1980 F150 4x4 Flareside Project

[Rembrant]

Hello Gentlemen,

Still slaving away on the crusty old 1980. I had ordered a whole bunch of parts in preparation for the Christmas break...hoping I can try to start the thing by then, but time will tell. I'm going in for some surgery on Tuesday, which is nothing too serious, but it will put me out of commission for a while, so I put a push on this weekend to tidy up a few loose ends, and organized a parts list I'll need for later in December. Not much left to order now...but I still need a fuel pump, fuel line, clutch master and hydraulic line, thermostat, air filter, plugs and oil filter, etc. Odds and ends. All of the old style radiators seem to be out of stock everywhere (and they're expensive too), so I did a little bit of research and wasn't I pleased to find a write-up right here on the Garagemahal about swapping the later style radiator in place of the old style. THANKS FOR THE SAVED DOCUMENTATION GARY!! So...a friend of mine has a nice used 300i6 radiator I'm going to use, and my core support will require minimal modifications.

ANYWAY....

Do you remember me talking about the broken lower stud for the front forward shock? Interesting...I bought a cheap set of Gabriels, and the forward shocks actually came with new front lower mounts, which is cool. I'll just cut the old one off and drill the bracket to accept the new mount. Sometimes you get a good roll of the dice.



So I got the four new front shocks installed, and I finished welding the Bullnose horns onto the 1995 frame. Cleaned up my welds, and then put some fresh black paint on. I'm going to leave the bumper off until I get the finders and liners all installed, etc. I seam sealed the firewall around the repairs I made, and re-installed the heater core box.

I ordered a new heater core, but the one that arrived was not exactly the same, and therefore did not fit. This truck has the HO heater, and the core has a hard rubber casing that fits around it, and it would not fit the replacement so it got returned. The old one looked OK so I stuck it back in anyway. NBD, but I wanted to change it while I had the heater box removed from the firewall.



Oddly, while on the topic of heater cores, I received one by mistake in a parts shipment from LMC. It was one digit off from the 300i6 throttle cable I had ordered. There's good news and bad...LMC was very good about it, and they said the heater core was not worth the trouble to return internationally, so they told me to keep it. I posted it for free on a local forum and it was gone in a couple days (it fit 1965-1972 Ford trucks). The bad...the gal I spoke to said that they were showing only one throttle cable in-stock, and if they could not find it that they were backordered for 5 weeks. Gross. Anyway, that's fine. I know enough guys around here I can find a 300 throttle cable I can use should I be ready to fire this old girl up at Christmas (that's the plan).

Not much else to say really...it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go...




I did my best to clean-up the welds and seams where I grafted the Bullnose bumper horns on there. I'll spary some rustproofing over them as well. Hopefully they won't be an issue when it's time to road safety this thing. Technically the mechanic could complain about these, but I don't think they will.

Oh, and I bought a used set of 15x10 ProComp aluminum wheels for it. They were along my path on a work trip last week and I figured I'd grab them. They'll be the nicest things on the whole truck..haha.



Funny thing, the wheels had recently been removed from a nice little Flareside that I had seen for sale online locally weeks before.



That's the news for today! Now I'm off to cut some trees down in the back yard for Mrs. Rembrant!

[ArdWrknTrk]

You've accomplished so much, Cory!
That's a huge push, and despite being sidelined I can see you starting the truck in a months time.  

Glad to hear you're taking care of Mrs Rembrandt as well!  

[salans7]

Those wheels are one of my favorite styles and I can't wait to see them on the truck!

I'm loving the progress on this thing. It's what I wanted to do on my truck before mine snowballed.

[Gary Lewis]

Well done, Cory!!  

Some times you get lucky on things and you did on the shock mounts.  And, they look great framing that spring.  

I understand the issue of "it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go..."  I'm, THERE!  When I look back I see a whole lot of things have been done, but when I look forward there's so much more to do.  

I'll keep you in my prayers re the surgery.  Please let us know how it goes.

[Rembrant]

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

[salans7]

That same rust along the firewall is what really caused me to pause on the F150. It was all along the seam on both sides, with around 8 holes. There was more behind the brake booster and the reinforcement panel.

My F350 has a couple small holes, but they are much more manageable than the entire seam on the F150 was.

[ArdWrknTrk]

That's intriguing Cory.

I'm glad you didn't have a whole lot of rust to deal with in the cowl!  

[grumpin]

Very cool! Nice wheels!

Prayers for the surgery!

[Gary Lewis]

I would have thought that it would have been obvious that seam needed sealer.  But I guess in a transition it could be forgotten.  But wow, that's quite an oversight.

So what are you going to do?  Put seam sealer in there?

[Rembrant]

Starting to actually look like a truck again...

Installed the PMGR starter and exhaust downpipe this morning before installing the fenders and liners. I loosely organized the wiring harness since it has been pretty much laying in a big lump on the engine. Starting to look like something again. It's still a rusty pile, but at least I'm not bored!





Tomorrow I have to cut the hole in the floor for the 4x4 shifter, and install the shifter and bezel, etc. Then finish tightening down the cab mount bolts. I might deal with some of the engine bay wiring, but I need to also get the core support ready to install, and it needs a little bit of work first. Time to make a list...lol.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Looks great, Cory!  

Is there anything can be done to keep the radiator supports from rusting out?
I don't feel great about the Taiwanese steel mine's made from.  

[Rembrant]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Looks great, Cory!  

Is there anything can be done to keep the radiator supports from rusting out?
I don't feel great about the Taiwanese steel mine's made from.

You mean the core support brackets on the frame? They ALWAYS rust out...sometimes to the point where the mount falls right through the bracket. I'm not sure what you could do with them tbh. There is something about them that sucks the salt in between the rubber and the steel, and then they just sit there and rust where you can't see it.

I forgot to tell you guys. I have a little Albee gas cylinder for my welder. They're just little tanks...2ft tall, I think about 2.5 gal capacity. I bought the tank several years ago, so that I didn't have to deal with a tank contract. Anyway, I finally ran out a few weeks ago and I took it in to exchange it. The tank was blue, and the guy gave me a green tank. I didn't argue with the guy, but stated that I thought I should have a blue tank. He said that the green was the same stuff. A week or so later, I go to weld my frame horns on, and the welder is just working like shit. Zapping and splattering, I just could not get a nice steady arc at all. Turns out it was that stupid green tank. I called Air Liquide (main supplier around here) and they said the green tanks are straight Argon for welding aluminum, and the blue tanks are Argon mix (w/CO2) for Mig welding steel. The guy said "Oh you would have had a helluva time trying to weld with that green tank". LOL. Needless to say, I exchanged it. Haven't tried again since, but I'm sure its fine now.

[Gary Lewis]

Looking good, Cory!  A little bit at a time and one day you'll be able to drive it.  At least it worked for me, although it took a long time.  

As for the core support mounts, that's a poor design for sure!  I POR-15'd mine, so hopefully they'll hold up.

EDIT: Forgot the welding tank.  I've not tried straight Argon, but everything I've read and been told says it won't work at all for steel.  Welder Scott explained how the different gases change the heat, but we didn't discuss straight Argon.

[salans7]

Is your reasoning for cutting the floor so that you can use the newer style shift lever? Is that because you don't have a bullnose shift lever? I don't have any experience with the M5OD-R2, but on my T19 and BW 1356, I'm still able to run the bullnose style shift lever so that my truck will stay original. Uhaul still has a NOS 80-81 shift lever for $20 US shipped, the only thing it is missing is the bar from the lever to the transfer case, and the knob. It would at least save you from having to cut into the floor when you already have the hole in the inspection cover (unless you swapped that for the newer version too, I can't remember). Just figured I would throw it out there.

[ArdWrknTrk]

The CO2 helps stabilize the arc and get heat into the metal.
You can Mig steel with straight CO2 but not with straight Argon.
(That Newfie Tony Fitzpatrick, Fitziees Fabrications YouTube channel uses straight CO2....)

Tanks here (US) are rated in cubic feet.
You might have a 40 or a 60?

The horns on my frame have homemade framsavers.
Just beefy washers filed out hexagonal.
If I had to do it again I'd probably use stainless.
I have a spool of Blue Demon .035 304 stainless wire for my Horrid Fate Titanium 125.
It seems to need a lot of heat to *wet out the toe, but it joins stainless to regular carbon steel just fine.

[Rembrant]

salans7 wrote

Is your reasoning for cutting the floor so that you can use the newer style shift lever? Is that because you don't have a bullnose shift lever?

Yes and yes. I don't mind cutting the floor in this truck (I already did it today). Not much sense in me trying to keep this truck original...with the 1995 chassis and all, I'll have to disclose that anyway, and I don't really have any plans for it to be a show winner. This thing is just a toy to keep me busy on the weekends. Since I had all of the original 1995 4x4 shifter and bezel, etc it was easy to do. If I had needed to buy a shifter, etc then I may have swapped it (or tried to).

Now that I think of it, I don't know if a Bullnose shifter would work. I did install the higher tunnel cover for the M5OD. I don't know if I could incorporate a 4x4 shifter into that. Anyway, the floor is already cut and the bezel installed, and it shifts fine so that is good.

[FuzzFace2]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

The CO2 helps stabilize the arc and get heat into the metal.
You can Mig steel with straight CO2 but not with straight Argon.
(That Newfie Tony Fitzpatrick, Fitziees Fabrications YouTube channel uses straight CO2....)

I have used CO2 with my MIG and it works better than flux wire but not a clean as mix Argon at least for sheet metal MIG welding.

Cory looking good.
For me when I started putting body panels back on the truck it was a big change that I got something done.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

Ya Dave, it's coming along, bit by bit.

It's got some pretty nasty positive camber at the moment. I'm hoping that it settles down more with the rest of the front end parts installed (and fluids filled).

I wonder what a carbed 300 weighs compared to a fully dressed 5.0L EFI with smog pump, etc.

I mean the hood, core support and front bumper aren't going to add all that much weight compared to how it sits now...neither will the oil and coolant, but I guess it all adds up.

[FuzzFace2]

I think the weights were pretty close, how much can 2 more holes weigh on a v8?
You didn't do anything with the front suspension that I remember did you?

You did roll it forward and back as that helps if you had it up in the air.
I seen them straps for testing your welds on the frame horns and why I say that
Dave ----

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/338625-how-much-does-a-300-six-weigh.html

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

You did roll it forward and back as that helps if you had it up in the air.
I seen them straps for testing your welds on the frame horns and why I say that
Dave ----

Haha, the straps are how I move it every weekend. I pull it out away from the wall on Saturday morning and then push it back on Sunday afternoon. I had to put some longer straps on today now that the fenders are on it.