So with the body finally painted I masked and sprayed the bedliner in the box of the truck.  I had a piece of stainless corrugated panel cut and put at the front of the bed under the rear window.  I had a set of magnum 500 rims that I had on a previous Mustang that were 14 ” and fit the truck nicely.  The front bumper was painted white to go with the colors selected for the truck.  Wiring in the truck was a bit of a time sucker since this harness was labeled a lot of years ago with masking tape and ink and now nothing but smeared ink remained.  I had to purchase a manual for the Econoline for 1967….the last year this truck was made.  All lights blinked back to life including the interior light that I had to purchase online to replace the rotted shell of the last one.  The light switch took some coaxing to allow current to go to this light to actually work.  This was likely the original light switch that came with the vehicle.  The fuel gauge was troublesome.  When I bought this truck the tank and fuel sending unit was in the box and likely had been for many years……outside under the harsh sun light and cold winter weather.  I had the tank cleaned and pressure tested before painting black.  It turned out to spring a couple of leaks once gas was put into it.  I used tank repair fiberglass kits to repair these leaks.  The sending unit appeared to work for a couple of days when installed but then only read 1/8th of a tank of gas.  I had filled the tank and this was not the right reading.  I assumed that I may have disturbed the coil of wiring in the sending unit that I had taken apart and cleaned with a dremel tool and wire brush.  The re was a lot of old fuel residue and rust on this coil of wire that is needed for determining float position within the tank. I ordered a new sending unit which I couldn’t install until a sufficient amount of fuel was used to lower the level within the tank.  The tank did not have a drain plug and I did not want to take it out to dump the gas.  I instead drove this vehicle with each drive not knowing if I would run out of gas.  When the time came to replace this sending unit we realized that what was sold to us was not correct for this tank.  Maybe it was correct for the Econoline van version that used a different shaped tank but this unit was the only choice offered.  It was then that I noticed the brass float was full of gas and was  the reason why the sending unit was signaling a low tank since this float would no longer float on top of the fuel level like it was supposed to.  We replaced the float and installed the old sending unit and ……..now I have an accurate fuel level. Just a note:  aftermarket sending units are not the best quality and usually don’t ever read full.  Using as much original parts as you can is always better.

So Now I am driving this vehicle and working out some of the bugs that show up.  The reverse lights that were only on the 1967 version of the pick up truck work as they should.  I still have to set up the choke and little things like that but this is one more vehicle saved from it’s pending doom sitting in a field. It is a fun truck to drive with excellent visibility.  This summer I managed to take it to a couple of down town car shows.  It is a vehicle type that I can’t remember seeing here on the streets of Brandon.

A special thanks to Kyle Chamberlain who assisted greatly with the welding, fabricating and body work.  We worked well together without any major injuries occuring:)