New to me 1983 F150

Hello, I'm new to the forum. About a year ago I bought a really solid 1983 F150 with a 300 inline 6 that was about what you would expect to see for a 40 year old truck. I've done a few things to it over that year as time off work and other things allow me to work on it. In this first post I'll outline the first real project for the truck which you will see was wheels and tires.



As you can see the truck originally came with some wheels that were not stock, to each their own but they were not my thing.

The next day I called the person I bought the truck from and asked if they had the original wheels yet and to my surprise they said they did but the tires were all dry rotted out.



This was perfectly okay with me and I rushed over to pick up the original wheels and hubcaps the next day after work.



From there I went to the local tire shop and got 4 new LT tires for the truck, I agreed to give the wheels that were on the truck back to the seller so that sorted having to deal with those.



So the first real project I did on the truck was getting some good tires on it with the stock sized wheels so I wouldn't have the turning radius of an aircraft carrier.

I'll end the first post here, I'll try and get together some photos of the next project I did on the truck, I'm hoping it'll be a little more interesting to everyone than just getting tires. But in my defense at the time getting the original wheels back for the truck was pretty exciting, at least for me. This truck is all original and I plan to keep it that way as much as possible.

I like it!

I was looking at the first pic thinking "How do I tell him I don't like the wheels?  Well, I can't so I'll just be quiet.  But, I DON'T LIKE THEM!"  And you solved my dilemma - you got new/old wheels and tires!  Well done!  

Can't say I don't like the first pict, but my pathological obsession for "as close as stock as possible" makes me giving my vote to the final one, for sure!

I think if we did a survey in this forum it would be unanimous that the stock wheels look better. There is bias built in because we are know what its supposed to look like. I am curious what the general public would think

all I can say is " Gary said it all."
love the truck. I still have not used those hub caps on one of mine but considering it. two sets in stock. i do have one with painted wheels and dog dish centers though.

I see it all the time. It's seems the only money that anyone around here is willing to put into an old truck is new wheels/tires. They look totally stupid to anyone who knows what they looked like stock. Reminds me of a car I saw at work a few years ago. Early 00's Monte Carlo, had one those weird color changing paint jobs, and huge rims with the rubber band tires. For some reason, I thought "if he has that much money in that thing he must take good care of it". Weeeeeellllll, the guy called me out to the car and opened the hood. Everything was coated in oil, the engine was misfiring and bouncing around like it wanted to jump out of the car, loose vacuum hoses everywhere, and the motor mounts were metal on metal, rubber was AWOL. He pointed at the coolant reservoir, having a jug of antifreeze in his hand, and said "when I put this stuff un there that makes the AC cold, right?" I just kind of walked away in a daze. That car wasn't worth the wheels it was sitting on!

That is not surprising!!

We know a truck should have "more rubber, less metal" to be effective on uneven terrain, but the trend these days from truck manufacturers is for wheel sizes to be bigger unfortunately.

For example, I don't think you can get a stock F150 with tire sidewall thickness greater than what was found on a 235/75/15, unless you bought a tremor or raptor.

I have to agree 100 percent on the stock look. For me if I'm going to enjoy an older vehicle I want it to be of its Era. My 91 pickup is also stock and I wouldn't have either any different. There's definitely a vibe from both trucks and it's not the same.

I guess I'll go through another early project on the 83. In this photo we flash back to its first fill up with non-ethanol fuel (I won't run anything else). You can see it still has the massive rims making it a bastard to try and steer.



Some of you may have noticed the lack of "R" in the rear of the truck. This turned into a fun little project.

Since the R was completely gone I ordered a new set of FORD letters from a seller of classic truck parts. I quickly found out I could get the chrome letters but no black trim. So not being a quick to give up type of person I decided to make my own black trim.



Trace around it with the same spacing as the OEM letters and cut it out.



Next if any of you have bought after market letters you will know the retaining clip doesn't really retain things when you have the black trim installed. There were a few routes I could have went but I found the stud on the letter happens to be perfect to chase with a 6-32 Die.



That will leave you with a threaded stud that looks like this



Afterward I put a stainless 6-32 nylock nut on the inside. You may notice something else different in the mounting department, that will be my next post.



And finally a remounted R with black trim



Everything together looks quite a bit better



Hopefully this is helpful to some people in the future. Honestly ordering some plastic sheet from McMaster the same thickness as the OEM plastic was cheap and it wasn't hard to cut out. If you go to firmly bolt you letters on I will say take your time and don't force anything it felt like I could have snapped off the studs had I got rowdy either running the tap or tightening the nylock.

Stay tuned for the other mods I had to do when I took the rear trim off the tailgate to get it to go back together again.

I find it funny that you mention the steering feeling different.  a good friend of mine has a 94 which he put later model (2004 I think) six lug wheels on with 5-6 adapters. I think it looks way out of place yet not bad. he likes it so that's the point. no real issue. but he claims that it's like trying to turn the queen Mary. it is an extended cab short bed, and we converted it to 4wd a few years ago. He swears that he noticed it when getting converted. but I wonder if that is just when he started looking for it. conversely my original bullnose is a short bed and when I bought it, it had 33/12.5/15 tires on 10"wheels. these wheels have far deeper offset moving the track center outward. this truck will turn around on a two-lane road! geometry shows up when we least expect it if we don't pay attention to everything we change.
in 2020, I built a custom bronco ll. it was a festival of cutting and welding. I got a few raised eyebrows. mostly from my wife. but it now has f150 axles making it a bit of a wide track. being only a 94" wheelbase and having an approximately 74" track, it is close to square. to say that it turns like an old jeep is easy. enough so that I dropped the steering gear and converted it to rack and pinion. still, I stopped at 31/9.5/15s on factory 7.5" wide wheels. with such a short wheelbase, I did not want to add the gyroscopic stresses to the equation.

Well done on that letter!  

And I know what you mean on the tires/wheels and steering.  My SiL has an 83 with wide wheels and tires on it.  The guy he bought it from thought they were cool, but they not only look wrong they seriously degrade the steering.

sorry to be so wordy

When the tires hit the frame as you make a basic turn at a side street, it's gone beyond ridiculous. I couldn't get rid of those wheels fast enough. I was shopping around for wheels like I have on my 91 but when the seller I bought the truck from said they had the original wheels and hubcaps yet, that sorted it.



I really like the stock look on the truck, it's not flashy but I don't need anything flashy.

the wheels on the brick nose are the ones that are my go-to. they are on my flareside and my bronco ll and I put them on each truck that got a frame off. I'm just partial to them, I guess. one major point though. when I am going to sell a truck. I know that the most common thing these days for a new owner to do to customize is to get wheels and tires. I cannot change that. it looks "right" or at least "as to be expected" when I'm done.

Welcome!  

Very well done with that tailgate letter!  

Though they look good on your truck, mine came with those argent 'turbine' wheel covers.
Unfortunately they love to load with ice and mud throwing my wheel balance off so much that I would pull over to check if the nuts were tight.
(Turns out it was the nut behind the wheel!  )

but... was that nut torqued to spec

FULLY torqued!

(the Dr bugs out every time they check my BP!)

I went until my pinky finger cracked and backed off 1/4 turn.

I guess I'll make a quick post tonight. I finished going through the vacuum lines under the hood of my 83.

Yikes!



The lines didn't look bad but I noticed a few were pretty easy to pull off so I figured it was time. I put on all high temp silicone. I even printed labels that say both ends of each line to make it easier to work on later. (I did this on my 91 also). The best thing I found was a dried out cracked and rotted vacuum cap buried in the back of the manifold. That was an exciting find. I feel like this truck has always been rich so I've been slowly chipping away at things to try and correct it.



Another thing I did was get yellow high temp silicone vacuum caps that way they'll be easier to keep track of and they'll match the labels.

I still have a slight vacuum leak under the dash. I have a few other things to get before I take that all apart. A voltmeter is one of those items if prep for a future project. I've gone 3G on my 91 and am very happy with it so I plan to do the same on the 83 at some point.

how do you know that you have a vacuum leak under the dash?

Good move on the vacuum lines.  And labeling them is an excellent idea.  What labels do you use?  I have a Brother label printer and bought some shrink tubing label material.  Used it a bunch on my EFI work.