Mission semi-accomplished!

Well,

Hit the Portland Swap Meet on Friday. The weather was incredible, nearly 70 degrees and no rain. I got my 3.50:1 gears for $40 and I passed on a fairly decent set of running boards for $75. They were in better shape than the ones I have but by no means perfect. I've got a long way to go before I need them, so I figured I'd wait and see what happens. If you've never carried a set of ring & pinion gears around a major swap meet let me tell you, they get very heavy very quickly. The good news was I found a cheapo cart to buy and it saved my shoulder and back.

I was amazed to see that there were ZERO vendors for new aftermarket parts for 53-56 Ford Trucks. They only made about one million trucks in those 4 years and you'd think that they were rare. If I wasn't such a wuss, I'd buy a trailer and some inventory and start hitting the shows. There's an untapped market up here and no one is reaching out to it.

So I've got to do the mail order thing for my disc brake kit, guess I'll do that this week. The radiator guy is about ready to have my gas tank for yet another week. If he doesn't come through for me, I'll probably just grab it back and go somewhere else.

I also got a chop saw today, now I can cut some metal and practice my welding. It sucks, but we can only go up from here. Tomorrow's plans include bolting the rest of the running board brackets on, and pressing off/on bearings on my new pinion and finishing assembly of my carrier. I'll probably have some pics tomorrow.

RG