking of going alum or silver colored. It might look a bit more like it should instead of gold. The radius deal isn't a deal breaker. It looks okay and will work fine. I could look farther for something else, but getting the right radius is still a shot in the dark. Like I usually say.."good enough for who it's for". Powder coat is possible, need to check with my buddy and see if he is running anything silver in the future. With just moving the truck back/forth the new clutch is smooth as glass. At this point...........I just wanna DRIVE IT!! I'm getting tired of just starting it and filling the garage with smoke(along with half the neighborhood). This thing is a smoke monger. Will be putting the fender on and getting the bunk off next weekend. Then I can road test it. YA!

Working on air intake. I think it is turning out well. Looks like it should JUST clear the hood. Tape measure is approx. hood line. Getting tight enough radius wasn't possible so I had to cut them. Not what I wanted but will work fine for this. Finish welding and some gold paint so it looks like it is suppose to be there. Would love to done alum but that was not in the cards. Had to step from 4" at air cleaner to 3 1/2" at turbo.

A CF685.

I crossbolted my own block for my race car on that old mill. Little cranky, bit sloppy, but gets the job done. I've surely done my fair share of "gov'ment jobs" at work. It surely is a perk.

This is me, at work, using our G/L Horizontal mill to open the holes. Since I couldn't get the bolt pattern leveled out easily enough, I used a tight fitting test pin in each hole and lined the chuck up. Then drilled that hole. Moved around the pattern. If I could have set it up a Bridgeport, it would have been easier to spin the wheel around and pick up on two holes to get the zero on X and Y. I was still concerned that the holes would be right. Got it home and bolted up perfect. Holes were still dead on. Sometimes a plan comes together.

Yup. Same problem...one extreme to the other. If the heater had a variable resistor instead of 2 SPD switch.

Had a friend with a car that had rusty water issues. He made a sock filter out of a piece of fine screen in the upper radiator hose. Easy to pull and clean.

I am very familiar with thread serts. I like them better then heli coils. There was no enough meat on flange to do that. I just machined the holes to 3/4". Worked well. I work at a machine shop. I did all my own work. The bolts fit snug in the holes. I don't see any reason it won't work fine in my application.

I should really look to get some for my truck it might take care of some of the drafts.....

Yes. Check your local agent. If you run into problems contact my agent. I've had other people call and get insurance for their trucks through her office. Rachael Chandler-Head Street Address 4422 22nd Street NW Canton, OH 44708-1574 Office Phone: 330-477-8529

My State Farm doesn't have issues with me using the truck, in a non commerical way.

I'll have to look. Just a std group 31 truck battery, Interstate brand. Buddy got me a deal on them back then. When I converted mine from S/P, I too put 4-12v batteries in it thinking I would need them. Not. I left them for the 10 yrs. It likely took 10 yrs to work all four down to the point it sounded weak and needed replaced. Since mine is always in a garage I don't worry that it won't start.

I got 10 yrs out of the last set for my truck. They just started to get slow sounding so I put 2 new ones(I used to run 4). Don't need 4 12v batteries to start a 673. Even the 237 I just put in rolls over nicely with only 2 batteries. I'm thinking they are almost 5 yrs old now? Still going strong. Didn't charge them up over winter either.

Well, all is better........now if I could get that clamp to tighten enough to make it NOT leak. Ugh. I pulled the casting off the engine, used a small hammer to "finesse" the downpipe to fit the taper better. That helped, not totally. Might try some hi temp silicone, as the casting is kinda rough and likely why it leaks. Once I get that done I will get the other fender back on.