81 F100 flare side custom with 300 six & T18

FuzzFace2 wrote

Good to hear the truck is doing well.

Yea we need AC down here (NC) and one reason I got the parts truck that had AC but little did I know that the AC and non-AC trucks had different firewalls but nothing a firewall swap could not fix.
The hard part of mine is the compressor brackets for the 300 six. A member on here was vary kind and got me a set but still need other parts.

Dave ----

Saw this post elsewhere Dave, and was wondering what other parts you may need? I stripped my truck of A/C and still have some of the parts laying around. No 300 six specific parts like brackets, but a few smaller things.

salans7 wrote

FuzzFace2 wrote

Good to hear the truck is doing well.

Yea we need AC down here (NC) and one reason I got the parts truck that had AC but little did I know that the AC and non-AC trucks had different firewalls but nothing a firewall swap could not fix.
The hard part of mine is the compressor brackets for the 300 six. A member on here was vary kind and got me a set but still need other parts.

Dave ----

Saw this post elsewhere Dave, and was wondering what other parts you may need? I stripped my truck of A/C and still have some of the parts laying around. No 300 six specific parts like brackets, but a few smaller things.

I need hoses and compressor that I will get new or I may even try and make the hoses as I have an 81 (York compressor) HVAC box but will be using I think it was a 83 (Sanden compressor)compressor so I don't know if either the 81 or 83 hoses will work as the 2 years use different types of compressors.

Now what does not come with the new Sanden compressor that I will need are the Sanden hose manifolds bolted to the top of the compressor. From what I found in checking for the new parts is that the manifolds did not come with the compressor and could be hard to come by.

So I guess if you have a Sanden compressor that has the 2 hose manifolds I could use them the rest of the needed parts I think is best to get new.
if you do have the manifolds let me know what you want for them.
Thanks
Dave ----

Unfortunately I sent those to the scrap yard thinking nobody would need them.

Figured I would ask just in case it was something on the electrical side since that is what I seem to have left.

Well it was worth a try.
I don't need them just yet but when something comes I need for a good price I get it and hold till the time comes.
Thanks
Dave ----

I do the same. Sorry I couldn't help this time.

I got lazy last weekend and never made it out to the garage but it was also in the mid 90's so also to hot to work. Didn't even cut the grass and I am loosing the cats in it LOL.

I have also been thinking of painting the cab first so I know I will have enough paint. If I did the bed first and then the cab and ran out in the middle that would be a vary bad thing.
So I will need to get the white paint and supplies that go with it and striping tape and figure how I want to work the 2 colors where they meet.

I also have coming a paper taping machine with 3 different size paper & tape for it. In the past I have used news paper and it has worked well but we don't get the paper and not going to start just so I can tape up the truck for painting. I also have another project to paint once the truck is done.
Dave ----

I just use tape to make the fine edge, then tape on cardboard boxes &/or cut-open garbage bags.





Look at this & the NEXT 6:

To late I have the 12" paper & sleeve of tape, the 18", 36" paper & 2 a paper machine are on there way.
I was also looking into 3M foam tape for the jambs to keep from getting a hard paint line.
I will check if my supplier has it when I check on the white paint.

I have never used card board but have used newspaper, that was the only time I got to read it LOL.
With news paper to keep paint bleed thru down fold the edge over about 4" you will put the tape on. This way the paint has to go thru 2 layers of paper and the tape before bleed thru.
I never seen an issue with lint using newspaper but they say it happens. With all the dirt in my garage I need all the help I can get to keep the paint clean.
Dave ----

Dave,

I came across this little Flareside for sale up here in Canada and if you scroll through the pics it looks like he did the Styleside bed floor just like yours.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/ottawa/ford-truck/1448112500?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Rembrant wrote

Dave,

I came across this little Flareside for sale up here in Canada and if you scroll through the pics it looks like he did the Styleside bed floor just like yours.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/ottawa/ford-truck/1448112500?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Nice looking truck it is hard to tell could that be a rubber mat and if so why cover up the wood floor?

$13000 for a non-wood bed and non-stock seat I think is a little much.

There is a member on FTE that took me lead and also did a metal ribbed floor, his came out pretty good.
Dave ----

Yesterday I picked up the white paint and the extras that go with it for another $200+and I for got something so going to try and get back to day to see if they have it and if not will get it on line.

I also got the paper / tape machine and supplies and put it together.
Well China struck again! No axle for the wheels so had to come up with long bolts and nuts.
The directions are for crap! They give you a crappy picture with numbers to the parts and a list of the numbers and how many but can hardly read any of it.

Some of the other parts, 8 wing nuts for the tape holders missing and think they gave 4 to many paper roll jam collars.
The collars worked out as I was able to move them around along with springs& washers so I could add a 3rd roll of paper. So this 2 roll machining is now a 3 roll with 12". 18" & 36" paper.

As said the tape holders, has 4 of them, does not have any way to adjust where they fall on the paper because of the missing wing nut, and no way to hold tension so I need to fix that.
Also the tape will fall off the holders but a few wraps of tape on them should hold the rolls to them.

Don't know how much well get done this weekend the temps to be in the high 90's was 104*in the garage when I went for tools for the taping machine at 3pm
Dave ----

Man, what a mess.  But with your ingenuity it looks like you are going to make it even better than "new".

As for the wing nuts, bolts, etc, decades ago I started buying twice what I thought was needed for any given project.  I even saved all the extras that came with "kits" like yours.  And now I have a nice supply of nuts and bolts to which I can turn to complete a project.

Anyway, take care in the heat.  As Jim told Matthew, heat stroke is serious.

Gary Lewis wrote

Anyway, take care in the heat.  As Jim told Matthew, heat stroke is serious.

I realized this the hard way back in 2008 when I fell to heat exhaustion, twice in two months. Ten years later I still have heat anxiety whenever I'm working in the heat, even if I have plenty of water.

I have a nice collection of hardware and it is even sorted different types of bolts, screws, nuts and I have started to sort the nuts & bolts by thread size.
I need to get more of them plastic colored bins. I have some that are stacked but need to move 1 or 2 to get to the lower bin and others that hang from a metal rack. I have to check the next time I am in Home Depot for them or maybe HF?

This tapping machine is metric and I don't have a lot of that so was thinking the hardware store may have the wing nuts. Well not in the size I needed so I got looking and figured with some metric ny-lock nuts, fender washers and springs I could make the tape holders work as they should.

In the AC of the house I think I have them so they should work. When it cools off later and I go out to close up the garage I will fit them back on to see what I may need to change to have work but got a feeling they will work out of the box ;)

Yea this heat is no joke! I am out in it for work off loading (blowing off 26 tons of powdered cement) when not driving and even then have the windows partly open so I don't feel the heat so much when I get out.

I was out cutting grass at 7am today and it was not to bad. By 10am when done it was getting bad.
I forgot to get something at the paint store yesterday so I went to get it and by the time I got back to the house it was already mid 90's and over 100* in the garage.
Needless to say nothing is getting done to day.
Will see what tomorrow brings.
Dave ----

Yesterday I had to cut the grass as we were loosing the cats in it, started at 7am when it was cool when done with just tractor work at 10am it was too hot to do the weed wacking so to hot for garage work.

I did pickup the foam tape for the hood & door jambs when I paint. I also picked up the hardware that was missing for the paper / tape machine and kind of put that together to see if would work.


Today got out at 7am and moved the truck out side and let run a bit wile I moved the hood and cowl  panel so I could work on them and paint the bottom of hood and edges of the cowl panel.
I have 2 cowl covers and when looking them over to see where the foam seal goes I saw they were different and both are 81's but 1 is from an AC truck (I will be using better shape) the other non-AC.

The difference is in the louvers at the outside ends. The non-AC they are even all the way across where the AC one the last 3 or 4 get shorter to the next the ends one are the shortest.
The cowl on the 2 trucks look the same and I even tried each one on the 2 trucks to make sure they would fit and they do just don't know why they did this?

I picked the better of the 2 cowl / wiper motor plates prepped & painted it satin black.

I sanded the bottom of the hood and it is ready for paint so I moved to the cowl. I had to work the cowl over pretty good to prep for paint and doing so had to hit it with primer well by this time. 11:30 it was 96* in the garage, and the primer did not like it. I had the fan going so I did not feel it but could not have it on for painting so the paint part was side lined till next weekend when it will be cooler.

Turned to the tape  / paper machine and set the tapes up to hit the papers as it should may need to tweak it a little but the testing I was happy. I even used a little to tape off the fender on the truck as I had to prim a little spot. Should come in handy when I need to tape up the truck for painting.

I then turned to that mess called a dash pad I been trying to repair. Well seam sealer to fill cracks is NOT the way to go. When sanding with 80 grit on a DA sander the sealer gets soft / sticky and does not really sand it kind of gets pushed. So I used a wood chisel to remove some of it but where the speaker was I left that area, no easy way to remove that area.

I think I an going to try hot glue to fill in the low spots I have where I removed the sealer to see how this will work. This was the worst of the 2 pads I have and just trying to see what works, so far I have only found what dose not work LOL.

The other pad I have a cover for and I should get that mounted as it is sitting on top of the truck and needs to come off for painting.
Dave ----

Dave - That is HOT!  Too hot.  Glad it is going to cool off for you.

As for the cowl, Ford calls that PANEL (COWL TOP VENT) in the catalog, and the catalog entry is here with the illustration below.

E7TZ 15022A68-A Vehicles w/o radio also require EOBZ 18919—A
80/F150/350.U150
88/F(Super Duty)

As you can see, there was supposedly only one part number for all the 1980-89 trucks.  HOWEVER, note that the prefix is E7TZ, so they started substituting the Bricknose cowl for Bullnose trucks.  So, it is possible there were two different cowls for the Bullnose trucks in the early days.  I'll try to remember to check the 1982 and '89 MPC's to see what they say.

FuzzFace2 wrote

I have 2 cowl covers and when looking them over to see where the foam seal goes I saw they were different and both are 81's but 1 is from an AC truck (I will be using better shape) the other non-AC.

The difference is in the louvers at the outside ends. The non-AC they are even all the way across where the AC one the last 3 or 4 get shorter to the next the ends one are the shortest.

Well that's interesting. I just checked my '84 and the three outer most louvers are shorter. That's on a Non-AC truck.

Gary Lewis wrote

As for the cowl, Ford calls that PANEL (COWL TOP VENT) in the catalog, and the catalog entry is here with the illustration below.

E7TZ 15022A68-A Vehicles w/o radio also require EOBZ 18919—A
80/F150/350.U150
88/F(Super Duty)

As you can see, there was supposedly only one part number for all the 1980-89 trucks.  HOWEVER, note that the prefix is E7TZ, so they started substituting the Bricknose cowl for Bullnose trucks.  So, it is possible there were two different cowls for the Bullnose trucks in the early days.  I'll try to remember to check the 1982 and '89 MPC's to see what they say.

Gary,

You just brought something to my attention that I hadn't thought of...lol. So, starting in '87 they obsoleted the Bullnose cowl panels and substituted the 1987-1991 Bricknose cowl panel. If you bought a bricknose cowl to replace the cowl on a radio delete Bullnose, then you also had to buy that little plug to fill the empty antenna hole.
I was going to go to the junkyard and grab a Bricknose cowl panel to swap on to my '84, but I forgot about the antenna. I have no intention of installing an antenna on my truck, and I don't feel like going through the hassle of filling the hole in a Bricknose panel, so I think I'll just stick with my original. I didn't really need the newer one anyway, it was just something to do...a minor update.

Thanks Gary, you just saved me a trip to the Junkyard!

Glad it helped.

Some say the 87+ panel is an upgrade as the leaves and pine needles can’t get through the pin holes. But I like the Bullnose slots. So my plan is to glue black plastic mesh to the underside. The best of both worlds, good looks and no debris.

I did the upgrade on my F150 and my Bricknose cab obviously came with one already on it. Although the amount of leaves getting into the cowl is cut down a significant amount, they can still get in through the wiper linkage holes if you don't use some sort of shielding around the wiper arm studs.

At first I thought the radio / no radio was the answer till I read more of the post.
I thought this because the long slots were from my 11/80 F100 Custom non-AC (DSO 2? cant see in picture) and it looks like someone drilled the hole for the ANT. (no ANT with truck) and is all bent and why I did not want to use it

Then the tapered slot cover were on the 2/81 F100 Ranger AC (DSO 22) and this ANT. is the Ford rectangle type held on with 4 screws and looks to be factory, even had the part number yellow tag on it.

So maybe the even slots were a 1980 hold over from different plants?
I also like the slots over the holes and have been thinking of the screen trick but I cant see much of anything getting down inside as the truck will not be parked under trees at my house or work when I take it and cant see it being under trees when I drive it.
Dave ----