'70 squire: back to the road

I'll post some pics tomorrow, but the frame on the parts wagon is in perfect condition. My 70 grame has no rust holes, but plenty of surface rust. So I guess I lucked into two good frames. Whichever I don't use will he for sale if anyone has a need. Also have a spare good fuel tank and sender.

The 69 has good brake lines and fuel lines too. So here's a good question. Should I use these lines on my 69? Or try to either reproduce them or buy sedan lines hoping they're a good fit? I'd hate to run into constant issues by using old lines, but I also don't want to waste money on unnecessary stuff.

 

Happy belated Birthday Tryloff! Can’t wait to see your pictures of the Squire.

 

Just shoot some WD inside the fuel lines, blow some compressed air through, and look at what comes out. Any interior rust will let you know about them; and run brake fluid through the lines, using a M/C if you have a usable one, look for the same thing, rust particles. I would say that effort has a good chance of no further effort other than swapping them over.

 

Photo dump:
This is the 69 frame. My original plan was to send it out for sand plasting and epoxy primer/paint. But, it's in pretty good shape so I may just clean the few mouse nests out and use a good internal frame wax coating and some black extrernal frame pil coating. I didn't see any damage at all except for the idler arm mount. Not sure how it got so beat up? Maybe a wreck at some point? Terrible repair too..

Here is the fuel and brake line. Pretty good shape. Still undecided on what I'm going to do there. I will likely inspect them as suggested above and report back.

And here is the hvac box:
These are a huge issue in 69/70 fords. I forget why they fail, but for some reason most of them are junked right under the ac evap. This makes it so you get no air from the vents when using hvac on any function. Lucky for me, the box on my 70 is in perfect shape. Pictured in the second photo.

 

Yeah, the boxes never correctly drained, so they'd rot out. I wonder if that box could be carefully disassembled, then scanned and rapid-prototyped on a 3-D printer?
Yeah, that mounting got fully ripped out, apparently. I would suggest finding a donor frame and cut that section out, cut and weld into this frame. At least, that's how I would repair it.

 

I have the donor frame if it goes that route. But I'll likely just take some .250 steel plate and make something work. I'd hate to kill a frame for this.

 

Well, if you can find a junkyard, with a junked late Sixties to late Seventies Ford/Merc/Lincoln, that would be a better way to go.

 

I took the wheels off today to get some free tire put on so I can roll this this around. When I got home I attempted to get the rear drums off to free up the brakes. As figured, both sides are seized up and the adjusters just laughed at me. I tried tapping the drums off with a hammer, but ended up chipping one of them. That led me to start searching for new drums, just in case. Both of my wagons have the same style drum. Massive, with cooling fins, but I can't find that style anywhere. I do think the 70 drums came off in one piece, so if I can manage to get the other drum off of the 69 without damage, that gives me 3 drums to hopefully end up with 2 machined and in spec drums. There are a few different drum sizes to choose from so I'll need these drums off anyways to measure the shoes.

 

If they're 11" drums, the standard width is 2.5", and if equipped with factory trailer towing, 2.75 or 3" (two choices). Now, as for getting the drums off, they likely have ridging that catches on the shoes. Take a can of PB Blaster, and liberally shoot the star wheel assembly, and the entire center hub, leave for a few days. You may have to use the tip of a big screwdriver to force the wheel to begin moving when you do go back to it. And, of course, you have to push the adjuster pawl away from the star wheel enough to turn it backward to slacken the shoes enough.

 

Both cars are factory tow package cars.
I soaked both the adjuster and the hub. I don't think it's stuck on the hub. On the 70, the rivets that held the friction material to the shoes had rusted off. That's likely why they came off so easy. The 69 probably has intact shoes. We'll see what happens next time I get out there.

 

I think the drum part number is 60-42677 but it's listed as put of stock everywhere. Mac's, ecklers, and some place up in Canada list them.

I'm mostly commenting this as a reference for me to look back on.

 

Actually, that's a good idea. I sometimes refer back to posts I've made with info.

 

I got the drums off today. It wasn't peaceful. The adjusters weren't having any part of it. The drum part number is confirmed to ne 60-42677, although the reproduction drums both do not look similar and are out of stock everywhere. So that's nifty. I know both drums on the 69 are ruined. I'm going to remove and measure the drums on the 70 and see if they're decent enough to have turned, sand blasted, and painted.
On the bright side, the hardware and pads all look to be in decent shape. I'll be reusing all of that to save a bit of money. The wheel cylinders ar eboth junk as expected though. They offer both 15/16th or 1 inch bore replacements. I'm not sure which ones I have yet, but I'll post when I know.
I put the drums back on with out any pads or hardware so the car will be able to roll around now. That will help over the next year or so (hopefully no longer) while I'm getting the frame ready for the 70 body to go on.
The rear axle spins easily now with minimal play felt in the differential. More good news, as this means I have 2 good rear ends now.
I found a few more mouse nests when pulling the spare tire out of its spot. The tire was blown out at some point and put away flat. It is full to the brim with mouse nest. Same with the quarter fender up in front of where the tire lives. I can't wait to get the rest of the interior gutted and thrown in the dumpster. I'm starting the understand why I was shoveling mouse carcasses out of the shop daily the first two weeks this this was in here. Seems like the poison is working.

 

Yeah, those little buggars sure do get into some tight spots. And they sure can make a heckuva mess.

 

Please wear N95 masking or a full-on dust respirator, long-sleeve shirts and long gloves. You do not wanna catch anything some little Mousie carried to its buddies, and I'm not just referring to Hantavirus.