kramttocs

Yep, same thing as Osage orange. I know what you mean Gary - during the winter, when layered and in coveralls my sisters and I would play "catch" Of course, we were also convinced hedge apples were where Elmer's glue came from... Most, us included, have switched to steel pipe instead of hedge but I prefer the look of hedge and this wasn't a very big field.

You bet! Better late than never, right?

Figure it's about time I start a thread to keep track of this truck. Bought in early 2018 1980 F350 2wd Cab & Chassis. 400 with the 4spd. Gin pole flatbed. Was an oil field truck in KS. Front clip was swapped out at some point. It had a lot of extra wiring, a/c air compressor, dealer ac, aux battery setup, etc that I stripped out to keep this truck as simple as possible. It's not much to look at but fires up every time and runs down the highway great. It's definitely a 55mph truck though. With a bare metal floor, only a handful of dried out window channel run pieces (lose a couple more every time I shut the door) and 4.10s there's no point trying to talk when going 65 I was going to fix up the cab but have long since decided to just use it up and if the need arises, swap cabs. So right now (thanks to the previous owners) it's a mix of red, green, black, and silver. As much as I like the early Aztec-like design of the green seat, peeling myself off the duct tape in the summer got old fast so it now has a 90's bench in it....that could stand some duct tape itself. The gin pole was one of the main reasons I bought it since I was fencing a field that summer and don't have a front end loader at my place. Added a receiver hitch to the bed to accept my winch cradle and it made setting hedge posts an easy one man job. The only plan for this truck right now is the GVOD although the cold weather has put that on hold. Will document those changes whenever they may happen...

No phone but there is a chat. Otherwise it's email. https://www.rvinyl.com/Contact

Removing the core support makes it much easier I removed the hood but I don't think I would have hit it. I used a carb lift plate and put the hoist hook directly in one of the holes so it was as short as one could get. Pulled and installed a 460/C6 combo like this. Pulled it fully dressed with the cast intake. Installed with the aluminum intake without accessories.

I was wondering that. Did anybody on here ever send him a set of bezels? I have a nice set of 1986 Burlwood bezels I'd cover up. I wonder how the silver brushed aluminum would look? Good question - I can't recall if he got some in hand or not. I would love to see that rust in person. Or even better a photo of it on your bezel

Wonder if that's Perry? http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Woodgrain-repair-kit-for-ideas-only-td30473.html Looking at the area code he listed, probably not...

I am running the stock setup but just wanted to mentioned that besides chrome, don't forget you can powdercoat pretty much anything you can get down to all metal. I powdercoated the master cylinder mirror black and then used Eastwood brake paint on the booster. Just an idea of you want to go with a custom color.

Looks good! This is autocad, right?

I think that's a good idea, Scott. But I think each post should have a description of what the use is of the tire. IOW, just saying "I'm really happy with my tires" isn't nearly as helpful as saying "My tires do a good job in highway use" or "My tires are excellent in the snow", or somesuch. For instance, so far I can't recommend these Coopers for off-road use, but lets say they do a good job for that. Then I could say "I'd give them a B for off-road and a C for on-road. They don't follow ruts on the highway, but have quite a bit of noise to them." Exactly - I'll have to dig up that email but that's the direction I was going. In essence a Resources thread that gives one post per vehicle with a questionnaire and then some personal experience comments. Then a sister thread in the main forum for any discussion.

Really happy with my Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain AT's. Gary - I'd mentioned to you about me creating those "personal tire experience" threads. Maybe I should do that

Re-adding Bruce's image per his request as it sounds like it may not be visible for all

Exactly. Pulled a couple of these from the jy. Both from trucks with the aftermarket 'farm' bumpers.

RockAuto was the cheapest I found. Mass backed/Essex. Great quality and fit. ACC brand.

The lights look really good there. Unobstructed and full bumper step availability. Nice job Bruce!

My 86 doesn't have one (just the hvac tank). My connections, where speed control is concerned, match what is on page 133 of the 86 EVTM. If we were closer we could try out that Rotunda speed control tester David found not long ago.

Looks excellent! Are you talking about the speed control or the speedometer as being uneven? I didn't think speed control worked below 30. Mine is sporadic at best right now but I believe I read 30 minimum in the manual a few months ago. They are tied into the vacuum system.

Looks kind off similar to this thing which came off a chopped up (radio delete?) bezel. If that fms one isn't a modified Ford offering, the woodgrain looks spot on to me. It does almost look like the woodgrain could be peeled off there by the Band button. Edit: well, I can't tell for sure what is the edge of the bezel inside the radio opening and what may be part of the radio itself. So maybe what I thought could be peeled up is just the edge of the bezel opening. Just washed the dust off but looks like it had silver edging at one time. Made by Rebel in Montgomery AL.

Dug up an email from last year. Here is the response I got. I asked what the min quantity would be but doesn't look like I heard back. Their white quality looks nice. "I was asking about quantity because we have a minimum on custom work like this. I think your best option would be to get a used one off of eBay. You can get a pretty new one that isn't too expensive." Maybe things have changed though and now there is more demand 🤞

And around here a lot of the jy ones rusted out. Guess a bad semi exposed location. If you need that engine side vacuum line piece, Shaun posted a link to a reasonable priced dealer not long ago. Another part that doesn't survive long in the jy sun with the hoods left up.

Scott, Thanks for the quick reply. I thought you were one of the people that had taken one of these apart, but I wasn't sure where to find the info. I checked the fitment up against the center/radio bezel and there's lots of room for some button heads...a good 1/4" gap there I'd say. I want to take the face plate off and see if I can clean/polish it so that it looks a little better. I also need to experiment with covering the dual fuel tank text and switch and see how good (or bad) it looks. I'm sure I can put some black tape over it but I think it will bother me even if nobody else notices it...lol. Looking forward to see how the polishing goes. Hmm yeah not sure about how to hide the fuel tank switch. Fortunately it seems like the early 'blocky temp' style held up better against fading so if you need to find a replacement it shouldn't be too hard finding a good one. Shame it's not easy to scrape off the text or you could repurposed that switch for some accessory.

Yes - that is actually how some of the dealer ac faceplates worked so they could just swap them out per application. Those used 4 little clips with dimples that snap around the face place and main unit, with the dimples catching in the holes. I ground the white melted plugs away on mine and then used some of those clips I found in the jy. I don't see why button head bolts or screws wouldn't work. Clearance shouldn't be an issue.

So basically how I have it now, I have the wire going along the core support not in the core support. I tried in the core support but it looked weird. It is handy, it allowed me to piece together what wires I would need so I could start ordering the SLX Crosslink wire and what gauge I needed. On the gauge of the main power wire I would be limited on that unless I could find a small enough eyelet to screw the heavy gauge wire to the brass threaded insert where the Mini ANL fuse goes which I finally found out what fuses goes there. The Mini ANL fuse apparently is big in stereo so I can get the Mini ANL in 100A, 125A, 150A, 175A, 200A. So in theory I could throw a 10ga wire on for example and throw a 100A or 125A ANL fuse and have it provide power to the fuse box internally with smaller gauge wire since the distance from the ANL fuse to the fuses themselves would be less than 6 inches. Or I could go 50A and split the circuits up leaving headlights, driving lights, auxiliary lights, Fuel Injection on one Mini ANL fuse and then have other circuits such as my CB Radio and my CB Amp on another but then that would negate the purpose as I would be running a second Mini ANL fuse just for two circuits as the primary circuits I would want isolated from the rest of the box are my lights and FI which is pretty much what the majorty of my box is all covering. I guess I could add a fuse for my AC Clutch wire since I will be running it through the 87A pin on a relay for an AC cut out for my sniper to control. I dont currently have a fuse for this wire from when the dealer unit was installed. But still the power is coming from inside the truck not outside so it wouldnt go through the Mini ANL fuse, it would just go into the fuse box through a fuse before going to the power supply side of the relay and then through the 87A pin back to the AC compressor. Another option would be to run two power wires at 12ga or 14 ga which would be 9ga or 11ga combined and have them run to just one Mini ANL fuse or I could run them to two separate mini ANL fuses and then split up the circuits have the fuel injection and headlights on one circuit and have auxiliary lights, cb, cb amp on another circuit. There are a few ways to organize this setup but I am trying to limit the wire size and with a 9 relay 9 fuse box I am pretty much limiting myself on expansion in the future. Currently I need 6 relays to do what I am doing and they are as follows Relay 1 : Low Beam Headlight Relay 2 : High Beam Headlight Relay 3 : Apollo 6" Driving Light Relay 4 : A/C Cutout Relay 5 : A/C Step Up (idles engine up when AC switched on) Relay 6 : Fuel Pump Relay For fuses they are as follows Fuse 1 : Headlight 15A Fuse 2 : Driving Lights 25A Fuse 3 : CB Radio 5A Fuse 4 : CB Amp 15A Fuse 5 : Fuel Pump 30A Fuse 6 : AC clutch 30A ? I threw 6 in there as I dont have a plan for that, I am looking at 5 fuses and 6 relays. If I get the Go Rhino roll bars and throw on a pair of KC Daylighter spot lights and a pair of KC Daylighter flood lights that would require two more relays and two more fuses bringing my required to 8 relays and 7 or 8 fuses. This would pretty much on the small 9 relay and 9 fuse box allow me for expansion of one or two more fuses and one more relay. I could go with the bigger box but that will only give me 2 spare relays with the roll bar upgrade and give me 7 or 8 fuses left over. I just dont know if I could add that many more circuits to my truck. If Dakota Digital comes out with a RTX retro gauge cluster for our trucks then I would run a battery hot through this box through a fuse to provide battery power so that would take up the last fuse on the smaller box or leave me with 1 fuse. I thought about adding some of those LED rock lights that KC sells that you mount under your truck to illuminate the ground around your truck but if I did this all I would need is just a fuse but I dont know if I will do that. I also thought about adding some kind of aftermarket under hood light but I could always use the OE connector for power there. Just a balancing act to see what would be better for me. I dont believe I would need more than 9 relays but I could always use more fuses though. But can I justify the larger size box though. The 10 relay/15 fuse box is 8" x 5" where as the 9 relay/9 fuse box is 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" which means it would fit a lot nicer on the plastic fender where the vacuum ball would have gone if I had one. I thought you said you were using an external mega fuse? Because of that I assumed you were bypassing the brass inserts in the box. Maybe that is for a different purpose?

My issue is I want the wiring so if I have to pull the core support I dont have to cut wiring. I got one idea for using mounts to the core support itself along the top that I may try. As far as the box goes, below is how I currently have my wiring done, but I have my headlight relays mounted below my power/ground junction and then the relay for my driving lights is mounted on the fender itself as I found existing holes to mount my items so I could revert if I ever wanted to without having extra holes. So now I am redesigning my layout to be more centralized so its not so bad. Thats why I was thinking on the inner fenders but then with this smaller box I could in theory still mount it where I currently have my box now but instead of having all these extra stand alone items they would be contained in one box. Personally I would like to mount it on the fender where the vacuum ball would go. I dont have one on my truck as my truck is dealer AC not factory so I could use those holes to mount this box but I would have to figure out a way with a thick piece of plexiglass or some other kind of plastic so I can mount it in the middle to the fender through existing holes and then be thick enough to use a thin short screw to screw the box to the backer without drilling holes in my plastic fender. I thought about doing it on the driver side but the more distance I have to run it the larger gauge wire I would have to run as the main power wire. Its why part of me really wants to go with it on the passenger side but the draw back is I will still have to run wires to the driver side either across the core support or across the engine itself. If I did it across the engine itself I could have a main plug coming out of the box so I can unplug it and drape the wiring to the driver side allowing for ease of engine removal. But my mega fuse would be still mounted on the passenger side fender no matter where I mount this box. The up side is if I mount it on the passenger side it would reduce the length of main power wire which means I can move more amperage through a smaller gauge wire. Cause doing the math using fuse size for what would be in the fuse box would be 125A worth of fused protection. Actual draw is not that much though, for example my Silver Star Ultras in my ECE composite housings are 8.59A low beam and 9.38A high beam at nominal batter voltage for both headlight bulbs, the fuse is 15A for that circuit. My two 100w KC driving lights at nominal battery voltage is 15.63A and I have a 20A fuse for those two lights. If I add two sets of 100W spot lights and flood lights to a roll bar the pair of spots and pair of floods would have independent relays and fuses which would be 15.63A per pair which is another two 20A fuses. My CB is a 5A fuse but is lucky to pull 0.40A since it is regulated to 5w max by the feds but I have mine tuned down to 2w so it doesnt over drive my amplifier which is 0.16A. My Amplifier is only pulling 10A at most at peak output. Sniper is fused at 30A but the main draw is the fuel pump which a quality Walbro fuel pump in the tank is only pulling 5A to 6A normally. So for me I would need a 6ga wire to be able to power everything without having my main power wire undersized. If I can keep the wire short I might be able to get away with a 10ga power wire which is about the largest I would be able to fit into a crimp fitting for these boxes that are sold. 12ga is what they are typically designed for at the most. Realistically I probably would be ok with a 12ga or even a 14ga considering even if I turn every circuit on and use the nominal battery voltage amperage pull with giving 10A for the sniper to be generous for the fuel pump as well as the power to power up the sniper itself I come up with some 76.42A of power and at 13.8V I come up with 72.34A of power and using my favorite site for wire gauge sizing which is Wirebarn it tells me that at 13.8V with 72.34 Amp max with a 2% drop I can use a 14Ga wire for up to 1.51ft length, 12Ga for 2.40ft length, 10Ga for 3.82ft length, or 8Ga for 6.07ft length. So realistically if I mount the box on my passenger side inner fender I could in theory run 12Ga as I dont believe the wire from my positive battery terminal to the box mounted roughly where the vacuum ball would be mounted is more than 2.40ft of wire. I might even be able to get away with 14Ga at 1.51ft length. https://www.wirebarn.com/Wire-Calculator-_ep_41.html This is how I pick what size wire I would need for different circuits and I can also go to a dual wire setup for when two wires are being used. I have to redo my figuring for my headlight wires cause I used paired amperage for both bulbs when each wire will be branched out of the same relay to each bulb which each bulb is operating a less amperage than the total of both. I also need to go back and figure up for my sniper cause I never figured that up but they use a 10ga wire that is supplied with the kit to be your fuel pump power wire and I will be using that, only thing I will do differently is I will run a ground wire from the battery along with this blue wire in a woven loom to the fuel gauge so the fuel pump on my setup would have power and ground directly from the battery and the power will be controlled by the Sniper itself. Only ground at the back I will use is for the OE sending unit which I am going to break up a cheap OE 82 sending unit to get the sending unit plug out of the sending unit so I can attach a wire to it making the new 85-86 gauge assembly plug and play with my OE sender wire so if I ever decide to do a OE factory restoration down the road on my truck I can revert back. No need to cut anything. I am saying go over the radiator (not in it). If you needed to remove the core support it would just be a matter of unclamping it and draping it over or under the engine. Wirebarn's calculator is very handy. Was on there a lot today actually. I don't doubt your numbers at all but when feeding a fuse/relay box, personally, I would go much larger even if you don't need it now. Purely for example if 10 is good for all collectively, I'd go with a 6 or even 4 just because it's still pretty easy to work with. Then from the mega I'd take the 6/4 into the box and once inside branch it into a bunch of smaller gauge wires going to each fuse. When making branch offs like this, I try to start with as close of a gauge as possible to the physical size of the bundled smaller wires. But that's just my approach and not trying to push it on anyone. You know your numbers and distances and sounds like you have solid plans for each location

The smaller footprint would be nice. I am on the fence about mounting it on the core support though. If me, I would instead opt for either side inner fender. Aside from directly mounting it to the fender using a custom standoff/platform you could, on either side, get one of the diesel platforms (from passenger side) and repurpose it. On the pass side you could mount the relay box, vacuum can/ball, and mega fuse. On the driver side, the relay box, duraspark unit, and mega fuse. Just an idea. As for running the wiring - going over the radiator in that channel works well. I've got, iirc, (2) 1/0 cables, (2) 2awg, a 4awg, and a handful of smaller going over there. Add some clamps to the shroud bolts and they will stay put. Not against mounting things on those core suppose uprights (I have my onboard battery tender mounted there), just not sure I'd want it as a central hub location for wiring.