Rembrant

Thanks David, but I think it's less about talent and more about necessity!! As part of my offshore survival training, I've learned a lot about the Oil Rig "Piper Alpha" that burned/sank in the North Sea 30 or so years ago. The few men that survived jumped off the side of the rig...90 ft to the water, in the pitch black night, 120 miles from land. I was watching an old interview, and a reporter was asking one of the guys how he summoned the courage to jump. He looked at her kind of funny, and in his thick Scottish accent said that it wasn't all that hard to find the courage when the whole rig was on fire...lol. This poor old truck, if I don't weld it all back together, it will never get finished by me or anybody else, so we need to figure out how to do these things!!

Right? Gary I can see you rolling your eyes...I've welded the frame together, the body, the bed, and everything else and now I'm concerned about a couple gas tank straps?...LOL. Get 'er done the man says, and carry on!!

I actually don't have any copper plates, but was going to look for some today. I do have some aluminum plates 3/8" thick.... Ha! on the measurements! I first cut the rusty lip off, then laid the new piece of top of the panel so I could scribe my line on there. I then went all along my line, and drilled 1/16" holes on my cut line every couple of inches, so it gave me a pretty good guide. I bought this same panel new from Mar-K for the other truck, but I was ordering a bunch of stuff at the same time...and this truck I'm trying to keep under some kind of budget. That panel is $277 USD new, so about $360 CDN, plus shipping and tax it would be a $500 item for me, so it was worth trying to fix the old one. By the way, I'm ordering a fuel tank and sending unit today, and I remembered that I actually have a brand new set of fuel tank straps here from the 1985 F150 that I junked a couple years ago. Problem is, the straps I have are for a 19 gal side tank, and the ones I need are for the 16 gal tank. Would I be crazy to modify the 19 gal straps to fit the 16 gal tank? I know new straps are only under $20 bucks, but still...I have these new ones here I'd like to repurpose (and I have my 1984 to measure for correct length). Should be no big deal to lengthen and/or shorten them where required, ya?

I actually don't have any copper plates, but was going to look for some today. I do have some aluminum plates 3/8" thick.... Ha! on the measurements! I first cut the rusty lip off, then laid the new piece of top of the panel so I could scribe my line on there. I then went all along my line, and drilled 1/16" holes on my cut line every couple of inches, so it gave me a pretty good guide. I bought this same panel new from Mar-K for the other truck, but I was ordering a bunch of stuff at the same time...and this truck I'm trying to keep under some kind of budget. That panel is $277 USD new, so about $360 CDN, plus shipping and tax it would be a $500 item for me, so it was worth trying to fix the old one.

That stud is just bare, no ground attached. The engine ground attaches to the firewall just below the throttle cable and next to the large black oval plug. See below. It is attached to the firewall with a hex head sheet metal screw. PS: Depending on the year of your truck, you may not have the large black oval plug. On the feedback carb and EFI trucks, the main harness passes through this hole. The earlier trucks had no hole there at all. My '84 is DSII, so just a plug. My '80 has no hole there.

Giving this old Flareside headboard a new lease on life. Hoping to test assemble the “new” bed this weekend, and If all goes well get some paint on them shortly afterwards.

There are cheap little connectors that you can buy...I believe from Hedman that clamp on to headers with a hose clamp, and give you a place to attach a heat riser tube. For some reason I absolutely cannot find them online right now (I had a picture of it saved though, see below). I bought two new hoses at CarQuest...I think 2", and clamped them to the spouts on the snorkels, and they just hang on top of my headers...just barely resting on the upper tube, and they stay put no problem.

Welcome aboard!

Kevin, Too bad you weren't close I have one collecting dust that I'd give you. Good news is that you can use one from 300, 302, 351, or in extreme obscurity a 255 or 3.8 V6, all the way up to 1997, so it's worth a walk through the local junkyard to see if there are any kickin' around. Find a Ford pickup with the trans already pulled, and you could grab one of these covers fairly easily.

The only reason I mentioned it was that in my area last year, because people were not able to travel and gather, etc...leisure item sales went through the roof, and all of the local shops sold out of bikes, ATV's, swimming pools, etc. You could not buy this stuff, at any price. I realize in the fair weathered areas, people can still drive Bullnoses on a daily basis, but anywhere in the north (USA north, or all of Canada) Bullnose trucks are mostly leisure vehicles and rolling projects, etc. Just thinking out loud, how many people bought projects last year because they were stuck at home due to restrictions anyway? I know when I used to scan Craigs List, Ebay, Kijiji, and Marketplace a couple years ago, there at least seemed to be more "nice" trucks showing up for sale. Now, in 2020 and 2021, not so much (in my opinion). Less pickings is going to mean higher prices for the nice stuff. Still, we're a big continent, and prices and availability can vary wildly by region...so as the motorcycle guys always say, YMMV.

Personally, I think there's two things that have happened recently, or have been happening recently, and one is that the inventory is decreasing fairly rapidly, and some (many?) people are starting to come to reality with how much it costs to restore or rebuild one of these trucks. One has to also wonder how much, if any, effect all of the Covid restrictions have had on the market? Comments?

Welcome back! I think you're on Instagram, ya?

That thing is a PEACH! Thanks for posting.

And that fellow forum member was notified of your need by the leader of the forum!

This is the place to be! Welcome aboard.

Looking great Ron. You may have mentioned this before, but is it going to be green? Is the engine bay painted now I see?

My RockAuto and LMC orders didn’t make it this week, but the sheet metal shop came through for me with the rest of my Flareside bed parts! I was so happy they called! My friend there said he knows how badly car guys want their stuff for the weekends ha! And, he did a primo job on the parts as well. This is going to work out great.

This is the 5000th reply in this thread. That's all...lol. Congrats Gary!

I got my second one from a fellow forum member. Post up a wanted ad, you might find some that way. A lot of people dress up their engine bays and remove those ducts, so they're laying around out there.

I have two of the factory plastic intake pieces (our trucks only came with one). I haven’t installed them yet though...parts are still on the shelf LOL.

Exactly my thoughts! This throws a wrench into my weekend plans. It (RockAuto order) was showing as due to be delivered on the 24th, and then since yesterday they're showing as stuck in Memphis. Bugger.

Haha...ain't that the truth!

Looks good, and I see another old Ford truck up in back there...

Rick used a set of ducts from a Jeep... And I bought the exact same ones for my 5.0 as well. I test fitted them below with the old air cleaner, but they're not currently on the truck. They came from Quadratec...I'll see if I can find the p/n for ya. Edit...here you go: https://www.quadratec.com/products/51303_03.htm

Exactly my thoughts!