1934 Ford Model B pickup

The rear rewire.

The towing socket had to go, I will never tow with this.
The receiver hitch has to stay, as it adds a lot of strength to the rear chassis, thankfully the tow ball arrangement slides out.
Rear indicators hung off the rear crossmember and connected with a combination of 90 year old wiring and household stuff - I can do better.

A shopping spree netted some suitable lamps with orange and red lenses.
These are easily modifiable to act as stop/tail/indicator - back in the day the orange was the brake light !!



I'm trying to do the wiring to a combination of period correct, but safe and reliable.
A work in progress, crimp on bullets and cloth harness tape works well.



All routed along the rear crossmember. I love the old repair of the bracket
I only had plastic p-clips to hand, but they will be fine, I added them to the bed bolts with extra UNC nuts to save disturbing/drilling anything.



The trouble with wiring is where to stop. I didn't want to get into a full rewire this weekend.
So I elected to add a completely inappropriate junction box ahead of the rear axle.
Looks horrible - is horrible. But makes it easy to build the next section of the loom from.



With that all done, and the gremlins worked out, the rear was a little tidier and safer.





The hitch cover is temporary, I'm going to try something different there, but for now I'm happy.

There has been quite a lot going on with the pickup.

I have a US style receiver hitch on the back. No use to me, but it is well bolted in. The tow-ball slides out when un-pinned.

Rather than just put a cover on it, I thought I could add some more brake lights. Never a bad thing in this day and age.

I bought a pack of LED lamps from Amazon - despite being just over a pound each - they are very bright.
I fired up the 3D printer and came up with a mount.
It is on a quick release wiring plug - just in case I need to connect the tow ball for any reason.



It is fairly subtle when fitted, and of course quickly removable if I feel the need for any reason.



But in use, it is considerably brighter than a regular 21W filament bulb.



Yeah happy with that.

Thanks for looking.

The last update for now.
And an old school update, welding, filler and paint, rather than 3D printing and other voodoo. 

The pickup sides have loads of holes - bound to happen on a commercial vehicle that is 89 years old.
There was also a piece of angle iron on each side, that was bolted on to make a tonneau cover.
A total of 36 unnecessary holes.



I treated myself to a couple of welding blankets, stripped the paint off, and set to welding up all the holes.
I used a copper backing plate, to control the rear of the weld.
I also added a few dots of weld to some of the rivets, as they had lost some of their definition over the years.



All things considered the bed sides are very straight. It only took a couple of light skims of filler to get them into shape.



I don't want perfect bodywork, I don't want immaculate paint. I want to be able to use it as a pickup.
With that in mind, the repaired areas got some 2-pack epoxy. I rollered it on, using a 2.5" mini roller.
Which worked pretty well.
Already looking better without 36 holes.



That'll get a light blocking/keying to remove the worst of the orange peel.
But I've got undercoat and top-coat to roller on too.
The paint the previous owner used, is a yacht enamel, so I can always cut and polish it later, if I feel so inclined.

Thanks for looking

The headlamps are held on with a long stud at the bottom, and a massive 9/16 UNF nut. The horns were attached to this with a second 9/16 nut. More tractor than Hot Rod, so I needed to length the brackets to lose one of the nuts, and tweak the angle to suit the indicators.

They are handed, but here is one bracket slit in half, and an extension tacked into place.



Once fully welded, the bracket was a little clunky, so created a bit of a shape, and thinned it down wherever possible



Both brackets done, cleaned up, a coat of Screwfix's finest black.
I printed a little template, which allowed me to mark the holes/shape ready for chain drilling the "dog bone" in the middle - worked well.



Milwaukee M12 tools, made the chore of bracket making much more enjoyable, and no I'm not sponsored by them.

Thanks for looking

I finished the paint repairs off too.
The 2K epoxy was blocked back to get rid of the worst of the orange peel.

I then use a little 2" gloss roller to put on a couple of coats of white undercoat, not photo worthy.
Then it was onto the top-coat. The previous owner used yacht enamel, so that was my choices made for me.
Again a 2" gloss roller was the weapon of choice.

This is the finish I ended up with. Which I'm 100% happy with, and I believe is appropriate for an 89 year old commercial vehicle, that still have to work for its living occasionally.



I could cut and polish it, but I doubt I will.

One thing that was annoying me was this hacked out access hole.
With the fuel tank in place, I couldn't do much to tidy the rough cuts.



But the farmer spec covering plate - I could do something about.
Especially as I had a bead roller in my toolbox.



But I got the best surprise when I turned the plate over - a cool American sign, now gracing my shed door.



I knocked together a slightly better fitting plate. I reused some of the original holes, which are all over the place. The comical bead-rolled arrow helps me refit the plate.



I've cleaned off some of the black groo, but I've not done anything else to the bed floor. Still pondering the best solution for that.

The best solution for now, is to slide the utilitarian plywood floor, and storage chest, back into position, and call it good.



Thanks for looking

Looks great - I wonder if a application of 'Raptor' to the bed of the truck would work for you at all - not many people are aware but the product was specifically designed & marketed as a spray on protection liner for the load beds of pick up trucks in the States - Long before owners started using the application for the underside of vehicles - fact that you can colour it and apply it in one application also has its advantages 

I've also been trying to make the steering less "exciting"
Bumps and rough roads make it dart all over the place.

So, I've been doing due dilligence on the front end.

• Tyre pressures reduced from 30 to 24psi
• Greased all the kingpins and steering joints
• Wheel bearings and steering box seem in good condition.
• There is a little bit of wear in the kingpins, but not too much IMHO

With all that time for a test-drive.
Yes it is certainly better.
But the phrases "Relaxing drive" and "like a hot knife through better" weren't appropriate.
It is still very much a handful, and needs extreme concentration.

But there was a purpose to the test drive. Had to grab a wheel from the Mercedes, as the powdercoat had faults in it.
Yes I'm sure the daily driver could have done this job - but where is the fun in that 



That is all for now

I am sure you have seen what the chassis is like but if you look at the pics of the Model B Hotrod build I posted, with the engine and box out there is not (in my opinion) a lot of metal involved. Remember the chassis on the project car has been strengthened. That's not to say it is not strong but the suggestion Chris made doesn't sound too daunting, especially if it makes driving it more enjoyable.

The steering, it hops and darts all over the place, rather than merely pulling to one side or not tracking straight.

I got a couple of pieces of tube, from the scrap bin, and 3D printed a bunch of blue things.
Can you guess what it is yet ?



With a pieces of 20mm conduit, it assembles to make a tracking gauge.
The bracket on the left screws into the plastic foot.
The one on the right is free to slide up and down the tube.



Most people say 1/8" toe in for these vehicles.
Therefore I measured ahead of the axle first, and marked it with tape.
Then measured behind the axle.



The gap between the yellow tape and the blue foot should be the 1/8" toe in.
But no it is 13/16" - massively off !!

Personally I prefer metric for detailed stuff - it should be 3.1mm, but it is 20.5mm

Now that isn't good.

I backed the vehicle into the garage with the steering wheel central. I ran it back and forth a couple of times, to ensure the wheels were pointing straight.
The offside to the naked eye looks straight, all the error is all in the nearside - the side that has taken a whack.

Now that goes some way to explaining the driving characteristics.

Whilst I was in a measuring mood, I thought I'd check the castor/king-pin angle too.
I measured it taking the slight slope of the garage floor into account at 5.6 degrees.
The consensus is that needs to be between 7 and 8 degrees.

Ho hum, not as bad as the tracking, but not easily adjustable.
I think the fix is to put a shim between the wishbones and the chassis, but that along with fixing the tracking is a job for another day.

Thanks for looking.