Rembrant

Your Youtube videos come up as "Private" when I try to watch them...

I probably go against the grain of the general consensus here, but I'm still running 1G alternators in both trucks. The original 1G 40 amp alt is still in the '84, and I just installed a new reman 1G 70amp alternator in the 1980. All I'm powering is a Duraspark II ignition module and the radio, and occasionally the headlights and/or blower fan. I don't know anything about the 2G alternator though other than it should definitely be replaced/upgraded. Upgrades or things to do... 1. Buy and install a good fire extinguisher, preferably somewhere on the driver's side where you can grab it very quickly (you said you were a fireman, right?) 2. Check and replace if necessary any rubber fuel lines on the pressure side (between the pump and carb). Make sure the line is secured and not loose or flopping around like many are. 3. Check and replace if necessary all ground cables, and clean all connections...even the little ones on the insides of the fenders by the marker lights. Same with the ground wires on the block, and the one from the block to the firewall. Make sure they are good, or replace them imho. My favorite modifications are the things that have made the truck more pleasant to drive. The RedHead steering box and other steering upgrades (replaced the intermediate shaft, and all tie-rods and ball joints, etc). I find that having an overdrive is a welcome addition to these trucks if you don't already have it. That's not a quick or easy mod, but it's certainly possible, and almost plug-N-play if you get the parts from a later model F-series pickup. For quick and easy stuff I highly recommend painting the needles of your gauges, and re-doing the silver edge trim of your interior bezels, and swapping in some LED bulbs in your instrument cluster. Those few things will make your interior/dash absolutely pop...you'll love it. It's funny, and I see it all the time...a Bullnose for sale, all restored top to bottom with an asking price of $20,000 and the gauge needles will be all faded...ha. It's nit picky, I know, but it drives me crazy. Some of us have installed later model brake master cylinders (aluminum with plastic reservoirs). There are a couple benefits to having them if you're so inclined. Visual fluid level inspection, and you can connect the float so that your brake warning light will illuminate when/if the level gets low. Scott has some good info on how to beautify and preserve the original style master cylinder (which I would have done myself had I known about it earlier).

Yes sir, I believe both Ash and White Oak were almost double the price. I'll check again today but that is what they told me a few weeks ago.

White oak is double the price, so I was going to pass on that since I don't plan to keep the truck anyway. I would even go with a softwood if it was cheap enough, but it's not looking so good.

Jim, Going with planks, I guess. Red Oak seems to be the cheapest hardwood option. Not sure about down your way, but regular lumber prices are insane here right now. A regular 2x4x8 is something like $10 right now. We have a specialty hardwood shop down the road that will sell me the required amount of red oak for about $325, which isn't so bad. I will still have to cut the strip grooves in it, but that's fine...either a table saw or a router table will do the trick. The motorhome is gone...sold it late in the fall. Mrs Rembrant wanted to trade it for some back yard landscaping and a badly needed replacement deck. We actually did OK on the old thing...paid $13k for it, but sold it for $18k. Now, we probably spent a little more than the $5k difference fixing it up and renovating it, but it was a very welcome distraction during the early Covid days. Like everything else, we had more fun renovating it than we did actually using it. The other issue...gas prices have doubled here since this time last year when we bought the RV...lol. $5/gallon and more is a hard pill to swallow when you get 8mpg going downhill...lol. Still, the Mrs just said this morning that she wants another one, just not yet. Once we get the backyard work done, and all of the borders and lockdowns open up, I think it will become more enticing again. Still, god bless her little heart, she said she'd rather see me build a detached garage before we spent the money on an RV again. The vaccines are rolling out. Several of my coworkers (over 55) got their first shots late last week. Here in Nova Scotia specifically, we have basically been Covid free for a long time. There are always a half a dozen cases or less province wide, but even in the peak of things last spring I think we still only hit a few hundred cases total. Everybody is behaving fairly well, and we had our own lockdowns that did seem to work, so all is good so far. Even my parents at 70 and 72 aren't too concerned about it...they said they'll get vaccinated, but they're waiting until after the rush when they don't have to wait in any line-ups, etc. Both of them detest crowds, so it's worth it to them to wait (he still makes it to the pub every day...lol, so he's doing fine). I was supposed to move the truck home this weekend...finally moving out of my work shop, but it wouldn't fit on the trailer. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and flat deck it today. I'm making a new list today of things to do and will tear back into it next weekend. A little bit each week, and maybe it will be on the road in May. I have another itch I need to scratch besides a Bullnose: Being thoroughly stuck in the 80's, I have been lusting after a Jeep CJ-7 for 30+ years now. It's one of those things I've always wanted and need to scratch it off my bucket list. So I'm kind of on the hunt for one of those...preferrably and 80's model with the 258 inline 6 and 5spd. I've also been lusting after a four-eyed 5.0 fox Mustang, but not nearly as much...I love them, but I have a feeling that once I got one I would get bored with it quickly. Still, it's another itch that might have to get scratched someday...and I'm always planning ahead for winter projects to keep me busy.

Swapping out the voltage regulator seems to have cured the issue! I had a couple spares, but all I could find was the original Motorcraft one from my 1984, but it worked. Oh, and the voltage is better now when charging (@ 14.1v) instead of almost 15v previously. Back in business.

Ron (reamer) in Connecticut!

I set out to move the old 1980 project truck from the shop at work to my house, and so I was rushing to get a bunch of stuff done yesterday and today, and then wouldn't ya know it the stupid thing wouldn't fit on my brother inlaw's trailer lol. Me and my 10" wide rims... In any case, I cut 4 new hardwood blocks so that I could tighten the bed to the frame, I changed the rear diff fluid, installed the front park-brake cable, and installed a new 70am 1G alternator (did that yesterday). I even sand blasted the alternator bracket and shined up the bolt bosses on the block to make sure everything was grounded properly. Now I have a serious battery draining issue (I realized it before installing the new alternator). Going to try swapping in a spare voltage regulator as per my other thread, and see how that goes. I also had to bump the idle up a little bit...first adjustment on my cheapo Amazon carb. Truck doesn't seem to smoke at all...and it starts right up. But still...sooo much work to do. Mechanically it's all pretty close now...almost road ready. Need to build a wood floor for the bed, and then wire in the tail lights and fix all of the other lighting issues. I have a pile of new front end parts ready to go on (inner and outer tie-rods, etc.). That's all. I'm having one of those weekends where I'm getting tired of working on it....really tired...but maybe just need a break. I have to swap summer tires on both our daily drivers tomorrow, so maybe I'll take a little break from old crusty. I don't think I'll be keeping this thing. I'll get it road ready and tested and then move it along.

Funny, I ripped all of them off my frames and replaced with cushion clamps. Unfortunately I threw them all out, but I would have gladly sent them all to you. I feel like I save too much stuff sometimes...but at the same time I feel like I've thrown away a lot of stuff that other people could use.

Thanks Gary, I have another voltage regulator I can swap in to try and see what happens. I'll do that tomorrow and report back.

Hi Folks, I just found out this week that the battery in my 1980 F150 project truck will go dead pretty quickly when parked and left unattended. I put my meter between the neg post and cable and it is showing a 3.5amp draw somewhere...which is huge? Anyway I pulled each fuse individually and nothing changed. Blower motor is disconnected as are the tail lights and transmission and transfer case etc. I finally unplugged the voltage regulator and the 3.5amp draw disappeared. Would the regulator cause this or would it be wiring? I also just installed a new 1G alternator and when running My meter was showing 14.9v at the battery which seems a little on the high side but not too wild. Ground cables are all brand new. Any comments good or bad before I dig into it again?

I think Troy's truck might be worth a little more than $10k. This one just sold on BaT for $13k... https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1986-ford-f-150-15/ Also, you can go on the Mecum Auction webpage and view all previous Bullnoses sold to get an idea of values. I'd guess at $10k for sure, possibly more (up to $15k?)

Very well said! This is why I like getting out to the local weekly cruise-ins and weekend car-shows. I'm surrounded by "My People"...lol (Those that understand what it's like to spend thousands of dollars over a vehicles value to rehab/refinish it). If you don't enjoy that process and the hundreds (or thousands?) of hours to get there, it's a very difficult concept to understand.

That thing is nice!

Haha! But I'm not a paint and body guy...I'm a wrench and skinned knuckles kind of guy!

Understood. No prob.

Hi Darwin, The one I have is stamped C5AE 6A373 C, which means it's an old one...but I'm pretty sure it's a truck spacer plate as that is all I've had here. I would give it to you for free if you were close. Problem is I am in Canada and shipping to you will likely be $40-$50 or more and take 2 weeks to get there. I checked Summit and they have one that is noted as being for 164 tooth bellhousings, but it doesn't say much else. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdk-c9dz-7007-a?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjbCDBhAwEiwAiudByzaSCZCy8zFpyC4AeXXS6YqcwUWAky-Db5BMgI-lD6sWxAWG3HszcRoCz8oQAvD_BwE Drake website has some more details... https://www.drakeautomotivegroup.com/69-73-302-351-m-t-spacer-plate-c9dz-7007-a Do you have any salvage yards close by? One of these plates should be fairly easy to come by in any yard that has had some old Fords there. They would fit from the 70's right up to the mid-90's.

I will check on it in the morning as it is at my work with some other parts. I’ll let you know ASAP.

Darwin, I'm guessing that the issue here is that the block plate you have is from a car. The 302 can be a bit of a nightmare with parts interchangeability...but one of the big differences is that the truck version of the SBF used a larger (164 tooth) flywheel, and the cars used a smaller (157 tooth) flywheel. This means that the car bellhousings were a little smaller as well. So...I'm assuming that the block plate you have was slightly small (maybe that's why it looks like the edges were cut off, presumably on the bottom?) and it would also explain why the opening for the starter was cut off...because it would not align properly with the bolt holes in the truck bellhousing. On top of all that, without the correct block plate in there, the starter would not be in the 100% correct position (because of the missing thickness of the plate, and it's alignment factor). This is all just my assumption...but I think you need to find a better plate, from a truck transmission. The E6SE is a 1986 (or newer) block, which would require a 50oz balance flywheel (which your 1984 truck should have had originally if it was a factory 302 truck). As for the starter...you just need to make sure that it is a correct manual trans starter (they were different between manual and auto). The snouts were different...you can look at pictures of them on RockAuto to confirm what you have. I'm guessing that a new (correct) block plate for a truck manual trans is what you need. Too bad you weren't closer, as I'm pretty sure I have an extra one.

By the way, found this picture in an FTE thread about adding power steering to a truck without. This pic shows the little C-shaped spacers.

Jonathan, I seem to recall discussing this before...and even somebody possibly measuring the spacers, but I can't remember when or where. I think you're right though...the spacers go in place only on a non-AC equipped 300? I happen to be looking straight down at mine the other day and noticed that the pump is crooked, and it looks like the bracket needs to move away from the block. That's why I was asking. I may just use washers for now, but I'll see if I can get it squared up. The engine is a 1986 as far as I know.

Awesome Rob, thanks!

Technically I think all I need is the metal frame for the triangle window. The existing one is rusted into oblivion...like disintegrated, but I figured it would be easier to locate a complete set of windows. If/when I take the doors apart, I'd like to have all that I need. A local guy says he has a nice set...waiting for pictures this evening when he gets off work. Most 30+ year old parts around here are not very nice...lol.

Looks the same. Thanks Jim. I'm pretty certain that they are Bricknose doors. I'll confirm against my '84 tonight, but wanted to put up a want ad on a local page today.

Just tagging Chris as he can probably take some pictures...this truck is currently undergoing some pretty major surgery...lol.