Rembrant

A really common rust area on these trucks is the rear upper shock mounts. They are like a cup that captures and holds salt and debris and eventually eats a hole right through the frame. A quick and dirty (and common) fix is to put a plate on the outside of the frame. I've seen many of them like this, and there's a shiny example on Ebay right now with a crusty looking frame. https://www.ebay.com/itm/163972943658 If you see a rusty frame, there's a good chance you can poke a screwdriver (or a hammer) right through the frame in the middle of the three bolts for the upper shock mount. I had to repair mine in this location, but I removed the mount and grafted a new piece into the frame that can't be seen now. Another thing to note if you're in the rust belt is that vehicles will always begin to rust first on the driver's side, or worse on the driver's side, so if inspecting a frame or body for rust or weak spots, etc...always pay very close attention to the driver's side first.

I've had about a dozen VW's, and have been running the diesels for quite a while now. The old NA ones were slugs and you had to push them up the hills, but they'd get 50 MPG all day long, and sometimes more. The last real fuel miser I had was an 03 Golf TDI. The little bugger would hold 16 gallons of fuel and if I kept the speed at 65 mph or lower, it would get 800 miles to a tank. Man I loved that little car. My current VW Golf TDI just barely gets 40 MPG.

Don't the previous gen trucks have narrower frames than the Bullnoses? That probably explains why the bracket holes were in a different location? Assuming the bumpers were the same.

Gary, I’ve been looking around at AC parts and components and something I’m not finding easily is the heat/AC control panel without the dual fuel tank switch. I know they existed as AC was an option in Flaresides obviously but every time I find a controller or pictures of one it always has the dual tank switch.

Hey Scott, Any idea how close these vents match the locations of the factory AC vents? What I'm getting at is, do you know if the factory AC duct would work with these vents?

David, You're a good man! Thank you sir. I ended up buying these parts and got a little bit of a discount on them. The shipping from North Dakota or wherever they were cost as much as the parts, but I'm OK with that. It looks like everything is there. There is only one part there that I can't identify but I'm sure it will become clear once I have the stuff in front of me. I also ordered a crank pulley with the 3rd sheave for the AC belt. It is coming from North Carolina I believe. That gets me some critical parts for the conversion. As per Lebaron previously, I will keep my eyes open for a 94-97 AC system and components, but right now a Bullnose V-belt system is going to be easier for me to deal with, even if it isn't as good. I plan on putting a shut off valve on the heater core hose(s) anyway, so I will have control over that.

Gary that makes perfect sense. When I went looking for info on the different kick panels, I thought that the ones in the AC cabs had a different purpose and that they would be required for an AC swap. Now that I see they are not required at all and I can get the same effect by just closing the vents, it makes sense to leave them be. Our hot months here are obviously July and August, and it's not all that uncommon to hit 85-90 degrees, but it is the humidity that is the killer most of the time. It's also warmer in May and September than it used to be too. I guess it's all in what you're used to. A day that I find uncomfortably hot might feel like a cool fall day to Shaun...lol. I'm hoping the new sliding rear window helps with some air flow on the cooler days when AC isn't needed. Ha! I actually checked and cleaned them when I had the fenders off this summer. They were surprisingly clean. The truck still only has 40,000 miles on it, and the original owner did keep it in a barn or under a canopy of some sort when he wasn't using it. My wife parks under a tree at the house and I'm constantly digging leaves and twigs out of her cowl vents in the fall.

Good job Ron. I was going to make a few extra sets myself but I ran out of season and threw my truck together before copying my own. Nice to see you doing it. There seems to be a fairly steady stream of people looking for them.

Edit: Right...I just read that you said you wouldn't change them. I was thinking that after the fact...I can just keep the vents closed if need be when using the AC. I guess that's no big deal. Saves me some hassle.

Thanks Gary, I didn't realize that you had already created a page on the topic. Ok, I'll try to get a set of these panels as well.

Hey Gary, I seem to recall reading that the passenger side kick panel is different on the trucks with factory AC. Do you know if this is right or wrong?

Great info Gary, thanks! And yes I did contact Clay. Going to talk today when he gets a look at the part. That's good info to have on the number suffix. So I'm off to a good start with the hard parts for this swap. Thanks for all the help!

They seemed to show up once in a while in Non-HD F250's. Less than 8500 GVWR.

I believe the front fenders attach different at the bottom. The bottom bolt that secures the rear of the fender the cab on the Bullnose is vertical, and this attachment point on the '92 cab will be for a bolt that is horizontal. This is not a big deal...lots of guys have done this swap, you will just have to cut the tabs off the '92 cab and weld in tabs for the Bullnose clips and vertical bolts. Body lines line up, yes. The cowl panel on the '92 cab won't match the lines on the Bullnose hood, so you'll have to swap this part also. No big deal if you have the Bullnose front clip and still have the cowl panel. For some reason or another the cowl panels are galvanized or something...they are the only part of the truck that never rusts out...lol.

I'm not familiar with the 255 V8, but assuming that it the same as a 302, the mechanical fuel pump bolts to the driver's side of the timing cover...just below/behind the power steering pump. There should be a short piece of rubber hose on the inlet side of the pump between the pump and the steel line on the frame rail. This is where you could connect your gas jug. Pick up some 5/16" fuel hose and you can run it from the pump to a gas jug. Look at my engine below and you can see the fuel pump just in front of the oil filter. I have a piece of hose on the inlet with a bolt stuck in the end of it. If you look just a few inches over, you can see a little piece of rubber hose on the end of the steel line on the frame (I believe it also had a bolt in it). If it's all still original, there should be a steel fuel line that goes from the fuel pump to the carb, and the fuel filter will be screwed into the carb (and the fuel line screws into the filter). See picture below...the male threads screw into the carburetor.

That is a pretty truck. The bed is super clean too.

Welcome aboard Shane. We have a lot of Flareside fans on here. We also have a member that makes licence plate brackets like the original ones that came on the Flaresides. http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/5-brackets-done-tp10729.html I have one of Ron's plate brackets on my truck.

That would be awesome Gary, thank you! I found this one below that almost matches 100%...it has A3A instead of AA... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-4-Groove-302-351-Crank-Pulley-D3DE-6312-A3A/254195743828?epid=1033857901&hash=item3b2f3f3c54:g:ucMAAOSwjR5awn6W

David, That second one looks like it might work, but I'll have to find a way to confirm so before buying one. My existing pulley is a two groove...one for the ALT and one for the rad fan and Pwr Steering. The pulley for a 302 with AC must have 3 grooves...but I don't know what it looks like.

Dave, This was kind of my plan, to trace out the AC holes and mark them on my Non-AC cab. It doesn't look all that bad. If you look at the marked up picture below, I see three things that need to be done: 1. A small piece would have to be added here...welded in I suppose. The AC hole here is slightly smaller (shorter) than the Non-AC. 2. This is the one set of holes that overlap each other. On the Non-AC cab this is where the blend door cable passes through. On the AC cab this is where the heater core tubes pass through. I would just cut it out and make an adapter plate here. NBD. 3. The inside air recirc hole, obviously not present on the Non-AC cab. This area would have to be heavily modified anyway, even if I install an aftermarket system like Vintage Air, etc, and at least with a factory AC swap, none of it is visible once installed. The local guy that is parting out the '86 with AC has gone radio silent, so I'm not sure if the parts are even available anymore. He was also trying to sell the whole truck, so it might be gone. I know of another AC truck that is being parted out, but the dash is no good. The factory AC dash has always been the wild card/difficult to find item. I guess at the end of the day, I could install a hybrid factory AC system. In other words, the whole thing would be factory, but I'd run flexible ducting for the instrument panel and dash registers. That wouldn't be the end of the world either. In any case, I think I'll make an offer on the 302 parts David linked to earlier. They're also a stumbling block that needs to be overcome. The parts appear to be complete except for the crank pulley, so I'll be on the hunt for one of those.

After reviewing this some more, I have a couple more questions... Are the vacuum motors and cables for the AC system still available new or aftermarket? For a factory system, is the little throttle kicker solenoid going to be required on a 302? On the ducting...the FSM shows a door to direct it to the 'instrument panel'. I assume the two instrument panel registers are tied to the two registers above the glove box?

I think you'd be pretty safe making that choice even without looking them over.

Nice finds. I'd take that one from California long before the one from Wisconsin.

Thanks for the reply. If all goes well I will get to attempt this swap, and if not then I'll just go back to the original plan of an aftermarket AC system.

Jon, I think I had asked you before about painting the dash and that it was no problem. I was pretty sure that was OK. About removing the shell. Is there much to it once the dash pad and radio/instrument bezels are removed? Does the steering column need to be removed or simply unbolted from the dash bracket?