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'83 F150 Short Box


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Finally got her home this weekend. Lots of work done and plenty still to do. Got to drive it for the first time since purchasing it in June. Went for a short ride today and got some sunshine, rain, sleet and snow all in the same 10 minute drive. Gotta love MN.

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Finally got her home this weekend. Lots of work done and plenty still to do. Got to drive it for the first time since purchasing it in June. Went for a short ride today and got some sunshine, rain, sleet and snow all in the same 10 minute drive. Gotta love MN.

Congrat's!!! That's a very nice looking truck. And that first drive is such a wonderful feeling. :nabble_smiley_good:

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Finally got her home this weekend. Lots of work done and plenty still to do. Got to drive it for the first time since purchasing it in June. Went for a short ride today and got some sunshine, rain, sleet and snow all in the same 10 minute drive. Gotta love MN.

Outstanding! Truck looks great. Love the colors.:nabble_smiley_good:

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Finally got her home this weekend. Lots of work done and plenty still to do. Got to drive it for the first time since purchasing it in June. Went for a short ride today and got some sunshine, rain, sleet and snow all in the same 10 minute drive. Gotta love MN.

Nice truck!

Those original style Ford wheels look 1000X better than the aftermarket wheels you had.

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  • 4 months later...

Busy day today. Worked almost non stop all day. I had fun and it was peaceful. Really, it was.

Started the morning by doing some detail work on the center instrument panel. Painting the silver edges is time consuming. It took much more time than anticipated. It's going to take 3x the time to do the instrument cluster side, but I think it will turn out nice.

I then buffed out the lens with meguiars ultimate compound. There was some very stubborn etching of a liquid spill all over it and it was very difficult to get off, but it finally came off after several attempts and MANY hot passes with the PC. I'm happy how it turned out.

I went to Michael's to get some paint for the gauge needles. They had a flourescent orange that looks perfect to me. Brushed it on and it all looks like new. I'm electing to keep the original bulbs, which all still work. I kind of like the dim blue glow. It reminds me of how these trucks are supposed to be. My '85 I had in highschool was the same way.

I yanked the clock and am looking for a working replacement. Hopefully my harness is OK. It took some effort to detach the connector on the back of the clock, but I finally got it off. I also learned how to get off the wiper switch knob and light switch knob after quite a few failed attempts with the wrong tools. I was patient and didn't break anything. I got 'her.

I also popped the dash off and found a decent dash at the junk yard on Saturday. It has a golf ball sized hole in the speaker grill, but the rest is good. Need to decide how to proceed with either repairing it or putting a coverlay plastic dash cover on it and call it good. I don't need the speaker as I don't have a center speaker since I have stereo speakers factory.

I ordered tailgate letters from LMC, but the color was wrong. I decided to paint and clear them to match my truck's blue perfectly. I think it turned out nice.

Covered my ripping seat up with 2 blankets I purchased on Amazon. I used some sheet clips - like suspenders - to pull things taut. Turned out surprisingly well. This was a $40 investment and it is much cheaper than reupholstering my seat for now. I also get to keep the original interior still.

I got to take out the 'Bull for her first 2020 drive. Picked up some supplies at Ace hardware.

The last image is the HVAC fan resistor. It didn't look all that bad, but I swapped it out for a new one and regained all my fan speeds. Very happy about that simple fix.

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Busy day today. Worked almost non stop all day. I had fun and it was peaceful. Really, it was.

Started the morning by doing some detail work on the center instrument panel. Painting the silver edges is time consuming. It took much more time than anticipated. It's going to take 3x the time to do the instrument cluster side, but I think it will turn out nice.

I then buffed out the lens with meguiars ultimate compound. There was some very stubborn etching of a liquid spill all over it and it was very difficult to get off, but it finally came off after several attempts and MANY hot passes with the PC. I'm happy how it turned out.

I went to Michael's to get some paint for the gauge needles. They had a flourescent orange that looks perfect to me. Brushed it on and it all looks like new. I'm electing to keep the original bulbs, which all still work. I kind of like the dim blue glow. It reminds me of how these trucks are supposed to be. My '85 I had in highschool was the same way.

I yanked the clock and am looking for a working replacement. Hopefully my harness is OK. It took some effort to detach the connector on the back of the clock, but I finally got it off. I also learned how to get off the wiper switch knob and light switch knob after quite a few failed attempts with the wrong tools. I was patient and didn't break anything. I got 'her.

I also popped the dash off and found a decent dash at the junk yard on Saturday. It has a golf ball sized hole in the speaker grill, but the rest is good. Need to decide how to proceed with either repairing it or putting a coverlay plastic dash cover on it and call it good. I don't need the speaker as I don't have a center speaker since I have stereo speakers factory.

I ordered tailgate letters from LMC, but the color was wrong. I decided to paint and clear them to match my truck's blue perfectly. I think it turned out nice.

Covered my ripping seat up with 2 blankets I purchased on Amazon. I used some sheet clips - like suspenders - to pull things taut. Turned out surprisingly well. This was a $40 investment and it is much cheaper than reupholstering my seat for now. I also get to keep the original interior still.

I got to take out the 'Bull for her first 2020 drive. Picked up some supplies at Ace hardware.

The last image is the HVAC fan resistor. It didn't look all that bad, but I swapped it out for a new one and regained all my fan speeds. Very happy about that simple fix.

Wow! That's a lot of work for one day! Looks great! :nabble_anim_claps:

The paint is Testors, and in my testing it comes very close to the original color. And it is what is on Big Blue's gauges.

The silver on the bezel looks good, as do the letters. And the blower motor resistor is such an easy change and it can make a huge difference. Did you need to clean out leaves in there?

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Busy day today. Worked almost non stop all day. I had fun and it was peaceful. Really, it was.

Started the morning by doing some detail work on the center instrument panel. Painting the silver edges is time consuming. It took much more time than anticipated. It's going to take 3x the time to do the instrument cluster side, but I think it will turn out nice.

I then buffed out the lens with meguiars ultimate compound. There was some very stubborn etching of a liquid spill all over it and it was very difficult to get off, but it finally came off after several attempts and MANY hot passes with the PC. I'm happy how it turned out.

I went to Michael's to get some paint for the gauge needles. They had a flourescent orange that looks perfect to me. Brushed it on and it all looks like new. I'm electing to keep the original bulbs, which all still work. I kind of like the dim blue glow. It reminds me of how these trucks are supposed to be. My '85 I had in highschool was the same way.

I yanked the clock and am looking for a working replacement. Hopefully my harness is OK. It took some effort to detach the connector on the back of the clock, but I finally got it off. I also learned how to get off the wiper switch knob and light switch knob after quite a few failed attempts with the wrong tools. I was patient and didn't break anything. I got 'her.

I also popped the dash off and found a decent dash at the junk yard on Saturday. It has a golf ball sized hole in the speaker grill, but the rest is good. Need to decide how to proceed with either repairing it or putting a coverlay plastic dash cover on it and call it good. I don't need the speaker as I don't have a center speaker since I have stereo speakers factory.

I ordered tailgate letters from LMC, but the color was wrong. I decided to paint and clear them to match my truck's blue perfectly. I think it turned out nice.

Covered my ripping seat up with 2 blankets I purchased on Amazon. I used some sheet clips - like suspenders - to pull things taut. Turned out surprisingly well. This was a $40 investment and it is much cheaper than reupholstering my seat for now. I also get to keep the original interior still.

I got to take out the 'Bull for her first 2020 drive. Picked up some supplies at Ace hardware.

The last image is the HVAC fan resistor. It didn't look all that bad, but I swapped it out for a new one and regained all my fan speeds. Very happy about that simple fix.

Very, very nice work! :nabble_smiley_good:

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