I've started so I'll finish
Holmsey 1955 F100
How I fitted my LPG
I decided in June to sell my 34 Sport to finance the F100 Project, but it
took until Aug to finally get the rebuild started. I used to be well in, down
the local Banger track, seems I am no longer in with the gang as this sorry
example was all I could pry from the local Banger lads hands and some have six
or more stacked just ready for when they need one to race.
I stripped this 1971/2 4.2 Daimler toilet down and the guy I got it off took
the shell away, in just one day it was so kak. It was still a good month after
though before I stripped the F100, as I still needed it to haul parts for the
intended rebuild. I bought a Motorcyckle for a daily (to keep the Buzz) while I
do the Truck which was my daily.. Just what you need for the winter months eh.
That's me cyckle in the background, the Project got started Thursday 19th
August.
Now I make no secret, that I absolutely hate with a passion working on sodding
cars and it seems that is all I have done for as long as I can remember. I hate
it, I guess cus I find it so hard a work. But what is strange with this and it is
by far the biggest job I have ever undertaken, I am very excited about doing it
and dream about it all the time. It is to be a quick low budget project. making
and scrounging as much as I can. Ha Ha bloody Ha Yeah Right!
Work starts in earnest, front is stripped and looks in exceptional condition.
A weird story: This F100, I have had a couple of years now and bar
a couple of niggles early on, it has never let me down. I used it as my daily,
come rain, hail, snow and high water, it was used and it always fired on the
button and started every day. On the way back from Smax's loaded to
the gunnels, it started juddering and surging and bucking like a kangaroo?. In
fact I didn't think I was going to make it home with my goodies,
storming over one hill at around 15mph juddering like a good un ;>). I
would coast into a lay-by and it would rev perfect, set off as if nothing was
wrong, then a few miles later it would play up again. I had to play with the
throttle to make any forward progress at all... Once finally home, I
backed it into the garage, I am sure I heard it sigh and that was it, it would
never start again.
I wanted to move it out of the garage to empty the rad, but it refused to start
at all, not even a flicker of life?? Weird eh. I have always thought of the
Truck as an elderly old ex Army Officer, it could still bang on a bit if asked
but ask to much and it would probably die. Now I am convinced its a
bloody woman, I reckon she thought, right that's it, I am not moving from this
beauty parlour until I am done. Get me a nip & tuck, a face lift, some lypo
suction and a boob job then I will leave this place.. :>) do you think
mechanical things have souls?
The Jag Crossmember after a sandblasting session wasn't to bad, which is more
than could be said for the lower fulcrum plates which were sh*gged. They were the only
thing that was holding up progress, until I found some good ones, I
couldn't start. None of the afore mentioned Banger crew would even entertain
letting me have a decent set off them. One guy even took delight in showing me
how many his brother had and hey look at this a powerlok diff and you cant have
it either??? weird eh! As the same guys a few month earlier I had given my old (very old) compresser. I tried all the Jag spares guys and they would only sell
me some for one arm and one leg please.
In the meantime I got a LHD power rack from Manners remanufactured and
some new mounting bushes for the subframe but still I had no lower plates .
I called into at an American car breakers
(also a Banger Driver) in a final hope for some Jag lower fulcrum plates....
"Hi Singy,
have you any of these?" showing him my
knackered fulcrum plates.... "err... follow me... "........
and under a bed of nettles was the holy grail... a rotton as a chop XJ6 front
crossmember with what looked like a new set of springs and lower plates... Ha
Ha.... Result.. how much? "are you taken em off or am I? "
" I'll take em off" ... "a fiver!" Singy replied
From here it is all uncharted territory for me, hence the photo build up, to
prove if I can do it anyone can. I have been getting help veer e-mail and phone
though from Hot Rod supremo Steve Lang, who I have got to know through the ukhotrods e-mail group,
that
I set up on this web site. Without his help to be honest,
I would never in a million years even have thought about doing this job.
You need to narrow a very small section first to get the Jag Crossmember to sit
right and use the original rubber mounts.
There are a few different ways to do this task, I have seen them simply weld the Jag crossmember to the chassis, and another way I have seen was to cut a small section out of the crossmember lower turret where it catches the chassis, it then sits flat into the chassis then mount with the original rubber mounts onto fabbed brackets, you could simply weld again. I chose to go the way Langy did and narrow the chassis rails by an inch and then fab brackets so the subframe would be rubber mounted and so make for a nice ride "Your coice" but remeber if you go the rubber mont route you also have to have moving steering as in the jag movable steering Uj see later or I think Borgeson do a movable/sliding joint, or you get a bit of judder going over hard bumps through the steering. Or weld the chassis and end of problem but you get a slightly rougher ride.
First I made up some cardboard templates I made the back of the template level in the end to get a
tad lower. Langy pie cut his chassis and pulled it in the back out round the subframe turrets. This was how I deciced to over come the problem of chassis narrowing.
These are the narrowed section with one of the upper or lower plates on the
floor I welded to make a U section to fit inside the old chassis.
Winding the lower fulcrum plates down using sockets and nuts and what ever
else I could find what a job.
Well its now October and I have made some progress. Though really I fell at the
first hurdle, I stripped the front suspension and rebuilt with new ball
joints, bushes and bolts etc. I cleaned and painted it all (shades of
Christine or what) I should of waited
until all the grinding and welding was done first eh!.
I bolted some wheels on and offered the crossmember to the chassis, that's when
I realised the centre line I had marked on the crossmember was all wrong. I thought as you would, that the
centre
of the road spring would be the centre of the front suspension oohh noo that
would be to easy, the hub carrier is rearward facing by some 4inch or so back
from the centre of the spring.... So I had now to first work out the true axle
line of the crossmember.
I had a plan :>) lay some recently acquired thread bar across the wheels, then I
could mark the center, which happened to be near as damn it right on the edge of
the top mounting bolt. From there I could work out the position of where to
narrow the chassis easy eh.. yeah right!
Inserts fitted now I can get it all level and centred .
I set the chassis up with the required rake on the chassis first then you get
the crossmember level so get the castor angle is correct. Now I don't want any rake if I
can help it, I want the truck low and level.. so I put in 1degree on
the chassis and set the crossmember level, measure in every direction until you are satified it is level and square with the chassis sat at the desired angle of rake..
I wanted to get the crossmember in place first to make sure I
had my calculations right, ya know try a wing on and all that... oh I forgot to
mention apparently when Ford built the F100 they put the axle 1 inch rearward
off centre (since found out it was 1 1/4" to late for me to sort that extra 1/4inch.. I wanted to rectify this so moved my new centre forward 1 inch.. So the front wheels wil fit more central in the wing openings..
If I had put a few degrees of rake on this gap would of been somewhere near,
but as I wanted little or no rake, I cut off the rear section of chassis where
it angles down and made it level hopefully dropping the Truck a little more.
This is the front mount in situ.. I have finished the job now more photos
showing it done later.
Update Oct/04
Well the photos turned out crap so these are all I have so I will have to do
some more.
There are differnt ways to make the forward subframe mounts I just did them this way but make sure subframe is level with the ground with chassis at desired rake.
This is the front subframe mounted now.
I bolted it all up solid and treble checked it was square and level with
just a very very slight rake on the truck. Then fitted the steering rack with
new bushes bought from e-bay for £6. (Antiroll bar mounts later)
It was now engine and trans fitting time.
Getting it at the right level
and sat square in the chassis is the only real hard job took me ages and ages
and ages Hey that's a long time.. I used a piece of wood marked equal
distance's from each side of the chassis and then lined it up with the bottom
pulley which is dead center of the engine.
Then I had to sit the motor back at 5 degrees, as apparently that's how Ford did
it with the 302 (since heard most manufacturers do, so the motor and trans
will submarine in a crash clever eh) also so carb base is level with gorund. So I set that into the motor and trans and bolted up the rear
trans mount. Once the engine was centred in the chassis, I searched around for
something to make engine mounts out of ? ?
Ah Ha the old tube mount, it was one of them American jobbies that you bolt to
your chassis and the motor sits in it, it sets the motor at the right angle...
only it would not fit without being chopped up and so loosing its settings. But
as the motor was set at the right rake, I thought just put the engine mount bolt
through and cut the excess tube off then weld it to the chassis...I had the sump
sat on a 1inch thick piece of wood that gave me just enough clearance from the
crossmember... It was then just a case of holding it all
in place, in the right place and tack it up... sounds easy and probably is for
most, I found it a task, but hey its done... the motor and trans are in.. Just
got to final weld and make them look nicer, with hind sight I should of just bought some ready made engine mounts would of been easier and looked a lot nicer hey ho!.
November
Engine, Trans, brake servo, suspension and steering fitted.
I now set about the steering column which I wanted slightly lower that std for a more car like feel. It feels a lot lower but from photos dont look much different from std, may just
be the angle of the photo as it feels lower when sat in the truck.
The throttle pedal is now done, bar final welding, I used an old pedal I had
laying about, that needed bending and the pedal re mounting on the shaft to get
the desired position. I reasoned that the throttle should sit an
inch or so lower than the brake, so if my size nines do catch the throttle when I need
to brake in an emergency, the brake will be activated first well before the throttle.
Brake pedal in right position now, with the throttle lower for safety when braking
November update
I got into making the Shock mounts, I had some 8 mm bar so waste not want not I
used that I cut the top and butt welded for strength. Now looking at how other
have done it I guess I should of sourced some after market shorty shox. I used
some original gaz ones. They have 8 inch of travel, so I set at 4 inch of
downward travel and 3 up. That gives 1 inch more if the suspension bottoms
onto the bump stops. just using original shox makes for a high turret for the
shock mount tops...Will be ok I am sure just looks a bit naff :>( Update I did get the shorty shox so I have now to lower the shock mounts.
Update Nov 19th
Had to redo as sump sat to low.
I was not happy with the height the engine sat at as the sump was to close
really to the crossmember. I chose to lift the motor a further inch and try and make the
engine mounts look a bit better.
After getting the chassis level in all directions, I made this real
sophisticated gauge to get the front pulley dead centre again.
Now the engine was shimmed up high enough, the motor was levelled across the
chassis and the motor sat back at 5 degrees. Bad photo as there is plenty of
room from back of the motor and the bulkhead. ;>)
I am getting real busy with work now so I may not get much chance to get much
more progress now until after crimbo then I best get cracking as Drayton Manor
looms more closer by the day :>)
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