Disc Brakes, Truck Beds, and Shift Work

 "If one makes a mistake and fails to correct it, one has made a greater mistake" - Plato

 The very first parts that I ordered for the F100 finally arrived.  One of the boxes was incredibly heavy.  It was all that I could do to carry it out to the shop - probably should have used a hand cart - but I was too lazy to make the trip twice :)  So laziness leads to much greater physical effort and hardship.  Who knew?

The heavy box contained two brake rotors and two brake calipers.  That's a whole lotta iron there - thus the weight.

The other box contained the brake booster, which will replace the rusty old brake reservoir.

 As mentioned before, I spent a little extra having the calipers powder-coated and also for the braided hoses (top photo).  I suspect the powder-coating is the reason the first thing ordered was the final thing delivered.

I've been messaging a guy on Facebook Marketplace about a truck bed.  The one that I'm interested in has the fender wells outside.  I think it's a cooler, more vintage look - going from the look on the left to the look on the right, below.

Did you know that the reason for the arrangement on the right was so that small livestock such as goats and pigs could be hauled around without stumbling on internal fenderwells?  These beds also typically had wood planks laid down in them, and rails, so that the animals had secure footing and a higher pen.

The bed on this truck will need to be removed to install that new fuel tank anyway, and it has a couple of issues:  It has a nasty dent that was partially pulled out by drilling holes and using a slide hammer.  But worse, the original latches for the tailgate have been removed, and cheap two-dollar slide latches from a screen door have been welded inside the truck bed.  It's a cleaner look, but once again, it's been very poorly implemented.

Below:  Factory-issue tailgate latches.

Below:  The current latch mechanism.

They also make some nice kits you can drop in the bed of the truck, made of hardwood and stainless steel.  These look better in a square box than in one with fenders inside.

I'm about $3600 into the project on parts so far, and perhaps 8 hours labor - between getting it to run, draining and removing the fuel tank, unf*cking the wiring, and screwing with the driver window.  I've set aside about $10K for cosmetics - chrome and paint.  Hopefully the money holds out.  This project isn't to build a collectible - it will never be worth what I'm putting into it in money and labor.  It's a family heirloom that I'd like to have on the road and looking nice again.

 In other news, I recently was promoted, so with any luck, no further shift work.  In the future, I will be a lazy office puke who shuffles paperwork and sometimes covers weekday overtime shifts.  

My very first job was getting out of bed at 4:00 in the morning to deliver newspapers, then trying to get a little sleep before school started.  The poor work hours have only gone downhill since that job.  Every job I've had since then involved crappy hours and working holidays.  This is the first ever improvement in that regard, and I'm not sure what to make of it yet.  At the moment I'm working a 48 hour week covering day shifts for a guy who is out hunting elk and enjoying life. LOL.