Well, did not get much done last night other than make a big mess of the garage.
I did get the entire steering column torn down prepped and painted in hopes of getting it installed today.
Today I got some help from a friend, more productive after lunch =) (Thanks for the hand and the company Ole)
Managed to get the column all rebuilt today, new bearings and all new hardware, all brackets were powdercoated gloss black, inside and outside. Stainless hardware installed on this as well as new rubber boot.
Looks like a tiny bit of progress, but it was a suprising amount of work to get it all nice, much better than it came from the factory.
Very happy with how this area has turned out so far, hope I can keep up this theme with the rest of the engine bay.
With the column finally back together and in the rig, I could layout the final steering linkage from the rack to the column. I had picked up all the linkage from a 05 crown vic earlier in the week and cut off the bottom of the steering column so I had lots to work with.
I machined down a little spacer with what I have here to work with to mate the crown vic stub to the 68 steering column. Welded the crown vic stub to the spacer then welded the spacer to the shaft. They were both an interference fit, hammered together and then welded. I know its not flaming river pretty, but it looks pretty descent and did not dig into the wallet, not even a dollar.
Got the 6.0 torn down to just a long block with covers and a pan, cleaned up everything and prepped it for paint. Shot it with several coats of gloss black. Planning on doing the Holley black valve covers with the coil mounts on them directly, should look pretty descent. Happy so far with the little engine clean up.
Another round of blocking and sanding and a couple rounds of real eopxy primer laid down on them, a well as the freshly sandblated nice straight core support.
Not really worth taking pics of but I also got the final upper braces for the frontend painted and installed with the proper spacers under them and measure for the tranny, its gonna be close if it clear the crossmember at the pan or not. Hope to find out tomorrow.
Sean