Rusty_S85 Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 After stripping my spare wheel last night, I've started painting today. It's still a work in progress, so no photos - plus, I haven't bothered masking the tire (since it will be disposed of shortly) so it looks ridiculous.What isn't ridiculous, though, is my other little project today. David/1986F150Six graciously gifted me a nice late 50s Ford hubcap at the last shindig in Skiatook. I've been trying to decide what to do with it ever since, and today it occurred to me - why not use it as a hubcap on my spare? My truck didn't come to me with the under-bed spare tire holder, so one of the first things I did was buy one of those brackets from LMC that lets you mount the spare vertically inside the bed. Works perfectly, but it's not pretty...but I bet it will look nice with a classic Ford hubcap on the tire.The hubcap has been in my garage since September, so it was somewhat grubby. After washing it with soap and water it looked like this:Not bad, but I bet it could look better. The Coke and steel wool trick worked wonders on my interior chrome, I bet it would do well on a hubcap...That's more like it! It's going to finish my spare nicely...so David, thank you again!Those 56 Ford hubcaps were pretty stout on the chrome. I used a small flat head screw driver to scrape the rust off mine.Mine before I started to really clean just used a little chrome polish to clean the dirt off.This is after about half an hour of scraping with the screwdriver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 After stripping my spare wheel last night, I've started painting today. It's still a work in progress, so no photos - plus, I haven't bothered masking the tire (since it will be disposed of shortly) so it looks ridiculous.What isn't ridiculous, though, is my other little project today. David/1986F150Six graciously gifted me a nice late 50s Ford hubcap at the last shindig in Skiatook. I've been trying to decide what to do with it ever since, and today it occurred to me - why not use it as a hubcap on my spare? My truck didn't come to me with the under-bed spare tire holder, so one of the first things I did was buy one of those brackets from LMC that lets you mount the spare vertically inside the bed. Works perfectly, but it's not pretty...but I bet it will look nice with a classic Ford hubcap on the tire.The hubcap has been in my garage since September, so it was somewhat grubby. After washing it with soap and water it looked like this:Not bad, but I bet it could look better. The Coke and steel wool trick worked wonders on my interior chrome, I bet it would do well on a hubcap...That's more like it! It's going to finish my spare nicely...so David, thank you again!Matthew, the phosphoric acid in Coke does so much to help keep that rust from coming back.Plus Atl pride! 💓 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 An excellent question! Perhaps another quality acquisition from Skiatook? I forgot about that "acquisition"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starliner Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Among my "to do's" today was to change the shocks today. Might these be the originals? Just curious, not that it changes anything, I just like the historical side to things. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 Among my "to do's" today was to change the shocks today. Might these be the originals? Just curious, not that it changes anything, I just like the historical side to things. Probably. But those things have to be limp! Here's part of the cross reference chart to take ID # to part number. You can see that E4TA 18080-GA crosses to E4TZ 18125-E, which was later replaced by E7XZ 18125-D. (Yes, I know yours say -G4A, but that # doesn't exist in the list. And, it wasn't unusual for Ford to put a # in there to designate a minor change.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starliner Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Probably. But those things have to be limp! Here's part of the cross reference chart to take ID # to part number. You can see that E4TA 18080-GA crosses to E4TZ 18125-E, which was later replaced by E7XZ 18125-D. (Yes, I know yours say -G4A, but that # doesn't exist in the list. And, it wasn't unusual for Ford to put a # in there to designate a minor change.) And here's the application chart showing that E7XZ 18125-D was the standard shock for a 1980 to 86 F250 2wd. But it would have originally shown E4TZ 18125-E. Yikes, where do you come up with this stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 Yikes, where do you come up with this stuff! From Ford's Master Parts Catalog. That's a 5049 page "book" that lists all of the parts in these trucks as well as has illustrations for many of them. And, by the way, my copy of the MPC is special. I believe there are only two in existence that contain all of the pages they should. A member on here came up with another version of the MPC and I compared all of the pages between his and mine and found several that don't exist in the commercially available versions. So he and I have the only copies of the complete MPC. That's what many of the 600+ pages in the Documentation section come from. That and other Ford publications like factory shop manuals, technical service bulletins, dealer facts books, EVTM's, wiring diagrams, and brochures. Hard to argue with factory documentation. It isn't always right, but it sure beats internet lore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starliner Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 From Ford's Master Parts Catalog. That's a 5049 page "book" that lists all of the parts in these trucks as well as has illustrations for many of them. And, by the way, my copy of the MPC is special. I believe there are only two in existence that contain all of the pages they should. A member on here came up with another version of the MPC and I compared all of the pages between his and mine and found several that don't exist in the commercially available versions. So he and I have the only copies of the complete MPC. That's what many of the 600+ pages in the Documentation section come from. That and other Ford publications like factory shop manuals, technical service bulletins, dealer facts books, EVTM's, wiring diagrams, and brochures. Hard to argue with factory documentation. It isn't always right, but it sure beats internet lore. There is a fine line between a hobby and an obsession, you have crossed over! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 There is a fine line between a hobby and an obsession, you have crossed over! In the immortal words of : "Hm, you're a little bit late on that one, Charlie." Or, "What was your first clue?" Yes, I crossed over a long time ago. I started the web site several years ago and the forum has been up almost three years. But I've only been "into" Bullnose trucks about ten years. So I've progress, or is that "gone downhill", rather rapidly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 There is a fine line between a hobby and an obsession, you have crossed over! A hobby. A part time job A full time job A career. A lifelong passion And a disorder.... There's a lot of middle ground there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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