New Addition to the Fleet: '67 Ford F250

Samuel Sheep just pointed out that it has been sixteen (16) years since I last bought a vintage vehicle. So, high time for another one, right? I've been looking for a pickup truck for a few months, because I'm fed up using the RAV4 to haul around building materials. We lost Amy Sheep's Honda minivan a few years ago, and never replaced it, what with the high cost of used cars after the pandemic. Now, with Quinn Sheep having done one to UCSC, we don't really need a huge people carrier anymore. Obviously, we could have bought a cheap 90s or early 00's pickup, but where's the fun in that? 

Instead, I wanted something with a high coolness factor that I can take to cruise night or cars and coffee, and also use to move big stuff around and as a backup work vehicle if I need it. I've looked at a lot of trucks on the interwebs, and, as usual, couldn't find anything I wanted and could also afford anywhere nearby. The Mustang came from Tulsa, OK for this exact reason. What I found back in 2008 was that your money goes a LOT further if you shop outside the SF Bay Area.

Sometime last week I found the truck that fitted all my most important criteria:

V8 engine not inline 6.....check!
Manual gearbox not automatic.....check!
No serious rust or body rot....check!
Capable of being driven home from several hundred miles away....check!
Doesn't need a paint job immediately or probably ever under my ownership.....check!
Clean title and current registration....check!
Located in California....check!
And most importantly, budget friendly....check!

Early on Saturday, Amy Sheep and myself saddled up the RAV4 and headed out to Bakersfield. Not a sentence you'll hear very often, since Bako, as it is known, is one of the armpits of California. Supposedly the "Nashville of the West" it's basically Methville these days.

The precise location was actually 271 miles from the Sheep homestead, but thanks to the lack of an (enforced) speed limit on Interstate 5, we were there by midday. An hour later I was heading home in the new-to-me 1967 Ford F250! The truck has a 352 ci V8 engine, 4 speed manual transmission and is two wheel drive.

The ride home was the usual white-knuckle fest, because the truck has the same sloppy steering the Mustang came with. If anything, the truck is worse, and it was a battle to keep it pointing in a straight line. Although I drove most of the way at 65-70 mph, I did have to pass a few big rigs and the change in draft when overtaking was enough to throw the truck offline. Still this time there were no oil leaks, no breakdowns, no overheating, and basically no problems whatsoever. Apart from a few stops for gas/the bathroom we drove straight back in tandem and were home before dark. 

As well as the steering, there are a couple of other things that need to be fixed - the turn signals don't work and there is no way to lock the passenger door, but otherwise it is a proper driver. Stay tuned for developments!

Steering wheel and dash are all original and most of it works

Bumble bee interior in surprising good shape

Bed is also in good shape

The V8 has the world's smallest air cleaner!

I'm not going to, but I reckon I could sell the truck in the Bay Area for at least twice what I paid for it, and it only took a day to go and get it...and some serious $$$ on gas. But it was super fun!

My First Day with Steve Harris

Steve Harris was the lead guitarist, songwriter, driving force and one constant presence behind English melodic rockers SHY, from their inception in 1983, until his devastating and untimely death in 2011 at the age of just 46. Steve was a unique person; he was an ego-free dominant introvert who just happened to be a genius as well. And that's before you get to his unbelievable talent as a musician, songwriter, band leader and all-round good person. 

I had met Steve a couple of times in 1989 and 1990, as I had all of the band members. Most of the others could be found in the venue bar within minutes of the show finishing, but a rendezvous with Steve always required blagging my way backstage or hanging around in the parking lot until all the other punters had left. 

One such meeting took place in the dressing room at London's Astoria after Shy had played what turned out to be their last UK show with Tony at the mic for a very long time. But that was all in the future as I talked to Steve about the band's imminent US tour and gave him my views on "Broken Heart" which had just been released as the third single from the "Misspent Youth" album. Steve and the other guys were good enough to sign my seven-inch copy of "Money" and one or two other things, and someone in the band even gave me a can of Kaltenberg Pills!

In the years before the interwebs, there were only two ways to keep up with news on your favorite bands: there was Kerrang! magazine and there was word of mouth. And news of Shy was thin on the ground in both of these arenas throughout the next two years. I did learn that Tony had departed and the band had tried out a lot of different singers, but it was not until the Autumn of 1992 that I heard on the grapevine that the band was alive and well with a new singer intact, albeit operating under the name "Crazy-Crazy." My response to this information was to wave my magic wand and get myself an audition to be Steve's new guitar tech. I've always believed in my power to will certain things to happen if I wanted them badly enough; it hasn't always worked, but this was one of the times when it did. 

So, at least two years after my last meeting with anyone in the band, I found myself at Digbeth coach station on a very dull and cold October afternoon where Roy had said he would pick me up. I couldn't see him anywhere in the main part of the bus station when I arrived, or outside on the street, so I found a seat in the waiting room. I sat and wondered if I would recognize one of the country's least famous but most entertaining and quick-witted bass players without his Jack Daniels t-shirt? For the first few minutes I was on high alert, scanning the waiting room door, the window on the opposite side and the rest of the room on rotation, for any sign of Roy. Eventually I relaxed and my mind drifted off to who knows where.

My daydreaming was curtailed by a gentle enquiry: "Are you Papa Sheep?" I glanced upwards, and there was not Roy, but Steve, half leaning/half bending down towards me, smiling and with his hand outstretched. I jumped to attention, uttered brief confirmation of my identity, shook his hand and started trying to pick up my bags all at the same time. I had a large duffle bag, a small rucksack with my sleeping bag hanging out of it and the ubiquitous silver-colored camera suitcase that loads of "music people" carried at the time, and, for all I know, still do. Steve picked up my duffle bag and the suitcase and led the way outside. It felt weird watching him carry my stuff, since I was essentially there to do that for him. 

Outside Roy was waiting in his black Ford Escort that I'm pretty sure was parked illegally. Steve put my duffle bag onto the back seat and pushed it over to the other side, then he climbed in and put my case on his lap. That just left the front seat, so I got in next to Roy and we drove off towards the band's rehearsal space. This was a journey of about 3/4 of a mile, that I would make many times over the next couple of years, mostly on foot. In the car it could typically be accomplished in less than five minutes, but on this occasion, it took closer to half an hour - Roy said that Princess Anne was visiting Birmingham that day and traffic was screwed up everywhere. He also made the memorable comment that "This place gets more like America every day" which was not intended as a positive. Roy was wearing what looked like jogging bottoms over the top of another pair of trousers, and a thick sweater. He looked at my T-shirt and thin jacket and warned me it was going to be cold at the rehearsal space. 

Eventually Roy pulled into the carpark in front of a decades old industrial building that was probably marked for demolition at the time - it's a multistory carpark now in fact. The rehearsal room was on the ground floor, and it was there that we found Paddy tinkling on the keyboards and Alan sitting on the floor trying to solder something inside a tom-tom shell. There was no sign of new singer Wardi. After a brief introduction I asked Alan if he needed any help. He didn't. I decided not to mention that his work looked like a dry joint and turned my attention to the band's equipment. The room was rectangular, and all the gear was setup along one of the long walls, facing outwards, just like it would be on stage: drums were in the middle, Steve at stage left and Roy and Paddy sharing stage right. Steve's guitar rig had a very impressive array of components:

The guitar case at the left was used for the white sharks fin

The reason for my presence on that October afternoon was simple: day #1....learn the band's gear; day #2....band's first gig in Birmingham with Wardi where I would be the only tech. There had been a few shows with Wardi before this including Bobby Brown's in Nottingham, the legendary White Knights Festival in Russia and an appearance at Lakeside Thurrock to mention just a few, but the gig at Tramps was an important occasion in the development of the new line up. And I was off-the-scale excited to be a small part of it.

Roy gave me a tour of the rest of the building, which could be a blog post in its own right, and then showed me his bass setup. It was pretty simple. I talked "guitar stuff" with Steve for a few minutes. He seemed very laid back and not at all possessive of his equipment, which was not what I was used to. Later we took a short walk outside and Steve showed me the nearest newsagents and the place where the band went to get takeaway bacon sandwiches, cups of tea and so on.

When we got back it became apparent that there would be a few hours to kill before Wardi's arrival. This was the signal for the other three guys to adjourn to the pub (what was then The Australian Bar on Hurst Street at Bromsgrove if you're interested). Steve didn't want to go to the pub which I thought was odd, but then I didn't know him at all at that point. I can't remember if I was invited to the pub or not, but it didn't matter because I had no intention of going. Not when I had the opportunity to hangout one-on-one with Steve Harris. 

I started off professionally enough, and we talked technical stuff for a bit. I don't think I'm giving anything significant away when I say that Steve played very light strings, 0.08 to 0.38, known as "eights." Steve and Roy down tuned a full step in the live arena which made for a very "slack" feel to the strings on both instruments. Steve chose all of his Fernandes guitars from pictures in various catalogues; they actually had quite wide necks which, he claimed, were difficult to play with his "small fingers."

That was about all I could manage before I lurched into full-on fanboy mode and started peppering him with questions about the band and their history. If I had known Steve better, I probably would not have asked most of the questions I put to him, but I was pretty young, and he was good mannered enough to respond to everything. What was a private conversation will remain so, but what I will say is that Steve was amazingly forthcoming and nothing Shy-related was off limits.

The thing I noticed right away was that whatever Steve had to say about other people was always positive. He liked everybody! After I got to know him better, I figured he would have probably been happier practicing his guitar rather than being grilled by the hired help, but of course he was too polite to say so. Steve was the member of the band, I would learn, that always had time to answer fans questions and never used it as an opportunity to show off. If anything, he was embarrassed by attention from fans. As I would also learn, when there was some waiting around to be done - and there was plenty - Steve would rather hang with the road crew than go to the pub or go wherever the rest of the band was going. That was one of the reasons I got to know him so much better that the other guys in the band. The other reason was because of who he was which was funny, entertaining company, the type of person you would always choose to spend time with if you could.

It was pretty late when the other guys returned, and this was when I was introduced to Wardi for the first time. It was also the moment everyone else had been waiting for all day: rehearsal time. What followed, from the band's point of view, was a professional run through of their set the day/night before the gig. From where I was sitting, which was facing the band, it was a concert for one. I knew to expect some new songs, but I was also thrilled by the inclusion of several Shy classics despite this being the brief "Crazy-Crazy" era. I have to say, it sounded great, and it was great. Nothing in music compares to watching the guitar solo in "Reflections" being played a couple of feet away just for you.

It was very late when the rehearsal finished. Not long after that I was fast asleep next to the PA stack. The next day's show went ok I think; maybe I'll write about that one day. When I called Steve a few days later to ask him if I got the gig he replied with a question: "What did Roy say?"

Welding Bench

I've had covid. I started feeling ill over two weeks ago at the time of writing, but it has really set me back. For a start, there was the best part of three days where I could only move between the bedroom and the couch. Then as soon as I was able to get back to work, I was slammed with all the appointments I'd had to reschedule. And after that I had umpteen reports to write, and no time left to write any of them. If that wasn't bad enough, I started feeling ill on the Friday afternoon before a 3-day weekend. Most specifically a 3-day weekend we had set aside to finish the god damn deck replacement that has already been ongoing for more than a year. 

So that's the story of the last couple of weeks. This weekend through I was done with work on Friday evening and ready to work on something fun (i.e. not the deck). If you're not familiar, the photo below shows the set up in my garage. It's a bit cluttered...what I really need is some more drawers or shelves....

In addition to my primary work bench I have an old sideboard that I have been using for storage and as a place to dump stuff. What I really need in this spot is a welding/metal work bench. The top of this bench will be made from the bed from my old table saw and the two side wings. 

The bed is 27" x 20" and will be mounted so that the bench has an overall depth of about 23 inches....which means that the wings, which are 27" x 12" are too long: 

I solved this problem by chopping the wing in half with a cutting disc....

...and then chopping off a seven-inch-wide section:

When pushed back together, the remaining pieces measure 20" x 12" overall. 

The original plan was to build the bench and the new drawers myself....but I didn't want to spend the time it would have taken, so I bought two large toolboxes from one of those big box stores that I use a lot but also loath, and built the bench around them. I want my finished bench to be the same height as the existing timber bench. I started by building a platform for the drawers to stand on and then I leveled it:

I made the platform and the bench from lumber that I had on hand, which was a mixture of doug fir and PT lumber. The four bench legs were made from 4" x 4" PT posts that were salvaged from the old deck enclosure. The design is just copied from my timber bench which was put together sixteen (16) years ago. The original version was made with just a circular saw and some clamps, and the legs took ages to make. All four of these legs were cut in less than twenty minutes using a mixture of the cabinet saw and the band saw. 

Bench framework constructed around first toolbox:

Added the second toolbox and secured everything to the wall with Tapcons.

Maneuvered the original bench back into place and secured it to the wall. I took the opportunity to reduce the depth of this bench by five (5) inches. The space I regained will be useful if/when I get another vehicle that needs to share this space with the '68.

Next step: strengthen the support for the bench top:

The saw bed will sit in the center of this area:

I added some galvanized steel sheets to the areas either side of the saw bed:

The sheeting is intended to stop weld spatter from landing on the timber structure. 

A timber frame was added around the edges of what will be the welding area. I may end up covering these areas with galvanized steel too.

Um....still looks pretty cluttered, I guess. Oh well.

351 Windsor Leak Down Test

The '68 has been making a LOT of noise lately - most specifically an awful popping sound when idling and accelerating. It was particularly noticeable at the Goodguys show and on the way home.

A friend from BAMA lent me a leak down test kit. Unfortunately, both adapters in the kit have a 14 mm thread, while my spark plugs have an 18 mm thread....Grrrr...a problem that only the internet could solve. This was particularly irritating because I had spent twenty minutes warming up the engine and another ten or so taking out all the plugs.

A week later I received the 14 mm to 18 mm adapter in the mail. This part is designed to allow the installation of 14 mm spark plugs into an engine block with 18 mm threaded holes. But it still didn't fit! The depth of thread (about 10 mm) is not long enough to engage in the block before the bolt head hits the top of the recess around the spark plug hole. Grrrr!

So....I wrapped some electrical tape around the thread...

...and introduced the adapter to my grinding wheel setup. I ground the hexagon shaped head into a circle, and the smaller flange now fits inside the spark plug recess:

From above: 

Now we can do the leak down test. The test is a little bit tedious but goes like this:

1. Get the car up to operating temp. (I skipped this step since I pulled all the spark plugs out last weekend and I couldn't be bothered to put them back in etc.)

2. Take out all spark plugs, remove radiator cap, dipstick and oil cap. (See above).

3. Find Top Dead Center (TDC) on cylinder #1. (I did this by placing a piece of narrow-gauge stainless steel wire in the spark plug hole and turning the crank with a socket wrench until it peaked. Some people use the dipstick instead of a piece of wire).

4. Now that I have the correct adapter, I can use the Lang test kit I borrowed from a mate to check the pressure on each cylinder. (Note: If the pressure drops to 100 % immediately, it's probable that the cylinder is aligned at the exhaust cycle; so TDC +180 deg. If you rotate the crank through 180 deg. and get the same result, then an exhaust valve leak is the diagnosis). 

5. Repeat from #3 another seven times to cover all the other cylinders.

The biggest issue, literally, with doing this, is that the 351 Winsor motor is a bit too big for the engine bay, so access to the spark plugs is difficult. This particular engine was not an option in the '68 Mustang; mine was salvaged from a '69 Cougar which has more space between the shock towers. Luckily Amy Sheep came down to the garage on her birthday, to help with the bits that were most difficult. It didn't do much for her manicure, but it was super helpful.

The pressure fell instantly, and air was blowing through the tail pipe at the driver side on #5. We got the same result repeatedly in spite of re-finding and re-re-finding TDC multiple times....conclusion: A leaking exhaust valve at cylinder #5.  

All of the other seven cylinders held between 40% and 60% and any leakage was passed the rings which manifests as air flowing from the valve cover at the breather cap opening. The variation in percentage on these cylinders is most likely the result of variations in TDC alignment - it's hard to be accurate with the method I was using.

Garage Ceiling and Lights Part 1

If you read the last post, you're probably expecting to see some gutter installation....well, um...I haven't done that yet. Instead, I've been working below the deck/inside the garage. As mentioned back in February, we didn't get the deck finished before the monsoon season, and so the deck/garage ceiling leaked water all winter. The ceiling first went moldy, and then partially collapsed. About six months on it has properly dried out, and, with the deck finished (except gutters, railings, etc.) I can do something about it.

Step 1. Make some more space at the rear of the garage. This was achieved by taking down the lower couple of shelves at the rear wall and punting their contents into the table saw room: 

Moved the refrigerator in there as well, and pushed the '68 all the way forward....

.... which leaves plenty of space to work in:

Pulled down the ceiling from the first four (4) feet at the front of the garage:

The old insulation and assorted debris came down with the ceiling:   

Debris transferred into trash bags:

It is work noting that the structure of the garage roof/deck has been severely weakened at this point. Before we started, the structure consisted of LVL joists spaced at twelve inches on center, plus at least three (3) layers of 3/4" plywood, several layers of roofing material and a layer of deck boards. Now it's just joists and deck boards, and even the limited shear strength of the ceiling has been removed. 

I knew this was going to be an issue, which is why I only took down the first little bit of the ceiling. Before I can take down the rest, I need to add some strength, which means....blocking! I'm using sections of 2" x 8" doug fir, which are about 10.5" long. Each block is secured with 3.5" nails fired from the cordless Dewalt gun:

I'm installing blocking every 36" across the garage, which looks like this: 

To give myself a three (3) wide nailing surface for the ceiling drywall, I'm adding 2" x 4" scabs to the sides of the blocks:

Which looks like this when complete:

Pulled off (!) the next bit of ceiling as far as the first pair of strip lights:

Cut out the sections between the lights:

The drywall at the front left of the garage was stained, so I ripped that off too:

More bags of trash to get rid of later:

I set up the laser level to help me keep the blocking straight: 

Time to remove the automatic door opener - it doesn't work, and I'll be replacing it with a different style.

I was working on my own, so I had to support the heavy end with the step ladder and a box of trash bags during the lowering process:

Finished up installing all the blocking:

Then I removed all four antiquated strip lights. I'm replacing them with 10' long LED lights which are clip-mounted and easy to move around. The strips can be coupled together or connected with cables. To start with I have four lights at the remaining section of ceiling....

And another five where I just removed the ceiling...this is a temporary arrangement since the lights will have to come down when the ceiling is replaced.....but that is a few months away at the moment, and in the interim I have plans that need decent lighting in the garage.

The wiring for the new lights is super simple. Previously each of the four strip lights had an incoming cable: 

I just put an outlet at the end of the cable which the new lights can plug into. Power is controlled by the same wall switch as before. 

The lighting in the garage is much improved:

Back wall: