Gary Lewis

Bill - Glad I mentioned the stainless fasteners as I'd forgotten the stud for the coil bracket. (Double-ended = stud - right?) We talked about how many exhaust studs I need and he said with the shields it is 5 and w/o the shields it is 1. I don't have the shields, so was going with 1 for the dip stick tube. But you mentioned the coil bracket, so I need 2 exhaust studs? And. I'd also forgotten about the coil bracket going to the intake fastener. Hmmmm, got some more work to do. Any other ideas?

I would use the tape as that is what I have in the tool box but if I had the paste I would use just that. When I did HVAC work in a hospital we used the paste 95% of the time. The other 5% was tape as that is what we had on our tool belts and was a small job. In your case if I did not have tape or paste I would use. I do have that in the box too. Dave ---- Just as a clarification, I don't put the tape out to the end of the threads because it is too easy to get it out too far and then some of the tape can get into the system and cause problems. But by keeping it two turns back I've not had a problem.

I will, need to finish prepping the tail gate and get it in primer before I give this a try. The 1 art supply store I hit did not have the right size roller, to skinny for my liking. Will have the wife get one thru Amazon the next time she orders something. The One Shot paint they say you can get thru Eastwood but will try my local auto paint supplier first when the time comes. Dave ---- Sounds like a plan. We'll figure out a good place to put your how-to.

Your idea of straps along the top and bottom would be good. In a C or I configuration of a beam the web is mainly there to keep the upper and lower parts the proper distance apart. That's why Ford was able to do the Swiss Cheese frames in '80 and '81. So welding straps above and below would give you the most strength - for a vertical load. But if you are using the truck off-road you'll be twisting the frame, and top/bottom straps won't give as much strength in that situation as a plate on the side. So, were I to do it I'd put straps top, bottom, and sides. As for fully welding, you do not want to have water sitting in there. So if you are like me and doubt your ability to make a water-tight weld, you might want to leave a spot for water to get out. But I'd use weld-through primer between the straps to give as much protection as is possible against rust.

I'm guessing that Chris' truck, like Big Blue, doesn't have a 2nd tank. But I understand your issue on the '85/86 460 fuel system. "Prone to failure", "expensive", and "no longer available" seem to be the best descriptions of the parts thereof. Especially of the switching valve. Running one tank dry and switching to the other reminds me of my '72 F250 w/a QJeted 390. I routinely ran the front tank dry and switched to the rear - but one time as I did that we coasted to a stop in the middle of absolutely nowhere in New Mexico. Long story short, I disassembled the carb 'cause there was fuel going into it and it had to be fuel-related. No problem found. Finally I realized there was no spark. Apparently during the coasting a film of oil had coated the points, and since I was running capacitive-discharge ignition there wasn't enough current through the points to burn it off. A quick swipe of a business card through the points and it started and ran fine - 90 minutes after stopping and just as the sun set on a deserted road in a deserted countryside.

Looking good. But, are you going to fishplate it? In other words, place a piece of steel across the joint on the inside of the frame and weld it on thorougly? That makes the joint much stronger.

Cowl Seal: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/cowl-seal.html

I'm looking for it. May be over on FTE, but I'll find it......

Oh, air cleaner. Got it. Yes, the cowl seal, seen at the very top of the pic on the right, is bad. I use a garage door weather strip there, and have the instructions somewhere if you want. And, by the way, your pic is too big. I chose "Big" from the menu and then added width="100%" to the code that it inserted.

For NPT I use two turns of Teflon tape about two turns back of the leading thread. And then I put PTFE paste on the lead turns.

It's a total aftermarket setup, Gary... Edelbrock Performer 400, Holley Truck Avenger 670, I totally forget what size jets I put in. It came with something by default but I immediately reduced the jets two sizes before installation, then later bumped them up one based exclusively on the color of the spark plugs. My usage of that truck is at 5200'+. IIRC the base timing is somewhere between 10 & 15 but I can't say I remember exactly where. Ahhh! Had forgotten you have an aftermarket system. Ok, bring it on!

Bill - Do you check with a straight edge? Are you checking for twists or just bowing? I have the manifolds off Huck, the 1990 half-truck, so need to check them. And, if they are warped is there any reason not to have them milled? Or, maybe I can fly-cut them on my mill? (Hmmm, that might be a problem in trying to bolt them down.) And, you reminded me that I need to call Just Stainless back. They called on Thursday and needed to confirm details of my order, which includes exhaust manifold bolts. Thanks!

Cool, Chris. That should help bunches toward being comfortable. Running out on the interstate won't be fun nor safe. Do you know your calibration code? Or is there a tag on the carb? I ask because I'm curious if yours is a high-altitude carb. If so it'll lean out down here, which might help your MPG or it might cause pinging. Anyway, if you know then I'll look. If not, I'll see if I can figure it out. Also, what initial timing are you running?

And that is how the factory did it. That is if it did not have the panel across the tail gate of the style sides. Also if you look at factory painted letters you will see they don't have shape edges from tape. I have not done this yet but what I found for painting letters, the factory roll painted on the letters. A soft rubber roller, think I seen 4" wide, that they used in block printing is used. For paint they used 1 shot pin striping paint. They put some on paper to pull out some of the liquid. They then roll the roller thru to get paint on it then do a letter, get more paint on roller and next letter, etc. They say to practice on the gate before you get paint on the gate so you have a clue how it works. So if you feel artistic and want factory painted letters you now know how. Dave ---- I like that approach, Dave. I'm hoping you'll document it when you do it so others can learn the technique.

Guys - I appreciate the offer and may let you contribute to the cause. But I am not asking for contributions and there may be others that will have them that don't contribute. So, don't feel like it is required, please. And Vince's idea of garysgaragemahal.com on the back, if I understand correctly, solves the problem of having the URL on the t-shirt. I was going to do that on the front, but it isn't needed with that approach. So, I'm wondering about the backs looking like, but with the "FORD" bigger: garysgaragemahal.com FORD Truck Show And, with that I'm thinking we might not want any reference to Bullnose on the shirts. That's because the show is for all eras of Ford trucks, not just our Bullnosed ones. So referring to them seems a slam to the others. Also, the idea of a pickup on the front of the shirt is a good one, but it is also complex because we are then faced with deciding which one. And, because I leave on vacation 2 weeks from today, I need to nail this down ASAP. And if I am to find a truck outline it'll take time. So, maybe none? Last, I hadn't thought about others wanting a shirt even though they can't come, so I guess I need to have some extras made. But, I don't think this is a once-in-a-lifetime offer as it is a lady at church that will make them, so if we don't have enough initially we'll just make more. What a neat way to get the word out.

Well done! That looks good and should be very reliable. And, it should give you good of MPG. Please let us know how you like it after you driven it a while, and what kind of MPG you get.

I was going to offer them up at the show/swap meet on Sept 15th unless you speak for them twixt now and them. But that gives you a month and a half. And, if you want me to hold them back just let me know.

I'm actually seeing a range of post styles, and those vary across the several FB pages I'm on. Some pages are well moderated and the people seem intelligent. And others appear to be wide open, with people being snarky and arguing about everything instead of helping. And on the latter pages the people seem to go out of their way to appear illiterate. Some of the posts I'm seeing don't have a single period in them, much less a paragraph break. As for education, I can't believe they were able to graduate high school with that style of writing.

Same thing here. Just driving Big Blue and enjoying him - in what little time I have available.

LOL!!! Actually "de feet" don't cause the same agony they did a few weeks ago. You'll remember that I had a vision "episode" almost a year ago, and as a result I had to take Crestor for several months to ensure all blood globules were out of my system. Fortunately that period ended a few weeks ago, but not before I realized that the joints in my toes and fingers were quite tender. (Having grandkids hang on them confirmed the pain. ) Now, a few weeks on, the "agony of de feet" is going away.

Yes, those gaskets are correct to fill in around the door handle. But only the driver's door needs one as the passenger's door's gasket appears to be intact. However, the driver's door also has a chunk broken out of the door handle opening, and that would have to be glued back. As for the feet, I almost edited the pic to take them out. Guess I should have.

So I went to see a guy this morning that has nothing but pre-97 F truck parts. He's only about an hour away, but I had never been there before as he mostly has 87-96 stuff, and he never really had any of the previous items I was on the hunt for. However, he does still have some Bullnose trucks kickin' around, and he said he had the swaybar parts that I wanted. I got a front crossmember with the mounts still intact, and a swaybar with the ends cut off. It has 86 written on it, so it may very well have come off a Bullnose. I didn't need the crossmember, but it came as a package deal. A little surface rust, but otherwise good condition. A complete front swaybar I believe out of an '87-'91 F150. You can see that the coil spring isolators are the white plastic ones, and not the flat rubber disks like on my '84. With a little sand blasting and fresh paint they should clean up OK. And finally, a complete rear swaybar that is supposed to be for an F150 with an 8.8 rear end. Again, a little surface rust, but in good condition otherwise. Sand blast and paint and it will look like new. I'm hoping this stuff all fits OK. It was cheap enough, and I'll get new end links and rubber bushings, etc. If this stuff doesn't tighten the old girl up, nothing will. Well done! I think you are going to be impressed with the change the sway bars give it. If I remember correctly, Ray Cecil and I did that to his truck and he was certainly impressed. I'll be helpful to know that the '87-91 sway bar fits.

I'm not sure these are the panels you want as they are not perfect. But, here are the pics:

Boy, do I know that "shuffling feeling". With box after box coming from y'all I have a serious shortage of storage room. But I sure have the stuff I need to make some good trucks!

After 8ish days the input is that our members have come from: And, for the first two days of August traffic to the site has come from these sources, although I'm just showing the top 4 sources: These results suggest to me that there are, indeed, at least two types of on-line people - those who Facebook about trucks and those who use a forum. I surmise that because no one has voted that s/he came from Facebook, and while it is possible that we have those who have come from FB they apparently aren't active on the forum. Another way of looking at it is that the links posted on FB generate traffic at that moment (I've seen huge spikes in the traffic right after posting a link), but that the nature of FB is that no one will see those links ever again since external searches don't find things on FB. And, who searches FB itself? It is essentially a "right now" medium. But, links on forums, like the Bullnose Forum, FTE, FSB, FORDification, etc will be found from time to time since external searches do find those things. And, people do internal searches on forums. In other words, FB links are a flash in the pan, but forum links are sown seeds that continue to help others well after their initial posting. Given that, it looks to me like spending time on Facebook in order to bring others in is fruitless. And, spending time on Facebook in order to help others has less impact than spending time on forums. Does that make sense to y'all? What am I missing?