Keep'n it Steel. My 69 build

So I've been working to get the paint done along with bed liner under and inside. It's been kinda frustrating. I've never liked painting and had never painted a car. The money ran out a while back so the plan was to do the best I could in the name of getting done. Well in the course of buying paint and talking with the guys at the paint shop. one of the counter guys stepped up and oferd to shoot the paint on for me. I was stoked about that plan at first but later I started to have a gut feeling that I should just do it myself. I talked about it with my father and he convinced me that it would be better to have someone with experience do it so. last weekend I had the guy come and with me as a helper he got the paint on. He was a really nice guy. A single dad with mom out of the picture and wanted the painting experience. I told him that's great but still was going to pay him something for his time. I'm not upset but I had a feeling as soon as he start that it wasn't going to turn out good. Like I said a really nice guy and probably really could use the money I paid him. So I Just thanked him when we finished and the next day started sanding it down to repaint. I did get a chance to talk with him while we worked and I think I was able to give him some real encouragement and advice about some things happening in his life. My father had stopped by briefly and met him said to me later that after he left he got a strong feeling that his coming to paint my car wasn't for me and the painting but more about something going on in that young mans life. I think I agree with that and I pray the best for him. Anyway I'll be spraying again soon so wish me luck. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.
On a side note I'm wondering if any of you have a set of 4.56 or 4.88 ring&pinion gears for the 9" that your willing to part with for a bargain or trade. I've gone to the 4r70w from the C4 and don't think the 4.11 is going to cut it. Any advise on this would be great running 35"s with a basically stock Explorer 302. This will be upgraded but probably not right away.

Paints on! Wow, that was a lot of work! I mean I wasn't sure I'd ever get that done. It fought me the whole way but I'm starting to put it back together and it feels good to have turned that corner. Had to push her out into the sun to turn her around today and snapped some photos. What do you think ?

Work of art there sir. Ken

Lookin good sir! What color is that paint?

Hot Rod Flatz Ice Blue Metallic.

looks good

Cool color.. Looks sweet.

One proud poppa there I'ms ure

jonpblewis@yaho said:

Paints on! Wow, that was a lot of work! I mean I wasn't sure I'd ever get that done. It fought me the whole way but I'm starting to put it back together and it feels good to have turned that corner. Had to push her out into the sun to turn her around today and snapped some photos. What do you think ?

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Things are starting to come together more or less. It's kinda like X-mas opening up all the parts I boxed up when tearing it down. Kinda strange working on a clean Bronco. Before I'd just think about working on it and my hands would get dirty. Now I don't want to touch anything.

looking great, that instrument cluster bezel is cool well so is the dash

Got most of the big pieces together. Starting to look like something and that's giving me a second wind. I really needed that too because I was getting pretty burned out. Still so much to do. The Devil really dose hide in the details.
Here's some eye candy

Some more

Amazing attention to detail!

JefeAZ said:

Amazing attention to detail!

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Chu got that right main'g!!!!

So I've just been getting all the odds and ends prepped, rebuilt, modified, and fitted. Then putting things together. I always think things are going to start moving along faster. What happens is you go to put something like the washer/overflow tank in. Nothing is wrong with it but you just can't put it in with it looking the way it dose. So you spend half a day cleaning it up so its not the only thing that isn't nice when your done and its like that for almost every part in one way or another. Inch by inch.
Oh yeah, I found some side mirrors that I really like. They are from the 87-89 Lincoln Town Car. Power with heat but the glass can be set by hand as well. Mostly they look and fit great and are extremely well made. Also found some new knobs for the dash controls and some push button switches that fit perfectly in the old dash bezels. Bent the emergency flasher bezel to fit around the new column switch location. Plus so much more that I won't ever be able to explain and hopefully will forget %)

Also got the seat belts in. Super happy with how they worked out.

More to come!

Very nice work! Those mirrors are awesome! Well, the whole thing is awesome! The attention to detail is amazing, thanks for posting up all the pics.

Insane build Jon! Really is a piece of art.

Love the stainless mesh behind the grill. Where did you source that?

Well, it's been a while since my last update. I had to take a break from it after finding the motor seized up when I went to turn it over. I had wrapped up the finished roller outside while I was working on the body. Never occurred to me that that put the air intake at the highest point under the tarp. So condensation was rising up under there with nowhere to go but in the motor through the three open cylinder valves where it collected on the cylinder walls and blistered them with rust. I was over it the moment I realized what I had done. After a break, I Started looking for a replacement long block. Then I figured if I'm already pulling the motor then nows the time to go bigger. So I pulled the trigger on a 351w and made the adjustments needed to make it fit. Really it was pretty straight forward as far as getting it in and fitting everything up.
Save for the Fitech I put on top. I had nothing but problems with it out of the box. Starting with a broken fuel pump. then bad O2. Back and forth with tech support. Felt like I got very little help from them. After a couple of weeks of waiting for replacement parts to come from them only to find they didn't solve the problem. Finally, I pulled it off boxed it up and sent it back.
Then pulled out my old Edelbrock got it put on and fired it up. I may try the Sniper someday but for now the carb is working great.
Anyway, I still have some things to finish like door panels, tidy up some wires, install the backup camera, front driveshaft, etc, but she seems to be running great. I'm still breaking in new gears So haven't stomped on it yet but I think I'm going to love the 351w.

Insane build - I love it. You’ve got some amazing skills...well done!

Very impressive build! Have fun with it.