New tools!

I bought a bunch of General tap wrenches from Enco.  I plan on taking most of these to work, but one of them will live at my shop.  The quality of Starrett tap wrenches keep getting worse, and the price keeps getting higher, and it's to the point where the imported General handles are better quality at 1/8th of the price.

Snap-on 16" flat blade screwdriver and small size bearing separator, plus some F100 parts.

I spotted the Turner's TeaBird this weekend!  I got a free sample from the stinky old man driving it.

Before my Ford can pass inspection, I had to replace two of the rubber brake lines.  The rear line has a built-in tee fitting, so I had to add one to the Napa line I purchased.  The new hose is also a little shorter, but it should work.

In the process of replacing the hoses, I found out that the 'new' steel hardlines were total crap.  Most of them were single flared, some were bubble flared, and some were a mixture.  The worst I found was a single flared brake line into an M10x1.0 fitting which was crammed into an 1/8 NPT female adapter!  I don't know how it didn't leak everywhere.

Here you can see the copper surface, which is the inner face of the tubing, so this is only a single flare.  Even if it seals, it will split with some pressure.

Another single flare!

After all was said and done, I ended up replacing all of the brake lines on the whole truck.

The lower section of the tailgate, including the hinges, had been missing.  The previous owner cut it off because it had rotted away, so I had to rebuild it from photos.

I do have the hinges themselves, so I just machined new adapters so I can use a piece of tubing for the lower section.  This tailgate will look just like the factory piece when I'm done... at least as far as I can see from pictures!

I got the piece of tubing mocked up and stripped the last 3/4" of the paint away so I can weld to it.

To make the connecting piece, which has a 55º bend, I had to weld together two 36" pieces.  I don't have the ability to ship, shear, or bend the full 67" width, so I had to split it.

I tacked it onto my tubing.

The face will be tangent to the edge of the tube, I will fill the gap with MIG weld and grind it flush.

I set it back onto the truck, shimmed the tailgate into position, and marked a cut line.

After marking the line and making my cut, I filed the edge to get a nice consistent gap for butt welding.

I TIG fusion tacked it together at 1" spacing.

I'm really happy with the fit!  I'm happier with the fabrication on this shitty truck than I am with most of the other stuff I've built.