kramttocs

None of these trucks are mine nor are the photos mine. Pulled from a google search.

Good deal. (Hopefully) final question - I see Eastwood offers a different pad for roofs/hoods. A lighter version it sounds like. Did you use that on the roof or did you use the standard xmat all around?

Looking for the tan plastic bezels (or rings) that go around the power window switches on door panels with the fabric.

If you aren't concerned with being year-correct, you can branch out to the next gen trucks also. The font will be different and some had black inserts but I see a lot more of them around than the 85/86 ones.

Oh, and my hinges for the blend door mod came in. Ordered 1 extra in case I messed up but guess the shipper was feeling generous😊

They get way up there in price for sure. If not in a hurry check eBay periodically. That's how I found my Hedmans - someone else's project that never happened. Unless my exhaust guys tell me otherwise, I am leaning towards a single exhaust setup.

Got a couple items wrapped up tonight for after paint. Finished putting together the door latches after coating them and the rods. Just a word of wisdom if coating these things - there is a small spring piece in between the two metal parts in the second photo that needs to be removed before coating. I'd removed the big spring but didn't realize exactly what that other one was. It's thin enough that it can't break through the coating after baking and will just bend leaving you to have to pull new springs from the jy. Fortunately easy to do. Also finished putting together my tailgate handle after disassembly, coating, and buffing. Still need to find the little spring as mine was missing. The tailgate rods are coated and are waiting for my foam gun to be returned from a friend's so I can remake the foam rattle-suppressors.

I really like the L&L headers. I was going to go with them but ended up with the Hedmans because the L&L ceramic coating was unavailable. I am very impressed with all of their items I've purchased.

I thought the same earlier but it looks like it has a two pronged switch (like my 86) whereas all of the aftermarket ones I've found in the past are single pronged.

I don't know if a Marti report shows the paint scheme or not but if not, the b pillar is the best single place to look. Taken from a FTE post:

I saw Gary had the same experience but is it pretty common that Carfax/autocheck reports don't show anything for the early years of these trucks? 1996 is the first real data point for mine after delivery.

I wasn't sure either so I ordered a few of their samples with both Essex and cutpile. Cutpile is the same as the stock carpet. Looks like the differences are count per inch and thickness. The Essex isn't a lot thicker but it is noticeable (photo below). If you fold the cutpile in half you can see the backing whereas with Essex it's not near as easy. I would say that after leaving something heavy on the Essex, the imprint would bounce out faster than the cutpile I would agree with ACC that the Essex would be considered 'nicer' - hence the upgrade cost but it's not a night and day thing, nor do I think one would be the least bit disappointed with the cutpile. Before I install it I will lay the two side by side and walk over them to get a better comparison of stock vs Essex for everyone. The rear portion under the back seat of the old carpet should be pretty similar to original condition.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Driver-Left-Tail-Light-Fits-1980-1986-Ford-F150-F250-F350-Styleside/133146439048?hash=item1f00256d88:g:RUEAAOSwIr5dWrup I got one from this seller a few weeks ago for Camano and it looks excellent. Wasn't in a Ford box but was NOS and still had the protective plastic on it.

Oh, and wrong turn signal lenses for an 86. Just being picky as these may have just been preference changes (I know I prefer this tailgate trim and with certain body colors I like the white front lenses).

And the wrong tailgate panel for 86. This is usually the type of ad that has the last sentence being "I am only listing this because my wife told me to".

Count me in for a large

Definitely I know carpet isn't super exciting but I wanted to provide my thoughts on it initially as well as during install because I didn't find many posts for these trucks that had either the mass backing or the essex style. I debated quite a bit on the mass backing or not and it was really the cowl leak issue that swayed my decision. My thought process being that I'd like to easily see the sheet metal of the floor pan for inspection if needed.

That's it! Got my carpet delivered yesterday. Debated on what options and if I wanted to put a seperated heat/sound layer down but after checking out prices on Rock Auto, decided to just go the all-in-one route. Can add a dynamat layer later if needed and thickness isn't a problem. This is the Essex with mass backing in caramel. I took it out, laid it flat and it looks really good. Hoping fitment will be just as good but happy with the ACC quality.

Nice! I see you have the large tranny cooler and external oil cooler. I would highly recommend keeping an eye on the TCI tranny pan and pick one up for whenever you do a fluid change. Unless yours already had a drain installed on it by a PO, it's a well worth it investment.

Congrats!

Oh for sure. Easy may not be the right word for any frame off restoration but using it in context to most of the heavily rusted trucks I looked at around here that I was considering, it saved a lot of that work. Sadly, I can't say that I don't own a truck that after prepping the body for removal I found out the frame was bent and welded back together I don't remember exactly where I was - I just remember an very hilly, windy road that had an older building with more wind turbines on the roof than shingles. Mainly I remember thinking that if my brakes failed, I was going through it

Rembrant - in the same boat. Most people enjoy the forest aspect of the restore but getting down to the tree level you lose some of them. But that's what you guys are for! I can only imagine hearing a noise like that in the dark the first time with your truck Glad it turned out to be nothing major - reminds me in high school when people would put zip ties around others' driveshafts. Instant panic for the driver. Dane - you do have great taste in trucks I've never driven with a gvod before so am excited to see how it works. It will take a long time before I figure it is financially worth it but I agree that it's a much more enjoyable drive at 60 with these trucks so hoping it will allow that threshold to be bumped. I am pretty sure I can set it to manual and keep it completely disengaged in order to provide a decent mpg comparison for others considering it in these trucks. Gary - you hit the nail on the head. Knock on wood but this has been an ideal starting point for an easy restoration. If I end up with another truck parked out in the field I am pretty sure my wife would make me take up residence in one. I wanted to stop by that day as I remember the sign for Skiatook was only something like 7 miles away but the only day he and I could meet was on a Sunday around noon. I also didn't expect the weight of the supercab 6.9 so even with the flat, easy drive of 44 it still took me forever to get home. I was hoping to be able to drive her to the Truck Show but I think it will be a few weeks after before she'll be on the road. Always next year!

Yes - it will fit 80-86.

[Really wish I would have bought this in Manhattan as 'The Manhattan Project' would be a great thread title. I am a sucker for a good book blurb ] I should have started this thread months ago but was always afraid I wouldn't keep up with it and that may still be the case but here goes nothing. I'll skip over the past few years of buying bullnoses as potential projects that never happened (or just not yet I tell myself) but last fall I decided it was time to actually make something happen. As forced motivation I sold my car, started daily driving my 80 1 ton cab/chassis (who needs kidneys?), and began searching for a truck that fit exactly what I was looking for in a starting point. After a couple months or so I found one in/near Camano Island, WA. A mere 2030 miles away from me. Called the seller who agreed to work with me on shipping it and thus bought a 1986 F250 (hd) SuperCab 4x4 460 C6 with the required tan interior, sight unseen. Photos from the craigslist ad: Never having shipped a vehicle before it was pretty enjoyable to watch the carrier pull up with a full size truck on the top deck. Daily drove the truck for the next couple of months and loved it. Did very minor maintenance/improvements to it like a block heater, new aux transmission cooler and a TCI deep pan. The 460 had a rear main leak so I knew I was going to have to pull the motor at some point. I met with a few body shops to get some idea of a full paint job but was happy to drive it as is. Then after a winter rain I noticed the drivers carpet was soaked and I mean wring it out over and over soaked. Took a cup of water, poured it in the cowl and just watched it drain straight into the cab over the parking brake. Removed the cowl, found a bunch of pine needles and under them - a large hole (4 inch long, 1 inch wide). I made plans with a local body restoration shop to get my truck on the agenda and Camano became a fair weather truck. While waiting for the shop to be ready I started gathering parts and making plans for what I wanted to do to the truck while it was down. One thing I've always wanted was a gvod. I really like/want the 460/c6 combo but wanted to reduce the rpm's on the highway. Found a guy selling a pair of bw1345-coupled gvod's and an 86 SuperCab 6.9 truck in Gary's backyard so took Camano for a drive: In February the body shop let me know they were ready so the disassembly began. Gutted the cab, pulled the 460/c6/tcase, removed the rhino liner from the bed (tons of fun there), and loaded her up. The plan was to have the body shop fix the cowl, paint the firewall and then I'd bring the truck back home to install the drivetrain while they worked on the bed and such. While someday I want to rebuild a motor myself, timing wasn't in my favor this time so I dropped the engine and transmission off at shops to be rebuilt. I took this downtime to inspect and swap the GVOD 1345 back half of the case onto my tcase and clean/paint the tcase, gvod, and transmission. Time goes by and sometime in May I got the truck back. Lifted the cab and went to town cleaning up and painting the frame. Por15'd the tanks, underlined them and reinstalled. Decided I wanted the skid plates so pulled them from a parts truck. Stabbed the 460/c6, installed the headers, tcase, and gvod. The body shop had to take care of another restoration for a client so it gave me some time to take care of a few items on my want list that if in a rush I likely wouldn't have be able to. The delay turned out being a blessing in disguise and allowed me to really get to learn about and play around with powdercoating. Rather than list all those nice-to-have sub-projects now, I'll add them as I think about them or during the install process. Last week the body shop was ready for the cab back. While working on the other restoration (a very nice Polara convertible) they took care of the holes in the truck bed from the camper tie downs, in bed trailer plug, and a few other bumps and bruises. Dropped it back off and that brings us to current.

Thanks- I'd never seen so many brochures in one place before. I know you have them all scanned so I didn't really need them but there is just something about having them in tangible form. I could get into this swap meet scene 😊