Maiden Voyage is a Success!!
 

What an afternoon! You saw before that my radiator tubes were plagued with pinholes. A little JB Weld solved that:


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/pictur...ictureid=20256

It held water tonight so I said "Let's go......."

Not quite a voyage of Magellan, but I did circle the neighborhood twice. My son will host youtube for me to post later.

Nice acceleration, smooth shifting through all 3. Brakes felt good from 20 MPH. Steering felt alright, too.

Halfway around the second lap she died, though, and would not crank - weak battery style.

Last night I was getting 8 volts across the battery posts at fast idle, so I thought I was good to go.

Wifey had to come get me with a Hyundai and a tow strap!

There will be no video of that:mad:

Re: Maiden Voyage is a Success!!
 

I see you have some of those hard to find water pipes, you have some rust pinholes? I wonder if that could be patched with a TIG welder. I would try it for you if you were closer.

Re: Maiden Voyage is a Success!!
 

Congrats, I know the feeling. Great truck!

Re: Maiden Voyage is a Success!!
 

Seth -

Good thought. I will try to patch them - until new leaks sprout from the next weak spot.

I should have a real repair, though. A big blowout more than 2 blocks from home would be a real bummer.

Re: Maiden Voyage is a Success!!
 

I don't know if those tubes could be patched? They are thin as it were. I was just thinking that using the TIG would help control the heat and may prevent burn through. I know how these pipes are hard to find so I just thought of patching them. You could cut out the bad section and get a piece of tube the same diameter and then weld in the new section with a TIG, much the same way as some guys fabricate custom exhaust pipes, headers ect..... with a little dressing up you may never even know they were ever patched.

I believe your JB weld will hold forever, you more than likely have a good fix as it is. It just depends on looks from here.