81 F100 flare side custom with 300 six & T18

Have you off-loaded the engine, transmission, bell housing, headers and intake manifold with 2100 carburetor?

Nope.  None of that.

Would really like the engine and tranny out behind the shop under the car port.  But there's no way of getting them there easily.  So they may sit on the trailer for a while as I don't want them in the way in the shop.

We got the last of the paint on the truck!
Started at 4am and lights off at 8:30 yep a long day again.

The tail gate needed a lot more prepping than I remember it needing.
After wet sanding down pretty close to bare metal I had to give it a few heavy coats of primer.
Then more wet sanding till ready for paint. Also wet sanded the 2 running boards.
The fenders got taped up then dry sanded, all final sanding was with 600 grit paper even on the cab.

In the middle of this I had to move the truck out of the house garage to get the tape & paper rack out to my garage.
I have had an issue of the idle being to high so I looked into it. Turning the screw did nothing?
Digging deeper covering the carb with a rag also did nothing! That showed me there was a good size vacuum leak some were?
I knew the intake manifold was good as I did new gaskets not long ago and the carb gaskets are new when I rebuilt the carb so where could it be?

I got thinking of a post Matthew on FTE posted about the PCV valve & the charcoal canisters.
He said the PCV valve has 2 ports, large one for the valve and a small one for the canisters / carb bowl vent.
This this small port should have a vary small opening to meter the amount of vacuum to go thru.
Well mine did not have this metered opening and caused a vacuum leak.

Went thru my Holley carb pit box when I raced and pulled out the smallest jet I had, #64, and installed this in the rubber hose and stuck it back on the PCV valve.
I think the #64 is still to large but the idle is now at about 800 RPM by the dash tach. and that is what the sticker said it should be at.
I also adjusted the idle mix and she runs good again.

I will get pictures tomorrow
Dave ----

Yippee!!!  That is SERIOUS progress.    Can't wait to see the pics.

And, good job on the idle problem.  Now you know what the issue is it should be easy to solve when the time is right.

Well done!

Thanks guys.
If the idle stays where it's at I cant see the need to fix what's nit broke LOL

I will get pictures I hope with the fenders on the truck if the paint is dry enough to handle.
Dave ----

If you have a wideband it would be interesting to see how changing jets in the PCV changes your AFR.

Shouldn't affect much beyond idle.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

If you have a wideband it would be interesting to see how changing jets in the PCV changes your AFR.

Shouldn't affect much beyond idle.

Sorry to say I don't have one, would like one but don't have one because of $$and I don't really need it. Even have a port in the EFI exh. manifolds I could install one.
But yes would be interesting.
Dave ----

This morning before unwrapping


Just 2 bolts holding it on, breakfast was getting cold!


Dave ----

Yippeeeeee!!!!  Looking good!  

Red & white looks way better on a Bullnose than a 2019 F150.  

After I got the fenders held on with a few bolt I was able to get it in my garage to fit the running boards, fender & running board braces and the rest of the fender bolts and got them all tight.

In fitting the rear fender brace on the left side I can see why the factory may not wanted to run the rear tank on flare sides. The brace kind of run thru where the filler is. I was able to push the hose over but if I have issues filling that tank I may need to remove it.

Fitted up the 2 fuel fillers & doors. I did not order enough rubber bumpers for the doors but the 1 I did order would fall thru the holes for it in the fuller box.
I had 2 larger bumpers I ordered but did not know what they were for, found out later, and used them on the front door but the door still hits the bolts?
I will order 4 more of them bumpers, 2 for the other fuel door and 2 for what they are for. I also need 1 more "unleaded" sticker for the 2nd fuel door.

Mounted the tail gate and the chains. Was not bad once I figured how I was going to do this and not hurt the fresh paint on anything. It was when mounting the chains I found where them bigger rubber bumpers went ...... Yep the handles of the chains to keep from hitting the painted tail gate!
I also glued in the 2 rubber strips in the tail gate sides to keep the gate tight to the body and moving making noise.

When doing all this I was going thru my parts bins looking for parts I could put on but was really looking for the rear tail light harness for either truck.
I found the full harness from the flare side, I am using the parts truck harness for the options it had and I am running.
The flare side harness did not have a tail light harness. Someone cut the plug off the frame harness and added wires to reach the cheap boat lights that were mounted up high out back, so that harness when back in the parts bin.

I did find the 2 broken flare side tail lights my brother sent and he did cut the truck side harness so I have the needed plugs to put in the new lights when I get the 2nd one this week.
I also pulled off the brackets, prepped and painted and installed on the truck with the 1 new tail light I have.

Mounted the new front side marker lights, installed new 194 bulbs & 1157 in the front turn lights but I need to pull the head light doors & grille to repair & paint yet.
I also cleaned up the grounds for the lights at each fender and the hood ground and got them in place.

The rear lic. plate bracket I marked and drilled for the plate light and got the light & bracket
mounted up.
I did find the parts truck tail light harness in a bin I did not placed with the others and it was the only thing in it for the trucks. I did not look it over just yet but did see it has the Tee for the trailer light harness so I don't need to splice into the trucks harness.

Oh I took down my paint booth, plastic I had on the walls and over stuff in the other 2 bays so no more painting!
Dave ----

Forgot I installed the battery hold down and the fresh air flex to the air filter

Dave ----

That thing looks GREAT Dave!

Looking great, Dave!  And you are getting so much done.  I'm jealous!  You are going to beat me on getting Big Blue back on the road, much less Dad's truck.  

Thanks guys
I am happy how the paint flowed out just not happy on the dirt that got in it but I guess it is going to happen when you paint in a garage that you also used to do body work in.
But to tell you it is not the body filler dust in it this is little bigger than that, like the bug I found still moving but was stuck in the paint

As for being done before you Gary we are building our trucks on 2 different levels.
Unless it was powder coated from the factory there is no powder coat on my truck.
I am sure the paint jobs can not compare to each other either.

I also have a dead line of November 9th. Work is having a car / truck show for its 60th birthday and would like to take the truck. The inside will not be complete, lack of funds, but the outside should be.
I need to replace the booster & master, E brake cables again as they don't hold and no more adjustment and 4 tires and should be road worthy.

The hardest part I see coming up is the windshield install as I need a hand and don't really know anyone around here but "I" will get it installed.
Dave ----

Dave, have been away from online for a while but stopped back in - WOW your truck is looking great!   Love the color choice!

There's a flareside in a salvage yard about 15 miles from me, let us all know if you need anything?  I could go check it or might have stuff in storage

SCFlareside wrote

Dave, have been away from online for a while but stopped back in - WOW your truck is looking great!   Love the color choice!

There's a flareside in a salvage yard about 15 miles from me, let us all know if you need anything?  I could go check it or might have stuff in storage

I see you have a his & hers flare sides now
Thanks but it is no way near as nice as yours.
Dave ----

Was home by 11am so hit the garage again.
 I pulled the grille & head light doors so I could fix some cracks and missing mounting tabs.
 First was a good washing so I could see what I was working with. I found there is no easy way to clean the insides of the turn signal lights, they were fill of mud & dirt.
 The grille & doors came from the parts truck that rolled over and why the damage.

 I used Crazy glue on the cracks on the grille and Plastex to make tabs.
 I also used Plastex to finish the cracks and reinforce 3 tabs I either glued back on or had cracks.

 With that all done and setting up I taped off the head light doors for painting.
 I had to hit the cracks with a little sand paper to smooth them out before painting.
 The doors & grille I used Krylon Metallic Dark Metal paint, I also set up all the screws and they got black paint.
 I was going to install but the paint was still a little soft so I let them sit.
   
 Being still early I started looking at the tail light harness. Well just looking at it I was getting covered in dirt.
 So in the bucket I used to wash the head light doors, grille went into the tub, and started cleaning away.
 Did not get a picture of the harness or the trailer Tee I will use.
 When I get the 2nd new tail light I can mount it and plug in the harness in and make a plan to make them one!
 Dave ----

Are you going to paint the "FORD" on the tail gate white to match the sides?

On the Grille/Doors, how did that metal paint come out. The metal/chrome on mine is getting a bit rough thought about either painting it or replacing it myself.

TheScatch wrote

Are you going to paint the "FORD" on the tail gate white to match the sides?

On the Grille/Doors, how did that metal paint come out. The metal/chrome on mine is getting a bit rough thought about either painting it or replacing it myself.

I was looking to paint it like the factory did but too much work so the plan it to get reflective letters as I think the back nerds more to be seen in the dark.
I leave for work anywhere between 12am and 7am when it is still dark out, at work now, so the letters should do that.

Other than the picture, I have not looked at the grille & head light doors since I painted them. It was the last thing I did and called it a day.

On the grill & doors they should be replaced. The chrome on the doors are showing wear and 1 has a Crack thru the chrome but no money so we do what we can.
What I painted on the doors was where the factory painted and cleaned the rest the best I could. Grille painted to match the doors.
Dave ----