1980 F150 4x4 Flareside Project

[salans7]

I can't tell you for sure, but I know 98+ Rangers all have oil pressure switches, so I'm sure it was done in the early 90's.

Even worse, the switches are known for failing after a few years, causing your gauge to flicker around. That freaks plenty of people out when they don't know how worthless the newer oil pressure gauges are in the first place. I think the switch flicks the gauge to middle range as soon as it registers 5 lbs of oil pressure. So by the time the gauge tells you the engine has no oil pressure, the engine is already cooked.

[Rembrant]

I did spend the morning wrenching on the old '80 project truck, and she now moves under her own power and now also have real power steering! I bought a reman C2 pump from RockAuto, and darn it all if the thing doesn't whine a little bit...I don't mean badly...it just whines like the Bullnoses all did back in the day. I also installed a new C2 pump on my '84 a couple years ago, but it's as quiet as can be....can't remember if it was a new one or a reman though.

Anyway...this evening was bezel night! I picked up a black weave bezel that was removed, I believe from a 1981. The indicator lens on the far left is a blank/black one...if that means anything. The one in my 1980 has blank/black lenses in both the far left and far right indicator openings. This bezel was filthy dirty and both the "Fasten Belts" and "Brake" lens were broken. That didn't matter to me as I needed to move a couple of the lenses around to match up with my 1980 indicators. It also made them a real treat to clean.



1980 indicator arrangement:



Interesting...and I previously never noticed this, but the whole bank of indicators in a separate piece of plastic that it glued into the main bezel. The piece on this bezel is all faded grey...you can see it in this pic:



In any case, I'm happy with it for a $40 bezel. No broken tabs, and now fits the 1980 indicators. I then painted it with Satin Black:




Letting it dry tonight and I'll re-do all the silver edge trim tomorrow night and she'll look like brand new. They're going to look kind of out of place in this old beater of a truck, but I can't stand looking at ratty bezels. If everything else on this truck looks like crap, the darn thing will have nice bezels...lol. With freshly painted gauge needles and cleaned up bezels, it makes the interiors of these trucks really pop imho.

That's it for tonight.
Peace & axle grease!

[grumpin]

Nice!

Is that hot glue or RTV that you put the lenses in with?

Somebody, before I owned it, glued mine in and it looks like a two year old did it. Drives me nuts!

Need to do that to mine.

[Rembrant]

Hot glue! Just one of those cheap little guns (borrowed from Mrs Rembrant’s crafts toolbox LOL)

[grumpin]

Rembrant wrote

Hot glue! Just one of those cheap little guns (borrowed from Mrs Rembrant’s crafts toolbox LOL)

Ha! Cool! That’s where I’ll get a hot glue gun, mrs grumpin’s stash!

[salans7]

I've owned a 1980 black weave bezel, a 1982 rosewood bezel, a 1986 silver weave bezel, and now a 1983 rosewood bezel. None of them have had the indicators as one piece, separate from the bezel itself. That's strange as I've never seen that before.

[Gary Lewis]

So you hot-melt glued the lenses in?  I've been worried that it would melt the lens, but it didn't?  And you can't see it?

As for the separate piece, I'd never noticed that.  Interesting.  Can it come out?  Can we swap them around that way?

[kramttocs]

Going to have to take a look at my bezels now.
I like the hot glue idea. I've taken a soldering iron to them to melt them back and while it worked, didn't work great. This is much better. Well done.

[Rembrant]

Gary Lewis wrote

So you hot-melt glued the lenses in?  I've been worried that it would melt the lens, but it didn't?  And you can't see it?

As for the separate piece, I'd never noticed that.  Interesting.  Can it come out?  Can we swap them around that way?

Gary,

The glue doesn't melt the lens. I didn't take a lot of pictures this time, but I've done this before a couple times. Seems every used bezel I've looked at has at least one lens that is broken. I just cut them short so that when I lay down the glue on each end it sits on the black plastic and the lens, overlapping each by about 1/8" or so.

Better pics from an older thread here:

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Dash-Bezel-Lense-Replacement-tp52379.html

The lenses are attached a couple different ways. I have a newer bezel here...1985 I think, and its like they used hot pokers to melt the lens into the black plastic.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Cory.  And I now remember the previous post, but I didn't pick up on that you used a glue gun.  Yes, you said you did, but....

I'm reminded frequently that I have some changes to make 'cause my bezel has Upshift in the far left opening and I need it to say Check Engine when I go to EFI.  But that can wait.

[Rembrant]

Good day gentlemen,

I had another productive knuckle busting weekend wrenching on the old 1980 project truck...which reminds me, I need to come up with a name for the clunky old thing. My friend Rodger gave me a hand again on Saturday and we got all new front brake lines and calipers installed. The rear brakes are non-existent currently (plugged at the master cylinder) until I can get the back half of the frame finished. Anyway...it finally rolled out of the shop for the first time since August of last year, and under its own power for the first time in probably a decade.



First couple tests were laps of the parking lot at my work...lol.



And after a couple laps of the parking lot, I was confident enough to take it out on the street, but still couldn't go too far, but still managed to get it into 2nd gear. Even though this truck has 3.55 gears, it felt just like my '84 with the 3.08 gears. I'd have to do the math, but the low profile tires and 3.08 gears probably have a similar final drive ratio as the 3.55's do with the 31" tires.



Anyway, that was yesterday...but getting the old 41 year old heap out for its first real drive was a treat nonetheless lol.

With that done, I was able to attack the back half of the frame this morning, and removed another 19 rivets from the frame. I am so done with removing rivets I think I've had enough of that for now. What I did was the 4 leaf spring hangers and the one remaining upper shock mount. I replaced all the rivets with bolts for now and then spent an hour grinding the rust off the frame so I could apply a coating of Ospho. I'll be pulling the leaf packs and hangers next weekend to finish some patches on the frame and to install new leaf bushings, then frame paint. So much to do, so little time!

[salans7]

I bet it's a great feeling being able to move it around under it's own power rather than having to push it.

[Gary Lewis]

Well done, CORY!  

Getting to drive it must be such a high!  Such a wonderful feeling.  

[nlongo33]

[grumpin]

Awesome! I really like the wheels on there!

[FuzzFace2]

I know its a BIG step when they move under their own power well done


At least you did not have the issues I had even moving it in / out of the garage, broke the Z bar pivot on the motor side both moving in the garage and the first drive.

Do you know what you are doing for a bed yet as I think you said you don't have all the needed parts to put the flare side back on.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Do you know what you are doing for a bed yet as I think you said you don't have all the needed parts to put the flare side back on.
Dave ----

Dave,

I know what I'm doing with the bed...sort of...lol. I have it all sorted out except for the floor, and I'm still unsure what I'm going to do with that. I just picked up my new bed sides on Friday, and will be getting some of the smaller parts in the coming weeks. I got front and rear sills from a guy in Georgia. They're not perfect, but they're way better than what I had (which was none). The original tailgate is in surprisingly good condition. Somebody had the foresight many years ago to drill holes in the back side of the tailgate so that it could be sprayed with rustproofing inside. I also have the original headboard, which is pretty rotten across the bottom, but is fixable. I'll be working on this in coming weeks, so I'll post up some pictures as I go.

[1986F150Six]

Looks great, Cory!

[Rembrant]

1986F150Six wrote

Looks great, Cory!

Thanks David! It's coming along, one bolt at a time. Once I get the Flareside bed built for it, it will at least look like a complete truck again, albeit a ratty one.

[Rembrant]

More progress in the rust bucket garage this weekend...and well, some non-progress.

I pulled the rear leaf packs off one at a time to replace bushings and clean rust, add some steel plates here and there, and paint. I ran into a major snag with the rear leaf forward bushings. Apparently Ford changed the size of them (or, some of them) in 1994, but nobody told Moog as the bushings I had purchased were the older style (OD too small). I bought them from Rock Auto six months ago, but the issue is with Moog's listing. Seems it is a fairly well known issue...IF you know about it...lol, which I did not. The Moog parts were supposed to fit, so why research, right? Oh well, can't cry over it now.



Found this with a little digging on Google...



It looks like the bushings ARE available from a couple spring/suspension vendors, but they're bloody expensive at $30-$40 each, compared to something like $8 for the Moog ones. So I'll make some calls to the leaf spring shops tomorrow and see if they have or can get the correct bushings. If that doesn't work I'll either sleeve the bushings (sheet metal sleeve and tack it to the bushing shell) or worst case scenario swap out the 1995 main leafs for a set of 1980-1993 leafs. Anyway...a day in the life of a Frankentruck.

I'm sure going to miss the use of this Forklift soon...it makes for a great leaf pack holder when pressing new bushings in.




And it also doubles as a workbench, paint bench, etc...



So I removed all four leaf hanger brackets. The forward ones I just cleaned up and painted, the rears I had to replace. The passenger rear was especially bad.



I got the driver's side all back together and the outside of the frame rail painted. Passenger side is partially assembled. I need to weld in a couple small patches where the rear hanger mounts on the frame.
Tomorrow is going to be All MIG Monday...



It was my goal to have the whole back half of the frame finished by the end of Monday (Holiday in Canada tomorrow). That's all welded and painted up...EXCEPT without new front bushings installed. BUGGER.