This past Sunday, Michelle, Emmett and I took the stroller down to Blacksmith’s in Hugo, to Emmett’s first swap meet.

We put him in the stroller, and he slept most of the morning, doing a little looking around. We ran into Titus from the HAMB, and he had a nice GM Tilt & Telescoping Steering column for cheap, so we bought it, and on the way back to the car, we found a cool old three gauge cluster with three generic gauges in it. It’s cast aluminum, and chromed, and kinda 60’s-ish, so we’ll use it in the truck.

I spent some time yesterday re-organizing the garage, and while I was at it, I mounted the cab on the frame for the first time in about a year! That was pretty exciting, and it really looks alot better now!

I also turned the truck around, so I can get at the rear suspension to rebuild it, and c-notch the frame easier… so while it was in the driveway, I took a couple of photos. I also shot some of my own photos of the new Miller 330A/B TIG welder I recently bought. I got a tank of Argon for it, and have fired it up. Mainly I’ve just contaminated my tungstens, but it seems like with some (read: ALOT OF) practice I’ll be able to TIG weld.

Firing the Engine for the first time from Ben Carlson on Vimeo.

I finished welding up the motor mounts this afternoon, and started modifying the transmission mount for the truck. The motor mounts went slick, then I had to narrow and raise the transmission mount. I went to put the new rubber cushion I had purchased under the trans, but it wouldn’t fit! I ended up having to take a half-hour to run up to the parts store and buy a new one. It ended up that I needed one from a 1984-1986 Chevy Caprice to fit it.

So, I got the transmission mount modified, and then it was dinner time. I buttoned things up and now, all I have to do is do some measuring, and drill eight holes, and the engine and trans will be bolted in place.

I had found a pair of whitewall tires on steel rims on Craigslist the weekend before Emmett was born. They were off of a ‘47 Ford project, and they were the perfect price to see if I really wanted bias-ply whitewalls on the truck.

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I ordered a bunch of rear suspension rebuild parts last night from Mid-Fifty F-100 parts. My experience was awesome. The lady on the phone knew exactly what she was talking about, and was very helpful with a couple of questions I had. So, the rush to get this thing on the road has started…  I built a spreadsheet on Google Docs that has a rough list of items I have yet to buy for the truck… the total is around $1200 on the low side (assuming I use some junkyard parts) and around $4400 on the high side, assuming I buy basically everything for brand new, retail prices.

I’m shooting for not hitting too far from the $1200 mark!

You can see my list with periodic updates here.