Gary Lewis

'83 would have been when the hydro pedals were introduced, not '84, but I don't know why else they made a change.

The rubber mounts for the cooler came in this afternoon, so I had to mount the cooler. There's about 1/16" of clearance, but it doesn't touch the shroud on the compressor, so the fan on the compressor should do a good job of cooling the air. (Yes, it'll be warm then, but it should help significantly.)

Yep, it is a pretty decent system. I think it is going to work out very well, but time will tell. Anyway, we now have power to the compressor. Here you can see it coming out of the "wing" of the toolbox after coming up the fender and through the front stake pocket. Then it hides in the fold of the divider, makes the turn and runs out to the compressor. Reach in and turn the aux power switch in Mission Control on, hit the compressor switch, and it springs to life! Now I need the fittings and grommets to run the hoses as well as the rubber isolators to mount the cooler and it'll all come together. But some of the bits won't be in for another week.

Excellent! Glad it worked out so well.

Those are pretty nice and could be cleaned up.

Perfect fit! Amazing! Very well done. As for the attention to detail, I think it is a blessing. But then, I would as I suffer from a teeny bit of the same ailment.

Bruce - Thanks for the answer. I've decided to use the original ball valve as it fits nicely under the protective angle I welded on. Dane - Compared to most tanks installed on vehicles, this one is big. The "big boy" of ARB's onboard air systems is their MAXIMUM OUTPUT ON-BOARD COMPRESSOR. Its tank is a whopping 1 gallon vs the 4 gallons on mine. The ARB puts out 6 CFM, but at only 29 PSI. Mine puts out 4 CFM at 90 PSI. Sounds like the ARB wins, right? Using Boyle’s Law I find that at 29 PSI mine should put out 12 CFM, although that isn't a rating shown on the spec sheet. And to complete the comparison, the ARB maxes out at 150 PSI vs 200 PSI on mine. In other words, mine will have 33% more energy stored in the same volume, and when you include the differing tank sizes mine will have 5.33 times the energy in the tank at full charge. And if you are trying to reseat a bead on a tire, that's a huge difference. So that's why I'm thinking about using the larger opening on the tank as the outlet as that might give a teeny bit more power through the hose.

Gauges and lighting look great! On the vacuum, there's a connector roughly behind the glove box. Pull it apart and check for leaks from that point.

Welcome! Glad you joined. Yes, pics would be great. Perhaps you can start a thread to chronicle the progress on your truck in the main section or Projects, and we could follow along? Where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we could add you if we had a zip or city/state.

That is beautiful! And you are right, extremely hard to find.

I hadn't thought of that approach. We will see how the hoses line up. Thanks!

Your attention to detail is amazing!

Nor am I either, either. But it sure is good to have company.

Thanks, Scott! I appreciate the encouragement. It helps a lot. Question for y'all: The tank has two openings - one is 1/2" and one 1/4" NPT. The 1/2 was originally the inlet and the 1/4" the outlet. But I'm thinking of switching them. Both will have NPT to 3/8" hose barb fittings in them, and while I think the difference will be small, I think the 1/2" fitting will flow more than the 1/4" fitting. So why not have as much ability to move the stored air as is possible? Thoughts? As for what I did this afternoon, I got the AC cable run from the cab into the toolbox. It comes out the right rear corner of the cab and through an existing hole in the bed and then up the inside of the bed's fender. At the top it makes a left and goes through the openings on both sides of the stake pocket and then inside the bed it turns up again, going through the wing of the toolbox and into the interior. I hope to get the wiring in the toolbox done tomorrow so we have power to the compressor, and will show you a pic of that - assuming that it happens. But here's a pic of the behind-the-fender part of the wiring:

Wow! I KNEW you'd do a good job, but that's exceptional. Well done! And congrat's on the approval for road use.

Thanks, Bob. That's what I've always done as well, but didn't know if it was "kosher". I'll try to keep the orientation roughly the same so the line & ferrule are going back where they were, but it obviously won't be perfect. At this point I think everything I need is on order, so I'm working the issues I can as the parts come in. Thought I could drill the holes in the toolbox and bed and run the hoses to/from the tank, but I don't have the correct grommets. They are on order and won't be here until Wednesday, and I don't know what hole size they fit, so I don't dare drill any holes 'cause I may have to use a hole saw. Given that, I'm running the AC power to the compressor as I think I have all the needed parts.

Glad you got it working.

Got the nutserts installed in the toolbox and the cooler roughly in position. However, it'll come back towards the compressor by ~1/2" from where it is in this pic when the isolators are installed. Also I'm pleased to find that the original copper tubing that went from the compressor to the tank is long enough to reach the cooler, although I'll obviously have to bend it a bit. But, that brings up a question: Can I reuse the original ferrule that connects that tubing to the compressor? Or, since I have what looks to be enough tubing, should I cut the tubing right behind the ferrule add a new ferrule? That would mean that I have to re-bend that bottom 180, but unless the heat has hardened the tubing that should be fairly easy. Right?

I was just going off your post. Anyway, glad you have new hoses. You are doing a thorough job and I didn't want you to miss that.

Wait! Are you suggesting that the driver is doing all the drinking???? Seriously though, you are replacing the rubber lines, right? (Sorry, I've forgotten. ) But it appears that the hard lines are good. You should have a very good braking system when done.

Do you know which color is period accurate for 1981? See if this helps: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/My-1984-F150-2wd-Flareside-Project-Blue-Mule-tp4515p5906.html But, if you want to read further, I did a search on the forum looking for "blue" and "engine paint". Here's a link to the results: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=1&query=message%3Ablue+message%3A%22engine+paint%22&days=0

I think they would look great on your Bronco! They would blend right in but make it legal. And special. On the possibility of having rust, I think you can prevent that by doing a few things up front and one thing long term. First, when you drill holes to mount the flares paint the holes. Then use a sealer on the screws to ensure water can't get to the metal. And, when you get them on spray the seams with something like FluidFilm. Long term you should flush the joint between the flares and the body with lots of water whenever you wash the truck. But I seriously doubt you are going to be driving through muck, much less offroading, so the amount of gunk that gets up under there should be minimal.

Very nice!

You are correct, Jonathan. Only the ability to reply to a post via email has been removed. The ability to send email through the system is still there, as I just proved by sending you an email and copying myself. I've gotten it so assume you have as well.

Ok, with all of the above on order I spent some time with the Derale cooler today to see how to mount it. Looks like using padded clamps on the three loops and rubber isolators screwed into nutserts in the toolbox will do the trick. My measurements say that a 1 1/4" isolator would just about put the cooler in the ideal position, so I found these that are 1.18" long and .79" wide, and they are to be in on Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll see about drilling the toolbox and installing the nutserts. Then I'll figure out where to drill the holes in the toolbox & bed for the hoses to/from the tank. And after that I can run the power cord from the cab out to the bed. Plenty to do while all the bits and pieces come in.