1984 Canadian F150 - Zero History, Fresh Start

ArdWrknTrk had let me know about some of the adhesives in an earlier post. I had already purchased a cheap welder and it seemed a bit tricky to get the adhesives up here in Canada so I considered it part of the challenge haha. In all honesty, if I struggle more with the welding than I expect, I still may change my direction. I also figured that the adhesives may not work so well for the rocker components including the weatherstrip channel/ridge.

Honestly, I loved welding in school and it's been 10-15 years so I figured it would be a fun part of the challenge although I may regret the decision once I get into it. Once the sheet metal arrives I may reassess. So far I've only cleaned up the surface rust that was heavily flaking with a wire-wheel. I haven't gone deep yet to determine how compromised the steel around the pitting and holes is.

Periwinkle wrote

I'm also about to pull the trigger on a RockAuto order as with shipping it is still cheaper and has more parts than whatever I could find in Canada at Napa. If anyone has a better recommendation let me know.

Do you have a CarQuest Store near by? It's the Canadian division of Advance Auto Parts in the US. I've found that CarQuest has a much larger selection of parts for older vehicles either in stock or available overnight from their central warehouse (Compared to Napa at least). It may just be a regional thing and maybe the Atlantic division stocks more parts for older vehicles, but worth a look regardless.

I just bought a set of brake calipers this week for a 1975 Chevy Impala and my local store had them in-stock (I was surprised they did). Every time I went to Napa over the years they never had anything for me so I've turned into a CarQuest guy;).

RockAuto is also a big one for me and has been super helpful with parts for the old trucks. Shipping to Canada is quick and convenient.

Rembrant wrote

I've found that CarQuest has a much larger selection of parts for older vehicles either in stock or available overnight from their central warehouse (Compared to Napa at least).

I agree with Cory, at least for my town.  Simple things as air filters look more complicated for Napa restocking.

I didn't realize CarQuest would be better than Napa for these things, that's great to know! Yeah so far the availability and prices at Napa haven't been great. I put together a spreadsheet comparing RockAuto (converted to CAD) including shipping prices and Napa was still often 25% more expensive if the parts were even available.

I wish I could find a local scrapyard with a bullnose truck. Most of them seem to have predominantly 2000s trucks and a few have had 90s F-150s but I haven't found a bullnose yet. Although it's my first time trying to find scrappers so I'm sure more will turn up as I search.

I may have some Ford used parts that you are looking for. There are plenty of used parts around, you may have to hunt a little.
Contact me !
I am about an hour away, east end of Toronto.

Will do, thank you!

Minor updates but I received my package from RockAuto. Still ended up being the cheapest even with shipping and prepaid duties. Received the following

Front brake pads

Rear brake shoes

Rear shoe hardware

Front and rear brake lines

Rear brake self adjuster repair kits (cheap and just in case due to shipping)

Rear wheel/brake cylinders

Caliper slide pins (cheap and why not)

Brake retaining clips (wasn't sure if I'd need these for the front)

New thermostat

Windshield wipers

Spark plugs

Heater core

Headlight sockets

Also had a phone call with Tabco and my floor pans will be on their way on Monday along with rocker panels and weatherstrip channel. They said that they don't have the OEM weatherstrip molds and Ford didn't sell them anymore so I sent over some dimensions and they are going to throw a couple in the box for free. Once I've sorted everything out and installed, I'm going to send them back some pictures and final measurements and they may end up including these standard in the future.





Planning to try and get brakes and heater core done this weekend. Hopefully that means I can get the sheet metal by next weekend and do some welding and get this thing safetied so I can get it on the road. It's killing me to not be able to start driving it to get a better feel for what I need next.

As a side question, I see a lot of you with great looking wheels out there. I have steelies and poverty caps currently and will one day want to replace with something a little nicer. I don't know much about the wheels, but as a 2WD car, will I need covers or something for the ugly, rusted dust caps where there would normally be a lockers on a 4x4? Do any of the Canadians have recommendations on where I might get some local wheels as I don't even want to think about shipping costs for those? Alternatively, anywhere driving distance near Niagara Falls NY? DOT code 0804 so I'm going to need some tires for safety as well. If I could, it probably makes sense to buy once, which is why I'm thinking about wheels now.



To do list for safety:

Brake system overhaul

Floorpans and rust

Wheels/tires

Headlights - diagnose

Seatbelts - need to buy still

To do list otherwise:

Heater core

Full coolant flush and replace

Spark plugs

Thermostat

Door cards

Floor carpet and soundproofing

Metal rear window latch install - bought per recommendations here

Figure out passenger door locking issue (won't unlock from key, gets caught on something)

Tune carb or possibly rebuild - Seems to idle fine but I haven't been able to drive it to check how it runs under load

That's a lot of work you have planned.  But it is a lot of parts as well.  Periwinkle should be in great shape when you are done.

As for Tabco, that's cool that they are working with you on that.  Great company.  

But I'm not a good one to answer the question about wheels, so will leave that for someone else.

Our friends from Georgia call it "patina" not rust, soap and water will wash that off.
(Zep Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser) works well.
As far as wheels; monitor local "market place", multiple wheels always come up for sale, but it depends on what you want and it is subjective to your application.

Onions.

Couldn't find as much time as I would have liked, as we had family from Poland in town. Still able to get some work done but ran into quite a few issues, but that's part of the fun.

Started with the front calipers because I figured that would be the easy part. The calipers were in rough shape and were leaking fluid so I figured I might try my hand at a rebuild but the bleed screw seems fused to the caliper. I may need to buy remanufactured calipers and cut my losses as the parts aren't expensive. The rotors are very thin on one side as well, so I figure probably best to replace the rotors and hubs. This has turned into a full replacement so I'm about to purchase inner and outer bearings, bearing seal, hub and rotor assembly, and calipers to go with my naïve purchase of pads and lines thinking this would be a small project. Couple of ladybugs on the hub and the pads were definitely salvageable




Save the front for another day when parts come in and moved on to the rear. Drums came off relatively easily; hoping I can reuse the drums and be cheap for now based on my increased front end work. Everything went smoothly for the disassembly. Looks like I have an issue with a leak from the flarenut to the new wheel cylinder. I am not sure if the metal brake line flare is the issue or the actual flarenut is the issue, but I'm not exactly sure where to go from here.





Lastly, I bought all new brake adjuster hardware and I'm glad I did as the cable was broken and mechanisms shot. I figure it likely makes sense to also replace the brake lines from the parking brake pedal to the assemblies but I'm a bit confused on which ones to get. As I understand it, there is a line from the pedal to the connecting link. Then there is a line to each of the rear assemblies, so three lines total. Struggling to confirm based on the documentation which ones I truly need. Could anyone help me understand how to translate the part numbers or information in the brakes section into parts on Rock Auto? From what I can tell I would need:

E4TZ 2A635-G

E0TZ 2A635-K

No idea on the front, maybe E7TZ 2853-A? (133" wheelbase)

I just know the Fords get wonky with parts by year so I want to make sure I don't buy and ship the wrong part, gets pricey getting stuff up to here.

EDIT: Found the OEM parts numbers, just had to click the specific parts on RockAuto and look to the bottom. Just to confirm though, do the part numbers above look correct? I'm about ready to pull the trigger now that I have that figured out.

Thanks everyone!

Caps are pretty mangled, decided to buy new ones but didn't realize it was all just gunk, came right off with the wire wheel out of curiosity.

Also, I tried shooting you an email based on the forum email option but it didn't seem to work. Will try again now!

I've had to really crank down on some brake fittings to keep them from leaking.  And you want to be using a flare wrench to do that.

As for the part numbers, I think this is what you are looking for:

Thanks Gary, ended up getting everything ordered. Also received the sheet metal from Tabco last week so hopefully able to work on laying things out this weekend. Definitely nervous to start cutting but I still need to do some practice welding prior to then anyways. Tabco shipping was surprisingly quick once the order was finally ready and processed.

I will be watching your project carefully.
I just picked an 86 Flareside, the flareside bed was just too good to pass on.
But, there is always a "but"; the floor mats which are new are the floor and I don't dare take out the seat!
My choices are to do what you are doing or look for a used cab from the south. The problem I see with doing the later is how many standard cabs without air conditioning will be down there.
periwinkle send me an email: my (username)@gmail.com

Email sent!

I'm super intimidated with getting started on the metalwork but at the end of the day, the floors won't be visible so hopefully I can't botch it too bad. Still need to snag some welding gas for the MIG welder and get practicing first. Also have a bunch more brake parts on the way, should be here this weekend including bearings, parking brake cables, new calipers, new hubs and rotors, and some bits and pieces that are just banged up and would make sense to replace while I have everything apart.

I'm also starting to think about if I will be able to properly clean up and coat the frame and undercarriage for a bit of rustproofing insurance. Won't be driving this in the winter anyways but as you know, it's a mess up here even for months after winter. Always surprising how long the salt sticks around on the roads.

It is easy cutting the rusted metal out, a few things to consider:
- are the floors being removed at the pinch weld (firewall to floor) if so it would be a lot easier to  access the spot welds at the firewall from the engine compartment side rather than from underneath. Welding the new floors in would put you in a comfortable position.
Welding on your back is no fun. Unless you have a hoist.

It's going to look amazing when you get it done. You guys up north have more patience and talent than I. Where I live, we'd scrap a truck with that much rust. I'm guilty of doing it to many...

Keep up the good work!