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A long day was spent yesterday with very little visible progress. I finished welding and painting the steering gear box mounting plate. I had planned to thread the plate and bolt the box onto it, but decided to just bolt it through the frame. I can access all of the bolts from the holes in the frame, so I decided to not box and sleeve the frame as others have done. Besides, if I tear a 3/4" thick plate with nearly 3' of 1/4" fillet weld off the frame, I have serious problems. I also finished the mock up of the rear disk brakes, so now they are ready to remove and paint.

I've been pondering the Ford shock towers. One thing I know I want to do is to straighten the driver side one by about 3/4" to correct for the mounting plate it will be welded to. I don't really need the extra travel, so I'm planning to keep them low on the frame. I just hate having to trim brand new fenders, so I'm experimenting with different mounting locations to see what can be accomplished with the least trimming.

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Are or are not doing valve job? #6 looks crusty

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Trimmed the fender today to clear the power steering box. Hated trimming a brand new fender, but had no choice. Started cleaning up the parts I have to finish the steering linkages. I'm trying to decide if I should use the stock FJ60 pitman arm, or cut and turn a FJ40 arm. Check out the crud in the thermostat housing! One thing I enjoy about a build like this is the fact that at the end of the day the rig is better both inside and out.

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I thought you picked up an awesome tool last week to assist with the work?
 
One setback, severity as of yet not determined. I spent the day today with a friend blasting, cleaning, and painting engine components. I also powder coated a couple of parts - my first attempt at that. I was surprised how easy it was. Granted, I did only a couple of small parts, but it is a straightforward process. I also was fortunate enough to have a friend volunteer to run my oil pan, side cover, and clutch dust shield through his caustic tank. Made cleanup a snap.

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A little progress today to keep Kelly happy. His positioning stand is sweet! I've been poking around the replacement tub and all is not as great as it once seemed. It has been bondo'd and repainted somewhere during its life. There are a few places that will require patching. It'll be interesting to see what I find once I dig out the sandblaster.

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Finally has time to prep and paint the block and bell housing today. I mechanically cleaned the block, hand scraped the hard to reach areas, and then used brake cleaner for the final wash. One of these days I'll be bolting stuff back together instead of cleaning and painting...

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I also picked up the head after having the valves ground, new seals installed, and getting it surfaced. They ended up taking about 0.020 off to get everything smoothed up. That'll be the last part that needs painted before I can begin reassembling the engine.

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Beautiful. Great progress. Keep the pictures coming...
 
A little more painting today. Finally finished up the head.

I'm looking for suggestions on painting (if any) on the manifolds. I'm debating splitting them and going with silver for the intake and black for the exhaust. I am concerned about getting them separated without breaking off a bolt in the process. Suggestions and thoughts?

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soak the heads with PB blaster for a few days and they should come apart.
 
Heat and soak. Heat them up for 10 seconds with plumbing propane torch then spray with PB Blaster. Inhale the goodness :)

I did this for 3 days and then finally she let go without much force. Let go hot by the way.
 
Took a slightly different direction yesterday. This came up for sale. Going to put this one in and cleanup/wrap up the original engine for installation later. A couple of interesting previous owner modifications. One is he custom-built a variable advance for the timing. He also added an in-cab mixture adjustment cable. Has a brand-new carb, headers, and is plumbed for heating the intake. Pretty sweet for $300.

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