Gary Lewis

I bought a good brand, probably Raybestos, for Dad's truck and they fit tightly.

I thought about just putting a bullet on the button, but decided that might be too minimalistic. Anyway, give it a try and see what you think. Any of it can be changed.

And a many-layered onion it is! Progress is good! And you are making a lot of progress lately Matthew. I am! I don't want to sound like I'm proselytizing here, but you know what I think it is? My new diet. I've been eating somewhere between low-carb and keto the last two months, and I think I'm getting that energy boost the proponents talk about. I've been getting things done on the truck, I'm getting things done around the house, and I'm down nearly 20 pounds as well. Wow, it sounds like it is really working for you. Congrat's!

Well said.

In the UK you could buy a Brodie Brittain Racing turbo'd MX5 from the dealer, replete with warranty.

Wow! That's beautiful work! And welcome, although I'll also welcome you elsewhere. I'm not sure what I have in the way of a NOS pad, but will look. However, I am confident that some of us are going to want an XLS style pad, which is a brushed aluminum look. But, we also need the same finish on the radio and instrument bezels. Plus, pushing my luck, at least I would like to have the same finish on the trim piece that goes on the door panels. Similarly, if you can do the instrument and radio bezels, doing them in Rosewood and burled wood is going to be very popular as well. So, if you are able to do those things you will be our HERO!

Acrylic is very inflexible, almost too brittle. But using an acrylic adhesive would actually get a 'bite' on Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. Nitrile, butyl and styrene are polmerized with the acrylic to give it better moulding qualities and resilience. Source: my father was director of engineering at a plastic manufacturer and I am a material science GEEK.

I do have several of those and I'm happy to send one or two, but they are more blue than green. Might a green LED work?

True. I think you nailed what his truck is awa the lug nut size.

I actually don't know much about JB Weld, either. But what I do know is that it dries very hard - which is why I went with it. I think my best chance of keeping these locks is to keep flexing to a minimum, as it's flexing that causes the old brittle plastic to snap. I'm hopeful that this will bind everything into place rigidly. I'm a little gunshy now when it comes to fancy glues on this truck; some years ago when I first took my instrument panel out the left turn signal lens popped out of the panel. I decided to use CA glue to stick it back in there, and that stuff immediately started washing the green color right out. Now every time I signal left I'm reminded not to use stuff like that any more. JB Weld won't run very much, so I really doubt it'll get to the slider. But when you turn the thing over you may see that it has run in enough that there's not much room for more JBW on the other side. However, if there is that will certainly help glue it together.

No prob. On the pic, check out the Posting Pics tab here: Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's.

There were mesh radio bezels, as you can see from the table below. And any '85 or '86 bezel will have a DIN opening, unlike the bigger opening on the one you are planning to cut up. However, an 85/86 "medium gray metalic w/o bright bead" bezel isn't going to be a perfect match for your original "black mesh weave" instrument bezel. So wherever you find the 85/86 radio bezel you might want to also get the instrument bezel.

Wow! You are on a roll! Congrat's! But I'm not sure what cutting you are going to do on the radio bezel. Can you enlighten me?

Good explanation on direct injection. And I agree about Mazda. Had a first-year Miata and it was awesome. Absolutely no problems with it, and loved it. Certainly a driver's car.

No. AFAIK, no gas engine has injectors in the head, until maybe direct injection. I've never seen it in a Ford.Sorry. I realize now that I was thinking of the AIR injection, that moved from the exhaust manifold to the head. EGR kills DI engines. The Mazda Skyactiv thing that works like diesel seems pretty cool though I've read about SkyActiv, but still don't understand how it works. I understand the words "13:1 compression" and "multi-hole injectors" and "dished pistons", but .......

I picked one (well, a set of four) of these things up yesterday, and it worked like a champ. Backed the screw out, popped the door panel off, and was able to remove my slide lock. Now we'll see if JB Weld is everything it's cracked up to be: That should work well. The JB Weld will have run down the tab a ways, and that will give it more surface on which to grip.

This is intended to show how to use the new "Formatting" buttons to make fancy posts. But, since I cannot put the code required to do this into a post and you see the results, I'll take a screen shot and post that below the results. So, to start with there are two types of buttons in the Formatting family:Those that require the post to be in "Message is in HTML Format" mode. To use these you must tick the "Message is in HTML Format" box.Ordered List: You click this button to get the start/stop combo of "ol" and "/ol" that tell the computer we are doing an ordered list. And then all of the "list items" go between the ol and /ol.List Item: Clicking this button gets you the "li" and "/li" pair that indicate the start and stop of an ordered list item. Put your text between the li and /li code.Line Feed: When in HTML format mode a carriage return doesn't give a line feed. So click the Line Feed button to get the "p" and "/P" codes that tell the computer to insert a blank line. Those that do not require the message to be in HTML format modeIndent: Clicking this button gives you the start/stop H5 codes which allow you to indent a word or paragraph, and you put your text between the ">" and the "Bullet: This button does the same as Indent, but gives a bullet ahead of your textAnd here's the code that generated what is above:

Well said. And I missed it. For some reason it reminds me of George Carlin. Wing seat. Near miss. Non-stop flight. Man, that guy was witty. And, it reminds me of

Yes. But for those that don't understand, or maybe don't catch, what you said, a Chevy pattern is a Chevy pattern. Swap transmissions willy nilly. Been there, done that, and never thought it shouldn't work. But a Ford pattern is not a Ford pattern, which is why you said "a Windsor pattern". An FE has a different pattern than a Windsor, which has a different pattern than a 385. And a 385 bolt pattern is the same as a 335 bolt pattern, but there are differences in the transmission input shaft lengths. All part of Ford's "better ideas".

I remember there were keg parties. But don't know anything about them nor how the kegs connect. However, I do have an NPT tap, so I guess it isn't a problem.

I don't know that I have other options, but will certainly check to see. However the 9" dimension is a concern since that doesn't allow two s-b-s. But, I'll check nonetheless. Also, what is meant by "ball lock posts and poppets"? Do you know what kind of connections they have? I can seem them well enough to be able to tell.

Jim - That isn't a stupid idea. It may be a sweet one. http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/head-rotfl-57x22_orig.gif My calc's say that 25" in length and 8" in diameter gives 5.4 gallons. So two of them should fit nicely side-by-side 'tween the bed and the frame. And the length would be essentially perfect for fitting under the leading edge of the bed and not hit the spring hanger. Ding, ding, ding!!! We may have a winner! Plus Steve and I know a guy who used to run a beverage and snack distribution business. And while what I know of their business was in stocking the machines that vend cans, perhaps they also do the ones that mix the soda? Worth checking out. Thanks! Steve - Big Blue is certainly "heavy duty". In fact, except for the frame being maybe not being quite as big, everything else on the "transformed" BB will be F350-sized. But that doesn't mean I want to needlessly put heavy things on him. So, I'm intrigued by the beer keg. Given that, the question is which one you have. Here's a table showing some of the sizes. Perhaps you can determine what it is?

Maybe I can help? The 'A' wire is 'alternator' and senses system voltage at the alternator. It could be at the actual output post, or the alternator side of the 175A fuse. If for some reason that fuse were to blow, break or corrode the alternator would go 'full field' and meltdown in just a few minutes. This is why it should be attached before the fuse. The existing B/O wire between the two circles is deliberately undersized for the 60?A alternator you have. This forces some current to flow through the a meter, and this is what the meter reads. The 3G can put out twice as much amperage, and the existing shunt is far too small to handle that. If you had a high current draw it would try to find the path of least resistance, and as the shunt heated up more current would try and find its way through the meter, probably melting it or (in an extreme case) causing a fire. So you replace the shunt with a 10Ga. wire that can handle all the cab loads. Thanks, Jim!

Dave, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to assemble this bed with regards to what to paint and when. I had originally planned to try some painting myself, which I would have had to do in the shop at my work, but due to a large project we took on I had to vacate all my junk as all the free space disappeared...lol. The main thing I wanted to do was to have every single square inch of the bed panels painted. I mean everything...there had to be zero exposed steel anywhere...inside or out. Because I did it this way, which means I had to assemble the bed after it was painted, there was no easy way for me to paint the bolts. I used stainless bolts between the head board and the side panels, and the front and rear sills as well...and I thought the bed was going to look too blingy with too many stainless bolts, but you can barely notice them anyway. Oh well...simple mind, simple pleasures...lol. I will also be painting mine apart to get paint every where and have been thinking what happens to the paint on the bolts like for the front panel and gate hinges. I will paint the bolts when I do the panels and touch them up after the bed is bolted together or so the plan goes. I never gave any thought to stainless then again I am cheap and stainless is more money Dave ---- I can tell you how much fun it is to touch up every fastener after installing them. I'm powder coating everything on Dad's truck, and the sockets/wrenches mess things up, as does the simple act of tightening. Very tedious.

Slightly off topic, but is that one of the aftermarket chrome/black grills? Didn't they only come in grey or black from Ford? If yes, those chrome grills are really growing on me. I have both the original grey one, and the black one I bought used locally, but the few trucks I have seen with the chrome grills looked nice. As for which gen grills look better, I stated above that I prefer the later grills with the Ford oval in the center, but I do also like the 1980-1981 grill with the Ford letters on the hood. I think my personal preference would be for a factory configuration...be it early or late, with the only exception being that I'd also consider a chrome grill;). (PS: and I'm only referring to a grill that is factory in appearance...not an aftermarket grill if that makes any sense. There are some mods on these trucks that I'm personally not a fan of but they are very popular overall with the Bullnose crowd). Factory grilles did come in chrome. Here's a snippet from the Exterior/Grilles & Headlights page and the Grilles & Moulding tab: I have a NOS one for Dad's truck, and had the paint/body man leave the FORD letters off the hood.