Things have gotten quiet around here since I began official "tear down" of the 40. Said tear down caused my bad discs to flare up and I've been walking around like an old man with new bifocals ever since! I've still piddle around, mostly moving my parts and pieces around in the sliding puzzle that is my garage. I found a contest online by 4-Wheel & Off-Road Magazine to win a set of BJG tires so I figured I'd enter. Well I found out that I am finalist! Time will tell if I win and a free set of tires would come in awfully handy. My Contest Entry Speaking of tires... One of the tires on my F150 got a rather large sliver of metal in it. Not happy, but my spare is in good shape, so I'll get it replaced. Just $200 I'd rather spend on the 40. I also took the Beater Bronco to a local shop to have the headers and exhaust I purchased installed... Three weeks ago today! Dude said he'd probably get it done in a day for less than $600. The bill is now u...

Well it was time. With my engine due soon (ish), I need to dig into pulling the old stuff in preparation for the new. I got all the front body panels removed and drained the fluids today. The passenger side was a pain! 50 year old bolts don't like to come out. I had to lube em all and cut one of them out. The driver side came out much easier and seems to have been pulled recently. I am 99% certain that the PO wrecked the front end and driver side because these panels don't appear to be original. I hope to have the engine and the rest of the drivetrain out this week, then it'll be time to tackle stripping the interior and figuring out how to divorce the frame from the body tub.

Well it took close to three months, but ididit finally... didit. 😒 My steering column has arrived! That GM key is really bugging me! I think that thing's gonna get ground and reshaped to look like a vintage Toyota key. I compared them and only a little material needs to be removed to accomplish the look. So all my goodies ordered since Jan are here and lining my shelves and workbench. The only thing outstanding is my engine... a minor detail. For now my time being spent disassembling the rest of the 40. The hard top disassembly is pissing me off! All the fasteners are rusted and stripped, so I'll be cutting, drilling, and grinding to get it all apart. Then I'll have to extract all those threaded shafts at some point. for now I just need the thing out of the way!

Well the EFI is in aaaand sitting on my workbench! It will be some time before I'm ready to install it as I am trying to get more disciplined in my approach to this project. My motto is "one bolt at a time" and if I don't keep that in mind, the tasks will overwhelm me. I don't want to be one of those guys who has a great rig and doesn't drive it for 10 year... or ever. Here's an unboxing video. My first, so don't be too critical of the camera work and my words. 😏

I spent the weekend tinkering around while I wait impatiently for my freshly rebuilt 2F (should be ready 6/1), EFI (coming in tomorrow... to sit on the shelf...), and ididit column to arrive (whenever ididit gets around to it). I pulled the hard top and doors off to get easier access to the interior. I discovered a faded logo on the top of fiberglass top. I have no idea what it was though... All but about four bolts snapped during extraction! Now I have to drill out the posts from the hard top. 😖 I pulled the bash plates off anticipating damage or rust, but the panels look good with the exception of far too many PO (previous owners) installed holes. I pulled the dash pads out to see if they could be salvaged. Bottom knee bashers might be okay, but the dash topper is toast. With the exception of the fuel gauge, the OEM gauge cluster works. I really want the Dakota Digital gauge cluster because it can talk to the ECM and communicate a lot of data...