From Fort To Fort

With the help of my bother in law (Brad), my father in laws truck, and a friends trailer, we drove out to Fort Stockton to pick up Stinky and move it to Fort Worth.  Trip went smooth and much dirt was left on I-20.

Somewhere down I -20 the Hair Ball found a new home.

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Dust it off and tear it down

We arrived in Fort Stockton last night and this morning went out to uncover the truck from the 20 years of dirt   and mom's variaty of discarded items.

Yea, that is a iron spoke wheeled garden plow on the hood.  During the process I realized that it was exactly 20 years to the month that my dad and I hauled it back from San Angelo.  Some of the miscellaneous paper work we found inside proved the dates.

We hauled the truck over to Joe's shop with a dent side wrecker.

Note the hair ball dead center of the roof.  Nice.

 We pulled out the 440 Chrysler and installed the DJM lowering beams, refurbished disc brake spindles, new shocks, bushings, etc.  In a nut shell the front end was completely rebuilt by Monday when we hauled it back to mom's where it will wait until I can come pick it up.

That's me posing with Stinky and the hair ball on the roof.

Parts and Resource List for Bumps

Parts Vendors & Resources
Jeff's Bronco Graveyard
National Parts Depot:Ford Truck Parts & Accessories | 1948-1979
LMC Truck - Ford Truck Parts and Truck Accessories
MAC's Antique Auto Parts
Blue Oval Truck Parts
Dennis Carpenter Ford Restoration Parts
Speedway Motors, Street Rod & High Performance Parts
The Early Ford Store-San Dimas,CA
Truck & Car Shop (Orange, CA): 48-86 Ford Trucks, 66-86 Ford Bronco
C&G Early Ford Parts: 32-79 Ford Trucks (Escondido,CA)
John's F-Fun Hundreds: 48-79 Ford Truck Parts
Sacramento Vintage Ford
Flashback F-100s: 48-2008 Ford Truck Parts
Vintage Pickup Truck Parts & Restoration Resources Directory
Green Sales Company - Vintage NOS & OEM Parts

RockAuto Auto & Truck Parts
Barry Rabotnick's Survival Motorsports - Ford FE Engine Specialists
Carolina Machine Engines-Rebuilt Long & Short Blocks
Domestic Carburetors at Carburetors & More,La Porte, TX
Daytona Carburetor Parts Co - Restored, Rebuilt, & Parts Source, New Smyrna Beach, FL
Carburetors Unlimited - New, Rebuilt, and Carburetor Parts, Auburn, WA
Centech Wiring Harnesses - Early Broncos & 60-80 Ford Trucks 
Summit Racing
Jeg's
Shock Warehouse
Inline Tube -The brake plumbing experts
Benchworks Steering
Red-Head Steering Gears, Seattle WA
Borgeson Universal Steering Components
Moog Suspension & Steering Components
Dana-Spicer Axle Applications & Service Manuals

TCP Global Autobody Paintguns, Primers, Paints & Supplies
Autobody Toolmart- Tools, Dent Repair, and Paint Supplies
Del City Quality Automotive & Electrical Supplies
AMK Restoration Fasteners - Clips, Bolts, Screws, Engine Hardware, Fittings, Pins, Gromments, Seals Spacers
The Bolt Depot- Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners Online
Aircraft Spruce- Aviation Hardware & Supplies
Kano Labs - Kroil Lubricants & Penetrants

The Idea

I have been working in Southwest Fort Worth for quite some time and am in the business of knowing people.  Realizing that I was doing a good job of making the effort sometimes a visual effort is needed to.  Kinda of like wearing a shirt with your company name on it, someone will eventually ask you about it.  It got me thinking about all aspects of my day and driving is a big part of it.  I am not the one to go wrap my car with a blaring billboard ad.

Then I started thinking about a way to look different with the car it self and that lead me to an old truck.  Not a show piece but an "old" truck.  Then it hit me, I have an old truck and it has a story to tell, my first car.

History

It was Christmas of 1983 when my dad got up early and started the small block 400 1977 Chevy Blazer.  It had dual glass pack exhaust and had a rumble to it that could be heard throughout the house.  Mom's sun catchers that hung in many widows were rattling and it always seemed that house just liked to absorb every ounce of the machines noise and spit it back at you.  It was a cold gray morning and unknown to me, dad had used the Blazer as a visual and noise shield to move my big present in the drive way.  Later that morning I opened a small box, with 2 excited parents, that revealed a key to the present outside.  I didn't know much about cars at the time but that all changed that day.

In the drive way sat a tan colored 1967 F100 300 cid straight 6 with 3 on the tree.  It was a short bed and even though I had seen it parked on the neighbors drive for a week, it was a pretty unremarkable pick up until now.  Now it was mine!  Most important to my Dad was that it was a 1967 model, the year I was born.  The second most important thing to my Dad was the fact it was a standard transmission.

So we bundled up against the cold gray out side and went to the High School parking lot (which looked like a former landing strip).  I climbed up behind the steering wheel and started it up.  Dad briefly explained how to put it in first and ease out on the clutch and roll forward.  Stutter stop.  Neutral, Start the engine, stutter stop.  We repeated this ritual 3 times.  Then I turn to my Dad and asked.  "How does it work?"  He tried explaining how to ease out on the clutch and give it gas at the same time (for the forth time).  I interrupted him and asked again.  "How does it WORK?"  He glared at me and then explained how a clutch plate and pressure plate work.  One spinning, one not and the objected was to get one "not" moving.  I said "ok"  and took off across the parking lot shifting gears, stopped at the stop sign and drove around neighborhood for a bout 20 minutes while Dad didn't speak a word.  He was unusually quiet as we pulled up into the driveway. We went in the house and Dad walked to the phone, Dialed a number.  He said "Merry Christmas" without any excitement and said "Here, speak to your grandson".  Granny was on the phone and asked me how I liked my new present.  She then asked if I could drive it yet and I said yes.  Then she said "what?!  It took your Dad over two weeks to figure that out, how fast did you figure it out?!"  "About 10 minutes"  I replied.

So it's not a Camero, Mustang, or a new model car, or something that was cool.  It was a simple nuts and bolts truck that could get me from point A to B.  It needed some work and the first order of business was to solve the rattling lifters and Dad knew how to do it.  Right out in the street in front of the house.  That is where I had my first look at an engine with a wrench in my hand.

The truck had about 90 K on it and the motor was smoking pretty good.  About the fall of 1984 Dad acquired a 1971 Ford short bed pretty much like mine but is had a 302 V8 in it.  Green, and badly wrecked on the passenger front side but all the parts for an engine swap.  I got the motor out and with the help of a friend thought my genius self was about to rebuild and engine, right there in the west Texas dirt.  It wasn't to be so.  I broke a piston and ended up in one of Dad's grand schemes.

CD Gram was his name and he had an engine shop in Fort Stockton.  The parts were stacked 15' plus and paths though the place were so narrow that it made the small place easy to get lost in.

I will add more to the middle of this story as time goes on, but for now I will jump 29 years forward so that family and friends can see the progress being made.