FuzzFace2

Welcome #3 from another flare side owner. Mine is also an 81 but has a little 300 six. I wished mine was that nice when I bought it. I am almost at the body painting stage after a cab off frame rebuild. Yes we can help when you have questions so ask away! Dave ----

I like SEM myself. You can find it at auto body supply stores some times in a spray can on the shelf or they can mix it. Some can put it in a spray can or pt/qt cans and you use a spray gun to apply it. With anything prep is the BIG THING! With inside parts I hit with a degreaser then I wash them with soap & hot water 2 to 3 times and degreaser again. SEM also uses a bonding agent you put on first before painting. As for colors not matching remember the old parts have been in the truck how long? The sun / UV can change the color. I have also seen some colors can be 2 or 3 different shades in the same car/truck depending on who makes the parts that are supplied. If you want 1 color re-paint everything ;) That is what I am doing but all the panels needed to be painted anyway. Dave ----

Goal is little less RPM at high way speeds, here that is 70+, legal is 65-70. Rush hour stop n go so thinking a split gear and let it idle so no need to hit brakes or clutch. The truck, 300 six/T18/2.75 rear gear for now. It will be a back up to pull my car trailer when needed, guessing a weight of 5K give or take some. It is all just dreaming / planning for now as the truck is not even on the road yet to see how it does as it sits. Sorry for the high jack and thanks for the information. Dave G.

Ok I under stand on the pump as it must be driven inside off the input shaft. If I did go with GV OD I would not be starting off in 1st OD but shifting to it once moving then to 2nd. I would run a 2sp rear button/knob on the side of the stock shifter like they do on 2sp rear trucks. I drove one and it was easy to use. As for splitting all the gears going up or down I don't think it would be worth it as some of the ratios would be so close why bother? It would be one of them things once driving and tested you would know if you wanted to split or not. Then again if GV said not good when down shifting might have to rethink this. The only thing I did not like with the Ranger unit was needing to cut the stock trany front bearing retainer and then not being able to go back stock with out needing to find another. I also did not like the 2nd shifter handle, had one in a Toyota LC and was a pain if you wanted to split gears. Now if you can fit it with an electric type motor that was fast enough, and used the 2sp knob might be a way to go? Thanks for the information. Dave ----

Ok got it. Well if anyone is looking up this information the Ranger link is in here too. I do have a question on the GV OD unit. Do you know why they don't want it going into OD below 25/30 MPH? So if you had a T18 you could not split 1st gear, granny 1st to 1st OD then to 2nd direct, if I under stand right. Thanks Dave ----

LOL modern times we do home work on PC's LOL Laptop batt needs to be replaced so only last a few min. on batt and then it turns off with no warning! The foster we have a Jack Russell Terrier mix was running all over the place like they do and knocked the plug out of the wall. I was at the part of the running board when the laptop shut down. I was a little upset to say the least. Its all good now. Have to go out and drop the mower deck and hook up the garden plow on the tractor, wife wants to plant today before it gets too hot. Dave ----

I blame the dog pulling the plug ........ yea that's it the dog! My key board space bar does not work all the time either so have to go back and fix that when typing. I will see if I can go clean it up some. Yes good progress. I did not know of any other way to get that vent in the neck. Maybe when I pull the bed off for painting I can remove that filler and hose from tank and start at the neck end fitting the vent first then the hose and work the tank end as I think the vent / hose & tank is better to work with, will have to see. When I remove the bed I was just going to unbolt the plastic boxes from the fenders and let them hang so I did not have to deal with them. Should not be too hard to check that rear hose / vent & neck. Dave ----

I was wrong! The 1983 facts book says a regular cab long bed F250 HD 4x4 starts at 4372 lbs, which is about 400 lbs heavier. And it shows a DRW to be 297 lbs heavier than a SRW. And a crew cab is 482 heavier than a regular cab. Plus, an F350 is 100 lbs heavier than a HD F250. So, if I take Darth's 6400 lbs and subtract 100 for the F250, 297 for the SRW, and 482 for a regular cab then Big Blue should weight 5521 lbs - without the big tires, big bumper, toolbox and its significant contents, extra battery, and winch. I know Darth's tires are big, but these are HEAVY! And the bumper is 1/4" plate. Plus the toolbox has a full toolbox of hand tools, chain, ratchet straps, chocks, tree saver strap, 3 boomers, snatch block, hooks, bottle jack, 4-way, jumper cables, the winch 10' 2/0 jumper, and chain links. So, I'm going to guess that Big Blue would come in a bit above 6000 lbs. I know the whole thing is to use OD in 4x4 or a way to lock OD out when in 4x4. I have not seen it posted of the Ranger Torque Splitter http://www.advanceadapters.com/categories/ranger-torque-splitter/236/ Being it goes between the motor & trany it can be used in 4x4 but you do end up with a second shift lever. Now can it be made to shift with a push / pull solenoid type deal? Dave ----

Had a long post almost done and the dog pulled plug on computer :-arrgh :'( Before it got too hot, low to mid 90's today & tomorrow, I hit the garage at 6am. I got the 2 wheel cly from Rock Auto yesterday so set out to replace them. Both were new when I rebuilt the rear drums but 1 was leaking and I had not even driven it! The leaking side came apart easy but not so going back together. Bolted up and line tight put the pins in the cly and 1 side would not push in WTH! Pulled it out to look at and it now the pin went in?? So back in it went and had to fight with the springs! Took me 45 min to swap the cly, the other side was like 10 min max. I did a quick adjustment on them as I did not do that before and maybe why the low pedal ...... I hope! Pulled out my Snap On vacuum bleeder and pulled fluid thru the rear as the front were done weeks ago. Pedal is still low with motor off so will get the wife to pump the brakes to bleed the old way. If I still have issues will need to look at adjusting the push rods as the pedals, booster & master came from my parts truck so who knows? I then worked on the fuel filler necks. What my FS came with I think was the FS part but was cut and spliced using exh pipe and rubber hose so I did not want to use it. The front door & plastic box is FS as the mounting holes are different than the SS truck doors & plastic box. The filler neck I think was from the front tank of the parts truck along with the rubber hose and vent tube. It went together easy with a little lube. Then on to the rear filler neck & hose. My brother sent me a FS door, plastic box, straight neck,and part of the 90* rubber hose & vent tube just short of the tank. The FS hose would not reach the rear tank hole if Idid have it. I am using the SS rear tank, rubber hose & vent tube. I could not use the SS neck that has a 90* as it hit the bed floor and was to short to bolt to the plastic box. So I used the FS straight neck & part of the vent tube (right side of picture), the FS 90* rubber hose (center of picture) and the SS tank hose & vent tube (left side of picture) Short copper pipe & clamps to join the vent tubes together. You can just make out the clamps inside the exh pipe used to join the 2 outer hoses together. Now if you look at the neck the vent tube is lower than the top of the rubber hose so how do you get the vent into it's holder in the neck? I used a coat hanger from the outside of the neck down into the vent of the neck and into the vent tube after the outer rubber hose was put into place. I hope the vent went into the neck holder. It's a done deal now. I don't have any pictures of this next part. I also got FS running boards w/brackets and fender braces but 1 of the boards got bent pretty good from a fork lift from the looks. I wanted the nuts & bolts and fender braces for my truck, mine was a mix of hard ware and missing the braces. Getting the hardware off was a job as the carriage bolts turned in the holes use MAP gas to burn the fiber glass out so I get to the bolt heads with vice grips and got them out. I need to clean them up before I can use them. Now that job turned into straightening the running board some to get to the hard ware that ran into straightening the whole board. Its a vary good spare but still going to use the ones I have. By that time it was 2pm and 92*+ in the garage so I called it a day! Dave ----

Oh man what did I start Not in the body of the truck but on the bracket. This way you hold the bracket up to the back side of the panel, line up the holes to the nutserts and insert the bolts and tighten down. Other wise you have to sneak your hand with lock washer & nut or lock nut up there, then get a wrench on it to keep from turning wile you tighten them down. Then again if a nut & bolt was good for the factory so be it Dave ----

It dose look good. Gary, that door opens the full width & top to bottom. If you look at the others they make the opening smaller so you can't get in large loads. Look at ATV's or garden tractors they sit high so no go with the other types. Dave - - - -

Gary, my truck did have the holes in the rear sill it was the plate bracket that Ron made that did not have the holes. He said he did not add them to the bracket or the ones for the plate light because the mounting holes may be different between trucks and for the light some people may not use the stock plate light like I am thinking about going LED. The nut cert I should have added and may still yet, to the plate bracket. Right now you need nut & bolt and it can be hard getting hands & tools in on the back side is all. Dave - - - -

That may help others if they come across the page as I did not know what the (xx) number was for. I also saw in the 13550 area a B-R--w/chrome bumper , B--w/painted bumper , A for the "83" light and was looking for foot notes what they were for. Dave ----

De-coder ring to figure out how to read the part numbers At first I thought with out bumper PN:D6TZ 13550-A but looking up pictures thru Google they just did not look right So I picked PN: D7AZ 13550-A (no note with or with out bumper) and that looks more like the parts book picture on Google. Less bulb socket. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2322090.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XD7AZ+13550-A.TRS0&_nkw=D7AZ+13550-A&_sacat=0 Now they go for $20+ s/h to $46+ s/h again less bulb socket and it's not LED. Because I am in no rush when I have time I want to check other options for a light in LED models. Grote has some LED plate lights that look like they would work. Dave ----

There is a PN tab? I should know better, will check it out when ok my PC. Darin, I will see what I can come up with and will post here as the light is for this bracket. Dave G.

Gary, Would you have the full part number for the housing 13550? That socket I can get at the parts store. I used 2 of them on my custom dash on my Javelin. Thanks Dave ----

That's what I seen posted also. As long as the light has the housing & socket the pig tail I am not worried as I have to graft the rear tail light wiring to the rear Style Side truck harness anyway. Gary, thanks I will check it out. Then again some other light may catch my eye that I can use LOL Dave ----

We had one of our foster pups adopted yesterday and some yard work so a late start on the truck. Ever since I blead the brakes I have had a leak at the right rear wheel. A week ago I checked the line & bleeder and were tight so I pulled the wheel & drum thinking I would find my new shoes soaked. Well was happy the shoes were dry but the new wheel cly was leaking from 1 of the cups down the backing plate and out. The wheel cly has been in about a year but only had fluid no more than a month. I checked my local AZ and they have a power brake cly in stock but do not even list a non-power one so have to dig deeper to see if they are the same or not. On the tail gate I use a washer between body & hinge as a spacer. It worked but needed a little more and I did not like the 1 washer look so a better spacer needed to be made. Looking around I came across the fiber glass fuel door cut out. It was a little thicker and easy to work with. I laid the hinge on the sheet and traced the "foot print" so it supported the full hinge base on the body. Did not get a picture but don't know if you could see them as they are the same foot print as the hinge but the spacing is good now. Just as I was finishing that up my new rear lic. plate mount from Ron aka Reamer, showed up so had to test fit it on the truck. Had to drill 2 holes on the bracket to mount to the truck but other than that it fit like a glove! I then moved on to the rear fuel tank filler neck & hose, front I had done a few weeks ago. When my brother sent parts to me, part of them was a stock flare side filler door on down to about a foot from the tank and cut the rubber hose and inner plastic vent tube. The style side part I had where the bend was it hit the floor. I might of made it work but the flare side hose had the bend farther down and would work better. I can get that hose and the part on the tank all ready together using exh. pipe & clamps. The inner plastic will take a little more work to join the 2 parts but I have a plan just hope its a good one. Other than replacing that leaking wheel cly I think I have to get on the rest of the body work as I don't have much more little things to like this to do. I hate body work and why I have been putting it off. Dave ----

Ron did a great job making it. After I drilled the 2 mounting holes it bolt right on and looks good. I had to pull the plate off my Gremlin as I could not find any of my others to show it mounted. After I drilled the mounting holes I got thinking I should have used a nut cert on the bracket. When I mount it for good I will use security bolts and lock nuts if the nut certs don't fit as I seen posted a member had one stolen off his truck. Now I have to find the plate light but I have time to look for one and hear they are not too hard to find as they were used on other models. Dave ----

Got the bracket to day and about an hour later had it test fitted to the truck. Best picture I could get as I cannot get it outside at this time, rear wheelsareoff. Dave ----

The hard to find parts I think I do at this point. Tail lights I should be able to come up with if I don't go with LMC LED ones at $160+ for the pair. It was the light & fender opening brackets that you can't get that I was after. Ron should be sending a plate bracket and told the light you can still get so we are looking good. I hope to get the last of the body work done his weekend if not too hot. Dave - - - -

Not to the truck but for the truck. My brother in CA sent me another care package with more flare side parts. Got the 2 steps, 1 got crunched by the fork lift it looks like, and all the brackets and fender opening support brackets. I also got the rear fender opening support brackets too. He sent the 2 tail lights, 1 housing is cracked, both lenses and 1 side leans are gone. The big thing is they came with brackets to bolt to the bed! He also sent all the bolts & nuts needed for the parts sent. Now I need to get in gear and finish the body work and get paint on this truck! Dave ----

I will get better pictures of what I have. Dave - - - -

I listed them in my first post. The only measurements I did not get and can is from the door bolts to the other 2 bolts holding the plastic box to the inside of the panels. I will tell you the holes are a lot larger than the screws so you can adjust the door to fit the opening. BTW the flare side door is the brown one the silver one style side. Dave - - - -

What better picture do you want? Both of my flare side doors are installed on the fender / truck but once I know what you are looking for picture wise I will see what I can do. Dave ----