Gary Lewis

The Ecoboost makes towing child's play. We brought Big Blue back from Florida with Blue and got 9 MPG running 75 MPH. In Tow/Haul mode you get engine braking at the touch of the brake, making stopping easy. But, it doesn't have the rear spring capacity of Big Blue, and the Chevy will be heavy, although not as heavy as Big Blue was. However, the rear of Blue sat down a bunch with the F250 on the trailer. And, for that matter, it will be my new trailer and it weighs more than Brandon's, so tongue weight will be more. From that standpoint Big Blue would be the better choice. Yes, both are 4wd. At least Blue is supposed to be 4wd. But a year ago I took him to CO and got into some snow and his 4wd didn't work. Turned out the Integrated Wheel Ends were bad. They've been replaced, but I trust Big Blue's manual hubs more. Right now I'm leaning to taking Big Blue as it will be a fun outing. And, there's less to do to get ready. But, I do need to hook him up to the new trailer and make sure the winch line clears the front rail. And, fix my wiring error on the brake controller. Anyway, thanks for the input. I'm still thinking so keep those cards and letters coming in.

Nice truck! Not sure it is worth $12K, but it really is nice. And you probably couldn't build it for that. (Somehow this went into my Promotions folder and I missed it until now.

My wife's cousin just called and is taking me up on my offer to come get his 1960 C10 and take it to my paint/body man. And, along the way we'll move his '65 Malibu to a storage facility. But, that will mean a 250 mile day, with a lot of winching as neither vehicle runs. So, I'm thinking through what vehicle I want to tow with, and would like your thoughts. First, here are my thoughts regarding taking Big Blue: Good opportunity to use him But the brake controller needs to be rewired slightly so the brakes work on the trailer, although I really need to do that anyway Gas mileage will be poor - after all, its a 460/7.5L Winching a vehicle on/off the trailer will be easy - attach the trailer to the front hitch and do it, and there's two "ons" and two "offs" The dual batteries give gobs of reserve, but the 1G alternator won't charge them very fast Both vehicles are in a pasture, and the tires on Big Blue will handle the possibility of soft ground well And, here are thoughts about using Blue: I'll have to drill the winch stand on the trailer to take the winch I'll have to move the winch over to the trailer I'll have to remove the auxiliary battery from Big Blue, find a battery box, and then wire it up when I get there - each time I want to use it Easier to tow with the torque of the Ecoboost 3.5L Lots of comfort What are your thoughts?

I'll have to go to a salvage and see if I can find one. May not use it, but it looks interesting.

I caused more work on the hood because I removed the skin from the frame to hammer / dolly it and with the glue and prying it apart caused the more work. I also have the 2 rear fenders to do body work to. Thing is I hate doing it so when I get into doing it it is an all day thing to get it done. Last 2 days have been too cold, snow yesterday, to do Bondo work. After my post on the doors I thought I should of taken pictures of what I found. It has to come apart again and will get pictures for documentation. I am also waiting for another door my brother is sending me from a flare side so can get pictures from it to. Dave ---- Sounds like a lot of work. Hope things work out well.

HiPo has white, so it might be good to paint the tops of the letters and marks again w/their white.

X2 what he said. So did he say what brush to use? Would a testers model paint brush be good enough? If not then what one and where to get it? Dave ---- He said something like a camel's hair or other high quality brush would be best. And I'm sure I used a $.25 brush.

Here's what I am seeing. What I now need to do is go to the parts list, meaning 30.1A, B, D, E, or J and look at the components. But I need to know what you have, so can you tell me which row(s) you have. Then I can look.

Dave - Are these forged or stamped beams? I'm not sure I need to know that, but it looks like I will. Anyway, I'm researching it........

I like the radio bezel as it has places for switches. But, it isn't worth $99 to me.

I had the pleasure of talking with Bill O'Neil, the owner of HiPo Parts, for 95 minutes this morning. He originally wanted to talk about my "tutorial", as he called it, on Painting Gauge Needles, but the conversation quickly turned to many other things, as you'll see. He said he had been pointed to my "tutorial" by a customer, and I was initially apprehensive because his paints didn't fare all that well in my test. But, as it turned out, he significantly helped my understanding of gauge paints as well as lighting. On the paint, he pointed out that while the Testor paint may have the best color match, it isn't really fluorescent but is just a bright orange. And, it is a heavy enamel that can affect the accuracy of the gauge just due to its weight. (Take a look at the looooong coiled spring to which the needle attaches and you can easily understand the issue there.) Their paints are acrylic and were designed for gauges. They are very thin so you can build up the coating so that you don't have any more than needed and, therefore, keep the accuracy of the gauge intact. However, you really need to use a quality brush as cheap brushes will leave a rough finish - which is probably what I used and why I had finish problems on the larger needles. And then the conversation turned to gauge lighting. Bill said that the reason Ford used the blue filters was because blue light makes the paint on the needles fluoresce better than other colors. As for the drop off in lighting that we've all experienced on the gauges of these trucks, that is due to three things: the paint no longer fluoresces; the light bulbs lose their brilliance; and the filters turn opaque. Turns out that the best paints only fluoresce for about 10 years - and our trucks are 35ish years old? And bulbs lose about 1/2 of their light output over their lives. However, the filters really aren't but about 5% of the problem in their measurements. His recommendation is to use the new LED's they are just coming out with which give ~200 lumens of light, which is about twice what their other LED's produce. And, if you don't want to use blue LED's then use their warm white ones with the filters. (Clean the filters with a bit of plastic polish and the opacity will come back to where it should be.) I'm really interested in the new LED's as I don't really like my blue ones. Every time I get in the truck at night the blue just looks "wrong". So I'm going to try the new LED's, which are bi-directional, in warm white and re-install the filters after cleaning them. And, I'll see if I have another set of gauges to coat with their paint and see what the overall effect is. Oh yes, we also talked about the brown tinge that the back of the instrument mask gets due to the hot incandescent bulbs being so close to it. The mask keeps the light of the bulbs from hitting the driver's eyes, but is also supposed to reflect that light back onto the gauges. So, it is good to return the back of the mask to a white finish to reflect more light. But, instead of using an enamel white paint like I did, Bill recommended white header paint, which dries to a dull finish that will evenly scatter the light. Also, when cleaning the bulb sockets or printed circuit board, use white vinegar. Put the sockets in a cup of the vinegar for a few minutes and any corrosion goes away. And using just a bit of it on the PCB will clean the contacts w/o abrasion, which can damage the trace. Also, use dielectric grease when installing bulbs or LED's to ensure that they go in smoothly as well as continue to have good connections. And last, Bill volunteered to send me some samples of the new LED's, as well as information about them, so I can give them away to the participants of the show this fall. And, he had suggestions on hitting up other vendors for grab bags.

Thermal is the best. It doesn't run the fan much unless needed, and that helps MPG as well as reduces noise.

Dave - How much work do you have to do on the hood? Is that the last piece before paint? On the fuel doors, will you be documenting your findings in your thread? We need to capture what you find as that is a critical piece for the Flaresiders out there.

Dave - Good point. And we have a Grainger's, which is not far from Brandon. Jim - Yes, I think lubrication has been mentioned, but I was afraid it had gotten lost in the shuffle so wanted to highlight it to Brandon.

Haven't found 430's on the Bolt Depot, yet, but did find the following. Looks like lubrication is highly recommended with stainless.

Yes, he is the guru of 460's, and I may well learn something by following him on Facebook. Will consider that. Not sure about having him do the head work just due to the cost of shipping such heavy objects that far. We have a local guy, Eric Weingartner, who has also competed in the engine masters series, and he does heads. I've reached out to him and recently missed a call that may have been him, so will get back with him to see what the cost would be to have him do the heads. (He's the one Brandon/Bruno2 had do his heads recently, and he's also the one that did my flow testing several years ago on the Windsor D8OE heads.) I'll compare Eric's price vs Scott's, including shipping, and see what I want to do. But if it isn't too much more to go with Scott I'll do that since he's helped me.

Much better! I see now how close it is, and it does look "argent". Good find!

I agree that about any bolt will work for these applications from a tension standpoint. Just wondering if you know what works from a corrosion standpoint. Sounds like about anything does. Thanks.

I sent the following note to Scott, The Mad Porter, asking what I should do for mod's to the engine: And I got back this response: What are your thoughts?

Jim - What would you recommend for exhaust manifold bolts?

Dulled a bit, but not faded. Have never seen one of those. Probably one of these:

I paid $500 for Rusty several years ago and it couldn't be driven. Plus, it had a lot of problems. So, if this one is driveable, as suggested, and has no immediate problems then the price is cheap. And some people like "patina", which that truck has - everywhere.

Ron - I'm confused. You said "silver" and "Argent", but the picture looks like copper. What am I missing?

It wasn't obvious to me. Sure glad you guys pointed it out.

Brandon called to ask what I know about stainless fasteners, which isn't much. My Carroll Smith Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook doesn't appear to say much about them. But my Pocket Reference by Thomas J. Glover says that both 18-8 and 316 stainless have 75,000 lb/sq inch minimum tensile strength. On-line I found that the Bolt Depot says this: And Fastenal says this is their Technical Reference Guide on fasteners: