Rembrant

By the way, this reminds me...I follow this girl on Instagram with a 1972 F100, and she posts a lot of stuff from her late father's collection of car stuff. This past week she posted a bunch of pictures from a 1985 Montgomery Ward truck accessories catalog. I've never heard of this company, but some of you might remember it? Anyway, one of the pages shows a rear window tunnel accessory (Item M in the picture below, 2nd item down the right hand images). I can't read the details, but I assume it was meant for a similar purpose?

It almost turns a pickup into a Bronco, doesn't it? Be handy if you have dogs and want them in the cab with you but don't have room.

I don't think very many Bullnoses had the idiot lights did they? I know they exist...I have seen them, but only on the most absolute stripped trucks. I assume the illuminated part of that light is part of the gauge itself and is separate from the instrument cluster illumination? https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-1980-6-FORD-TRUCK-F-150-250-350-BRONCO-INSTRUMENT-CLUSTER-NO-TACH/222977928841?hash=item33ea852e89:g:R0oAAOSwBkRaCPmf

The shipping on that would cost as much as a whole truck;). I was thinking more of the little type "small box" items, and even then, they'd have to be something obscure that you couldn't find at home. Still, I've shipped parts all over the place...most recently Australia to Darin, but also all over the US. It has to make sense of course. YOu guys have much bigger junkyards than I do. Can't wait to see how this progresses though. This will be a cool build. If I had the time and money, I'd have a yard full of stuff like this to work on.

I'm a big fan of the M5OD 5spd swap in the 1/2 ton trucks. It was a really easy swap on my truck, but my truck had a factory hydraulic clutch so that makes things a little bit easier. Converting a mechanical clutched truck to hydraulic is not a big deal...you just need the pedal set, and then the rest is pretty easy.

Oh man, I have been there so many times...standing over a pile of whatever I just dragged home asking myself what on earth did I just do?>..lol. The truck looks great! THe mechanical work all seems pretty straight forward no? It is the wiring that is going to take some tongue biting to sort out. I like the idea of the headache rack too, to fill up the potential space between the cab and box...but a nice flat deck would look pretty good too. I'll be following along with this build. Our local junkyard had an F350 diesel that came in a few months ago, and I'm sure it was a 1995. It was one of those airport trucks with the rear wheels almost hitting the cab, but it was 100% complete. I'll check it out this weekend and see if it's still there and not picked clean in case there are any little odds and ends you need.

Shaun, I have one of these lenses I'll never use. I'll dig it out sometime this week and see what condition it is in. I bought a full US cluster out of an '84 Bronco for the tach, and I'll never use the lens.

It takes 5 "bulbs" to do the illumination of the gauges, if that's what you meant. Gary, Are you bench testing these or putting them in the dash of a truck? I really like the clear white (the first one). Very cool. I'm currently very happy with the Cool Blues I bought on Ebay, but if I was to do something different it would be those cool whites for sure.

This is the 460's purpose. I beat on mine almost every day. It just keeps going. No drama, no complaining. I was doing some reading last night on some RV forums, and I found quite a few discussions where people went to pretty great lengths trying to get better MPG out of the 460, and every time the responses were the same: "No noticeable difference". Seems 6-8 MPG is the norm, and 9 maybe 10 if you're driving easy on flat ground with a tail wind. Getting more power is no problem obviously, but more MPG seems to be unattainable. We don't really intend to leave the Maritimes with it, so FE is not a huge concern. Gas is about $4.25/gallon for me right now, although it will likely be closer to $5 even by summer. None of the sellers we spoke to could tell us the size of the fuel tanks, but I'm guessing from what they told me their fill up costs were, they must have approx 38-40 gallon tanks?

And the ones I'm looking at are closer to 30 years old. They're all relatively low mileage...most of the time well under 100k miles, but they're still old and they've been worked hard.

So does the manifold shear the bolts off in the head too, or does it just crack? We had a Jeep years ago with this exhaust manifold issue, and the expansion/contraction of it would shear the end manifold bolts off in the cylinder head. Ok, good info in any case. I've been told to listen for the tick tick tick exhaust noise.

True. I guess it depends on the condition I find one in. If I see wiring harness all hacked up and looking like spaghetti, then I'll probably be avoiding it. I actually don't mind automotive electrical...but I don't care for it much once somebody else has been in there.

So we went to look at two RV's today, and going to go see another on Tuesday. They are all 460 EFI with the E4OD trans. Mostly 1990-1992 stuff. There is another one a fair distance away that is really cheap, but the seller tells me that it has a cracked manifold...and another guy told me today to watch for cracked manifolds on the 460. Is this a known issue with the 460's? Everybody says they have lots of power, and one guy pulls an enclosed trailer with a drag car in it with his and says it works fine. My issue with the early EFI systems is when they stop working right. I know when they're working properly they do work well, but I see a lot of people online struggling with them when they have a problem with them. I also see a lot of early EFI trucks converted to carb...I guess that is the default thing to do when you can't make them work right (or you mod them).

Yeah, he sent me the same thing. Looks like it attached to the fenders rather than the bumper?...I dunno.

Done.

Something like this one below. The big front spoilers were not hugely popular on the trucks, but they were available back in the day. I believe Lund used to make them as well. Like Gary says...they were very popular on the vans though...they had a street culture all their own back then. My old 1980 F100 had a roof spoiler on it...they were pretty rare too, but I did see two of them for sale a year or so ago...same kinda deal...unpainted originals that were never installed.

This item is in Canada but I'm posting it up anyway since you don't see things like this pop up very often. It is aftermarket obviously, but claims it was never installed. https://www.kijiji.ca/v-auto-body-parts/london/1980-86-ford-truck-air-dam/1489068048 I'm not familiar with Go Industries.

I don't know how well a pollen filter would work on a free flow system...it would probably block most of the flow?...Then again I'm thinking of a vehicle cabin filter...is that the same thing? I'm sure you could fit a filter of some kind...just not sure how it would work without a fan to actually push the air. I'm with Scott though...if you drive in the winter and forget one of those vents open, you'll know it very quickly, so they do indeed flow pretty well assuming the air has somewhere to go.

Yes sir, the Grote lights are easy to install, and only about $25 bucks each...maybe less.

I don't think there'd be any moisture issues. Ford probably built hundreds of thousands of these trucks equipped with these vents. The vents are up quite high off the floor...it's more like they're under the dash. Here's my passenger side...kick panel is currently not on of course... The block off plates go in the hole behind the vents when the vents are removed. From the outside of the truck, they'd be right behind where the heat/AC box gets it's fresh air...right above where the drains are for the cowl area (Behind the fenders). I outlined it in yellow below...not sure how well it will show up.

Excellence. Thanks guys.

I have, yes...but I have a spare scrap bezel here that I was able to steal a lens from. I removed a bezel from a truck at the junkyard and it was missing a lens and had a couple others that were disconnected on one end. So I stuck a new one in the empty hole and glued it in place with a glue gun (from my wife's tool box...lol). I also cut the end(s) off the other loose lenses and glued them back in place as well. Looks like they attached those lenses at least two different ways. I have a bezel or two here where they were melted into place, and another one where they were glued into place. In any case, they can be fixed. If there is a specific lens you need let me know I could send you one if I have it.

Gary, Part of my problem might be the aftermarket front fenders, but the aprons don't seem to fit all that well. The body shop basically left the aprons outside of the fenders all the way around, and I'm thinking that they need to go inside the fenders...at least portions of them do. I have nice original style screws and clips, but I'm just curious how they're supposed to before I try forcing anything... I can't really tell from the pics above.

Gentlemen, When I had my truck painted, the body shop didn't install the fender liners properly where they fit with the fenders and the cab. I'm just working on it today, and this is probably a dumb question, but can anybody explain where they fit inside and where they fit outside? Does that make any sense?... They were attached wherever there were machine screws, but none of the clips and screws were put in along the edges where the lip of the fender is.

I don't know how well my '84 would pull anything. With the 5spd and the 3.08 diff, she has pretty long legs. They did come from the factory like that after 1987, but I'd say they were pretty light duty. There are several reasons for the RV, but the main reason is so we can have our dogs with us...and they weigh 70 lbs each. We can't all fit in the cab of my truck. If I had a proper pickup for a daily driver, then I'd buy a trailer pretty quickly...it would make more sense.