Rembrant

Welcome aboard Richard. My questions would be: Have you verified your speed at 69 MPH? Are you going by the Bullnose speedo or GPS, or other? Have you verified the actual height or OD of the 31" tires? Often times 31" tires are more like 30" or 30.5" OD installed. If by chance your speedo is off by a few MPH...you would only have to hit about 72 MPH to be at almost 3000 RPM. Somebody can correct me on this, but I don't think that Broncos came with 31" tires until later on it in the 80's, like 1989 or so.

Plain and simple. I like it. As much as I like the Lariats and XLT's, I also like 'em straight and plain looking too. The simplicity speaks to me.

Curious to hear how the Thermocure works out, and I'm curious about that 90* petcock...is it like this? https://www.cjponyparts.com/radiator-drain-petcock-f-100-1948-1979/p/HW4035/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAmL-ABhDFARIsAKywVacCvI3Tod3cETOYOvWFISMnanX640uNYMFL7EGQlKdQ_tpYOYgQkPwaAil7EALw_wcB I need to drain/flush my 300 at least once, probably a couple times.

It's a beauty of a truck. According to the Cert Label, it is the same 3B color blue as the dark blue on my 1980 (which was painted 30 years ago). The interior is nearly identical to mine as well, even the seat. Must have been sitting in a warehouse or garage in Sharon, Wisconsin all these years.

I can’t open the BaT link for some reason it just locks up on me, but I assume it is the same truck I posted about the other day...which it seems I can’t even post a link to at the moment either...iPhone issue maybe I dunno LOL.

Well, I think the published videos might force them to be honest;). I'm always amazed at how easy stuff is to take apart in the dry south (I assume these guys are somewhere in the south?...can you guys place an accent with a state? EDit:...according their Youtube about page, they're in or near Easley, SC). I mean...changing a master cylinder and flex lines, and the fittings actually come apart...annnd they can bleed the calipers, annnd the calipers aren't seized...lol. You can barely do those things here when the vehicle is only 10 years old, let alone 40. Anyway, that poor old truck looked pretty crusty, but I think under all that grime it's probably worth fixing up...and maybe I'm just used to looking at trash and seeing some beauty in it??>..lol.

Just takes time and money, right?...lol. That isn't a bad list at all.

They're two different animals now, but since the interiors are the same color, if I'm not paying attention it's easy to try to column shift the manual truck and vice versa. The good thing about having two similar trucks is that I know what happened to one of them over the years, so I know what to expect with the other. I already have a list of things that I've updated on the 2003 that will need to be done on the 2002 so I don't run into the same issues. The same can be said for the F350 too though, since I learned so much from the F150. You have a nice fleet of blue ovals there Shaun. What's left to do to the Bullnose?

Haha!

Haha, that crossed my mind. It's too bad the rest of the truck wasn't nice enough to simply polish up. It needs both cab corners done, and both front fenders are also pretty rusty. Also...the cab is full of screw holes. There's 3 on each B-pillar I assume from handles that were removed, and then holes at the top of the A-pillars and on the front of the roof from one of those visors that was removed, and then another couple holes on the roof from what must have been a light bar or something similar. Even after this thing is REassembled and driveable, it is still going to need a lot of body work. If I paint it myself, which I'd like to try...it will likely end up one solid color.

Gary, The guys at the local auto parts shop had a good gut laugh at my expense lol. When I went to pick up my steering box I asked if they had any mechanic thumbs in stock. When they said no, I said I was going to go home for the afternoon and cry lol.

I guess when it's stuck, it's stuck...the risk of ruining the piston was not a big one since the engine was seized anyway...lol. Funny, I too wondered how did they know which way that piston was going?? I guess you could tell by the valves if it was on an up stroke or a down stroke? I think the valves in the cylinder were stuck also...they were beating on them with the hammer when they had the head on the ground lolol.

Correct Gary, stuck in the frame not in the box. They're out, but boy oh boy were they stuck in there. Top bolt was no problem, it screwed right out. I tried some prying pressure between the box and the frame while pounding on that bolt, and it wouldn't budge. So from underneath, I reached up with my grinder and zip-cut disk and cut into the box ear next to the frame. I put a couple other deep cuts here, and was then able to pry the box away from the frame. The 3rd bolt...the one closest to the cab, is a little different. It's not in a tube like the others, but in a channel...like there's an "S" shaped brace welded inside the frame. I then ran a drill through the one bad hole to get all the rust out, and even that took several attempts to free up. Anyway, it's all good. Everything cleaned up great in the end, and the new box is installed with brand new Gr8 bolts. The next nightmare was the steering shaft...the two sections that slip together were seized together. That was another hour or more trying to free them up...good grief. Turned a thumbnail black in the process...lol. Got my thumb between the vise and a ballpein hammer. In any case, the steering system is all complete again. New box, new pump, and two new lines. All new bolts and hardware, and lots of antiseize. Interesting...I noticed that the pitman arm on the 1995 chassis was different from the one I removed from the 1980 chassis. (Also noted sketchiness...the pitman arm on the 1980 was installed upside down...lol). Anyway, the 1980 had an E0 pitman arm, and the 1995 had an E2 pitman arm, and they had noticeably different angles too them. Not drastic, but definitely different. That E2 pitman arm was a pain to remove as well. I couldn't get the hooks of my puller behind it, so I ended up having to cut the snout of the pump to make room for my puller (I had already ruined the pump removing it from the frame anyway, and I still had the 1980 pump to use as my return core). So, lots of progress. After having a weekend of picking rust out of my hair, eyes, and teeth, and smashing a thumb with a hammer, I still feel pretty good about it all. Brake booster arrives tomorrow so I should actually be able to drive this thing by next weekend or soon after. Annnnd...my friend Rodger came by today not only with fresh coffee, but he brought his buffer kit to see what the paint on the old truck looked like under all that grime and oxidation. The old 3B Midnight Blue Metallic looks really nice under there...amazing really. It's too bad the old thing is in such rough condition overall. She sure was a beauty in her day 4 decades ago.

That’s how my ‘84 is set up, with the lower valve removed. I’m doing the same thing on the ‘80 as well. I cleaned up the old MC from the ‘95 I pulled the frame out of.

As for project progress...I didn't make nearly as much as I had hoped today. I was planning to install a new power steering pump, new lines, and a new steering box. I removed the old pump and removed the pulley from it...the same nasty old way I removed it on my 1984 a couple years ago. I put the pump and bracket on the chop saw, and very carefully lowered the disc between the pulley and the pump bracket, and cut the snout of the pump off. Then the old stub shaft is a snap to remove in the hydraulic press lol. Anyway...that was the easy part. I then tried to remove the steering box from the 1995 frame, and no way is it coming off easy. One of 3 bolts came out (the upper most one) and the other two are stuck in the frame. A friend helped me and with 3/4" power bar and a snipe, we snapped the heads off the other two bolts...and about 3/4" of bolt came out with them. Not sure how I'm getting that box off the frame now...I'll have to sleep on it tonight. Hopefully I can cut the ear off the pump on the bottom, and then maybe I can free up the last bolt by prying the steering box away from the frame. Any suggestions, and I'm all ears;).

Haha, what? I’m not sure I’m picking up what you’re laying down Jim. He probably couldn’t find a used running 302 on the island, which doesn’t surprise me much. The previous owner of my project truck (well, one of the previous owners) sent me a couple pictures of it from about 25 years ago. He owned the truck from 1995 until around 2008 or so. They're a bit skewed since they are pictures of pictures, but that was her in all her glory back when Grunge Music was a new thing (now being played on classic rock stations...lol).

Actually, Ford calls it a proportioning valve, at least part of it. I know there's been a lot of debate over this, same as Stepside vs. Flareside, and the starter "solenoid" and Start Relay, etc, but it is what it is I guess.

Ha! I have all the parts to put a spare under the bed, I even had them all powder coated, I just never did reinstall them. If I ever take it on a proper trip, I'll put the spare and everything back under there...I just need to find a nice 15x6 steel wheel.

Excellent! I talked to the guy (David?) a year or two ago whenever I got these decals and was explaining to him that all of the ones we were buying didn't fit. I don't think believed me at first, but he borrowed a couple air cleaner lids from a friend and discovered what we had previously...that the decals were indeed incorrect. He sent me two new ones, and they fit great.

Ya know, I have been driving my '84 Flareside since 2017 with no jack, no tire iron, and no spare...lol. Mind you, I don't go all that far with it, but I have driven it to visit my folks a few times, and that makes for a 250 mile round trip.

As far as I know you can prime them the same as any other engine. I was going to prime mine but didn't bother Gary. Mind you, mine was only inoperable for 5-10 years, and not 29 lol. In my case I decided that it was probably going to cause me more grief trying to dislodge the distributor and get it all back in there and timed properly.

Yes sir, I have it wired in on my 1984 Flareside. The Brake warning lamp will light up if the fluid gets low. The float switch has both NO and NC contacts, so you just have to connect to the correct two.

Good morning folks, Cool video for the Bullnose fans...and Ford 300 fans...and Flareside fans...lol. Somewhat similar to what I've gone through recently myself, and I think a lot of other guys on here can relate to;). Enjoy. And part 2:

Truck looks great!

That applies to a lot of things Jim, like my beautiful little blue Flareside that currently has a street value of about 2/3rds of what it cost me to build it...lol. I had a master cylinder and the time to clean it, so I'm going to give it a whirl...whats the worst that can happen;). Sorry if I steered this thread way off the trail...