Whew, a sigh of relief--the Package Deal '56 has paint on it! The water-based Auto-Air Colors Sparklescent Rock Star Red paint turned out brilliant and is a colorful sight for sore eyes. Nonetheless, there is still plenty of work ahead to get the F-100 road-worthy.
The final assembly process can be a rewarding one as long as the preassembly was done with care. Time and patience are really the key--a reccurring theme in building anything. When you've come this far, the last thing you want to do is jeopardize the amount of work, time, and money that's been invested in that nice new paint job. Often, a project gets put back together long after it was taken apart and can be quite the puzzle, so try and leave yourself a trail that consists of ample notes, labels, and photos. Fortunately, the guys over at Paint 'N' Place do this kind of stuff everyday, making things come together fairly quick. That freshly painted, buffed, and polished surface scratches easily with a little bit of carelessness, so it's a good idea to line any edges you might be worried about with masking tape, especially while fitting the hood. Also use towels and blankets or anything else that might prevent a slip-up.
Once the truck was back together, it was time to get it moving under its own power. As far as the mechanical side of the Package Deal project, the only thing really missing is an exhaust system since the chassis was completed prior to paint. Who can hear the sound of combustion belching from a cool old car or truck and not think: Flowmaster? On that thought we selected a pair of Flowmaster Super 40 mufflers because it offers the best of both worlds in sound and performance. The Super 40 has that "deep, powerful" sound of Flowmaster's original 40 Series muffler, but with all the benefits of performance and low interior resonance from the its new Delta Flow technology. A call was then made to Sanderson Hot Rod Headers to ensure that the horse came before the cart and was breathing its best. They were more than happy to help squeeze some more power out of our Ford engine with a set of their beautiful, high-temp-coated, quality headers. With all the required parts to piece together the exhaust system aside from lengths of tubing, the '56 was hauled over to trusted local custom exhaust shop, The Muffler Man so they could work their magic on our twice pipes.
Now, as you read this, the "fresh build" bugs should be worked out of our brand new Effie and we ought to be out to lunch in it...so read on to get the nitty gritty on this month's story, and stay tuned for the final installment followed by a full feature of the Sacramento Vintage Ford's Mail Order F-100.
