FuzzFace2

The wife was behind me when I took the first picture and asked when I was going to be done. So when I moved the "mocked" lights it was placed quickly, I think I lined up the outside edge of the lights. When I get the lights I will know what will be needed to make it look right. I am thinking something like a recessed box to fill the gap between the lights & bumper. Stay tuned Dave ----

I also found 2 things when installing the grille. Both of them are broken. I will have to look them over better but I am sure I can fix them both but will start with the best one first. The other thing is when I moved the center support forward because of the AC condenser the grille does not fit right. I will either have to cut the tab off the support and move it back and re-weld it (easy) or mod the grille (hard) where that tab would screw to. I think both grilles that center tab is broken but if I mod the grille then no stock grille will fit down the road. Dave ----

Little more work done on the truck today. I pulled the rear bumper brackets, bolts & fender braces from the Evap-A-Rust. Had to do a little more clean up of the brackets then a few coats of black paint. Between coats and drying I cleaned the bolts up on the bench grinder wire wheel. Paint drying I moved to running boards. I have 2 sets and went with the best and just happened to be the ones off the project truck. I cleaned them, sanded them to get to good base as they had a few coats of paint and then flat black the whole truck was done in. I sprayed them with acid to kill what little rust they had and are now sitting till I get primer on them. Rear bumper brackets dry I put them together and loosely mounted to the truck. I then mounted the bumper made sure all looked good and tighten all the bolts. I had to do this to make sure the brackets are straight on the truck so I can pull the rear bumper for my custom touch. Here it is now what ever I do to it I can't hurt it! I then moved on to the front bumper. I had to mount it so I could mock up how it will look with the lights I want to mount in it. Once mounted and the "mocked" lights on it I had to dig out a grille and head light doors to get the full effect. The green rectangle is the size (5-3/4" x 2") of the light that is a fog & driving light, I want a driving light. This is where I was thinking they would go and would be easy to mount there as it is the flat part of the bumper. But it just did not give me warm fuzzies so I moved the "mocked" light. I did not measure I just placed it there. I like the out board spot better. In the LMC catalog it looks like they are mounted between where I have them but they are for the late 70's trucks. http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fc/full.aspx?Page=80 where the frame is in farther then our 80's truck. It will take more work to mount them to the out side as that part of the bumper is angled back and the light would need to point straight. I guess the next step on the front bumper is to get the lights if the banker will let me. As for turning the chrome blue I am not worried on the front or rear bumpers as my custom touch has welding involved. I would need to weld the light brackets to the back side and if I go with the out board set up I would need to fill the gap as the light needs to point straight. This is the kind of work I enjoy doing, just look at the firewall, metal floor and duel tanks on a flare side Dave ----

On the lights I did not want them above or below the bumper as they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. I also like the custom touch it adds being in the bumper, like the duel tanks on the flare side I have added. The round lights in the bumper I did not think would look right with the square head lights. Besides I don't have a way to cut a round hole in the bumper with out buying a large hole saw. Square I can drill out the corners and use a cut off wheel on my 4.5 grinder or a saw. I will mount the bumper and using tape or something the size of the LMC lights see how it will look. If I like it I will get the lights then cut the holes and figure what I need to do to mount them and finish the opening. I will keep everyone posted. Dave ----

On weekends if not working on the truck the mug was always full. Surf the forums drink a cup, surf , drink, etc. it adds up fast. I got home at 4pm it is now 8:30pm and only had 2 cups, I would of had 4 by this time. On the bumper the area I want to mount them is about 3" high but can go pretty wide. I also want the lights to be driving but may go with fog if that is all I can find. All the small square LED lights are work lights and not what I am after. I found a set of driving / fog lights on LMC I think will work but need to mock it up to see how it will look. Should look something like this but in the Bullnose bumper. http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fc/full.aspx?Page=80 It is going to get cold here for a week or so, so body work will be on hold till it warms up some. Have I told any one I hate body work? That is the biggest reason why I may not do any work till it gets a little warmer. You are doing a great job on the site and the trucks and as long as you ejoy what you are doing thatisall that counts, so what if you miss a post or 2. Dave ----

For you I can see it being easy to miss with keeping this site going, updating the great information and then doing work on your projects. Ulcer, well I cut way back on the hot tea I was drinking. I try to limit them to 6 or under if home all day and 2 or 3 when home after work till bed about 8pm. early get up is 12am late would be 3am. I only have 1 "high test" the others are Decaf for the days hot tea. The bumper was off the truck I only had the brackets hand bolted to the truck to get them out of the way. Once the brackets are de-rusted and painted I can do my "custom touch" to the bumpers. Still looking for lights to fit in the front bumper. I saw a Lighting today and it had lights that might work just need to see if I can find then and get a size. Yes now that the truck is in primer I can see where I rushed the body work on the 2 rear fenders so need to work them over some. I used a different manf. primer on the rear fenders as I could not get what I had been using. I do like the way this sprays and it stays wet longer so no dry streaks no matter how hard I tried not to get any. Also the rest of the truck I can see I did not use fine enough sand paper. I will wet sand the truck with 320 or 400 then I may need to re-prim and sand again, not using build up primer. Dave ----

I got out to the garage late today, off work for medical procedure, only got a little done. Pulled the rear bumper brackets off the frame, were only on hand tight. Once off I pulled them apart and got them soaking in Evpa-A-Rust a long with the bolts and got the rear fender braces soaking too. I have had 1 rear fender waiting for primer and the 2 fuel doors. Did a little more prep on the fender & did the 2 doors. The spray gun gave me fits before I figured out what was wrong but got primer on the fender & 2 fuel doors and to get the fender out of the way put it back on the bed with 2 nuts holding it. I do know this fender will need work as after it had primer on it I could see "issues" I am not happy with before painting. I am also sure the rest of the truck will need work to before paint but it is closer to paint. Dave ----

I had to go back thru to find out about the eye .... not good. Between my dad being blind in 1 eye from birth and me having eye issues I don't mess around with protection when working in the garage or where any could get in the eyes. If it make you feel any better ever 12 weeks I have to get a injection (read needle) in 1 of my eyes for the rest of my life if I want to keep the eye and I need the eye to pass my med card test for my CDL to drive a truck. Just had the needle this morning, can't do anything that may put pressure on the eye, like bending over or lifting haves things and why no work (pay or other wise) for the day, or could hurt the eye before the injection site heals. Take care of that eye and don't push it, what ever you want to do will be there tomorrow. Dave ----

I was going to say that and you beat me to it. I did not know this when I got into the 80 - 86 trucks. I was not so lucky as both my trucks were 81 models, project is a flare side the parts truck a style side long bed with duel tanks. The parts truck is where the rear "duel" tank system came from that I put into the flare side. Fuel doors are different between the 2 models but my brother sent me a flare side filler door section from a flare side to graft onto my fender to look factory stock. The AC system, AC & tank dash controls and all wiring also came from the parts truck, again to look factory stock. When you have a full truck for parts, swapping parts to build the truck the way you want is easy. Dave ----

Prim the frame before paint?? I did the degrease, hit it with an acid that kills any rust then paint with TSC black paint. I used the same paint on all the suspension parts so it all looks pretty. See someone else crazy enough to change the firewall Its what you do to turn a non-AC firewall into a AC firewall. Mine is also a cab off frame rebuild but no where near like Gary is doing, I could not drive the truck is I put that much work into it and looked that nice. Dave ----

I was thinking head light switch replace and check the wiring when you do it. I would also look in to the head light relay harness either way as you will have brighter head lights and it takes the load off the head light switch. Dave ----

Who said you have to run the brick dash it the later year cab? Why not use the cab as a whole with wiring and use the brick nose so it looks like a brick? Once the cab and bed are off the frame he has already gone down the briar patch Dave ----

Dave, Cab swaps are not a big deal where I live. You would just swap the VIN from the old cab to the new cab and nobody would even notice. Even if they did notice, I don't think they'd care. There is a process that you're supposed to go through here for modifications like tubbing a body/frame to fit giant pro-street tires, etc but for everyday body swap parts and panels, swapping a cab here would be as simple as swapping a bed. We have inspections here, but only for safety related items, and these days RUST. It is possible for somebody at an inspection station to get really fussy and fail something, but I've not heard of it personally. Ya know, I see trucks on the road that have had solid axle swaps in the front, and I know they haven't been through the engineering modification approval at the DMV. It sounds like you guys have it covered. I fear doing a cab swap and then stuck not being able to get plates because of miss matched numbers. I guess if you had paper work from both trucks so if the VIN miss match came up you have the paper work. Dave ----

It actually does look good in that picture, but it's rusted out from the inside. From a different angle, you can that it is dimpled bad where the mounting bolts are...this is from the rust on the inside. Most people would probably never know the difference, but I tried to take the bolts out of it so that I could get the brackets sand blasted, and I probably ruined what is left of the bumper...two of the carriage bolts are spinning in it now. I am sure I could have squeezed another season or two out of it, but now that I can't even tighten bolts in it, it's probably not much good. I did see the "dimples" and thought maybe that was why the swap? I was then going to say pull in off, lay it on say a 2x6 wood plank and use the end of a 2x4 to hammer out the dimples. If it is not rusted thru I would not scrap it, never know what you may want to use it on. What if you were to cut the bolts off, hammer out the dimples then with new bolts bolted to the brackets put the bumper up to the bolts and weld them from the face side. Build up the welds so you can finish them flat and re-chrome the bumper. It would be a custom free floating bumper like they did back in the day. No I don't plan on doing that to my bumpers, no not at all Dave ----

A little up date from the user that had / has this issue. He installed another IVR and now the temp gauge is not going to fill hot but is reading a little lower than it did before or where he thinks if should. He has not confirmed what the temp is of the motor as it could also be low and why the gauge reads low. The fuel gauge still does not work and he will look into that in due time. I think he is taking a break from working the truck as this temp gauge problem beat him up pretty good. Thanks for the help and it did point out that all trucks had temp gauges but if the truck has ALT / OIL lights then it needs a sender for lights and if the parts person ask "gauge or lights" someone may say gauge because that's what the dash has in it for temp. Dave ----

Cory why do you need to replace that bumper as it looks good to me. Now if you had holes drilled in it to hold a plate and larger ones for the trailer hitch I can see that. I have a plan for custom touch on mine & the front one also. As for a stock chrome one I have heard A to Z is the only place that fits our trucks but with out the brackets that no one has or makes, you are stuck with out a rear bumper. Back at Xmas time by brother said the flare side he got the tail gate and some other parts from had a step bumper. I asked if it hung out the sides like a style side one would? He said no it did not and could not remember if there was a name on it as to who makes it or if it had the factory brackets, not that he would know by looking at either. I think I heard something about S10 rear bumper might be the right size to work but not tested or know what brackets could be used? Maybe adapt the S10 brackets? Dave ----

All the ones I have come across come off. They do like to rust in place. If you hit it with a little PB Blaster and tap with a hammer it will come loose to clean up. Dave ----

So where is the rust that cant be fixed? The picture of the cab that I can see does not look that bad. I think mine was a lot worst than that. And that was just the left side had to do the same on the other side also. I got to ask you guys doing the cab swaps how you going to deal with the VIN being different than the frame VIN? You have paper work on the frame & cab to show the DMV that you own both? Dave ----

Oh you remember that I thought you were going to say using a style side metal ribbed floor in place of the wood floor the flare sides come with. Dave ----

It would be nice to stay out of AZ but if they are the only one close then ...... After seeing what Gary posted and looking at the AZ site it is real easy to get the wrong one when all the trucks have a temp gauge bit the part is listed for lights????? If I was going the try and re-pin the plug I would look into replacing the whole wiring harness but that's me, I have been known to do some crazy things Dave ----

It was from my dad who been doing body work back in the late 40's, again the paint was a whole lot different back then. You ever do a 1 coat hot enamel paint job with no reducer then a 50/50 cut mist for the second and last coat? As it cools and dries if flows out like glass without sanding & buffing. Cant do that with todays paint as it is the wrong type of enamel paint and the heat speeds up hardener if it is added. Back then it took so much longer for paint to cure, like a hot paint job, that it could bleed colors and why I said that. Because I don't do this every day when I go into get paint supplies I sometimes get strange looks and have to explain to the young person what I am looking for. I only have 1 more project to paint and that will be it for body work& painting for me. Dave ----

I guess that could be easy enough to do, az: gauges or lights? person: it has a temp gauge az: OK it is xxxx here you go! and now we know if the truck has warning lights it does have a temp gauge but uses a different sender because of the warning lights. That is why I like to look up the part numbers before I go so when they say something that don't quite sound right I can tell them the part number I want. If it is wrong then it is on me but I do check what their information has to say before taking said part. Thanks again for the help Dave ----

Why take the easy way now I like the red centers and if the brass was polished they would look sweet. Black in the center of the M M? Dave ----

I don't remember if he posted the part number for it but all 3 times? I guess it could happen I will pass on the information and hope it is that easy. I did a little more look in the wiring area and for the 85 trucks, close enough for an 84 truck, it does show a 14 wire plug for warning light cluster and 18 wire plug for the gauge cluster so no way plug n play. Thanks for your help. Dave ---- EDIT: I just was going back over your post and getting confused, it don't take much but wouldn't the variable-resistance one be for the gauge and the on/off switch for the light? Then again we said the warning light cluster had a temp gauge so would it not work like the temp gauge in a gauge cluster? Why 2 different senders? Even Auto Zone lists 2 different senders, gauges or with light? This is crazy and no wonder why the gauge does not work right.

Thanks guys, When I first went thru Gray's post and saw "no temp gauge" I thought I found why the person was having issues with the temp gauge. Then a little more reading of Cory's post and reply back from Gary the cluster did have the temp gauge. So we are back at square 1 with this users issue with his 84 F150 300 six with warning lights. After a short time running, less than 5 mins, the temp gauge will peg to hot but the motor is no where near even warm. He has changed the sender 3 time but before installing he would test it by putting it between a 12 volt battery & meter. Thinking this was hurting the sender the last one went right into the block and did the same thing. If he disconnects the wire at the sender the gauge goes to cold and if grounded goes to hot so the wiring and gauge check out. He has also replaced the IVR a few months ago with no change. We were thinking if he had to change out the gauge why not swap the whole cluster for gauges? I thought if the cluster was swapped as a whole with the right circuit board and a change of the switches for senders would be ok other than the ALT wiring. Now you are saying the trucks harness is also different between warning light & gauges so guess we will shelve that "fix". Thanks again for the help. Dave ----