Taillights, mirrors

Haven't posted much lately, been too busy driving it!  I have made a couple of minor improvements-  Replaced the mirrors, installed some '50 Pontiac style tails, tweaked the timing and shift points, rebuilt the passenger door internals so the window goes up and down... minor stuff.  Mostly I've just been out driving it and enjoying it.  Here's a few pictures for now.

'50 Pontiac tails

And here's the original tail light style, it's a big improvement

A picture from Red Door Meet in Portland

Went to Cars & Coffee with Troy & Wendy

And a picture from Dave, he had the cool bug parked next to me

Project video posted

I posted a project recap slideshow/video to YouTube, check it out HERE

Bed and Front Bumper Installation

Yesterday was the two month anniversary of this project, and boy was it a long day.  At this point I can officially call the swap complete... there's still body work left to do and other improvements to be made but everything is put back together solidly and I the two vehicles have been merged into one.  On to yesterday's accomplishments...
I met Troy at his work at 8:00.  First we got the bed up on a table and cut out a section for the rear end/gas tank hump:

Next came the task of widening the fenders.  We needed close to an inch on each side to allow for the wider track of the Crown Vic.  The stock fenders curve in towards the tire, we needed to make them more or less vertical.  I'll let the pictures do the talking here:

There will be some further welding and shaping needed later, but this gave the clearance needed.

After some test fits we figured out where to cut the rear frame off and build new frame pieces.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the new rear section, but I will try to get under the truck and add them later.

This all took longer then expected, so I forgot to keep snapping pictures.  After the new frame section was built we test fit the bed, got it square and level, and fabricated mounts in the four corners.  The bed was bolted into place and Troy got to work fabricating a front bumper mount while I wired up the rear lighting.  We probably should have saved the bumper for another day, but we were getting so close to done we had to push on.  Finally, at 7:00 in the evening, it was all back together:

So happy with how it sits, this project has far exceeded my expectations.  It's amazing how far it has come in two months, and it never would have been possible without all of Troy Jackson's hard work, knowledge, and skilled fabrication.

Today I did tie up another loose end, mounting the Vic gauge cluster in the dash (it had just been sitting in there).  I trimmed the cluster down, cut out the stock dash bezel, put a thin sheet of lexan behind the bezel, then secured the cluster.

Maybe someday I'll get some retro styled gauges, but for now it gets the job done.

I also added an extra touch, just something to hint at what's going on underneath this old truck:

This is the Police Interceptor badge I hacked off the trunk of the donor car.
That's it for now, I will try to get a walk-around video up in the next few days and will continue to post when I have major changes to report.  But mostly I'm just going to get out there and drive it around every chance I get!
Feel free to ask questions or request pictures in the comments of any post and I will be happy to help.

Bed shortened

Been working on lots of little stuff, but nothing picture worthy- painting the new sidesteps, replacing rear rotors, changing around the wiring under the hood a bit, etc.  Last night i was able to meet Troy at his work and we made some good process finishing up the shortening of the bed.

I had decided that taking 8.5" out of the rear, along with the 3.5" we already removed from the front, would look the best using some crude photosshopping.  This would bring it down to a 7' bed.  The stock long bed was 8', the short bed models are 6.5'.  The short beds I've seen in pictures don't look quite right, they are just a bit too short and their tail light panel is too long.  I think when it's all finished up it will look like it should have come that way from the factory.

First we marked off the 8.5" and started cutting:

The 8.5" section removed...

The rear section was hung and clamped in place while we fixed the gap all around, then on to tacking it in.

As you can see there is a big difference between the transitions at the bottom of the bed side.  We brought the rear part down a bit and the front up a bit until they met in the middle:

It will still need a little shaping but it is solid now and can wait until after the bed is on the truck.
Here's a picture of the shortened bed:

 

Up next will be flaring the fenders and installing the bed.  It will finally be a truck again!