January 23, 2017 - Well, it's still winter...and cold as hell outside, so I haven't done a darned thing to the truck. However, I did decided that I wanted to get the truck out of the main driveway and over in front of the garage, which doubles as my office. It was a pretty nice day today, so I decided to take advantage of it.

Fig. 01

I fired up the Ford tractor (towing a Ford with a Ford!) and lifted the back up up with a chain and then pushed the truck over to the garage. I wanted it here not only to get it out of the driveway, but so that I'd have all my tools handy when it came time to start working on it.

So pictured above is actually my truck in front of the FORDification World Headquarters! The left side of the garage is a workshop and is where most of my tools are, while the right side has been cleaned up for an office. The walls are finished, the floor is carpeted and shelves line the walls for all my vintage Ford memorabilia, used for research purposes for the three FORDification websites. (Yeah, I know...I really need to get some kind of sign on the front. That'll be another summer project.

Anyway, this truck has been on my mine off-and-on since I got it two months ago, with me running possible scenarios of what would need to be done if/when we can get it fired up this Spring. I remembered I'd been to an older salvage yard about an hour away a year ago that not only had a truck exactly like this (same color even!), but had some floorpans that were in better shape. I snapped the following pics of that truck during that visit. I've been back several times and this truck was still there, so I'm hoping that the next time I can make it, it'll still be available.

Fig. 02

Fig. 03

Fig. 04

The thought crossed my mind that maybe I could bring a Sawzall up there some day and just cut the whole lower section of the cab out...the floorpan area, at least. If you look closely at the driver's-side floorpan in Fig. 03, you can see that there IS a piece of tin screwed down, meaning there IS some rust there. But it's still a lot better than what I've got now, so at the very least I can use this floorpan to cut some patch panels from. Since this cab is the exact same color as the one I've got, I'd have been interested in just buying the whole cab, except that as you can see in Fig. 04, somebody's cut the whole windshield frame out with a hammer and chisel...so that's out.

However, the steering box and shaft that I need is also on this truck, so I'll definitely be able to salvage more than just a couple parts for mine. The engine and transmission is still in place too, so I might just have to grab a few other things as well. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!

February 18, 2017 - I decided to take an unseasonably-warm day today to hit the salvage yard I discussed earlier, to see if I could rob parts off that junkyard truck. I spend last night getting all my tools together, charging up five batteries and getting everything ready to go. My son Trevor decided that he wanted to come along as well, since he's never been to a salvage yard before. (Even though he's only 14, he looks older, so we figured we'd take a chance on the rule that you have to be at least 16 to get in.

However, I guess it wasn't meant to be today. We arrived at the yard at 11:58 AM...two minutes before noon...only to find a note on the front door stating they'd be closing at noon that day. And in fact the owner had already locked the door and was climbing in his car to go home as we pulled up! DAMMIT!!!

Well, not one to waste a planned junkyarding day, we decided to hit some other area yards, just to see what was available. Over the course of the day we hit three different salvage yards, and even though we didn't find anything worth salvaging, we still had fun. Trevor really enjoyed the day and wants to come back with me the next time we attempt to go back to the first yard.

February 18, 2017 - Well, my sons and I decided today was the day to try to fire up the '62. Whether I could get it fired up today or not dictated our future plans for this truck. And I have some good news to report.

It RUNS!

Well, kinda sorta. The gas pedal was siezed up at the pivot point, so I got that unstuck and working. I disconnected the fuel line from the carb so I wouldn't be pumping any nasty varnish/fuel into the carb. Then we changed the oil, dropped in a battery, sprayed a little carburetor cleaner around down inside and then gave it a quick shot of ether and hit the key...and it started spitting and sputtering! After several times of doing this, the engine did fire up and I was able to keep it running very smoothly for 8-10 seconds...on the ether.

Fig. 05

Fig. 06

Fig. 07

But at least I know it'll run! I'm actually starting to get kind of excited...and Trevor definitely is too. He spent some time between tasks today practicing shifting a floor shift. He's looking forward to learning how to drive a manual transmission in this truck.

So we decided that since we knew the engine would run, it was time to get started doing a few tasks. First of all, we needed to get a good front seat mounted (and it just so happened that I had one from my '67 that would bolt right in), and we needed to get the entire fuel system cleaned out. There was still a little gas in the tank, but after setting for 20+ years it was smelling pretty rancid. So...

You can see Trevor (Fig. 08) getting the seat unbolted. He really was a big help today. Fig. 09 shows the new seat bolted in and looking a whole lot better than the torn-up seat. We loaded the old seat up into my truck so I could take it to the dump tomorrow, but decided to at least offer it up for free on a couple of the Ford truck Facebook groups I'm a member of. A fellow member who lives about an hour south messaged back that he wants it, so we set it in the barn until he can come for it.

Due to the fact that it's still winter and usually too cold to do any outside work, this is probably as far as we'll get until the temps go up a little. But everybody's very happy at the progress we made today...and to celebrate us getting it (kinda) fired up, we hit the horseshoe pits for a few rounds of horseshoes.