Gary Lewis

Good question, and one I'll have to get an answer to. Thanks, Dane.

Looks good. Wish we fully understood the build sheets.

Gustavo - You are now on the map.

Yes, that is what I would have said. But Dad would have said "From the sublime to the ridiculous."

I'd take the used ones if they are as good as they look. I've not heard good things about any but the ones from JBG that say they come from Ford tooling. But I don't know specifically about the Coverlay door panels. However, I do know that Coverlay's recent dash covers are much better than their previous ones, so maybe they have stepped up their game.

Gary, I thought he said it was the hinge side he had issues with so I don't know if your adjustment would work for him or not? Dave ---- It won't make a difference on the hinge side, but in my experience it usually isn't just the hinge side. It is the whole door trying to compress the weather stripping as well as the air in the cab.

Oh yes, note the difference between closing the door with the windows up vs down. I'll bet there's a big difference. With Big Blue and the new weather stripping the doors have to be closed firmly - unless the windows are down. Then you can close them much easier.

That is normal. Sometimes you have to move the striker bolt so the door doesn't close as far in. But over a period of a few weeks it'll give and the doors will close normally.

Look at the DSO on the door tag, then Google "ford dso xx", with xx being your region number. It will tell you what region the truck was sold to. Mine is 48 which equals the Detroit Region. Why Google it? Why not just look at Ford's documentation right here on the site: Documentation/Specifications/DSO Codes?

I'm seriously considering a Classic Consoles unit, in spite of what I said, and still believe, about dealing with them. (See my writeup in the Vender Reviews & Ratings.) That's because I haven't found a viable alternative and I really want a cup holder and a place to store things for our trip to Colorado this summer.

I going to update this thread with what I've learned about insuring Big Blue. And to put this into perspective, Cory pointed out that Hagerty says BB is worth $12,500. But I've created a spreadsheet documenting all of the things I've added to it, that ups the value "slightly". State Farm is where we currently have most of our insurance, so I spent quite a bit of time talking to them. Here are some details from that conversation: Value: They use Kelly's Blue Book which says Big Blue is worth $4000. But they've had several instances where a vehicle was totaled and a replacement was 2+ times what Kelly's said. So if that is the case you can do your own homework and bring that to State Farm and "they'll work work with you". (I haven't found State Farm willing to work with me in the past.) Add-Ons: If you have added several things then you can claim them if you have a total loss, but you have to have receipts. And, they prorate depending on the time and/or miles from when it was installed to when the loss was. At the end of the conversation my agent volunteered that their policy is probably not what I'm looking for. AMIG: Meanwhile, my friend that is an insurance agent has been working with American Modern Insurance Group, which has a "collector car" policy which looks really good. Here are some details: Value: According to AMIG "A car can be worth more than the depreciated value listed in a price book. Once we agree on a value for your prized possession, that’s what you’ll get in the event of a total loss (in a total loss the settlement is inclusive of all applicable taxes and fees). There’s no depreciation or questions." Mileage: As opposed to Hagerty who says you basically can't drive the vehicle, AMIG has mileage plans for 1,000, 3,000, 6,000 or unlimited miles annually. My friend got me a quote for the $12,500 that Hagerty says BB is worth plus what I've documented I have in it beyond the base vehicle, and I'm almost for sure going to go with AMIG for Big Blue, and will look at doing so for Dad's truck.

About that... now I feel like a heel. You saying that yours didn't have any 'snap', triggered a memory that I am embarrassed to say was already forgotten. Turns out one of mine was the same way so I swapped boots and used a jy one as well. http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/The-Camano-Experience-tp35327p63488.html So both of us are rocking pricey boots. Really sorry about that. I am going to go update my post in the other thread where I linked to these showing 3 out of 4 not working. Scott - No problem! You got lucky that one of yours worked. Seriously, I'm not worried. I should have saved the $15 and ordered the same as you, then my boots would have been less expensive. But I'm confident that the Ford units will work, and have absolutely NO confidence in the ones from China.

Scott - Thanks. I'm glad your motors work. Apparently I should have purchased the same ones. Bill - So in reality an '85 crewcab would only have the two locks? As for what I did today, I don't have much to show but frustration. Turns out that the door lock motors I ordered are JUNK! I put one in the driver's side and hit it with 12v from my little test battery. It groaned, but the lock didn't move, even though w/o the motor in the lock is easily moved. I thought that maybe it wasn't getting enough current from that battery so wired it to the aux battery. Nada. Hmmm, maybe this one is bad. So I tried the other one. Nada. And on top of that these motors didn't want to let me manually lock or unlock the door. So I thought I'd try them out of the truck. Maybe I have them in a bind. I put the little vise shown below on the radiator support, clamped the link from the new motor in it, held the motor, and hit it with juice directly from the battery. It groaned. Next up was an old Ford lock motor. I clamped its link in the vise and hit with 12v and the vise took off! Then I reversed the connections and it jerked the vise back across the radiator support. The new motors show ~10 - 12 ohms and pull 2.4A. But the Ford motors read 6 ohms and pull 5.0A. However, the difference in power is night and day, not just 2X. What to do? The best thing about the new motors are their skirts and grommets. So I pulled those off one of the new motors, cleaned and lubed a Ford lock motor, dressed it up with a new skirt and grommets, and installed it. This time when I hit it with power you could hear the CLUNK from the lock a block away! And, you can easily lock or unlock the door manually. So, my advice is to buy the cheapest lock motors you can find and use their skirts and grommets on old Ford lock motors. The skirts seem to be of fairly high quality and are in far, FAR better shape than any of those on my Ford lock motors. And the grommets are much more pliable than the old ones. But the motors are awful! WIMPS!

Pretty!

Not sure what David was referring to, but he'd probably seen several on ebay for sale. Last I heard the carb Jonathan bought was going strong.

How 'bout $59.99 & free shipping: New/Repro YF Carb For The 300 Six. But the price has gone up in the listing to a whopping $64.99.

That is excellent, Frank! So glad to see that!

Surely a C&C, but it is a cool truck. And cheap!

Excellent point, Bill! I'd not thought of that. So maybe they do pull ~5A each and four of them would pull 20A, giving a 50% reserve. Seems reasonable.

Somehow that brown top seems more reasonable over white. Nice truck.

Thats kind of what I'm thinking. Does anyone know if the standard SBF perches are the ones they used on bullnose 400 powered trucks? I am pretty sure they are. Which would make this swap way easier. Either way, small update. My wheels are almost done being blasted and powder coated. They do have some pitting but I dont think you'll see it too bad. There was 6+ layers of paint on some of them. My buddy told me he had to blast them 8 times and acid bathe them twice. This is where we are at with those. The close up is the worst wheel. I spent some time cleaning up some surface rust on the push bar my buddy sent me. It turns out its "Grizzly" brand...never heard of them. Aluminum foil and warm water works amazing, definitely not using steel wool again. I definitely need to spend more time with it but I am satisfied for what I got with the half hour I spent on it so far. A while back I did manage to find a brand new smoked bug shield for this girl as well! I did order 2 KC lights for it and I got the covers in, I chose black and yellow, as I think those will stand up nice against a white truck. I also got new clear headlight lenses (H6054) in in prep for my Australian headlight conversion and had a set of chrome stone guards floating around I'll be using. If anyone has a plain 87 argent grille, I'd be interested in it. No, the 351M/400 engines used different perches from the small-blocks. Here's our spreadsheet from the page at Documentation/Exterior/Frames/Engine Perches, but the MPC info is there as well if you want to check: But the wheels look good, and I don't think that corrosion will be all that visible. Boy, did that push bar clean up! Well done!

Yes, the door locks are on a 30A cb and the windows are on a 20A cb. As I think about it the test I did of the door lock motors was with them in free air, not connected to anything. So I need to get these new ones installed and test them to see how much current they pull. Hopefully not more than ~5A each as the circuit to the relay is only fused at 15A. Speaking of that, I have to put in a relay to pull in the horn relay! The coil on the horn relay pulls 630ma and the security system can only sink 300ma. So I think I'll just replace the factory horn relay w/a Bosch unit and be done with it.

Thanks, Dane. It feels good to be getting some of the loose ends tied down. Moved more of my "stuff" into the storage unit behind the seat today. Now I have two flashlights back there, both of which charge from USB and are plugged into the USB charging ports. Plus on any overlanding trip I'll put at least one of the Worklights in, which also charge from USB. And I added a light string my son got me, that also charges from USB or solar, but isn't plugged in at the moment. Plus I moved the handheld charger base there and it turns out the handhelds will fit. So that's plugged into the inverter along with the jump start battery, which leaves one more 110v outlet available as well as two more USB ports and two 12v ports. There's going to be lots of charging going on when we hit the road. Hope to start on the security system tomorrow. Maybe install the door lock motors and run the wires up under the dash. And I need to run power up to the security system using the door lock fuse position. But Ford put a 30A circuit breaker in for them. Do I really need that much?

Sounds like real progress, Frank. Well done.

I'll check Big Blue tomorrow. 5/85 build.