Tilt Forward Hood Kit Install - Part 2

I hit a snag when installing the hood kit...  Two of the spacer bushings that came with the kit were double the length they should have been, so I could not install the rear hood brackets.  I called the manufacturer and they sent me out some new hardware no questions asked, so that seemed like great service recovery.

Original kit bushing that was too long:

 New correct bushing next to the original one:

 Rear hood bracket installed. 

Adjustable heim joints installed on the tilt bracket.  The threaded end of this joint will mount to the truck body and anchor the entire hood near the radiator.

 Installing the big hood into little brackets looked tricky, so I taped the washers down over the holes to eliminate that hassle during "heim joint stabbing operations."

 Here is a picture of the hood immediately after mounting.  I had to use Qty. 2 child labor and Qty. 1 spouse labor to get this done.  It was a giant circus sideshow that involved lots of yelling, laughing, and complaining, but the mission was accomplished.  Teamwork makes the dream work!

Boom!  Just like in a hot rod magazine, except for all of the rust and primer.

Next step is to install the firewall mounted roller brackets:

Tilt Forward Hood Kit Install - Part 1

I had been putting off the installation of the tilt forward hood kit for a long time due to the general state of the front end.  It was becoming a chore to continue stepping over the large box in an overcrowded garage, so today was the day to get it off the floor.  The kit was purchased from No Limit Engineering and it is pretty sweet.  In short, it converts the factory hood that tilts up the "normal way" into the reverse, where it opens up near the cab and folds forward over the front end like shown in the internet reference picture below:

This is a long and tedious process to complete, so there are lots of pictures.  First, the dirty scoundrel that completed the last restoration of this vehicle saw it fit to weld over the factory hood hinge mounting holes on the cab.  I need those holes back, so they had to be located and drilled out.

 Tools of the trade:

 Holes marked and punched.

 New holes:

Sprayed some primer back over the bare metal for good measure.

 

It turns out the hood kit was missing eight nuts to fasten the new brackets, so those were added to the grocery list for the next trip to the store.  While the primer was drying on the cab, the factory hood braces needed to be removed to make room for the new tilt forward mechanism.  Upside down hood in the front yard:

 The factory hood brace brackets are spot welded to the sheet metal, so they had to be drilled out and pried off.  Spot welds located:

 Drilled with small drill bit through both pieces of sheet metal.

 A larger hole was drilled thorough the top piece of sheet metal only to leave more material remaining on the hood.

 The rear part of the brace rods bolt to the hood, so those were removed.

 The spot welds came loose with little resistance after the drilling and some vigorous wiggling.

 Here is the new tilt forward mechanism that bolts to the hood in place of the old factory brace rods.  The end fittings are adjustable for final fit on the vehicle to ensure all of the sheet metal seams line up correctly.

 New parts fitted to the hood.

 The brackets had to be measured carefully and centered on the hood.  The problem is that all of the old sheet metal back in the day was made to loose tolerances, which makes finding the center of anything difficult.  This was accomplished with a tape measure, two pairs of vise grips, and extra time to measure it twice.

 New bolts installed.

 This is the backing plate that goes behind the new hood bracket where the old spot welds were located.  It is now the thickest/stiffest thing on the whole hood assembly.  Good stuff.

 Bam!

 Step 38:  Stop and cook breakfast tacos because, you know, hunger.

 After eating the best breakfast tacos this side of Mexico, it was time to drill the new holes for the tilt forward mechanism on the front valence.  This part gave me some anxiety because the instructions say to basically drill two identical holes in the center of a smooth radius, oblong feature on the valence 36" apart.  It was hard enough to feel good about marking this spot on one side let alone feeling good that you guessed exactly the same spot on both sides.  Here it is marked up with tape:

 Drilled.

Looks good.  We'll see how well it works once the hood is mounted...

Radiator Hose Install

It took three trips to the auto parts store to get the upper and lower radiator hoses sorted out.  It is a custom engine swap, so I bent some coat hanger wire to the shape needed and went in the back of the parts warehouse and just hunted around until I found some that were close.  Both of them needed a trimming to fit properly.

Guy at the parts store:  "How can I help you today?"
56Mechanic:  "I need some radiator hoses that look like these coat hangers."
Guy at the parts store:  <eye roll>  "Alright, they are back there on the left..."

Upper hose:

 Installed:

 Lower hose.  I didn't take a picture of it after install, but it looks the same except there is an engine sticking out of one end and a radiator sticking out of the other.

 I filled the radiator about 50% with distilled water first to check for leaks and then topped it off with antifreeze.

Radiator Install

This took longer than it should have due to the awkward position of the bolt hole relative to the radiator and the radiator support bracket.  I had to tape the heads of the bolts to the support bracket and float the radiator onto the bolts because I couldn't hold back-up on them.  Frustrating.

I have made two trips to the auto parts store to find radiator hoses, but am still struggling with the lower.  Engine swaps are usually like this, but the combination of the Ford 302 lower water pump outlet, the aftermarket aluminum radiator, and the relatively high 1956 radiator position compared to newer vehicles are proving to be a difficult combination.

Radiator Support Bracket Mount

One of the lingering tasks on the truck has been the location and drilling of the radiator support bracket bolts.  The "original" bracket that was on the truck when purchased was home made to accommodate low profile radiator for the tilt forward front end.  As such, there were no "factory" holes drilled in the custom chassis for the factory radiator support bracket.  The alignment and double checking of measurements during this process were as tedious as when drilling the new holes in the cab for the front fenders.  It took much longer than it should have...

Radiator removed for access.

 Center bolts installed in frame crossmember.

 Its not a party unless somebody breaks a drill bit!

Holes drilled and bolts installed.  The bracket feels pretty solid now.  It will get stiffer once all of the body panels are fully bolted and torqued.

 

Transmission Cover Plate

I took a break from the hood and fender work because the child laborers needed to disassemble the body panels were unavailable.  Instead, I finally got around to cutting a hole in the transmission cover plate and eliminating the giant hole in the cab's floorboard.  This was not rocket science, it had just been on the back burner...

This is how it has been since the transmission was installed:

Cover plate before cutting the hole:

 After cutting the hole and laying it back in place:

 Shifter test fit:

Hood Install Part 1

The truck had a tilt forward front end when purchased, so the factory hardware for the normal hood hinge mechanism was missing.  I purchased a tilt forward hood system from No Limit online and the kit is fairly impressive.  Unfortunately, the nice folks that previously rebuilt this vehicle removed some firewall hinge mounts and welded over some others.  I fit the hood onto the truck just to check the alignment of the fenders and it all looked acceptable at this point.  The fenders are currently hand tight with three bolts in them and the radiator support bracket is hand tight with only one bolt holding it in place.  The whole front end is basically "sloppy."

 New hood roller bracket.  It looks good, except there are no mounting holes where there ought to be:

 Inside of the cab.  The holes have been welded over.  :o(

 Removing primer and bondo:

 

 

 You can see where the two holes were originally.  I'm going to have to measure, punch, and drill them out.

 The lip that tapers off on the top right hand corner of the stripped area is supposed to continue down the firewall and contain two more bolt holes for the factory hinge mounts.  It was apparently removed and I'll have to fab something back into place eventually.

 With the hood resting on the cab and fenders.  Not perfect, but a good start!