This year my only resolution is to drive my old truck, creatively and appropriately named Project Redtruck. For anyone uninitiated, this is a '56 F100 that my grandfather bought some number of years ago that never actually worked for him and after a few years of frustration he gave it to me. For over 2 years I have been in the process of fixing pretty much everything that isn't structural on it.

I had been lax in working toward my resolution this year but after my grandpa suffered a pretty serious accident earlier this year I decided to jump back on it - if he is ever able to come back to this side of the country I fully intend to have this truck on the road by then. My last post on the subject was finally getting the truck to run with the turn of a key after nearly a decade of that not working; today is one of those times where it is finally starting to look like a whole vehicle again, and it starts with the dash.

When I got the truck the dash looked like this

The cluster was basically original, possibly a repop bezel but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary for a '56. The gauges below, however, just make blood boil. Clearly the gauges in the dash didn't work or whoever did the pseudo-resto previously could not figure it out, but his solution as just so god damn sloppy. At the very least he could have made the holes line up?? No, apparently not. Lets take a closer look....

Yeah, that's no good. Not shown is the radio slot that's also a bit of a mess.

But no matter, I'm going to fix it. Eventually....

First step is acknowledging you have a problem and realizing you have to fix it. For this I ordered 6 new gauges - Tach, MPH, volts, oil, water, and fuel should cover it. In an effort to modernize I went with all electric gauges, no point in running hot fluids into the cab. The specific gauges are Equus 8000 series, they look somewhere between modern and retro and don't cost a fortune. Gauges are funny like that, they're either cheap and questionable or WAAAYYY too expensive for a project like this. I went cheaper, we'll see how that works out.

Gauges purchased and I have to start modifying. I gutted the cluster and trimmed the bezel to fit a pair of 3 3/8" gauges

I then used my powers of CAD and my little CNC machine to cut a test piece for fit inside the bezel

That fit pretty well so I made a couple adjustments, added some features, and made my final part

Then did some assembly

That'll do nicely

Next I needed to fix that irritating array of holes in the lower dash.. Some of them were original holes for fun knobs and switches but mostly it was a hack job. My plan, unfortunately, was to make it a bigger hack job then hide the evidence. But that hide job would be EXCELLENT!

So again we go back to CAD and the CNC. I designed up my parts and did another test cut, then mocked it in place.

Then a test fit of all the bits and bobs that it needs to house

That'll do

Again, I made a couple modifications but nothing that anyone but me would notice, and cut up some metal

And ran another test fit, just to be sure

Next I had to locate it in the truck to mark where to drill and cut

Then I drilled the 10 holes to hold it in place and make sure it would be self supporting

And then.....it got worse before it got better

Yikes. An air knife made quick work of the dash but the carnage is....well, it's carnage. Not my favorite thing I've ever done but the result is better than I hoped for when I started.

Not all the hardware is in at that point, and I promise the cluster is not crooked it just looks that way. If I may toot my own horn on this one it's a pretty stunning outcome especially when you consider where it started.

I spent the past couple days doing a bunch of wiring behind it all and sorting out the harness that's left in the truck. I plan to have that put mostly together this week.

Rarely when motivation hits me this hard do the results look so good

What's an Eddie? This is Eddie (on the left):

But seriously, WHAT IS IT? If you know what this car is congratulations, you're more Jalop than I am, or more than I was before I got lost in the world of non-sporty DSM cars.

Eddie is a '93 Eagle Summit wagon. But it's not a wagon really, it's a hatch by current standards. But even more than a hatch it's a mini van! A brown, manual mini van powered by a very-jalop 4G64 2.4L I4. Unfortunately it is only the FWD version not the AWD, but that's the concession we had to make.

So why does Eddie exist in my life, you're probably thinking? Because after being a reliable driver for a loving family for close to 30 years it was time to move on and surreptitiously we wanted a mini van to go racing. Why a mini van? That will be revealed in time but for now I can say Eddie is destined to go racing in the most prestigious of series, the 24 hours of lemons.

Eddie has been put on a diet, losing an entire interior, window glass, excess material here and there, air conditioning etc... (the steering wheel is set up in the center of the car as a joke).

Suspension and brakes have been gone over, wheels and tires sourced, engine cleaned up and a spare found because 1. this is a mitsubishi, at least one spare is required and 2. These are surprisingly hard to come by in the proper configuration.

Seats have been obtained and we're waiting on roll cage material. I need to order a suit.

This whole project has been stupid and fun and frustrating and a great time spent with friends. With any luck (and it will take quite a bit) we're going to race in a couple months. I'm going to wait to reveal the theme, gotta give everyone something to look forward to

Been looking at new tool boxes for months weighing options and figuring out a realistic budget. I decided on a rough size and configuration and bonus points came to color, lime green with black trim being first choice. Last week I found what I was looking for for less than comparable new options from lesser known brands. Today I went and bought it. Snap on krl722 in extreme green with black trim. Obviously used but I good condition. Has its marks but ano damage. Excited to load it up tomorrow!

Rant time.

Yesterday was the most useless day of my life, as far as I can remember.

A few weeks back we scheduled a customer site visit to look at some equipment that the company used to make but stopped, and is hoping to get back into. The customer was also wanting us there to evaluate for improvements we can make so they can apply for a state grant to do said improvements. In theory this would be a win-win for all parties so we agreed to go (a total of 5 people from my company/corporation) on our own dime, at a date set by the customer.

The flight out, and we were literally going all the way across the country, featured a layover in Atlanta (Delta flight, of course). We land in ATL at noon only to receive an email that the customer is not going to be running the equipment the following day, and are asking if we can get the information we need to without product running on the line. The short answer is yes, we can get some information but not necessarily good information. We are then informed that they are not running because they are busy INSTALLING ANOTHER LINE.

Now this is an issue because everyone who runs the equipment is going to be tied up doing other things and we need operators there to understand their process. After a brief discussion we decide to say fuck it and turn around and go home. No sense in wasting 2-3 more days when we have plenty of shit to do.

Some bullshit ensues. There is only one open seat going back home and it's 7 hours from the time we are making the call. I look around and only see one other potential flight to take with no information on availability and I'm not about to sit in an airport all day if I can avoid it. So we do some finagling, snatch our box of tools off the truck between planes, and grab a car to drive the 6 hours back home.

The drive went fine but by 9:00 I was completely beat (I did the driving) and ended up right back at the airport where I started my day. We wasted 13 hours doing absolutely nothing because A CUSTOMER WHO ASKED US TO BE ON SITE AT A CERTAIN DATE DID NOT TELL USE THEY WERE INSTALLING A NEW LINE THE SAME DAY. And installing a line is something planed out 6-12 months in advance so it's not like they didn't know this was coming. Now we have a $40,000 data logging tool sitting at a customer site that we have to rely on them to ship back, no date to do the work we were planning to do, and I'm tired as shit.

Doggo for your time. She was very happy when I got home last night

A while back one of my friends and Lemons compatriots built a small CNC to make trinkets with, basically. Then he decided it did not make big enough trinkets and wanted a bigger, badder machine so he pawned this off on another friend (and Lemons compatriot) who could not be bothered to learn it.

I have recently been tasked with making Lemons car trinkets so the machine now resides with me where I learned how to use it this weekend

What am I cutting? Foam! Leftovers from insulating my garage door, on the left in that picture. And for what reason?

big ass wing.

More to come on this little project

For instance, today I had to write this sentence

"[company name] is working on market leading innovations to lower energy requirements and increase production through smaller ovens using new technologies in development at multiple [parent corporation] companies."

It says nothing, and purposely so, because this is a magazine asking us to tell the world what our R&D projects are. But GOD DID I HATE WRITING IT

I posted about this project on Old Oppo but it looks like those posts are lost to history. Bummer.

New year's day this past year, a day full or promise for a year that ended up one of the worst in modern history, I made exactly one resolution: The truck would run by year's end. Should be easy enough, right? I already had a new wiring harness in hand, the fuel system had been replaced, and most of the front end engine parts had been updated. So sure, in 12 months I should be able to turn the key and crank this baby up.

Long story short, I was right. Wiring was tedious even with a pre-fab universal harness, mainly due to the mix and match style of component selection. I'm keeping a running list of the parts on the truck because they don't make much logical sense.

For a couple months I have been putting off the final touches of this stage of the project, partly due to other obligations but mostly because I was a bit scared that it would either a) not work at all and I would have to trace some failure or b) it would start up then fail spectacularly.

But yesterday I grounded the fuel pump relay and water sensor, dropped the fuel line into a gas can (no need to sully a new tank when it's going to sit a while), hooked up the battery and gave it a shot.

At this point in the story I planned to post up a video but apparently I can't do that here? Bit of a letdown.

Anyway it runs. A 302 at 1000rpm idle makes a racket on open headers

Header image is the before picture, right after I got it home. I have since greatly improved both the appearance and function of everything under the hood:

edit: I did a youtube

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Forewarning, this will be a long post. Some of it is personal stuff, a lot of it is about Project Redtruck, and just a little will be rumination on the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Most of the posts I create are about Project Redtruck, my '56 F100 that I "inherited" for lack of a better term. Typically an inheritance comes after a death and money or goods are passed down to living relatives but in my case the death did not happen, only the passing down. Maybe I should call it a gift instead of an inheritance? Somehow that doesn't feel right either as I end up doing all the heavy lifting. Semantics aside my grandfather (pictured above probably struggling to open the hood), after buying the truck and never really being able to drive it, called to tell me if I wanted this thing to go get it. And so I did....about 4 years later.

Since March 2019 it has been in my garage, sometimes on the ground, usually on stands and ramps, as I plug away bit by bit figuring out what's in it, what needs to be in it, how to make it work, and what is best for my intended use (note: I have no idea what to actually do with it). 6 months ago, after I finally got it to run, I hit a wall. Then the accident happened.

[personal part]

My grandfather, for all his virtues and faults, has been a great part of my life. He has always lived far away and I see him fairly rarely in the grand scheme of things but he has always been great to his grandkids. Nearing 80 years old now his is happily married to a very caring woman he met almost 20 years ago, lives clear across the country, and is wildly self sufficient. He is also a type 1 diabetic and has suffered through an alcohol addiction that, while never legally detrimental, has put him in poorer health over the last few years. He has quit drinking but the effects are long lasting.

He is still a very able and capable person but does not know his limitations anymore. A couple months ago, while painting the deck on his California home, he fell off the ladder he was on (unnecessarily I should add, he could have done it all on the deck itself) to a near fatal consequence. Just a week before I had been talking to him and planning a trip for this summer. Now I'm just hoping he can go home again.

Without going into much detail he has been hospitalized since the accident. Our family is getting daily updates but I don't know what to make of them. He gets better for a while then worse, he was accepted to a rehab facility but then had issues that prevented him leaving. Physically he's a mess and I don't have a good grasp on his mental status either. My hopes for a long-term return to normalcy are waning and the realization that his one wish after giving me this truck, that he get to drive it once it's done, may not be able to happen.

[end personal part]

But what this has all given me is the motivation I needed to start plowing through my checklist and now that I can see the drive at the end of this I thought it would be fun to put together a list. I like lists, they make sense to me. This list will dive into exactly why we say not to buy someone else's project. I may not have bought this one but the lessons remain the same.

What I knew about the truck when I got it was that it's a '56 F100 and work had been done to it. The engine was not original. The seats were not original. The wiring was a mess. That's about it really. My estimation was a new harness and I'd be off an running.

But no, it was so much more than that.

Yes, the body is largely a '56. The alterations to that include a relocated gas tank (good thing) with the filler neck hole patched, and the bed has a later model F150 metal bed bottom and wheel wells welded in. Also in the bed is the new filler location for the relocated tank. Fairly common change (the relocation) but the tank is not - typically this is done with a '70s Mustang tank which is better for....reasons....but mine was pulled from what appears to be the donor car for much of this which is....

A 1975 Ford Granada. Yeah. Engine (Ford 302), transmission (C4), rear axle (Ford 8"), possible the driveshaft as well which does not look aftermarket. Also the aforementioned fuel tank. All of these would have been options on a '75 Granada and the transmission tag puts it in one. There are no other identifiers so I make my assumptions but it seems to check out.

Another find, once I got into it, was the front end. Stock would have been a solid beam axle but not on this truck, it's an independent setup from a Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen, also a mid-late '70s variety. This is a common swap, not as common as a Mustang II or Crown Vic setup, but it's out there. The benefit here is the addition of front disc brakes and the independently sprung wheels. It also keeps the same 5x4.5 bolt pattern and wheel stud size. But it's also an unknown as I don't know if there are variances in shocks, rotors/hubs, pads, steering gear depending on what vehicle it's from.

The seats were from some chrylser or another, possibly the same donor as the front end I really have no idea. They were powered seats a previous owner left un-powered and sat all wrong. They have been removed.

The steering column was a GM pulled from some car made from '69-'94 (not even kidding on that range) made in Saginaw, Michigan. The harness, I believe, was also a GM. The steering wheel as a cheap ass Grant that was too small, badly connected, and all wrong for this truck. All has been removed and scrapped.

The gauge cluster was original but did not function. The lower gauges functioned but...ew. In a previous post I detailed fixing this

The radiator and power steering pump are parts that could be found in a foxbody, the pump mounted on a bracket meant for serpentine belt cars that was hacked to death and badly installed. The pump was leaking at the seam when I got it and the radiator broke on removal. The fan was attached to the wrong water pump pulley and belt wrap around that pulley was almost non-existent Instead of using a single alternator belt and a water pump/power steering belt the PO use a single belt for all of them which was misaligned and barely touched the water pump, which may explain the need for a small auxiliary fan..

Back to the fuel tank, I planned to clean it out but that would have been pointless due to the leak. It had been patched with a large spot of JB weld that didn't hold for long. And when I dropped the tank I found an unused secondary fuel level sender badly cut into the top of it.

The whole fuel system has been replaced.

On the ignition and electrical side the engine was equipped with a proper 1G alternator that I swapped for a 3g pulled from a Taurus in the junk yard (it tested good). The distributor went backwards from what should have been on a '75 302 to a points dist with multiple inline resistors telling me someone had no idea how to hook up the ignition system.

New duraspark II distributor, controller, epoxy coil, and wires have been installed.

This is the "fun" of someone else's project. I went in knowing this truck needed wiring work. Over 2 years later I have replaced the fuel system, wiring, everything on the front of the engine, new radiator and electric fans, new steering system, new shocks, remoutned the rear axle, shifted the engine to the passenger side with custom mounts, made a whole new dash, and I'm in the process of fabricating seat mounts and some other panels.

My grandfather knew none of this when he bought the truck. I hope I'm able to show it to him some day.

Continuing my thread from Old Oppo, 2 minor updates.

For those who did not see it or do not recall my deck started here:

and ended here:

earlier this year. Luckily I got in just before lumber prices went into the stratosphere and we got to enjoy it through the cooler days of summer (not July, holy shit) and fall.

For my wife's birthday in mid-October I bought her a gift

It's a propane fire pit, for many reasons I am not comfortable with a wood burner that close to the house. Eventually I want to connect it to the house gas supply and not worry about tanks. Today is not that day though.

Also, finished up the grill. Had plans, scrapped those plans, and instead used only leftovers from the deck build that were taking up space in the garage. The rest is still taking up space, maybe I'll find a use for it soon. Or make a back panel just to use the deck boards. IDK.

Only piece I had to buy was a length of aluminum angle to mount the grill base to some 4x4s and get rid of the grill legs entirely.

Maybe this weekend we'll wrap the pergola in Christmas lights

If you're a clod who's ruined your car write to us at bbc.co.uk/topgear opposite-lock.com and tell us about it

@nerd_racing said in 8 out of 10 cats would Hoon:

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold said in 8 out of 10 cats would Hoon:

@ita97 said in 8 out of 10 cats would Hoon:

@zipfuel I'd guess this was intended as a track toy. The fact the swap is old enough to be done with a 302 suggests to me this was done way before drifting was a thing.

302 is an interesting choice but maybe an LS was out of the price range? Newer Fords won't fit so it's a single cam only swap I'm guessing, not much notable from Chrysler group so your options really are 302/351W, SBC, or LS. A built 5.3 would be a riot as would an LS1 but the latter is much pricier than a fox 302.

If you use a crown vic pan it pretty much clears the stock running gear as is. 302 is a very popular swap for FB RX-7 cars, especially since they pre-date the LS engines. Since Ford had ownership in Mazda around production times, in my mind a small block ford is a little more acceptable than an LS. LS is a no go for me. 302 makes sense because it is 1" narrower than the 351W and I believe 1" shorter, but I know it's narrower for sure.

A 351W should just be a tall deck 302, maybe a hair wider and yeah a bit taller, I'm sure that's a concern in a car this small.

When I'm thinkin of the modulars or newer Ford small blocks it's the added width of the OHC setup that tends to kill a lot of the swaps, there just isn't the width in the bay to fit.

@looseonexit Still doesn't inspire much confidence, but I see your point. Would be interesting to know what pump in in there

@looseonexit said in 8 out of 10 cats would Hoon:

@zipfuel
Nice, cheap enough?

3G SN95/Fox alternator swap without a belt tensioner is...different. No power steering either. The Bassetts scream cone murdering machine and it looks like a blast tbh.

I want to know what's spinning the water pump, it doesn't look like the belt is even touching the pulley. I did a 3g swap on my '56 with an earlier 302 but it has a v belt setup with a swinging tensioner bracket, I wouldn't want to run that with a serpentine.

@ita97 said in 8 out of 10 cats would Hoon:

@zipfuel I'd guess this was intended as a track toy. The fact the swap is old enough to be done with a 302 suggests to me this was done way before drifting was a thing.

302 is an interesting choice but maybe an LS was out of the price range? Newer Fords won't fit so it's a single cam only swap I'm guessing, not much notable from Chrysler group so your options really are 302/351W, SBC, or LS. A built 5.3 would be a riot as would an LS1 but the latter is much pricier than a fox 302.

@jeepoftheseus said in What's this? A restock?:

@kitt222 wooo! Getting them before they run out again was the closest feeling to buying concert tickets that I've had since before the pandemic!

Did you also buy rage tickets? I ordered mine Feb 2020, concert pushed to July '22. Long time to wait, but so was the 15+ years I waited for them to get back together and tour again

Ordered

@nermal Looks bad on that too but at least it's mostly a window. Granted I think the entire i3 is a styling disaster.....I don't want that as my future.

@nermal But the shitty "floating roof" bit at the back makes it look cheap. It makes Lexus look cheap as well. That feature does not look good on anything.

Walk away from the computer for a couple hours and everything is gone!

Guess I'll have to wait until the next round, my lime green tool box needs some orange bling

@shrimphappens said in I bought something practical:

@eury As an owner of the rival Gladiator, I guess I should tell you you bought the wrong truck, but the Ridgeline is pretty flawless. My father-in-law has a current-gen, and I just can't get comfortable behind the wheel--can't stretch out my legs enough--so it wasn't even on my radar.

Congratulations!

Our numbers hold strong at 2!

I haven't driven a Ridgeline but really do like them. My decision for a gladiator was a compromise between wanting a wrangler and needing a truck. One test drive sold me though. And it helps that my wife has wanted a wrangler forever, and this gets us that same feeling with better utility