Alfie623

I'm on the hunt for the plates that the rear sway bar mounts to on an 8.8" rear axle. If anyone has these and wants to part with them please let me know....

To add some excitement to the whole deal, the UPS driver delivered the package to the wrong address last night. It’s not like he lost my Amazon package or new snowmobile gear, both also delivered yesterday; instead he lost the 35+ year old, ultra rare Bullnose power mirrors. After some discussion and phone calls UPS found the package, picked it up and delivered to my house last night. I couldn’t be happier.

Wanted to say thanks for thinking of me! After some discussion, payment and shipping I received the full set of mirrors, wires and templates yesterday!!! I couldn't be happier. Now........who can help me find a CB radio?

I’m interested in buying the set of mirrors if you have them. Please contact me at alfie623@verizon.net and we can discuss. Jonathon, thanks for the heads up!

And now I'm down to the finishing touches to get this bumper ready to install on the truck. I still plan on having it chromed but I'm going to stick with the plan of painting it and installing it for the summer and seeing how I like it before I move forward with the chrome. I ordered up a new fairlead. I really like the look of this style over the larger (albeit better) rollers. This is a cast unit capable of handling my stainless steel wire rope. Tonight I spent a few long hours sanding and polishing. I can say that I can see where the polish will eventually come out and the chrome coating will work. As I type this I'm waiting for some primer to dry to I can add another coat. I picked up some rattle can chrome paint and in the next few hours I'll turn this masterpiece into a turd...... for the time being anyway. Still on my list of things to do is: 1. buy and cut the diamond plate for the top of the sides of the bumper. 2. mock up and mount two vintage, cast tow hooks. 3. fabricate a removable front trailer hitch that I can use to launch the boat or move a trailer around the yard. This will be well built but not intended to be used on the road. Lastly, I had someone suggest a powder coat product that mimics chrome. I'm going to call the folks that coated by grill guard and tire carrier and see what their thoughts are on this stuff. If it's really close to the look of chrome and less expensive I may consider this as an option.....

A friends welded up the pieces of the bumper and well he's a bit of an artist...... he welded the vertical seams on each end of the basket and then added a gusset to to give the sides more support. The didn't feel like they needed it but we were welding so why not added them now instead of later? and THEN he got crafty and talked me into opening up the lights holes and adding a trim on the inside face, making the light openings perfect!!!! and just like that we had a finished product ready to go home.....

I always liked the look of this bumper on this quite famous truck..... In the above photo it's a newer bumper on that truck and it has pink KC light covers in each side but it's tough to tell if there are actual lights in there. My truck come with the factory fog light option and I want to maintain the fog lights but I'm not a fan of this original look with the lights mounted below the bumper. So now I decided if I'm going to mount lights into my bumper I aught to cut the lights in now before I weld the bumper pieces all together because it'll be easier for me to fix this if I don't like the holes in each of the side pieces. It's impossible to find a reasonably priced set of KC fog lights so I opted for some Hella's that I was able to find online and I ordered them up. Once they arrive I toyed around with the mounting options. I was torn because I liked the look of a flush light bezel but then that points the lights outwards at 18 deg. I wasn't too keen on setting the lights further back into an opening and pointing the lights straight ahead because the opening would clip a bit of the light beam. When the lights arrived I laid out the cut the openings and got crafty with my small vice grips.... I finally decided that I would mount the mights with a flush bezel. When the covers are installed the lights would sit flush with the bumper and when I pulled the covers to use the lights I would twist the lights straight ahead and suffer with the clipped light field of view. Now it was time to send the pieces out to be welded by someone a bit more practiced in the art of making these three pieces look like one single piece of steel....

Next I installed the bumper brackets and mounted the basket and mocked the side pieces into position to confirm the angles from the basket to the sides. In the end I decided on an 18 deg return from the basket to the sides with the 45 deg return at each end. This was different than what I measured on the bowtie truck where I took all my measurements from but it looks right on my truck and the overall width measured correctly. In the end it's about the look and not about if I maintained an angle that I measured on another truck so I went with the 18 deg. Here are some photos with all the bumper pieces mocked into position and ready for welding. and this is also where I hit a crossroads.......

With the basic shape complete and the spacing and mounting ironed out it was time to turn the pieces of steel into a bumper. First I laid out the holes for the fairlead and cut the opening, followed by trimming the upper edges of the basket section. Cutting the hole for the fairlead involved laying out the two mounting bolt locations, then laying out the mouth and drilling two large holes with a hole saw and then cutting out the remaining material with a grinder. Drill the 1/4" plate with the hole saw was probably the longest piece of work to date. Next, I laid out the cuts that would allow me to bend each side piece. With a mouth cut into the top and bottom returns, I heated the piece up red hot with a torch and bent the 45 deg bends like butter. All of the pieces cut and bend and placed nicely together finally revealed how the bumper will look.

ok, it's time for some updates..... Since my last post I'm been real busy and the bumper is mostly complete so I'll try to catch up the thread here with the progress. I placed the bracket in position on the frame and clamped the winch basket to them to locate the mounting holes. In retrospect I wish I drilled all of the mounting holes per spec on the bumper dimensions but I didn't find that information until after I had drilled these holes. In the end it'll work the same but I know how I'll do this little piece of work next time. In these photos you can see that I've essentially mocked everything in to position and know that it'll all work as intended and now it's time to start cutting and bending the bumper pieces to make the shape of the bumper.

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't know you comment. I bought all of the parts from Rockauto. I have them in a box and ready to install, I've just been sidetracked with work, my bumper project and home schooling. I expect to get those A/C parts on next week if all goes according to plan.

Yes, I went with the timing cover from a 1988 Econoline.

I'm curious about this comment. Why did you lose the mechanical pump? I did a serpentine swap on my 302 and still have a mechanical pump on it. Is there less clearance with the 351 brackets? Hmmmmmm, I don't know how this is but I'm no expert. Where did you get the serpentine setup for a carbureted engine? I know Jeg's sells a timing cover that allows the reverse direction water pump to mount along with the mechanical fuel pump but as far as factory parts all I ever knew existed was timing covers with reverse rotation water pumps and fuel injection. To answer your question, the serpentine setup I have on my engine came from an Econoline (providing a Saginaw pump) with fuel injection so I needed to find an alternative for the fuel pump.

You’ve mentioned things that have me curious since I didn’t know the two different refrigerants required different size components. Since my truck was already changed to 134a before swapping to these newer components do you think I can simply go ahead with my plan? Both the evap and the condensor already had 134a in them.

I’m considering updating my A/C components to 1989 spec components. This includes the compressor, accumulator, orifice, hoses & electrical connectors. I’d keep the condenser and evaporator. Does anyone know of any pitfalls? Any reasons why this won’t work? My serpentine swap has caused me to need to replace the unknown compressor. Along with that, now I’ll need new hoses. For a few dollars more I can update all the parts and pieces. All in, for new components it’s like $220 for Four Season brand equipment. Let me know your thoughts.