The truck is really not that far from being done. When I did all of the initial sheetmetal work, I left a few details that needed to be taken care of. Particularly where the front fenders mount to cab. Since the fenders where raised on the cab, the original bolt holes were no where close to aligning. The problem that I ran into was that I could not access in behind the fender bolts to install the nuts. So, I used these...
McMaster Carr carries these style of riv-nuts that come in all sizes. The problem with these is that you need an expensive tool to install them. Fortunately for me, I was able to borrow one from a friend's work. A word of advice however, make sure you get the correct arbor....we had to make one.
Before I could set the front clip on, I had to address the issue of the fan placement. The original '40 ford had the fan mounted to the crankshafts of the Flathead. With a 261 inline, the fan is mounted much higher on the water pump. In this particular case, this would cause the fan to be to high on the radiator and not provide sufficient cooling. The easy way out would to have been to use an electric fan. I couldn't bring my self to do that, so I machined a crank adapter.
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| ooohhh, billet... |
