Rembrant

Ok, thanks for the info. I just ordered a Kenwood last night myself. I forgot about the non-CD units being shorter and lighter. I'm not using CD's anymore, so a receiver is all I need. I ended up ordering a KMM-BT325U and a pair of Kenwood 6.5" round speakers and baffles for the doors.

Oh man those turbines are so classic. I love the look of them.

Hi Kevin, Welcome aboard! I passed through Phoenix a small handful of times on business trips back around 2005-2007. I was never there for very long, but I did take a full day to myself one time and hiked to the top of Camelback, and that was a great adventure. I've passed through Michigan a couple times, but have not stepped foot on to the UP. From what I've read, mostly in motorcycle magazines, it's quite nice up there. So, what's the scoop on this newly acquired Bullnose?... We need details and plans...lol.

I took his comment to mean an early Bullnose Bronco... (Edit...I was typing while Scott was replying)

Excellent! I'll be doing the same shortly;). Thanks Grumpin.

Excellent. Good to know they fit. I'll get 'em cleaned up and painted with some new bushings.

Thanks even the wife said she liked it I really pushed to get it this far over the weekend and I am happy I did and the way it turned out. The next step is to get paint on the bed so I need to pick up paint for it so it is on hand. As for together soon ...... don't think so., but will keep plugging away at it. I need weather strip kit to put the doors together as I have nothing for the glass, it was all at the bottom of the doors! Need the door handle gaskets too, all nickel & dime stuff but it adds up fast! I will go thru my parts and get the best ones to fix / clean / paint before they go back on. I may do this before next weekend as we are to get part of that hurricane and don't think I will have work. I just need to move the truck to the house garage, wife should like that as her car has to go out, so I can lay parts out on the floor. Dave ---- Lookin' great Dave!~

When I was at the junkyard on Saturday and went around and checked a few different 1987-1996 trucks to see if I could grab a couple of the later style striker posts. Does anybody know if they will work as-is on the Bullnose doors? I thought I had read over on FTE that the later style striker post introduced in 1987 replaced the previous 1980-1986 version. Anyway...I noticed...and maybe you guys already know this, but on the later trucks, the striker post can be removed from the plate/bracket. I grabbed a couple from a 1994, and found a 3rd one on a believe a 1995. And the striker bolt can be threaded right out of the plate... So I went back over to a 1987 F250 that was there, and while the door striker post looked exactly the same, the post would not thread out, same as the Bullnose ones. Not sure when the change took place...1992 maybe? Anyway, I just wanted to try them and see if they fit OK, and it will be nice to have the ability to slip new bushings on. If the bracket part doesn't fit, I'll just cut it off and round out the edges to make it look like a washer.

No problem here Gary, it's just a snip from the 1984 manual. There's one for the 300 as well. I didn't think that the routing mattered much, but I remember wondering about it myself when putting my engine back in, and I've seen others ask as well.

Whenever I'm in the US, I usually go to Dunkin'. In my mind, that would be the closest thing to Tim Horton's. I don't really care for Starbucks coffee, but will drink it if I have to. Truth be told, I don't actually drink Tim's coffee all that often...not from the stores at least. We make our own at home, and I stop by in the morning for a bagel and to read a free newspaper. By the time I get to Tim's, I usually already have a half a gallon of coffee in me...lol. I've been able to give up (or greatly reduce) a lot of my bad habits over the years, but coffee isn't one of them. Some Canadians are hardcore Tim's drinkers though. I'd bet anybody a weeks wages that you could walk up to a Tim's drive through, anywhere in the country, and you'll find at least one guy sippin' on a coffee in his vehicle while ordering another one...lol.

I think that specific TOD trans is fairly uncommon isn't it?... I was going to ask why not an M5OD 5spd...same thing...aluminum case, top mounted shifter, etc...but then I remembered that you're not running a SBF and therefore need the ability to change the bellhousing. I know I'm off in a different part of the world up here, but it seems that 9 times out of 10, every 3 pedal Bullnose I see has the New Process 4spd. Then again, it IS market dependent...I know here at least, probably more than 90% of the trucks sold in that era were for work, and OD was never really needed. Don't mind me Pete, I'm just rambling...

I'm running the Fel-Pro Perma-Dry Plus 1pc pan gasket (and valve cover gaskets). I didn't personally install the pan gasket, so I don't know if they used at RTV or not, but it's still nice and dry under there. My truck is 100% drip free, and I love it...lol.

I just took a look through my 1984 FSM and I did't see anything relating to that bracket.

I happened to come across this diagram in the '84 FSM today, and it shows the hose orientation at the heater core as "Optional".

Ya, Tim’s is a bit of an institution up here. I think they’re barely a mile apart in the cities and the small towns usually have one at each end lol.

How did you mount it?

Outstanding! Well done Dave. Can't wait to see it outside in the sun with the bed on it! This thing is going to look wicked!

What did you use to mount the stereo behind the dash? Looks like it's fairly centered in the bezel? What stereo is it?

Haha! So you know about Timmy's huh? I know they were showing up in the northern states, but I didn't think that they made as far as Connecticut. Tim's is a bit of a religion up here... I probably go there sometimes...or every day...lol.

Gary, the Back to Black is just a fancier version of Armor All as far as I know? I've had the bottle for years now and usually only use it on exterior black plastics that get all faded. I thought of painting them, but I've already done the silver edging, and I really didn't plan on going that crazy with the restoration. I wasn't really trying to make them look new per se...I was more or less just trying to make them not look so worn.

I didn't do anything to my truck today....it's still at the body shop and my garage is empty, so I decided to see if I could rehab these old bezels I scavenged from the junkyard yesterday. Still installed and filthy... The bad: The "Fasten Belts" lens was missing, and 3 or 4 of those other lens were broken and/or only attached on one end. I very gently removed a Fasten Belts lens from another spare bezel, and then glued it in place, and then glued all of the broken lens back into place. After all that, I plugged the drilled choke knob hole with a black plastic plug from Home Depot. I then finished cleaning everything up with Q-Tips to get into all of the corners, and the old things cleaned up pretty well. I re-did all of the silver edging, except the inner one on the radio bezel...that one is still original. Question is now...what to wipe on them to restore the black? Armor All? What about Mother's Back to Black? Has anybody tried it on the black weave bezels? Anyway, I don't even need these things. It was something to do really, and I hate to see them go to the crusher when they literally take a couple minutes to remove and cost me about as much a coffee and a donut...lol. Besides the fading, etc...they're in decent condition. Not a single crack or missing tab. They'll be handy to have as spares, and I can always stick 'em on Ebay later. If I go ahead with an aftermarket AC system later, I can always use this instrument bezel to cut/install vents, etc.

I think that was a good idea.

I guess it would be considered an upgrade, yes. It's just a slightly different heater housing to accept a slightly wider heater core. If you see above, it's 7.5" wide instead of the standard 6" heater core. My 1984 just has the standard heater.

Yeah, where the "Hi Output" lettering is, that part of the box sticks out about 2" farther than the standard box.

I'm not sure that I even knew there was a Hi Output heater option, but it seems vaguely familiar. When I go looking on RockAuto, there are two heater cores...one for standard and one for Hi Output. The Hi Output one is about 50% wider I guess? I can't imagine needing this option on a regular cab truck...maybe on a Bronco or a crew cab? It is the black weave Gary...it's just the way the picture looks between the dust and the sunlight. They're in reasonably good condition too, except that somebody drilled a hole next to the wiper knob to install a manual choke knob. Oh well, they were cheap and I will use them for some testing. I have some aftermarket vents in mind I might try IF I get to the point of installing AC. I do have an 85-86 grey weave radio bezel that I was going to use, but I was also thinking about installing one of those modern (but old looking) radios with the knobs, IF I could find a grey weave 1984 radio bezel (Specific to only 1984, so not easy to come across an undamaged one 35 years later...).