After work tonight, I removed the front suspension completely. This sounds like a big job, but Ford switched to a system they called "Twin I Beam" in 1965. Basically, instead of one straight axle in the front of the truck, they gave each wheel its own axle which was suspended at the opposite side of the truck and directly beneath the floor of the cab at the rear through what they called radius arms. It provided a much smoother ride over a straight axle since bumps in the road could be absorbed by one side of the suspension rather than the entire front. The system is prone to alignment issues as components wear and it won't quite give me the ride I'm going for.
It all drops out by removing one nut on each radius arm, one bolt at the end of each I beam, two small bolts holding on the springs, the brake lines and the shocks. That's it.
I had to pull the truck out from the wall to get around to the driver's side. SWMBO has already staked her winter claim to the garage insisting that the truck not encroach the space her car will occupy when the first frost hits.
Next, I'll remove the slushbox and monster 460. The truck was originally an I6 3 speed. I'm not totally set on the powerplant and transmission yet, but there's plenty of time to decide. After that, it's off with the cab for the frame work.
I guess if you know what you're looking at, you can't have too much information on the dash. Using this motto, I long ago converted the cluster to include the oil pressure gauge and ammeter. Pickups typically had dummy lights, but when the Bronco was introduced in 1966, it used the same cluster, but replaced the lights with gauges. I've also seen an F600 of the era with the amp/oil gauges. Converting the cluster is easy. I basically put my speedometer in the bronco cluster housing with the accessory gauges already in place, since the housings for the dummy light clusters are different. I chose to keep my speedometer because throughout the years of Bronco production, Ford kept changing the font of the speedometer and I like the original best.
This is the tach I bought. It's a mechanical 4000 RPM tach which is completely useless, except that it is brand new and period correct. They were used in the big trucks with torquey engines that made all their power below 3500. I found a company who specializes in disassembling them, changing them to modern movements, and changing the artwork to reflect it. While it's not a cheap process, it's nearly impossible for a DIYer like myself. The gauge is crimped together and replacing the artwork would be nearly impossible for me. If they agree to do the work, I'll post their web info here.
The vacuum gauge is the most under-rated gauge that is nearly never seen on cars that aren't running a turbo or supercharger. This is odd since the gauge tells you so much about how the condition of the engine and how well the carb is tuned for the application. It's also a great gauge for watching fuel economy and it does some pretty cool things while you drive.
