Thread: Project Special K

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Steve, I have an F1 or F100 steering box in my '27 and am installing one in my '39 Dodge too. Not sure how they are in a heavier truck like yours, but in my roadster it is like power steering. Parts are available to rebuild them too, but somewhat on the pricey side, especially parts like the sector shaft. Usually just cleaning the internals up and new seals will do the trick though.

Glad to see you starting a thread on this build.........it's gonna be fun for you and for us.

Don

Thanks Don.
I better tell yah why I picked Project Special K as a title. It is a bit of a joke from the 80's when I worked in the Florida Keys at Sea Camp. We had a guy we worked with who just didn't seem to have a clue. At the time there were three guys with his first name so we came up with initial nicknames like PB, PD and PK. Well PK secretly became Special K due to repeated acts of stupidity. (We were all imature and sarcastic then, much better now )

Thus Project Special K is in honor of PK and any stupid acts on my part here foward!
So have at it!

Happy Veteren's Day. Woke up to three WW2 fighters buzzing the back yard, pretty cool!
Started to reassemble new disc brake assembly yesterday. Bad luck, the bearing adapters were missing from the Classic Performance Products kit. Have to wait until monday to talk to someone about it. The good news was I didn't have to relocate my zerk fittings on the king pins, as they are angled back away from the new rotors. Here are few pictures of the spindle and my faithfull assistant Pretzel. He pumps the brakes, while I bleed the lines!

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/c...urrent=005.jpg
http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/c...urrent=003.jpg

I called Classic Performance Parts yesterday about the missing bearing adapters for the F1 disc brake conversion. They responded with, if you didn't notice the parts were missing within ten days of reciept of the package, then we aren't responsible and you'll have to buy new ones. Well considering I bought the truck from Mel 2 months ago, and he bought the conversion kit at a swap meet three years or so ago, I think we missed the deadline.
The parts are $15 a piece so I wasn't too riled. It seems customer service really varies between companies.
I'd like to put a positive plug out there for Mikuni Carbs. About three years ago my Harley started peeing gas when ever the fuel stop cock was open. I had the carb rebuilt and the mechanic said it never leaked bench testing it, but it would immediately pour gas out when reconnected to the bike. We were all at a loss, so I called Mikuni who asked me to send them the carb. They went over it with a microscope and rebuilt it again for free(this was a four year old carb at the time). Under the scope they found glass beads which were causing the float to stick open. The guy at Mikuni said, you'd litteraly not have seen it with out a microscope. It turned out the liner in my gas tank was wearing out, releasing glass beads from tight seems that traped them, when it was customed painted. Mikuni stands by their products and has service second to no other company I have dealt with. If you guys have had any similar experiences I'd like to know and support companies that stand behind their products.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Steve, I have an F1 or F100 steering box in my '27 and am installing one in my '39 Dodge too. Not sure how they are in a heavier truck like yours, but in my roadster it is like power steering. Parts are available to rebuild them too, but somewhat on the pricey side, especially parts like the sector shaft. Usually just cleaning the internals up and new seals will do the trick though.

Glad to see you starting a thread on this build.........it's gonna be fun for you and for us.

Don

Don, I'm quite literally the other side of the world from you, my computer is dial-up, slow as, (gets down to 9Kbps when traffic is heavy,) so Googling is a long and slow process, but I've got a mate that's rebuiling an F1, and he's after steering box parts.
Do you have a contact for the steering box parts you mentioned?
Any help would be appreciated.
(I too have got two F1's sitting in a shed, gonna get stuck into them one day...........when I'm rich.....or have the time.)

So Steve, I'll be following your build page with interest.

Well the adapters for the disc brakes spindle came, so I started the assembly today. The diagram and verbal instructions were backwards for the caliber bracket which took about a hour to figure out and fix, and having to flip the king pin nut to the opposite side toward the front of the truck, so the bracket could be mounted properly.
Next when I mounted the caliber as diagramed, the caliber pins end up being too short, so a call to Classic Preformance revieled the wrong picture and instructions. Not to be fussed, I continued and mounted the rotor, finally getting to the caliber again for final assembly, only to find out the bracket is too short to clear the rotor with the caliber pins. Sounds confusing huh, see photos bellow.
http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/c...spindle029.jpg

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/c...spindle032.jpg

So back on the phone to CPP with photos emailed back and forth, only to find out the brackets were mislabeled and the wrong pair sent to me, the correct ones will clear the rotor. Mario at CPP was real cool and will do a mail exchange for the right ones. Nothing like spending an entire day only to end where you started.
Well the positive side is the driver side will be a breeze after this passenger side!
Don what did you say a while back, after solving the electrical the brakes should be a breeze!