My '63 Unibody (Integral Cab)

I’m going to install a later model plunger type electric brake light switch. The old pressure operated switch was on the old master cylinder. The new switch will be on the pedal assembly. So I made a bracket to hold the switch to the pedal bracket and another bracket that mounts to the pedal arm and actuates the switch.
It’s a PITA to have to make so many items. It eats up a lot of time.
My welder is crammed over in a dark corner, no nearby bench or vise. I need to get more parts and crap out of my garage so I can work.
 
Eaton Spring called yesterday regarding an email I sent. I wanted them to leave the spring clamps off so I could paint the individual leaves (like I’ve done many times.)
They strongly urge against painting in between the leaves. I guess I’ll paint the spring packs fully assembled when they arrive.
 
My springs shipped yesterday from Detroit, should be here Friday. The rain is supposed to stop Friday. I haven’t been able to do anything for the past few days.
I did drop my spindles off at the machine shop to get the pins fit. Most people just use a pin reamer but a good engine guy does a more precise job. Sadly, the guy at the engine shop informed me he’s probably going to close the shop this year. :( He’s been at it probably close to 40 years, a real old school machinist. A perfectionist with so much knowledge and experience. He makes a lot of money and is always busy, loves what he does but he’s ready to retire. He said his oldest son is really good but doesn’t want to do the dirty work, he’d rather just build stuff with a CNC.
I have a couple of engine blocks I would like to have done in the future. Maybe he can recommend someone.
 
My springs shipped yesterday from Detroit, should be here Friday. The rain is supposed to stop Friday. I haven’t been able to do anything for the past few days.
I did drop my spindles off at the machine shop to get the pins fit. Most people just use a pin reamer but a good engine guy does a more precise job. Sadly, the guy at the engine shop informed me he’s probably going to close the shop this year. :( He’s been at it probably close to 40 years, a real old school machinist. A perfectionist with so much knowledge and experience. He makes a lot of money and is always busy, loves what he does but he’s ready to retire. He said his oldest son is really good but doesn’t want to do the dirty work, he’d rather just build stuff with a CNC.
I have a couple of engine blocks I would like to have done in the future. Maybe he can recommend someone.



Many people use nylon no fit kingpin bushings, they suck really really badly. Nothing beats a precisely fit set of metal bushings. The shop that used to fit mine used a Sunnen rod hone to fit them instead of a reamer. You doing your own cam bearings or having machine shop do them ?
 
Many people use nylon no fit kingpin bushings, they suck really really badly. Nothing beats a precisely fit set of metal bushings. The shop that used to fit mine used a Sunnen rod hone to fit them instead of a reamer. You doing your own cam bearings or having machine shop do them ?
I’m not doing a motor on this truck...yet. But I have a cam bearing tool.
My goal right now is the cooling system, suspension and disc brake upgrade. This thing kinda got away from me and snowballed into more.
I’m really supposed to be working on the other truck.
Yes the nylon bushings are junk. This is a Moog metal bushing kit.
 
I’m not doing a motor on this truck...yet. But I have a cam bearing tool.
My goal right now is the cooling system, suspension and disc brake upgrade. This thing kinda got away from me and snowballed into more.
I’m really supposed to be working on the other truck.
Yes the nylon bushings are junk. This is a Moog metal bushing kit.


Some clowns around here commonly use the no fits on big trucks, they last about a week and are loose when brand new. I did a set of metal ones recently and used a cylinder hone on a drill press to fit them, it worked really well. I stopped letting machine shops do my cam bearings years ago, they just rush thru them and sometimes they aren't quite right. Cam bearings are everything on many engines, they are the heart of the lube system.
 
Some clowns around here commonly use the no fits on big trucks, they last about a week and are loose when brand new. I did a set of metal ones recently and used a cylinder hone on a drill press to fit them, it worked really well. I stopped letting machine shops do my cam bearings years ago, they just rush thru them and sometimes they aren't quite right. Cam bearings are everything on many engines, they are the heart of the lube system.
A lot of dummies don’t even replace cam bearings and then wonder why their oil pressure sucks.
This machinist does does a great job on these king pins. He fitted the pins on my ‘72 spindles, too.
 
A lot of dummies don’t even replace cam bearings and then wonder why their oil pressure sucks.
This machinist does does a great job on these king pins. He fitted the pins on my ‘72 spindles, too.



One only has to look real quick to see where the oil goes first and how it gets to the rods and mains :idunno: A lot of guys use reground or rebuilt cams, I measured a bunch of journals on them and discovered the guy that polishes them gets a bit crazy with material removal. 2 to 3 thousands taken off on a lot of them, that isn't a good thing in my book o_O I have seen some new replacements that weren't much better, I always check them
 
I learned something new a few days ago while doing some research on these trucks. Turns out I was way off on ‘63 Uni production numbers.
There’s a guy on FTE website named Bill, his username is NumberDummy. He’s a retired Ford parts manager that worked for Crenshaw Ford. Turns out we know a lot of the same people.
He puts the 1963 (last year) Unibody truck production numbers at only 5,456.
 
All 61-66 doors are physically interchangeable but the Uni doors had a straight body line below the window whereas the non-Uni truck doors had a scalloped body line.
Early Uni doors (61-62) didn’t have a key lock on the outside of the driver side door. Some ‘63 trucks had a ‘62 no lock driver side door. Someone once explained it was because back then the streets were narrower and folks just usually slid out the passenger side and locked the door. I don’t know if that’s true.
 
It came down to two bidders really wanting the truck (those situations are fun to watch). I think they had more money than brains. But it was a good looking truck, it looked new, white and blue paint, 292 V8, 3 speed manual with overdrive, positraction.

There were a lot of trucks last night, unusual for Barrett-Jackson.
 
It came down to two bidders really wanting the truck (those situations are fun to watch). I think they had more money than brains. But it was a good looking truck, it looked new, white and blue paint, 292 V8, 3 speed manual with overdrive, positraction.

There were a lot of trucks last night, unusual for Barrett-Jackson.
That’s what happens when you just gotta have it. A good situation for the seller. Many times it’s because the bidder had a similar vehicle when they were younger.
 
Here it is...pretty awesome little truck. This one also happens to be a “big back window” truck. Those are pretty rare. There are no existing records that reflect how many Unibodies were big back window trucks (due to a Ford museum fire.)
I wasn't aware there were two types of rear windows. That big rear window curves around the corners - more impressive than a 5-window pickup.
 
The leaf springs I ordered from Eaton Detroit do not have the correct rear bushings in them and I cannot mount them :mad:
 
I have the day off today so I got some work done on the truck.
I emailed Eaton Spring Saturday and the guy called me this morning. He told me that the bushing in the rear of the spring is the correct one according to their blueprints. The bushing in the spring is 2.75" wide. We went back and forth a bit and I sent him some vendor links for the bushing and a couple of pics showing the frame leaf brackets as well as a correct bushing (which I have one of.)
Correct bushing...

Frame brackets measured with the correct bushing...

He told me he was going to do some research and wound up calling me back in a couple of hours to tell me that I was correct, the bushings in the springs were wrong and that he could get me the correct ones in about a week :(
I also called Moog Suspension tech to see if they had and could look up a bushing by size. No such luck.
In the meantime, I took the steering box back apart to replace the Chinese bearings with some Ford NOS bearings, reset the worm bearing preload, sector mesh and filled the box with fresh 00 manual box grease. I got the steering box and steering column installed (with fresh column to floor seal) and hooked the exhaust back up. While I was in there I replaced both engine mounts. Also, put the upper shock brackets back on.
Also wired the new brake light switch.

Overall a pretty good day. I guess I'll get the new rear brake backing plates, wheel cylinders and wider brake shoes on while I wait for the spring bushings. :idunno:
 
Waiting for Eaton to send me the correct bushings is a bit of a bummer but not that big of a deal. I asked the rep to just refund me some money and I’d get the bushings myself. For some reason he wouldn’t do it so now I have to wait. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can get them sooner myself. I’ll just put the bushings from Eaton into my parts inventory when they arrive.
The Ford part number for the bushing is C1TT-5348-A. I did a search on Rear Counter, a website for factory NOS parts. 5 or 6 vendors came up showing the NOS Ford bushing. One of them is Dennis Carpenter Reproductions in NC, a Ford licensed parts reproduction manufacturer that bought many of the original Ford tooling dies for parts from Ford when Ford discontinued production of those parts.
Carpenter emailed me back saying they had 48 NOS bushings for sale. They quoted me $15 per bushing plus shipping (I’m going to call them in two hours when they open.) Carpenter also has the same bushing made by Harris Bushings with hardware for $50.
http://dennis-carpenter.com/m/spring-shackle-kit/p/C1TZ-5304-E/s/C1TZ-5304-E/

Another vendor contacted me saying he also had the NOS bushing and directed my to his EBay account via a link. $82 + $16 for shipping o_O
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-F-100...e81-c9d5-4221-a8c2-37dd8b26304f&epid=93740671

First of all his bushing is overpriced, secondly it ISN’T an NOS Ford bushing. I did recognize the 35314 part number as being from Rare Parts. I can buy it directly from Rare Parts for $62.50
https://shop.rareparts.com/TPSK188-SPRING-BOLT-KIT

The guy wants to charge me $100 for aftermarket when I can get NOS for $15. Or I could buy aftermarket Harris bushing with hardware for $50.
The guy is a thief. He didn’t respond to my email after I let him have it.
 
I’m kicking around the idea of putting the 429 in the frame once it gets powder coated. I’ll need to get a different case for the trans and swap the internals. I have most of the stuff.
 
Got everything mocked up today. The disc brake kit was used, it came on the axle that I bought off of Craigslist. Although the kit was fairly new, the calipers were painted black with non-high heat paint and the rotors already had surface rust on the hats. I sandblasted the calipers, painted them with extreme heat header paint and rebuilt them. I also stripped off the surface rust from the rotor hats and painted them with ceramic high heat paint, just in case you can see them through the wheel. The rotors came with Chinese bearings and even though they're new, I'm replacing them with Timken or SKF bearings.
I also found out that 1995 Impala SS brake pads will fit in these rotors and they have more pad surface than standard D52 brake pads. So I ordered a set of those, too.
 
Got everything mocked up today. The disc brake kit was used, it came on the axle that I bought off of Craigslist. Although the kit was fairly new, the calipers were painted black with non-high heat paint and the rotors already had surface rust on the hats. I sandblasted the calipers, painted them with extreme heat header paint and rebuilt them. I also stripped off the surface rust from the rotor hats and painted them with ceramic high heat paint, just in case you can see them through the wheel. The rotors came with Chinese bearings and even though they're new, I'm replacing them with Timken or SKF bearings.
I also found out that 1995 Impala SS brake pads will fit in these rotors and they have more pad surface than standard D52 brake pads. So I ordered a set of those, too.



Been having bad issues with SKF as of late, they appear to be really cheaply made
 
I gave the guy the bearing numbers, not sure which ones he ordered, I just told him no Chinese. I’ll find out at 9:30 tomorrow morning. :)



I get Chinese from our trailer part supplier, they have been 10 times better wearing than the SKF stuff I have been getting. The SKF stuff is terribly cheap looking ...... unless they have more than one grade bearing. I get my motorcycle crank bearings from a German supplier, the quality is amazing
 
I get Chinese from our trailer part supplier, they have been 10 times better wearing than the SKF stuff I have been getting. The SKF stuff is terribly cheap looking ...... unless they have more than one grade bearing. I get my motorcycle crank bearings from a German supplier, the quality is amazing
Japan makes some good bearings too.
There’s a place near here called A&P Bearing, the guy usually stocks everything. I should’ve went there but I wasn’t thinking straight.
 
Japan makes some good bearings too.
There’s a place near here called A&P Bearing, the guy usually stocks everything. I should’ve went there but I wasn’t thinking straight.



You aren't likely to have issues with any of them if you use good lube. I use Mystic grease on all wheel bearings these days, I really like it.
 
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