My F150 project (Page 3 of 5)

Coming along nicely. I have a bunch of vehicles sitting here waiting for you to finish that one. Just let me know which one you want to do first!

You boys are making that look way too easy! Looks like a 6BT Cummins would sit right nice in those frame rails!

How's the budget holding up?

Another late night yesterday, but we made some good progress. Mike finished the cleanup on the bellhousing, and got it bolted back to the trans. When I arrived we stuck the trans on the back of the motor, and then started working on the driveshafts. Had to spend some quality time with an emery cloth to get the carrier bearing surface clean enough to accept the new bearing, but it finally went on and with some more Amsoil grease to move things along the slip joint was attached and the rear ujoint attached to the pinion yoke.

After that was knocked out, we started to work on the firewall rust problem, which meant first removing the thick gusset plate spot-welded to the firewall where the steering column and brake booster attach.

This would take some considerable time and effort, so while that was going on Mike went to work fixing the broken taillight wires, the correct way, with solder and heatshrink.

Like I said, considerable effort, especially with no way to sharpen drillbits.

We eventually gave up on the drilling, since the plate was still very much attached in spite of drilling out every visible spot weld. Out came Mr. Air Hammer and very quickly the remaining 5 welds we didn't drill were wrested from the firewall and our gusset was freed. Now begins the fun part, of cutting out the rusty bits and forming a piece of 18ga to fit. This would be much easier with a plasma cutter. That might be next on the list of tools to buy after this project...

Last work of the night was running the fuel lines, brake lines and wiring harness up the frame. Note the very sexy convoluted tubing that replaced the ancient vinyl tape wrapping, and the butt turrible taps for the trailer connector that still have to be cut out and soldered properly... also note that this pic was taken before the freshly-painted proportioning valve was mounted to the frame and connected to the brake lines.

We'll mount the gas tank tonight after blasting and painting its retaining straps. I still need to go to the junkyard and try to source a new(er, working) fuel sender board, so we can put that in, and I have to swing by Autozone to get a new fuel pump so that can be buttoned up. The good news is that, after we mount the gas tank, we'll actually be right back on schedule. Bodywork is gonna eat into that pretty heavily...

Haha, funny you post that pic... he has an intense, seething hatred of Dakotas.

Rusting, just at a slightly slower rate than over the last 10 years... and taking up space in the garage.

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We got the the hood completely de-rustified tonight (which I didn't take any pics of) and did some other crap.
Among the other crap:

Our "install gas tank" milepost was reached, meaning our schedule is still doing OK.

Here I am trying to figure out why the adhesive is separating from this several-year old piece of ~3/16" thick rubber I found at the surplus store; the sheet itself was like 16x24, originally intended as a noise isolator for my FASS fuel pump on my diesel. It wasn't needed when the pump came with its own rubber insulator of a similar type... so, after more than 2 years in the belly of my camper, it got dug out and cut up to replace the nasty tar-and-felt crap Ford used to insulate the tank from its rub points on the frame crossmembers.

Ford paid scant attention to NVH in 1986. Not me!!

I also shot the straps with Rustoleum truck bed coating (their Rhinoliner-in-a-spray-bomb product which I bought a can of on a whim to see if it was actually worth a flip, or if I'm still better off going with 2 gallons of roll-on Herculiner, which I am) and glued some cut pieces of the rubber floor out of my aunt's postal Jeep to replace the tar-felt.

Woohoo, tank is in!

We also got a piece of metal cut to fix the first part of the firewall. Here Mike is tacking it into place in its hole...

And yes, that's SEM weld-thru primer on the edges.
Here's the reverse angle early on in the game:

And the big gusset plate spot-welded back in place, and part-way through the wekd grinding process.

The next hurdle is cutting out the rust underneath the gusset there on the underside of the firewall. I've gotta blast it and see how much actually has to be cut out, so Mike (who is much better at metal fab than me) can make a patch. Also, we pulled the rear brakes apart so I can take the drums to a friend's shop to get them turned Monday. The shoes - which I think may be just the second set in the truck's life - still had a fair bit of meat left on them, but the d/s particularly was odd: there was over 1/4" pad left, but 4 of the 6 rivets on each shoe were sticking up, causing a bit of a groove in the drum. It's not too bad, since the miles driven on it are, uh, pretty low, so hopefully I can just cut them and slap 'em back on with new shoes and hardware. I was very relieved to see that it did not, in fact, need a new axle seal on the d/s, as I suspected initially when I was performing the first pressure-washing of the frame. Inside the drum it's nice and dry on both sides, with no sign at all of any leakage in the past.

We discussed that early on Pete, and agreed. The rust reformer is covered with two coats of Majic alkyd enamel flat black. It's a very hard finish, as witnessed by the shallow scratches the motor mount bolts put in while we jockeyed it into place.

Quick update, since I'm tired...

I too the brake drums over to my friend's shop and put them on the lathe. They cleaned up OK, certainly good enough, so after leaving there after a couple hours' of shooting the shit, I headed to Harbl Freight and picked up a pneumatic nibbler, another angle grinder, and a couple other things we needed, and then swung by NAPA to pick up shoes and a hardware kit. Mike had to go out for a bit right when I got there, so in the meantime I sandblasted the outside of the drums and a couple other things, and then prepped and painted them.

Then I started work on the brakes. After stripping them down and checking the P/S wheel cylinder and not being able to move it at all, I took it off the truck and tried to get it moving. No dice, even with a small sledgehammer, and the other side is the same way. So later today I'll be picking up a set of cylinders so I can put the brakes together again.

I also pushed the frame outside a bit and sandblasted the insides of the backing plates, which was really badly needed. Unfortunately, that proved to be the last thing the blaster wanted to do, because its handle split in two. I'm taking it back and getting another one later today, too. In the meantime, Mike got back to work on the cab, cutting out more rusted-through sections in the P/S door frame:

And also trying out the nibbler (which we wound up dismantling, slightly deburring and properly lubricating at the cost of almost 2 hours and multiple beers) on his new firewall piece...

After reaching a stopping point on the brakes, I decided I was sick of my floor jack being a pain in the ass to use and not wanting to work half the time, so I broke it down...

... and tore it apart.

I was able to replace the handle piston seals and the relief valve seal (all of which were leaking) but there are two more I need to source - the main reservoir seal, which is 2.5", and the shaft seal, which is 1". I'm gonna call the manufacturer in the morning and see if they can send me a seal kit. I think the cup seal on the end of the piston is OK, it looks fine, feels OK, and isn't dry or soft or anything nasty.

After giving up on that, we welded in the next patch panel, the little guy here near the bottom of the firewall. I also had picked up a set of these little guys (http://www.harborfreight.com/8-piece-bu … 44751.html) at HF at Mike's request, and they definitely came in handy, especially after a little QC with the grinder (removing slag, burrs, and stamping flash) to make them actually fit through the gap that was being welded. If you find yourself welding sheetmetal these are a good investment. This is after tacking the patch in place, but before fully welding the seams. The small missing piece at the end there is cut and formed, but waiting for a new sandblaster so it can be prepped for welding.

The only patches left to make are two small ones at the bottom of the P/S door, and two more on the floor. Once those are done and ground down, we'll have to roll the cab outside so I can sandblast it in suspect areas and sand the rest to get it ready for primer. It's conceivable that we could have at least part of the body done in epoxy primer by the end of this coming weekend. That would be awfully nice...

Are these the manifold flange studs that attach the exhaust flange to pipe? National Parts Depot and Summit both show they have a replacement kit. Dorman's catalog shows replacements as well but no one is showing those dimensions. Makes me wonder if they were replaced at some point before. Of course this would fix the problem as well: Hedman Street Hedders 89300

No listings for hardware only for the 4.9 motor. Checked other forums and they found replacements at Fastenal. I checked their website and they do indeed have M12 double end studs in a variety of thred pitch, lengths and grades. Here's the address.

Fastenal 5707 Dot Com Court, Suite 1049 Oviedo, FL 32765 Phone:407-977-1021 Mon - Fri:7-5

If you drop off the old ones to me tonight I'll stop by there tomorrow and grab the new ones

Got the bolts grade 10.9 ACE Hardware had them in stock They are zinc plated 50mm long Hope these work as trying to find M12 double ended studs with a 1.50 thread is damn near impossible They had threaded rod but it was $40.