This week's work entailed a major milestone in the F 8 resto project. We accomplished the following:
Bolted the transmission to the engine and installed same on the frame.
Installed the carbuerator, alternator, distributor, starter solenoid, spark plugs and wires, coil and fuel pump.
Installed the transmission cooler.
Whoa! Installed what?
Well, here's the rest of the story. For those of you who were aghast at my scrapping the bed right off, converting to a 12 volt system and installing an electronic distributor, hang onto your seats!
I am a paraplegic having contracted polio some years back while working as a civilian for the US Air Force. I use a wheelchair to get around and use hand controls to drive my vehicles.
When I purchased this truck I was struck by the very narrow space for the foot pedals and wanting to not only drive the truck myself as well as others not needing hand controls, I decided to install a converter and an automatic transmission.
I purchased a Flat-O-Matic converter which comes with a bell housing that fits the rear of the flathead as well as the front of a Ford C 4 auto tranny. It also comes with a new light-weight flywheel and torque converter. I picked up a C 4, had it rebuilt, and this week we bolted engine and tranny together, painted and installed them.
Bolting the tranny to the frame required having a 5" by 8" by 3/16" steel plate cut and holes drilled as the new mounting holes were located about 3" beyond the originals in the cross member.
We have also ordered a custom length driveshaft as well as a transmission top mounted shifter (Lokar). On the latter I believe that we may be able to install the original shifting arm to maintain the original look. In that regard we also drilled and pinned the clutch pedal arm to the shaft that it shares with the brake pedal so that there are now two brake pedals.
I've kept all the original pieces so that any subsequent owner may use them to retro-convert if they so wish.
Well, that's the rest of the story!
You may fire away at will!
Attached are a number of pictures of the work we accomplished. Enjoy!
Regards,
Jim
PS The last picture shows how little space there is between the pedal assembly and the exhaust manifold! I'm really concerned about the space available and whether all will fit!
