81 F100 flare side custom with 300 six & T18

[FuzzFace2]

I thought it was time to make my own post on my project that some of you all ready know about.

As the title says it is a 81 F100 flare side custom with 300 six & T18 that I got back in Dec of 2015.

It started as a $800 trash run hauler and just do want was needed to make it safe to drive.

Well the "just do" part got carried away BIG time.

CL picture before I bought it.

I also bought a 81 F100 Ranger style side long bed parts truck for $400 less motor, doors, tail gate and some of the dash parts.

CL picture before I bought it.

Plan was to make 1 good truck out of 2 ..... maybe not such a good plan?

The flare side motor had a miss but on the short test drive it did fire off so thinking nothing really bad, sure enough new plugs, did a compression test at same time and all was good, and the motor ran great.

Looking closer at the truck the floors had some rust along with the cab corners and rockers. Parts truck not much better so I ordered what I needed thru Tabco.com

To do the sheet metal job the cab had to come off the frame and this is where the "just do" part went crazy!

I pulled the whole truck apart, cab, what was left of the bed, motor & trany, front & rear suspensions everything off the frame.

One side of the floor / rocker / cab corner.

Part of the build was to use the inside parts with AC from the parts truck in to the flare side.

That is when I was told the fire walls are different between the 2 trucks. Sure enough they are and being I wanted AC what do you do? Swap out fire walls!

AC wall set for welding.

All painted some masking still in place.

I used 2 coats of bed coating both top & bottom of the floor before I put the cab back on the frame.

I also cleaned and painted the frame & suspension (from parts truck but will bite me later) and got it back under the cab.

Dave ----

 

[Gary Lewis]

Good summary, Dave. And exactly what my projects do - snowball. Big time!

But I know it is coming along more than those pics show, so I'm waiting for the next few posts to say more.......

[FuzzFace2]

The parts truck had duel fuel tanks and I wanted that on my flare so rear tank & plumbing was moved over after cleaning & painting. The larger LB side tank would not fit the SB truck so I cleaned & painted the stock tank, new sending units were used in both tanks.

When I installed the rear axle I found the brake shoes all wrong, both long on 1 side & both short on the other. Some of the springs where bad so all new drums, shoes, springs, wheel cly and ebrake cables.

Could not and did not want to use the parts truck parts as the wheel bolt pattern is different than this flare uses. This will also come back to bite me up front.

Cleaned motor & trany and before painting I replaced the oil pan, side cover & valve cover gaskets on the motor. New clutch, pressure plate & throw out bearing all bolted together and put back in the frame.

Also been adding other parts as you can see on the fire wall.

I had to rebuild the clutch linkage, cant get parts, as all the bushings were gone a long time ago and egg shaped the holes and cut into the rods. Even had to rebuild the motor side cross shaft povit.

With the truck as a roller it was time for body work .... I hate body work!

The left lower door had rust so I replaced both inside & outside of the door.

Did the boring body work to the cab / doors and got it in primer.

Mounted the nose from the parts truck so I could work dents it got in the roll over, 1 flare fender had some rust. Once the dents were worked and in primer I pulled them off and had to weld out holes the moldings used, flares did not have moldings. I painted the insides of the fenders before I put them back on.

Before the fenders went back on I painted the inside of the cab and door jambs.

With the inside painted it was time to get the parts truck dash, it has the AV vents, & wiring into the flare but when the PO pulled the radio & HVAC panels from the parts truck they broke part of the dash. I had to graft that part from the flare dash to the AC parts truck dash then painted it before install.

Broken part.

Part grafted in.

Painted and installed.

Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

The parts truck had duel fuel tanks and I wanted that on my flare so rear tank & plumbing was moved over after cleaning & painting. The larger LB side tank would not fit the SB truck so I cleaned & painted the stock tank, new sending units were used in both tanks.

When I installed the rear axle I found the brake shoes all wrong, both long on 1 side & both short on the other. Some of the springs where bad so all new drums, shoes, springs, wheel cly and ebrake cables.

Could not and did not want to use the parts truck parts as the wheel bolt pattern is different than this flare uses. This will also come back to bite me up front.

Cleaned motor & trany and before painting I replaced the oil pan, side cover & valve cover gaskets on the motor. New clutch, pressure plate & throw out bearing all bolted together and put back in the frame.

Also been adding other parts as you can see on the fire wall.

I had to rebuild the clutch linkage, cant get parts, as all the bushings were gone a long time ago and egg shaped the holes and cut into the rods. Even had to rebuild the motor side cross shaft povit.

With the truck as a roller it was time for body work .... I hate body work!

The left lower door had rust so I replaced both inside & outside of the door.

Did the boring body work to the cab / doors and got it in primer.

Mounted the nose from the parts truck so I could work dents it got in the roll over, 1 flare fender had some rust. Once the dents were worked and in primer I pulled them off and had to weld out holes the moldings used, flares did not have moldings. I painted the insides of the fenders before I put them back on.

Before the fenders went back on I painted the inside of the cab and door jambs.

With the inside painted it was time to get the parts truck dash, it has the AV vents, & wiring into the flare but when the PO pulled the radio & HVAC panels from the parts truck they broke part of the dash. I had to graft that part from the flare dash to the AC parts truck dash then painted it before install.

Broken part.

Part grafted in.

Painted and installed.

Dave ----

Man, you do good WORK! But I know there's another shoe to drop, at least about the front end/spindles, so won't comment much more here.

However, I can't help but comment about the lengths to which you have gone, like the half-firewall replacement and the outside of the door. Then there's repairing the dash. Wow!

[FuzzFace2]

In between all that I would do other little things to get away from the body work.

Had members help with needed parts and 1 was EFI exh manifolds. The manifold that was on the truck was not a truck manifold and needing a front pipe the EFI seamed like the way to go.

I was able to pick up a intake water heater because the stock intake was bolted to the exh manifold to heat the intake.

I wanted to stay with the stock intake & carb as I am looking for some what good MPG and why no fancy intake & v4 carb. The EFI stock Y pipe is hooked to the stock parts truck exh system as it was in great shape, just used a short pipe to join the Y pipe & system as one.

Another member had a stock air filter assy. as that POS would not cut it on my truck.

Little cleaning and paint and looks good as new.

More members helped with HVAC controls & wiring. When the PO removed this from the parts truck and sold it they cut the wiring and broke the dash to get it out. The panel also needed to be for AC and duel tanks and if that was not enough Ford changed the wiring, plugs & switches between years.

Had other wiring issues besides the HVAC / fan & duel tank switch.

The ALT wiring was different between the 2 trucks and not wanting to cut & splice the stock wires I made a jumper. At first the ALT did not want to charge but had to swap 2 wires and all is good now.

With the cab and fenders in primer it was time to look into the flare side bed.

It needed a lot of work & parts some that you cant get like the bed sides because lip that bolts to the floor that rots away.

After looking at what it would run for the parts you can get would be about $1000 not counting the wood & metal strips.

Parts truck being a style side LB and 1 side caved in from the roll over could not be used as a blot on ....... or could it?

A lot of measuring of the LB and the frame of my truck it looked like I could use the metal floor in place of the wood flooring.

With a little work ... ok a lot of work I made the LB metal floor fit the flare side SB truck and was able to bolt the bed sides to the metal floor.

Cut a little off the front of the floor.

Set it on truck to see what needs to be trimmed to fit better.

Had to move what was now the bed front cross member a little to line up to the frame holes.

Trimmed the back some and fitted the flare side rear side outer panel to the metal floor and finish to look stock.

Had to rework the front header panel as it was rotten across the bottom using left over cross bracing.

Not welded yet.

I said the bed sides lip at the bottom was rotted away had to fix both sides front & back so they could bolt back on to the floor. 1 done with square holes for the carriage bolts.

Sides & front panel bolted to the floor.

Had to bolt the fenders on to see what it would look like.

What I did not show was I had to rework the front bed cross member to bolt the flare side step braces to. Just bolting them to the fiberglass fenders they would of been broken in no time.

Dave ----

[FuzzFace2]

Man, you do good WORK! But I know there's another shoe to drop, at least about the front end/spindles, so won't comment much more here.

However, I can't help but comment about the lengths to which you have gone, like the half-firewall replacement and the outside of the door. Then there's repairing the dash. Wow!

As Gary hinted and think I did in another post I wanted to use the after market wheels the truck came with as the steel wheels the parts truck came with did not fit the parts truck, center holes not big enough, and had the wrong size pattern.

I had the parts truck front suspension under the truck because the kingpins on the flare side were frozen and so I can move it.

Thinking I could just change the hubs / rotors and I would be good to reuse my after market wheels ...... WRONG!

Spindles are different and will not let you swap rotors. Looking deeper into this I also found the kingpins are different sizes also so the beams are too. This all has to do with the flare side having non-power brakes and the style side parts truck having power brakes.

So that meant taking apart, a job in it's self, cleaning up the flare side suspension and rebuild it.

Had the only machine shop press out the old and the new kingpin bushing and ream to fit. Well they did ream to fit each bushing to the pin but did not ream them straight thru so when I went to put it all back together the pins would not fit. I had to use a wheel cly hone to get the pins to fit, not fun.

I also replaced the rubber pivot bushings with poly ones.

The dirty parts in the back is the ones I need to used before clean up.

Spindles with new bushings installed. Had this done months before I found how they reamed the bushings.

Beams & spindles as one again and painted.

Now the next issue was the front calipers. I wanted to use the parts truck ones as they where working when the truck rolled, looked better than the flare side ones and were on the truck.

Well the caliper brackets that are part of the spindles would not fit the power brake calipers.

Oh the dust shields are also different between the 2 systems too.

So I bought new calipers for non-power brakes to fit the spindles, and pads as they are different.

So you need to use all power brake or all non-power brake suspension on out to the wheels to have it all play nice.

Because of this (kingpin size) DJM does not make drop beams for our trucks.

I now hear they make them for the small (power brake) kingpin trucks.

Back on all 4 and matching wheels.

My brother was out for the holidays and knew I needed a tail gate and chains, lights with brackets and a fuel door with filler neck and sent me the parts.

You ask why the fuel door? Remember the rear tank from the parts truck need it graft it on to the rear of the fender to look stock.

Also had to make the filler hose work between the style side parts and the filler my brother sent.

I even made the vent hose inside the filler hose as part of the retro fit.

Dave ----

[Rembrant]

Just checking in here to say I'm subscribed;).

[FuzzFace2]

Good summary, Dave. And exactly what my projects do - snowball. Big time!

But I know it is coming along more than those pics show, so I'm waiting for the next few posts to say more.......

I have done some other things to the truck like started to strip the tail gate to metal so I can treat the rust.

Doing body work to the parts truck hood. Most of it was because of me removing the skin from the frame to fix the dent and made more work, still working on this.

Played with repairing 1 of 2 dash pads using info found in the web to see what works and does not.

Still working on this but I have a dash pad cover I will use on the truck.

This is the 2nd try as the first failed. I hot glued sheet metal on the under side as a backer.

Pulled the radiator laid it flat and filled with vinegar to get the crust out. I let it sit about6 weeks as I had the time. At this time I replaced the Tstat and found the housing broken. The first replacement from AZ had the wrong size for the heater hose fitting so had to hit a different store and that worked.

That gets us up to a few weeks ago just after the hurricane hit, we lost power for about 27 hours but had a generator and most of that time was at night and was sleeping.

Also had my son here and he was after me to get out and work on the truck but did not want to during the storm, then no power and the biggie to damn hot.

Once power was back on and the wind calmed down on Sunday I did get out to the garage.

I needed a hand to bleed the brakes because even using a SnapOn vacuum bleeder the pedal still went to the floor. Just doing 1 rear wheel got the pedal up but did all 4 wheels and the pedal feels pretty good.

But, there's always a but, found the master leaks at the booster and if that was not enough the booster also leaks if you hit the pedal 5 or 6 times fast in a row and hold it. So at some point I will need to replace both master & booster.

My son also pointed out the Motorcraft IGN box leaked out the bottom and down the fender liner.

Thing is this was just sitting in the garage and battery disconnected. I do have to say it gets hot in that garage and why I don't work more in it. It still works and the other box I have, from the flare side, in a no name box. Both have blue retainers and I will keep the no name in the glove box when on the road.

One time when I had the truck running I tried the HVAC controls only had air out the defrost vents.

Thinking the worst and before I knew about the door hinge and to check it when I had the HVAC box out of the truck I was thinking hinge.

With help from my son we started tracing out vacuum lines. One thing I found was the line from intake to the tree on the fire wall would not let enough vacuum thru, need to pick up more vacuum line.

Got supply to the check valve but not out? A quick check and the vacuum can may not hold vacuum so plugged off I now get supply to the HVAC controls.

I found if the temp is on cold the doors do not move till I go to hot then back.

I also found if on max AC IIRC it went back to defrost. I will recheck this and make a post on it to see if someone can help.

The last thing I did was to run a hot air line for the choke using a Dorman kit (that I did not really need) and copper line.

I needed the copper line because I am using the EFI manifolds so there is no way to run the Dorman kit thru the intake like stock dose.

Stock the hot air line goes in the bottom out the top to the choke, see the coat hanger top & bottom.

I still use the fresh air supply port on the carb.

I then ran the copper down to the manifold and made a few wraps around it to pick up heat.

Then up to the choke housing with the insulated cover.

Once hooked up I found a had a vacuum leak, the choke is pulling way too much air / vacuum and the cause of the leak. Someone said check for a piston type thing, choke pull off?, inside the choke housing as that limits the amount of vacuum pulled thru.

So that is something I have to look into at some point. If it is not there I will see about pulling one from a spare carb, that is where I got some parts for this hot air fix.

That is where I am at with this project to date. A little more body work to hood, tail gate and small dent in fender and I think I can get paint on it.

Not bad for 3 years of work not all the time and 99% by my self.

Dave ----

[FuzzFace2]

I have done some other things to the truck like started to strip the tail gate to metal so I can treat the rust.

Doing body work to the parts truck hood. Most of it was because of me removing the skin from the frame to fix the dent and made more work, still working on this.

Played with repairing 1 of 2 dash pads using info found in the web to see what works and does not.

Still working on this but I have a dash pad cover I will use on the truck.

This is the 2nd try as the first failed. I hot glued sheet metal on the under side as a backer.

Pulled the radiator laid it flat and filled with vinegar to get the crust out. I let it sit about6 weeks as I had the time. At this time I replaced the Tstat and found the housing broken. The first replacement from AZ had the wrong size for the heater hose fitting so had to hit a different store and that worked.

That gets us up to a few weeks ago just after the hurricane hit, we lost power for about 27 hours but had a generator and most of that time was at night and was sleeping.

Also had my son here and he was after me to get out and work on the truck but did not want to during the storm, then no power and the biggie to damn hot.

Once power was back on and the wind calmed down on Sunday I did get out to the garage.

I needed a hand to bleed the brakes because even using a SnapOn vacuum bleeder the pedal still went to the floor. Just doing 1 rear wheel got the pedal up but did all 4 wheels and the pedal feels pretty good.

But, there's always a but, found the master leaks at the booster and if that was not enough the booster also leaks if you hit the pedal 5 or 6 times fast in a row and hold it. So at some point I will need to replace both master & booster.

My son also pointed out the Motorcraft IGN box leaked out the bottom and down the fender liner.

Thing is this was just sitting in the garage and battery disconnected. I do have to say it gets hot in that garage and why I don't work more in it. It still works and the other box I have, from the flare side, in a no name box. Both have blue retainers and I will keep the no name in the glove box when on the road.

One time when I had the truck running I tried the HVAC controls only had air out the defrost vents.

Thinking the worst and before I knew about the door hinge and to check it when I had the HVAC box out of the truck I was thinking hinge.

With help from my son we started tracing out vacuum lines. One thing I found was the line from intake to the tree on the fire wall would not let enough vacuum thru, need to pick up more vacuum line.

Got supply to the check valve but not out? A quick check and the vacuum can may not hold vacuum so plugged off I now get supply to the HVAC controls.

I found if the temp is on cold the doors do not move till I go to hot then back.

I also found if on max AC IIRC it went back to defrost. I will recheck this and make a post on it to see if someone can help.

The last thing I did was to run a hot air line for the choke using a Dorman kit (that I did not really need) and copper line.

I needed the copper line because I am using the EFI manifolds so there is no way to run the Dorman kit thru the intake like stock dose.

Stock the hot air line goes in the bottom out the top to the choke, see the coat hanger top & bottom.

I still use the fresh air supply port on the carb.

I then ran the copper down to the manifold and made a few wraps around it to pick up heat.

Then up to the choke housing with the insulated cover.

Once hooked up I found a had a vacuum leak, the choke is pulling way too much air / vacuum and the cause of the leak. Someone said check for a piston type thing, choke pull off?, inside the choke housing as that limits the amount of vacuum pulled thru.

So that is something I have to look into at some point. If it is not there I will see about pulling one from a spare carb, that is where I got some parts for this hot air fix.

That is where I am at with this project to date. A little more body work to hood, tail gate and small dent in fender and I think I can get paint on it.

Not bad for 3 years of work not all the time and 99% by my self.

Dave ----

I should also say there are more pictures in the links in my sig.

This was to get others that did not know what I have done up to speed.

Now that it is cooling off I hope to get out to the garage on weekends when I have the time.

So far 2 weekends in a row I have worked Saturdays the full day and when 90* out it just takes any energy you may have just to make it home.

Then do yard work on my day off is not a good way to rest!

This picture was taken on July 4th.

Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

I should also say there are more pictures in the links in my sig.

This was to get others that did not know what I have done up to speed.

Now that it is cooling off I hope to get out to the garage on weekends when I have the time.

So far 2 weekends in a row I have worked Saturdays the full day and when 90* out it just takes any energy you may have just to make it home.

Then do yard work on my day off is not a good way to rest!

This picture was taken on July 4th.

Dave ----

Dave - Good start on documenting things. You are really getting close, and I'm jealous. So many issues to deal with, but you certainly have and are making really good progress.