36 Ford truck on Ranger

[MercuryMac]

Hi again. There is progress and proof of it. I've made the brackets to hold the bumper brackets, and the radiator bottom, and the front of the fender, which has sprawled out of shape.
I am getting excited and making a list, because some of the guys around here are going to a SWAP-MEET in RedDeer this week-end. RedDeer is half way between Edmonton and Calgary, and it only takes us seven hours of steady driving to get there. Boy, swap-meets are the best thing since sliced bread, right?

[MercuryMac]

Well, I got back from the swap-meet, and now have put everything away where I think I'll be able to find it when the time comes to use it. The upside of having a way too many projects, is that many different jewels can come home with me for future works.
I mounted the rad and then the grille. Oh Ya, one of this weekends finds was a grille chrome strip surround in pretty good shape. Anyhow, now I'm making the upper rad/grille shell bracket. The bracket has to anchor the long rods that go to the firewall, also. Some of you may think this is a John Deere combine safety shield.

[MercuryMac]

I should have shown you this picture before the last two. I had put the grille shell on and then started making the upper bracket.

[MercuryMac]

So I had to take the grille shell off again to make an extention on the rad filler cap. I couldn't get the new neck extention up through the stock filler hole so I customized the hole with a hammer and punch. Now I have to repaint the grille shell. One of the neat things that I got at the swap meet was 'Z' lower rad hoses for a flathead. They can come in 7" 'Z's so I took a set and they worked just dandy. I already had an adapter set of upper hoses that go from the smaller 8BA outlets to the bigger 59A or older outlets. All the hoses are now on and clamped. My upper rad to grille shell bracket is on also.

[Dirtyrat]

Those new hoses are looking real nice! I forgot how small the original lines must have been!

[MercuryMac]

Hi Dirtyrat, I know what you mean, they do look small. I almost wish for the bigger 59A hoses and pipes but I don't know if you can get them with a 90 degree corner or just two 45's. I could have put those reducer hoses on at the thermostat end and used the bigger pipes, but this is what I got.
Life keeps happening to me, which is a good thing ,I guess, but it gets in the way of building. Here's the fender bracket for the right side front [a before and an after].

[MercuryMac]

This is a steel forum so I've probably ruffled some feathers here talking about fibreglass fenders so much and how they sprawl out of shape sometimes, especially if the're the cheap ones. This is what I learned about fixing the sprawl. If you slowly jack the offending fibreglass toward the proper shape, only until you hear the glass threads starting to break, then heat with a heatgun where you want it to bend. As you get the fender warm enough [you can just rub your hand on it] you can jack it out more and more as you keep heating. You will hear no more glass breaking. I let it cool with the jack still in there and the fender out a little too far. It came out pretty O.K. Right behind the tire was warped in a good 2" and now it's flush with the running board. There is a little brace in there now.

[MercuryMac]

Hello, There is progress to report. I have been struggling with the head light but it's mostly done now. The wires go right into the pot and are touching but not hooked up because they have to all come out again through a fairly small hole, so I can paint the fenders. I was hoping to use the '36 car headlight lenses because they bulge out the front so much and the pots are car ones and not truck, but the truck lenses seem to fit better. There's a Halogen change-up kit in there, bulb and reflector. The signal light perched on top is an amber flashing LED in a clear lens from Julians. They fit nicely on a '35 /'36 car headlight pot. Also on '28 / '29 Model A lights.

[skull]

looks good.

Later

[MercuryMac]

The signal light housing that's on top of the headlight pot is from Juliano's, not Julian's. I'll get a sideview picture of it for you tomorrow. They look very nice and oldtimesy. pellcheck doesn't think that's a word] They are clear glass but they flash amber [well sorta yellow] Other than the yellow flashing they are the cat meow.