My 1984 F150 2wd Flareside Project "Blue Mule"

[grumpin]

I am impressed! Good job!

[Rembrant]

Ok gentlemen,

The first test assembly went great. Everything fits like a glove. I must have done something right...lol. I am so sick of drilling holes it's not even funny, but I don't have much more work to do now. I have four more small holes to drill and tap (M6) for the tailgate hinges, and a hole in each of the rear stake pockets for the chain/latch assembly to attach, and that's about it. I have to rework the flanges that sit on the wood a little bit, but that's not a big deal. I also have to rework the fender mounting holes to accept the replacement factory-look bolts I got from Mar-K. Last but not least will be to drill new holes in the rear sill. Mar-K only manufactures them to fit the 7 board-6 strip design. If one wants to go with the 5 strip design, new holes must be drilled. Anyway...not a big deal. Oh...and I still have an hours worth of flap wheel work to smooth out my welds.

[Gary Lewis]

You really, REALLY have a lot of work in that.  And I know it must seem like it is unending.  But you are going to look back and realize it was all worth it.  Man, it is looking good!

[Rembrant]

Ha! Gary...my enthusiasm is wearing thin...lol, but I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And this is just the darn bed...this truck still needs cab work, new fenders, etc...

Anyway, I'm just trying to get it finished enough to drive it this summer again.

Good news though...and I love it when stuff like this happens, but I stopped by a body shop near my work this morning to see if they'd be interested in painting these panels for me so I can assemble them myself, etc. A small bit of luck, but the manager actually had a Bullnose Flareside years ago and knew the beds well. He rebuild a few himself years ago, and said he still has a set of the fiberglass fenders at home. Very interesting. Anyway...makes me feel good about getting them to do some painting for me.

I'd love to try it myself, but I don't have the space or the time right now.

[PetesPonies]

I hard grinding wheel will flatten a weld bead, whereas a flap wheel will follow the contour.

[Rembrant]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the heads up. So far I've only ground down the weld beads on the inside of the extension panels where they will not be visible, and the flap disk seemed to work OK. It touched nothing but the bead until it was flush. I'm going to be a little more careful on the visible welds on the outside. The guy I was talking to at the bodyshop yesterday said he had a tool to make fake spot weld dimples if I wanted to go that far, but I think that would be too extreme for me...this thing is just supposed to be a fun driver, not a show truck;).

[Ray Cecil]

Great job Corey. Looking good. Is your truck originally Medium Blue like mine?

 I will be tackling my wood boards soon. I am going to pick a tree, cut it down, mill and dry the boards, plane, shape, stain and install. Luckily I have a sawmill, and access to plenty of free trees.

[Rembrant]

Ray Cecil wrote

Great job Corey. Looking good. Is your truck originally Medium Blue like mine?

Yes sir, exactly the same, paint code "3P" Medium Blue Metallic (1982-1984 only).

My truck is all faded and parts of it have been touched up so it looks nothing like the original color.

I saved this picture below...can't remember where I got it now, but as far as I know, that is what the medium blue is supposed to look like. Not my truck...just a picture saved from a forum somewhere.

[Ray Cecil]

Awesome. I had been admiring your blue flareside....glad one popped up for me too!

Does your bed have clamps? Mine has 4 clamps mounted. 2 on the top rails and 2 on the inside on the wheel wells. I am guessing they are for mounting a toolbox or something.

[Rembrant]

No clamps in mine, no.

I thought about adding some in this new bed I'm building, but I probably won't be hauling anything with it anyway...lol.

[vicp21]

Great job!

[Rembrant]

Finally throwing in the towel for the day, and my "new" bedsides are finished...well, as finished as they're getting in my garage. Dropping the tail gate off to be blasted tomorrow, and then I'm taking all the pieces to a shop this week to be painted.

So I assembled the bed again (upside down) and mounted the tailgate, tail light brackets, and step brackets. I massaged the mounting flange a bit and then had to square up all of the fender mounting holes, drill a few more, and grind all my welds down. I'm done with these things.





Since the bed is upside down here, this is the front left corner that is closest in the picture. Just wanted to give a shout out to Jonathan for sending me that nice step bracket! My original had rusted through and broken off at some point, and had been patched previously.





I hope to have it on the truck in a week or two...but things have been moving pretty slow...

[FuzzFace2]

Nice job Cory.
You know when you get it painted and on the truck it will make the rest look really bad right?
Just giving you a hard time.
Cant wait to see it done and on the truck.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Nice job Cory.
You know when you get it painted and on the truck it will make the rest look really bad right?

Ha! Ain't that the truth Dave!

I've been thinking this all along...I'm spending so much time and money on this bed and it's still just an old beater of a truck...haha. Oh well, I can't complain about being bored!

[Gary Lewis]

The bed looks wonderful!  But you will have to spend a bit of time on the cab and fenders to bring them into the same ballpark as the bed.  And, you are really going to be proud of the truck!

[Rembrant]

Finally...

[grumpin]

Wow! Looking good!

[FuzzFace2]

grumpin wrote

Wow! Looking good!

That's an understatement
Do you know how much paint it took to do that?
Trying to figure how much mine will take but I know mine is like 80% clear and 10% red.
Took most of 2 qt's to do what I have done so far, engine bay less under side of hood and the inside of the cab.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Do you know how much paint it took to do that?

Dave, that's a good question and unfortunately one I cannot answer. I had a shop do these for me. I'm going to assemble the bed and wood floor myself, and then get them to paint the cab later. I had the front sill and all of the bed crossmembers powder coated black at a different shop (they were a freebie that were done by a vendor of mine at work).

The body shop had these things for weeks. Apparently they had a lot of trouble converting the old Ford 3P paint code into a new base/clear mixture. They painted and sanded these things 3 times. They had the paint rep create a new mix for them...I believe Sherwin Williams. In any case, I'm pretty happy with them...they look good. I wanted the factory color and I'm pleased with the appearance.

[Ray Cecil]

Rembrant wrote

.......The body shop had these things for weeks. Apparently they had a lot of trouble converting the old Ford 3P paint code into a new base/clear mixture. They painted and sanded these things 3 times. They had the paint rep create a new mix for them...I believe Sherwin Williams. In any case, I'm pretty happy with them...they look good. I wanted the factory color and I'm pleased with the appearance.

Cory, I know a guy who is going to want this special Medium Blue paint code for his blue flareside.  Do you think you could get the paint code from them and any other related info a guy might need? Ya know, cause I know a guy who would need it.