Gary Lewis

Gary yes I do its the top link in my signature. The bottom one is of the parts truck and I have a few from it in the album so people can see what partsI had to work with from the parts truck. Like the nose, dash & wiring, rear gas tank and lines, bed for the floor. I also gave away some parts from it that I knew I would not use, tail lights, rear step bumper, LWB frame and thing a few other things. Dave ---- Dave - Loading several hundred up 9 at a time would be painful. Instead, if you have them in a folder or some such is there a way to give me temp access? I can point the Weebly app at the pics and it'll do everything for me.

Dave - Do you have those pics electronically? Want to have your own page on here with those pics? Go look at Documentation/Picture Gallery to get the idea. I can put up a page for you and you can load them up, or I can do it for you.

That's incorrect, the plates are covering the holes you would use to access the motor mount studs. The plates need to go away. Luckily for Jonathan, the crossmember doesn't appear to be hacked up like the one on Big Blue. Good point! I sit corrected and chagrined.

Makes sense, Cory. If you can't get it then it isn't an option. Plus, with SEM you don't from them. You order from someone that mixes it, and many of those places are probably not set up to ship internationally. But in the end, if you paint everything it doesn't really matter.

They do look good, and in the end everything will match. And speaking of matching, the only way I think you can match paint to original is to order SEM paint. The off-the-shelf paint isn't said to match. The #'s are here: Documentation/Specifications/Interior Colors. And since Ford used 5 or 6 different blues, blue is hard to match.

It does look pretty good. Did you get it going? If so, what did you have to do?

The 460 brackets should be bolted on. I can see some of the bolts in the pics. Big Blue's do and there are holes there in the frame and crossmember for them on the '95 front clip I got. And I doubt those extra plates need to come out. The IDI perches close off those hole anyway so you obviously don't reach through there for anything. And the IDI perches appear to sit right on top, so at the most you might have to grind a weld flat.

I think you are right - not far off. If I was to buy new lenses I'd give them a try just for the better backup lights.

That's about what they charge for a core. If it works it would be a steal. I assume it is a 2wd version since it isn't mentioned.

Thanks!

I like quiet. Loud sounds good for the first few miles, but gets obnoxious pretty quickly.

Looks like you have a good plan. And, it sounds like Espy is solid. So the A/C is going to be the icing, almost literally, on the cake. As for the stores, you are lucky. Apparently ours doesn't have much in the way of bread nor butter. We are using Walmart's service where they bring it out to you, and twice they've crossed off both.

Looks great! An excellent starting point, and a good solid truck. Could you do me a favor and put your name in your signature? I like calling people by their names as it makes it a lot more personal. But it is your call.

Looks good, Alex. What muffler is that? How does it sound?

It is coming together nicely, Shaun! I think that inspiration is going to make a big difference.

We may have interpreted that post differently. I didn't see any mention of the terminal not fitting into the ceramic part so I may have been focusing on a different part of the problem. The terminals are likely 16-14 as you said. From the looks of it, I would say with the right gauge terminal and some txl 12awg wire you wouldn't have any issues. With txl, even that 14awg terminal would likely get it done. At 10awg though, even with txl, it might be pushing it. On my drivers side I have 12awg txl in each of the three terminals with heat shrink over them and they fit with no issue at all. Not having the ceramic one I can't say if the slots are thinner or not. On my passenger side I have a 'double' terminal (posted the number in the latest headlight relay thread) in each of the three slots with two 12awg txl's in each AND heat shrink. Those do bulge the plastic housing a bit at the back. Not enough for any concern and without the heatshrink I don't believe it would but I would be very skeptical about that setup working with the ceramic. I know it's what you have on hand but I might pass on the 10awg and pick up some 12 - it would still satisfy your overkill requirement Also, I have the 12awg txl and 10awg txl on hand and can get OD measurements if interested. Shaun - That was the plan, to look like Ford did it. Maybe I'll get the 7.5L HO decal done to go on that dual snorkel air cleaner and finish off the look. Scott - I will measure the slot and the material in the terminal then you can do the math to see what will fit. But I learned today that the kids will probably be here next weekend, so I need to get the last bit of the wiring done ASAP. I'm going to look for smaller wire around the shop, but if not I'll press on with the #10 for the high beam and #12 for the low beam. I'll put #14 pigtails on and solder and heat shrink to the larger wires. Sort of a bus with drops to the headlights, with local grounds. That will let me get the run across the radiator support done, which then let's me put the auxiliary battery tray in, place the smart battery isolator, and terminate the supply from the passenger's side. Then the batteries could go in, the starter in, and I'd have the electrical system finished. I think. Well, no. I just had a thought about the fuel system, which has electric fuel pumps. The question is whether I put the '85 system back in or go with the later system with the fuel delivery modules. Here are some thoughts: 1985 System: It'll go right back in as I have all the parts. But, I'll only be able to have one tank as I don't have the electric switch and valve combo and don't want to spend the money on something that is both expensive and would be eliminated when I go to EFI. And, I'd want to clean up the horrible twists and bends in the lines and pull out the hot fuel handling system as well as the dead-head style fuel pressure regulator and go with the return style regulator I have. But why put all that work into it? FDM's: This is the EFI system and has the pumps, sending unit, and switching valves in the tank, so the supplies and returns are just wye'd at the back of the engine, and I have the hoses from Huck. If I did this now I could install the return-style pressure regulator I got from Vernon, assuming a Holley 12-803BP can handle the pressure that the FDM's put out. And the only electrical changes would be to eliminate the dropping resistor in the feed to the pump, as Bill said I have to do, and to eventually come up with the Arduino solution as the FDM's sender is the later style that won't work properly with a Bullnose. Thoughts?

Jim has a really good point - it isn't the hole in the outer shell but the opening in the inner insulator into which the terminal has to go. I think 14 gauge wire is about the max that you can get in the terminals and get the terminal into the connector. Here's a pic of a #14 wire laying in the terminal and it looks like when you crimp the arms over the insulation, if you do that, it'll just fit. But here's a #12 wire laying in there, and I seriously doubt that it would fit if the arms are crimped over the insulation. And while you could crimp the arms over the wire itself and not the insulation, and then use heat-shrink over the arms, I'm not sure that would go in. As for what I did today, I got the radiator support fully installed. I realized that some of the fasteners for it will be difficult to get to after wiring and other things are done, so I needed to get them in and tightened now. Toward that end, the first job was getting all the nuts off the old radiator support and installed on the new one. Then I positioned the fenders and tightened the fasteners to them down. But since the driver's fender was a bit high I loosened the bolts at the cab, sat on the fender, and tightened the bolts down. (Dad used to say "Use your best asset", and grin.) Not sure I gained much, but I tried. Then I put the fasteners in for attaching the fender liner to the radiator support and tightened things down there. That only left attaching the fender liner to the battery tray brace. But, the u-nut is supposed to clip into the fender liner and the bolt come through the brace into it. However, the hole in my fender liner is enlarged such that the nut won't stay in place, so I put the u-nut on the brace and brought the bolt in from the wheel opening side with a fender washer. So, here's what it all looks like. The wiring is run below the battery tray, and I'm happy to say that the convolute can still be moved so it isn't being pinched. But, I have yet to lengthen the wires to the marker light, so the battery tray will have to come out so I can get to the wiring. But the brace doesn't have to, so the fender liner bolt can stay in.

We don't have to pay by the word, so there's no problem using lots of them. I added you to the map in Sedro Woolley, WA. Hope that's ok. Easy enough to move it when you move.

Good job, Bob! It looks right at home. And I now see how the bell crank works. And, I can see how a different bell crank could be helpful. But yours is in and should work just fine.

Cameron - Welcome! Glad you joined. That may be the best introduction post ever! Well done. We won't hate you for liking other vehicles. I have a '69 Dodge Super Bee and a '50 Chevy pickup. Bill/85lebaront2 has a 1985 Lebaron T2, of all things. And, he is into garden tractors. So, where in NW Washington are you? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if I had a town/city. And, being in the PNW, you may fit right in with some of the guys who are finders of neat stuff, much of which is up there. Boy, there are some nice trucks up there for decent prices. You should start a thread in the main section about your truck. We'll follow along and help where we can.

The later ones do fit, but they don't have quite the same contours. One of our members, Paul/Rogue_Wulff, posted about them back on FTE: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1123180-dads-truck-build-110.html#post12624696. And, I think he even posted a picture of the differences in the way they fit, but I haven't found it.

Ok, mid-day report and a minor change in plans. First, the "new" later style battery tray and brace came in, so I had to test fit it. Perfect! Bolts right to the radiator support, as Shaun said it would. And it supports the battery tray very solidly. This is certainly the way to do it. I'll even be able to provide some support to the fender liner via the hole in the lower right corner of the brace. And now for Scott's question about wire sizes into the headlight connector's shell. Hopefully the pic answers it. But, just to make sure, the #10 conductor goes in but the insulation won't. The #12 is a good fit, and the #16 is big enough you aren't going to get two of them in. So since I'm running #10 as the high beam hot and #12 as the low beam hot (what I had on hand), I'll put pigtails in of smaller wire and make joints outside to the larger wires that run across the radiator support. (I'm not running a ground across the radiator support, but will have separate grounds tying the cab, fenders, and radiator support together - as Ford did in the later years.

Morning, Gregg. Well done! But lots of work. Several thoughts on protection. But first, as someone else pointed out, aluminum has pits or pores and holds yuk down in them. So if you paint over them, as the yuk heats up it can blow holes in the paint. I learned that the hard way as I was powder coating. So what I do is to wash the part with brake cleaner after media blasting or sanding. Then heat the part up for an hour at 400 degrees. Then wash it with brake cleaner again, and then use a heat gun to warm it enough to ensure the brake cleaner has evaporated before painting or powder coating. As for the coating itself, you could use a high-temp clear. But, what about painting it with a high-temp black and then sanding the ribs back to aluminum and coating them with the clear? You can see how I did the ones for Dad's truck here. And, you can see how I did Bill's Chrysler valve cover here.

Good to see that the soldering gun trick works so well on that carpet. But, like you, I don't want to use my good one. Maybe I have an old Weller soldering pen/wood engraver kicking around? And the connector installation looks good, but I hope you use some kind of positive way to ensure it doesn't get ripped out. I've gone to placing my keys in strategic places to prevent such things, but maybe you don't want to do that with keys?

80/86 E-F-U150/350 - - w/unleaded fuel 6 cyl 4.9L E4TZ 9A589-H *CM-2417-E