Gary Lewis

Wow! Things have come a looooong way! Janey's is so noisy that when I use it to air tires in the garage I go outside to get away from the noise.

Yes, all of Ford's literature that I've seen spells it as "grille". As for that grille, the MPC says the original part number was E3TZ 8150-F, which was then replaced by E3TZ 8200-G. What I find interesting in this is that the MPC shows that a part designed in 1983 is the right one for a 1982 truck. Apparently there was a E2TZ 8150-? part that got replaced? (If I weren't so lazy I'd climb the microfiche tower and find out.) Also, note that the base part # changed in 1983 from 8150 to 8200. That is confusing as the parts interchange. I wonder why? But, put those two ideas together and you get a third - why was a grille designed for 1983 trucks given an 8150 part # and not an 8200 like all the other E3TZ grilles? Star Symbol indicates part is not supplied for service for the following reasons: a. Part is superseded and replaced as indicated in the description column of text. b. Part can be improvised as indicated in the description column of text. c. Due to its function there would be little or no demand.

I sure can't see it. No one is going to see it with all that beauty staring them in the face.

I almost bought one of those harbor freight fortress compressors but went with the bit Kobalt quiet tech from Lowe's. Its my third Kobalt compressor, 2nd quiet tech, and they work really well. The portable quiet tech we can have a conversation next to while it's running. Janey has a little Campbell-Hausfeld that she uses to clean lint out of her quilting machine. It was $60 on sale years ago and we realized that it would be less expensive than all the canned air she was buying. When we got it the fittings leaked and it would cycle on frequently. I took them apart and used my combo of Teflon tape and TFE paste to seal them. That works perfectly and it rarely ever comes on now. But every once in a while it'll come on during the night, and even though it is on the floor above and well away from us it is still NOISY!!!! So if the Quiet Tech stuff works that would be a much better solution.

I just ordered the 3M's from Amazon. I've been using the little foam pellets as I chisel out rivets, but not while blasting nor mowing. But I know I should have been. And, I discovered that they have an "INTEGRATED MICROPHONE lets you make and take phone calls without removing the hearing protection". Even better. This will make it fun. Thanks! EDIT: I ordered them at ~8:00 AM today and they are to be here tomorrow!

Thousands! And I'm powder coating every one of them.

Gary, the good news is that right now I actually know exactly how much fuel is in the tank. It will take me a few days to burn that fuel and see how the gauge reads, but I'll be reporting back with an update when I get there. As you "drive the wheels off" before the snow flies the fuel level will certainly go down. Let us know.

That's cool! And he was the king of cool, as the write up says. We watched the movie again about a month ago. The chase scene is marvelous. I'd not realized that McQueen double-clutched his shifts at high speed, which created a sweet sound from that 390.

Thanks. Was thinking about that late last night.

Paul - Glad you enjoy it here. That's the plan, and we want to keep it that way. As for the alternator, write it up on a thread. Maybe someone will want to know and find it via a Google search.

That's the way we want it, Christopher. Supportive and kind. Glad to see that, for the most part, we have been.

Those are cool! And something I really ought to do. Thanks!

Six hours ago in Fasteners: Where To Put The Pages I asked a question. But no one has replied. So either I did a poor job of explaining and confused everyone, or this is of no import. And since I think it is a matter of great import I chose to assume the former and will, therefore, explain it differently in the hope that I can get your input. Heretofore we've had a section called Fasteners & Illustrations. It was fairly well hidden and little used. But it had some neat stuff as it had illustrations of various sections of these trucks with hot links to pages on the fasteners. I've been working on those pages to improve them, but had a sneaking suspicion that they were either misplaced or poorly done. Today I realized that there's no reason those illustrations should be only about the fasteners. They have body panels, interior pieces, carpet, etc shown. So why not use those illustrations to let people quickly find the part for which they are looking? In computer-speak, a graphical user interface. As an example, let's say you are looking for information on something to do with interior trim. We currently have a page at Documentation/Interior/Interior Trim that has a tab for Illustrations and another for Part #'s. And on the Illustration tab there are tabs for Regular Cab, Supercab, Crew Cab, Bronco, and Common Parts. So on the Regular Cab and Bronco tabs I've taken away the static illustration and substituted the illustration with the hot links. (An easy place to see the difference is on the Bronco tab where both exist.) And if you click one of the blue boxes you'll be taken to info on that part. To me this could be a big step in making the site easier to navigate. One reason is that I have it set so when you click on a link it opens a new window, meaning you have the window with the illustration still open, so you can go back. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

Hopefully, we never have to find out! Amen, brother! That is one scary thought. My kids wonder why my trucks aren't done. But, for instance, the last 3 days have been spent working on what was the "fasteners" pages, but that seems to have morphed into something much bigger. If so it will have been well worth it.

Nope. There may be one that lines up for the "R" in Ranger, or "C" in Custom, but more than likely I'll have to weld up the 82-86 holes and then drill new ones for the 80-81 emblems. Luckily thanks to the gorilla glue used by a previous owner, I already have to repaint that area anyway. Ok, then I'd better look for '82-86 F350 emblems. Thanks.

I am! I got it mostly reassembled today...at least all the big stuff, which made it roadworthy again. Going to install the rear bumper tomorrow and F150 emblems. It is still covered in dust and grime here, but it is mostly assembled again! I'm a little disappointed with the fitment of the aftermarket fenders, but I can live with them. The truck looks fine. If somebody wants to look at the small imperfections and point them out, that's fine too. It's an old truck, and I plan on driving the wheels off it. Stay tuned, there's more to come. It's still filthy dirty and needs interior work, rear bumper, new F150 emblems, stereo and speakers, engine bay cleaning, etc, etc. That really IS beautiful! Going to have to update the picture.

The scary part is that I understood it. I'm going to be watching for used F350 emblems. But, do the 1980 - 81 emblems fit the holes in an '82+ fender?

Well explained, Cory. Even w/o the pics. I understood. And, I like the results as you won't run out when the gauge hits E.

I wasn't trying to be deceptive. But with the D60 it effectively is an F350. It isn't going to be sold, in my lifetime. But, I guess that might cause my offspring to wonder.

Thanks, guys.

When I start a project on my truck or something similar, I usually start a new album on SMN for it. Then I try to organize the pics so that anyone who wants to do something similar can follow along, and make other decisions based on the info I considered when I was choosing how to do my job. So to find something about fuel tanks on my SMN pages, you'd start at my signature link, and scroll down the album list to find one that has something to do with fuel tanks, and browse that album. If you didn't find it there, or if there was no album that looked promising, you could browse the General Purpose album, or the Diagrams album (depending on what you wanted to find). Once inside an album, you can switch to a view that shows the captions, hit CTRL+F, and search up something that relates to what you're interested in. Yeah, it takes a little effort, but there's a lot of info there that I've amassed over the decades, so it usually pays off. Ok guys, this isn't in the vein of Family, Brotherhood, & Kindness. Please stop. Now.

Steve - That would explain why I haven't figure it out. Jim - Yes, what I posted is from the MPC. Not sure what you mean.

Yes, or installed by the owner. I installed a similar one on a 1980 Citation. Mine was from Dana and the control looked exactly like that one.

Dawn! Marblehead! Voilà! I think I've "twigged", in the British parlance, on where to put the fastener info. Basically what I've been doing is building parallel entries. For instance, go look at the page at Documentation/Interior/Door Panel Part #'s, and then look at Documentation/Fasteners & Illustrations/Interior Trim Panels - Regular Cab. Both of them have the illustration shown below, although the Fastener one has hyperlinks and the Interior one doesn't. Obviously that does NOT make ANY sense. So why not do away with the "Illustrations" part of the Fasteners & Illustrations section and just have all of the illustrations in their appropriate section? The hyperlinks will still go to the page with the info on it for that item. For instance, on the one below you can see the link I've added on the left center for the Boot (Door Handle Inside). That takes you to the page where that part number is shown - although the part itself isn't shown. Ditto the 23942 link, which is the door panels. And the fastener links will work as well. (I don't know that the links will work from this page, but we'll see as soon as I post this.) Yippee, it works!! I think this is a major shift in thinking, if not organization of the website. So before I start down this path I need all y'alls' input. PLEASE!