Gary Lewis

The progress this morning was good. But this afternoon things slowed to a crawl. Or, maybe it was me that slowed to a crawl? I didn't use the impact as I wasn't sure things were lined up well enough, so did it by "arm". And I may not be as young as I used to be. It took everything I could do to seat the top ball joint. But, tomorrow afternoon I hope to get the right side done, which shouldn't take nearly as much time since I think I figured out how to do it. But, were I to do it again I'd probably buy the Harbor Freight kit. This one from O'Reilly's isn't adequate. Anyway, Dad's truck came with quad shocks and the sway bars. So, either the handling package or the snow plow package, I guess. Probably the handling package. And it has always driven well. Much better than the other F150's I've had w/o the sway bar. So the new everything, including a Red Head steering box, should make for a tight steering truck.

Very well done, Cory! Thanks for the documentation and the Youtubes that explain how to do it. Boy, LMC really did a number on you on this one. Glad you got it worked out in the end.

Jonathan - I don't think we could fit that in. It is just too tight. Sorry.

That pretty well explains the problem I had. And then it goes on to explain a very involved process of properly preparing aluminum. Suffice to say that I don't have the facilities to use their process. But, my process of heating the part to 400 degrees for at least an hour works for me, presumably releasing the water vapor and/or air from the oxides. So that's what I do - but it looks like I'd better remember to PC the parts fairly soon after taking them out of the oven or the oxide may re-acquire air or moisture. Grumpin - How hard is it to anodize aluminum? Do you have experience doing that? It's easy, a chemical process. We used the above etch and the below alodine. My experience is to let it dry well. If you bake it that should do it. I would let it air dry completely before I put it in the oven. We always let it air dry, nothing else. Then apply zinc chromate primer before painting. Which I don't think you can get anymore, at least like it was back in the day. It worked good, so it has to be bad for us! We would get it down to bare aluminum, etch it, rinse thoroughly, let it dry. Alodine it, rinse thoroughly, let it dry. I did repair, never painted an entire airplane. Edit: We came close to painting the entire airplane though, on the ones that were bellied in. Usually from a stripe down, and usually white paint. Lots of sheet metal work on those! The floatplanes and seaplanes were always a challenge. http://www.chiefaircraft.com/aircraft/chemicals/alodine-alumniprep.html Grumpin - My question is how hard it would be to anodize black the aluminum trim? I know nothing about anodizing, so am just wondering if that might be the way to treat the trim. Or, did you answer that question and I didn't understand? All - Time for today's update. And what a day! I got the right side suspension all buttoned up, torqued down, and touched up. Here's a pic of the right side: As for the touch-up, I do that to all of the bolts as the nuts take some of the powder off. And, a word of advice if you are going to do what I'm doing - use the same color of powder/paint on both bolts and nuts. That's so you can touch things up and not worry whether you get some on the nut as well as the bolt. Here's an example. This body bolt had been PC'd some time ago and then John, my paint/body man used it to mount the cab. But, as you can see, tightening the bolt up caused the powder to be peeled away and allowed the bolt to rust. But a bit of rusty-metal primer and semi-gloss black fixed that right up. Then, with the torquing and touching-up done I moved onto the ball joints. Or, more specifically, I went to O'Reilly's to rent/borrow their ball joint installer kit. Its one of those one-size-fits-all, which usually means it won't fit what you have. Yep. The "C" part of the press was much too small to use the necessary adapter to fit over the ball joint's stud and allow the needed receiver to fit on the other side. For the bottom ball joint I was able to use my hydraulic press. But for the top ball joint I couldn't use the press, so I made an adapter that would fit. I found a piece of thick-wall tubing just the right diameter and cut a piece off and squared it up in the lathe. I was just barely able to get that in, and was then able to press the top ball joint home. Man, that was work! And, here's a shot of the steering knuckle in place, although not torqued down. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the right knuckle populated with ball joints and torque both sides down.

None of the parts I've had powdered were prepped that way - Aluminum, cast, stainless, chrome, or plain steel. After I delivered them clean & blasted, they were preheated to ~350°F to dry out the water (not really hot enough to cure the powder) for ~20 min, powdered while still warm, and cured at 375-410°F for ~25 min. https://supermotors.net/getfile/704449/thumbnail/blasted.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/714671/thumbnail/bkpowder.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/1018128/thumbnail/blackbeauty.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/627460/thumbnail/bkspareout.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/287015/thumbnail/spotlight.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/74187/thumbnail/axlepowdered.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/982712/thumbnail/dualalts1.jpg https://supermotors.net/getfile/626852/thumbnail/nerfs0.jpg What spray gun & oven do you use, and where do you get your powder? BTW Your close-up pic probably looked brown because the gloss was reflecting the walls where you took the pic. Steve - I can't speak for other's methods. I just know what works and doesn't work for me. I've been powder coating for maybe 15 years and have had lots of successes - as well as some dramatic failures. I try to learn from the failures so it doesn't happen again, and my reading on aluminum parts said to bake off the stuff in the pits or pores. So I tried and it worked. Given that, I do it each and every time on aluminum. I use a mix of powders, although it wasn't a powder issue when the out-gassing blew the powder off as any powder would have blown away - see below. Anyway, I use some Sherwin-Williams, some Powder By The Pound, and some Eastwood. And I have an Eastwood gun and a commercially-made 3' x 3' x 6' oven. The recent pics, including the door handle, were using SH PBS4-C0009. That's a 60% gloss black, which may not be what Jonathan wants, but it was what I was coating with so I tried it. And you are probably right that the brown has to do with the walls. But it may be the white-balance function in the camera. I don't know. And, back on the prep, I found this on Fortress Fusion Coatings: That pretty well explains the problem I had. And then it goes on to explain a very involved process of properly preparing aluminum. Suffice to say that I don't have the facilities to use their process. But, my process of heating the part to 400 degrees for at least an hour works for me, presumably releasing the water vapor and/or air from the oxides. So that's what I do - but it looks like I'd better remember to PC the parts fairly soon after taking them out of the oven or the oxide may re-acquire air or moisture. Grumpin - How hard is it to anodize aluminum? Do you have experience doing that?

I also had a used intake I painted with high temp silver paint and put in the oven to bake. That is when the job all went down hill. I did wash it good and let dry a few days before this painting. When it was baking it pulled up what I call oil and blistered the paint. I had to let it cool off wire brush the flaking paint bake it 2 more times with cooling off between before I painted it again and a final bake. All was fine after that and any time I am going to paint & bake it gets baked a few times before paint goes on. Dave ---- Yes. Whatever impurities are in there on aluminum make a big mess of the finish. It took me a few tries and a bit of Googling to figure out what was happening. But since I've started baking the part at 400 for an hour after the media blasting things have gone much better.

You beat me. But, it took more time to copy & paste.

Here's the scoop on VEMCO.

And it would be such a nice addition to my rolling stock. (Oh wait, not much of it is "rolling at present" )

I'm not worried about "chasing rabbits" on this thread. So I don't mind discussing the side trim. My oven is 3' x 3' x 6' tall, so I can't get a full 6' piece in w/o angling. And your bedside pieces would be 6 1/2'? That would be tricky, although it probably could be done. However, they would have to be blasted outside, not in the cabinet as they wouldn't fit in there. Anyway, yes let's wait and think on this. And, I hope you get to come this year, but understand the situation.

Amen, brother! I need to keep focused. But, ..... get the behind me, Satan! It needs work, but for the price.... And it looks to be "all there". Under the hood seems stock.

Wow! V-drive? How does that work? Are there two transfer cases? What powers the right-side driveshaft? There must be a differential in there as well? Those front diff's look serious. Far heavier than the D44's I'm used to seeing. What are they? That's an interesting truck!

That is a DEAL! The camper is nice and is worth something. Batteries? Does it have the aux battery? What else does it have? The explanation is woefully inadequate.

I agree on all counts. The ad is a huge turnoff. But the truck is NICE. And it has the underhood toolbox that doesn't appear to have the latch broken off! Plus documentation.

Steve - Perhaps the term "porosity" is what is causing you concern. But the issue of impurities hiding in the pits on the surface of aluminum is not a myth. I've had several powder coating jobs ruined because I didn't properly heat the part for an hour or so to drive off the impurities. In one case it was an aluminum air cleaner top, and when the impurities out-gassed as the part came up to temp they blew the powder off and the result was a really ugly finish with holes in it in many places. I doubt the impurities are water, but whatever they are they can certainly ruin a finish. And it isn't "pre-heating" the part that does the trick. I like to apply the powder to a "cold" part as it is very easy to get way too much powder on a hot part. When using electrostatic attraction the insulating properties of the powder tend to limit the amount of powder you can get to stick. But when applying powder to a hot part you can load it up with way too much powder. Ask Brandon/Bruno2 about his timing cover. The trick is to put the aluminum part in the oven for an hour or more at 400 degrees to drive off the impurities. Then allow it to cool and wash it with brake cleaner to get off the yuk that came out - and then evaporate the cleaner with the heat gun. And when it is finally cool you can apply the powder. Jonathan - On the door handles, let's see what I have and come up with before shipping any. But I think the sample size needs to include a control, so should be 5. On the other black parts, the wheel arch trim should fit. And if I were doing a black-out XLS I'd consider doing away with the body/bed trim. It might be too much, but then I don't remember what an XLS looks like. As for the red TTB, I've often said the factory suggested this is the way they were supposed to be. After all, this is right out of the brochure.

They look a lot more "truck-like" than the smaller mirrors. Good job.

I assume that you've checked this page out: Driveline:Axles & Differentials and then the Rear Axles & Differentials tab. That shows the pic below, which shows where you should be able to find info on the diff. Is that where you got the info? I think the "where" might help us determine what it is.

Well, I had a goal for today - get the right side suspension on. Didn't quite happen. Things were going swimmingly until one of the bolts holding the front shock bracket went "soft". The spec's call for torquing them to 25 ft-lbs, but at 15 it started stripping out. So I considered my options. The bolt is just going into the axle housing, so it would be easy at the moment to back it up with a nut. However, as I thought about it I realized that it might not be so easy with the axle itself in. Given that, I drilled and tapped it the next size up - 7/16". Then the question was how to "coat it". All the other parts are powder coated, but on this one I chose to daub it with paint after it was installed. But first I blasted it so it would be clean. Then I installed it, and reached for the POR15 bottle. No go. The lid was glued on with POR15. So I sprayed semi-gloss black into a lid and used a Q-Tip to "paint" it. Here 'tis - the top bolt under the empty shock mount. Tomorrow I'll daub it again just to make sure it is well painted, although I got three coats on today. Then I'll, hopefully, finish installing the rest of the suspension components and torque them down. And at that point it is ball joint and spindle time!

OK, I told him most all of this stuff, thanks. :) But I'm still wondering... how does one navigate to that page using only a mouse? I look 1) either in the stuck threads, or 2) in the Hamburger, neither of which lead me to that page? I knew a guy that used to say "Let me Google that for you". Anyway, go here: That will bring up this, and if you click on Bullnose Forum it'll then pop down the next menu and you can click on Ford Truck Show.

Yes, I remember Shaun! Please tell him I still want the manuals, and am willing to pay. Anyway, the pics are sorta hard to find, but sorta logical as well: Bullnose Forum/Ford Truck Show and then the 2018 tab. Tell him hello for me. Miss him.

Yes, it is big bucks. And, it wasn't me.

I forgot - we need to send one for "control" that is kept inside out of the sun. That way he'll have something with which to compare.

Found it: My Ebay, then Watch List, then in the sorta top center it says Watch List and that's a drop-down. Below it is Research List. And, the Stroppe Bronco sale has ended. I'm gonna email them to see if it sold.

Not sure what you mean. But I had found my "research list" before and can't find it now. Seems like I want to My Ebay, then Watch List, and then it offered my the Research List on the left. But not today.

Off topic question. Where do you find the research list after you put something on it? I hope this isn't painfully obvious! It is painfully hidden! I found it once, and now I can't. Hopefully someone knows.