Restoration: D750 Ford—Part 25

By: Lyndsay Whittle, Photography by: Lyndsay Whittle

Date: 03.09.2021

It seems like it’s been a long time since there’s been any visible progress with this restoration, but perhaps we’ve finally turned a corner and things are underway again

Not looking forward to cleaning all those deck crossmembers

I have to be honest and say that it’s true that I haven’t been throwing as much time at the old D over the past three months or so, as I’ve been tied up a bit with a recently acquired part-time truck driving job.

The purpose of the driving initially was purely to help a mate who needed some extra drivers for his six-wheeler tip trucks, however, it didn’t take me too long to figure that the extra money being earned was able to be put to good use on the restoration.

What we started with

With the need for my services being put on hold over the last week or so, I’ve been able to spend a little more time on the tools in between, attending to some domestic duties and, of course, researching and writing the other articles the Ed finds for me.

A couple of the problems I’ve had to contend with on the Ford restoration have been to do with: a) the fact that this job is taking way longer than I’d hoped it would, and b) that the truck is much larger than any of my previous restorations.

The hoist stayed up for two days

It’s not so much that everything is bigger and takes longer to attend to, but that the truck is too large to fit completely into any of the available sheds—at least the ones that have a power source close by.

The whole job winds up like Auckland Harbour Bridge where the service crew starts painting at one end, and by the time they reach the opposite side, it’s time to work their way back to the other end again.

The A5 Bedford in the background could be next

A classic case in point with the D has been the rails of the deck that I’d cleaned, etch primed, and placed a primer surfacer on. No sooner had this part of the process been completed when the rain set in for what seemed like ages.

Had I been able to take the process one step further and applied the base and clear coats before the rain, I could’ve saved myself a whole lot of heartache by having to redo the parts that had been exposed to the elements for those few weeks.

The deck finally painted

Well, at least that’s all behind us now, and it feels as if I’m finally underway again. Of course, I’d be even further ahead if it wasn’t for the gross mistake I made a few months back when I damaged the front of the cab and the left door and attempted to do a patch job on the painting.

I messed that up so badly that now I have to repaint the entire cab, with the exception of the roof. At least I now have the parts of the deck and headboard with coats of finish paint on, although, the next part of the job to finish off is the underside, which will be a lot less enjoyable.

I’ve just taken a bit of time off from writing this article to make a list of things that need to be attended to in order to get the job finished. The following is what I’ve come up with:

Repainting the cab is something that doesn’t hold a lot of excitement.
The brakes are still causing a ton of problems despite having reconditioned the master cylinder, along with the four front wheel cylinders.
Because nobody I’ve spoken to has been able to offer any suggestions as to why the brakes won’t bleed up properly, I’m going to turn my attention to the hydraulic side of the brake servo next.
It seems like I’ve left all the gnarly problems until last, the worst of which is the exhaust manifold that’s leaking so badly that I’ll either have to find a replacement standard type or make another extractor unit like the one that’s currently on the truck. At this point in time,
I’ve absolutely no idea how I’ll go about that.
Naturally, there’ll be a bit of out-work to be done, things such as finishing off the interior trim, signwriting, etc., and, of course, there’s no telling what hoops the guys at the testing station are going to make me jump through to get that most sought-after prize—a COF.
Dare I say it, there’s bound to be enough other bits and bobs to fill the deck of the
D that’ll also need attention; things I haven’t thought of as yet.

I think I’ve said it before, but this restoration game is kind of like giving birth (at least I imagine so) whereby you forget about all the pain you’ve gone through in the past. Sometimes I sit down and tell myself that this is going to be the last one because it can be extremely frustrating at times, especially when you have ongoing problems such as
the ones I’m currently having with the brakes.

It’s gone on for several months now and it’s still not resolved. I have to confess that I’ve seriously considered throwing in the towel with this bloody D Series on more than one occasion, so much so that I had to go back and read a few of my own articles on the previous FGK Morris restoration to see how I dealt with the frustrations I had when nearing the end of that epic effort.

I was particularly interested to read about how I coped with having to remove the towing rig and deck because a vehicle inspector wasn’t entirely happy with a cross member.
I recalled how I had to spend three or four days sweating in the hot summer sun to weld the chassis to LT400 specifications, and I was keen to see what methods I’d employed to get through the frustration.

While reading one of the articles, I came across a section that dealt with yet another problem I’d had around the same time. I was reminded of how I was ready to take the truck to the testing station the very next day, but a fire started under the dash, and I had to remove the loom and virtually start all over with the wiring.

It’s funny but I’d completely forgotten about that incident until I’d reread my own article, and that was all I needed to forget about quitting on this current project. Sometimes, it doesn’t take an awful lot to pick yourself up and get on with the job at hand, eh?

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