1980 F150 4x4 Flareside Project

[Rembrant]

That is a common problem on the 1983-1997 4x4 Rangers as their shock mount stud is welded to the side of the radius arm. They break often in northern climates, and the usual replacement is to just find a strong bolt that fits the shock with plenty of shoulder, and weld that to the radius arm.

Figures. Everything rusts and breaks off up here...lol. I'll get something geared up for it, not really a big deal. Just one more thing to weld...lol.

Hello Gentlemen,

Still slaving away on the crusty old 1980. I had ordered a whole bunch of parts in preparation for the Christmas break...hoping I can try to start the thing by then, but time will tell. I'm going in for some surgery on Tuesday, which is nothing too serious, but it will put me out of commission for a while, so I put a push on this weekend to tidy up a few loose ends, and organized a parts list I'll need for later in December. Not much left to order now...but I still need a fuel pump, fuel line, clutch master and hydraulic line, thermostat, air filter, plugs and oil filter, etc. Odds and ends. All of the old style radiators seem to be out of stock everywhere (and they're expensive too), so I did a little bit of research and wasn't I pleased to find a write-up right here on the Garagemahal about swapping the later style radiator in place of the old style. THANKS FOR THE SAVED DOCUMENTATION GARY!! So...a friend of mine has a nice used 300i6 radiator I'm going to use, and my core support will require minimal modifications.

ANYWAY....

Do you remember me talking about the broken lower stud for the front forward shock? Interesting...I bought a cheap set of Gabriels, and the forward shocks actually came with new front lower mounts, which is cool. I'll just cut the old one off and drill the bracket to accept the new mount. Sometimes you get a good roll of the dice.

So I got the four new front shocks installed, and I finished welding the Bullnose horns onto the 1995 frame. Cleaned up my welds, and then put some fresh black paint on. I'm going to leave the bumper off until I get the finders and liners all installed, etc. I seam sealed the firewall around the repairs I made, and re-installed the heater core box.

I ordered a new heater core, but the one that arrived was not exactly the same, and therefore did not fit. This truck has the HO heater, and the core has a hard rubber casing that fits around it, and it would not fit the replacement so it got returned. The old one looked OK so I stuck it back in anyway. NBD, but I wanted to change it while I had the heater box removed from the firewall.

Oddly, while on the topic of heater cores, I received one by mistake in a parts shipment from LMC. It was one digit off from the 300i6 throttle cable I had ordered. There's good news and bad...LMC was very good about it, and they said the heater core was not worth the trouble to return internationally, so they told me to keep it. I posted it for free on a local forum and it was gone in a couple days (it fit 1965-1972 Ford trucks). The bad...the gal I spoke to said that they were showing only one throttle cable in-stock, and if they could not find it that they were backordered for 5 weeks. Gross. Anyway, that's fine. I know enough guys around here I can find a 300 throttle cable I can use should I be ready to fire this old girl up at Christmas (that's the plan).

Not much else to say really...it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go...

I did my best to clean-up the welds and seams where I grafted the Bullnose bumper horns on there. I'll spary some rustproofing over them as well. Hopefully they won't be an issue when it's time to road safety this thing. Technically the mechanic could complain about these, but I don't think they will.

Oh, and I bought a used set of 15x10 ProComp aluminum wheels for it. They were along my path on a work trip last week and I figured I'd grab them. They'll be the nicest things on the whole truck..haha.

Funny thing, the wheels had recently been removed from a nice little Flareside that I had seen for sale online locally weeks before.

That's the news for today! Now I'm off to cut some trees down in the back yard for Mrs. Rembrant!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Hello Gentlemen,

Still slaving away on the crusty old 1980. I had ordered a whole bunch of parts in preparation for the Christmas break...hoping I can try to start the thing by then, but time will tell. I'm going in for some surgery on Tuesday, which is nothing too serious, but it will put me out of commission for a while, so I put a push on this weekend to tidy up a few loose ends, and organized a parts list I'll need for later in December. Not much left to order now...but I still need a fuel pump, fuel line, clutch master and hydraulic line, thermostat, air filter, plugs and oil filter, etc. Odds and ends. All of the old style radiators seem to be out of stock everywhere (and they're expensive too), so I did a little bit of research and wasn't I pleased to find a write-up right here on the Garagemahal about swapping the later style radiator in place of the old style. THANKS FOR THE SAVED DOCUMENTATION GARY!! So...a friend of mine has a nice used 300i6 radiator I'm going to use, and my core support will require minimal modifications.

ANYWAY....

Do you remember me talking about the broken lower stud for the front forward shock? Interesting...I bought a cheap set of Gabriels, and the forward shocks actually came with new front lower mounts, which is cool. I'll just cut the old one off and drill the bracket to accept the new mount. Sometimes you get a good roll of the dice.

So I got the four new front shocks installed, and I finished welding the Bullnose horns onto the 1995 frame. Cleaned up my welds, and then put some fresh black paint on. I'm going to leave the bumper off until I get the finders and liners all installed, etc. I seam sealed the firewall around the repairs I made, and re-installed the heater core box.

I ordered a new heater core, but the one that arrived was not exactly the same, and therefore did not fit. This truck has the HO heater, and the core has a hard rubber casing that fits around it, and it would not fit the replacement so it got returned. The old one looked OK so I stuck it back in anyway. NBD, but I wanted to change it while I had the heater box removed from the firewall.

Oddly, while on the topic of heater cores, I received one by mistake in a parts shipment from LMC. It was one digit off from the 300i6 throttle cable I had ordered. There's good news and bad...LMC was very good about it, and they said the heater core was not worth the trouble to return internationally, so they told me to keep it. I posted it for free on a local forum and it was gone in a couple days (it fit 1965-1972 Ford trucks). The bad...the gal I spoke to said that they were showing only one throttle cable in-stock, and if they could not find it that they were backordered for 5 weeks. Gross. Anyway, that's fine. I know enough guys around here I can find a 300 throttle cable I can use should I be ready to fire this old girl up at Christmas (that's the plan).

Not much else to say really...it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go...

I did my best to clean-up the welds and seams where I grafted the Bullnose bumper horns on there. I'll spary some rustproofing over them as well. Hopefully they won't be an issue when it's time to road safety this thing. Technically the mechanic could complain about these, but I don't think they will.

Oh, and I bought a used set of 15x10 ProComp aluminum wheels for it. They were along my path on a work trip last week and I figured I'd grab them. They'll be the nicest things on the whole truck..haha.

Funny thing, the wheels had recently been removed from a nice little Flareside that I had seen for sale online locally weeks before.

That's the news for today! Now I'm off to cut some trees down in the back yard for Mrs. Rembrant!

You've accomplished so much, Cory!

That's a huge push, and despite being sidelined I can see you starting the truck in a months time.

Glad to hear you're taking care of Mrs Rembrandt as well!

[salans7]

You've accomplished so much, Cory!

That's a huge push, and despite being sidelined I can see you starting the truck in a months time.

Glad to hear you're taking care of Mrs Rembrandt as well!

Those wheels are one of my favorite styles and I can't wait to see them on the truck!

I'm loving the progress on this thing. It's what I wanted to do on my truck before mine snowballed.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Hello Gentlemen,

Still slaving away on the crusty old 1980. I had ordered a whole bunch of parts in preparation for the Christmas break...hoping I can try to start the thing by then, but time will tell. I'm going in for some surgery on Tuesday, which is nothing too serious, but it will put me out of commission for a while, so I put a push on this weekend to tidy up a few loose ends, and organized a parts list I'll need for later in December. Not much left to order now...but I still need a fuel pump, fuel line, clutch master and hydraulic line, thermostat, air filter, plugs and oil filter, etc. Odds and ends. All of the old style radiators seem to be out of stock everywhere (and they're expensive too), so I did a little bit of research and wasn't I pleased to find a write-up right here on the Garagemahal about swapping the later style radiator in place of the old style. THANKS FOR THE SAVED DOCUMENTATION GARY!! So...a friend of mine has a nice used 300i6 radiator I'm going to use, and my core support will require minimal modifications.

ANYWAY....

Do you remember me talking about the broken lower stud for the front forward shock? Interesting...I bought a cheap set of Gabriels, and the forward shocks actually came with new front lower mounts, which is cool. I'll just cut the old one off and drill the bracket to accept the new mount. Sometimes you get a good roll of the dice.

So I got the four new front shocks installed, and I finished welding the Bullnose horns onto the 1995 frame. Cleaned up my welds, and then put some fresh black paint on. I'm going to leave the bumper off until I get the finders and liners all installed, etc. I seam sealed the firewall around the repairs I made, and re-installed the heater core box.

I ordered a new heater core, but the one that arrived was not exactly the same, and therefore did not fit. This truck has the HO heater, and the core has a hard rubber casing that fits around it, and it would not fit the replacement so it got returned. The old one looked OK so I stuck it back in anyway. NBD, but I wanted to change it while I had the heater box removed from the firewall.

Oddly, while on the topic of heater cores, I received one by mistake in a parts shipment from LMC. It was one digit off from the 300i6 throttle cable I had ordered. There's good news and bad...LMC was very good about it, and they said the heater core was not worth the trouble to return internationally, so they told me to keep it. I posted it for free on a local forum and it was gone in a couple days (it fit 1965-1972 Ford trucks). The bad...the gal I spoke to said that they were showing only one throttle cable in-stock, and if they could not find it that they were backordered for 5 weeks. Gross. Anyway, that's fine. I know enough guys around here I can find a 300 throttle cable I can use should I be ready to fire this old girl up at Christmas (that's the plan).

Not much else to say really...it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go...

I did my best to clean-up the welds and seams where I grafted the Bullnose bumper horns on there. I'll spary some rustproofing over them as well. Hopefully they won't be an issue when it's time to road safety this thing. Technically the mechanic could complain about these, but I don't think they will.

Oh, and I bought a used set of 15x10 ProComp aluminum wheels for it. They were along my path on a work trip last week and I figured I'd grab them. They'll be the nicest things on the whole truck..haha.

Funny thing, the wheels had recently been removed from a nice little Flareside that I had seen for sale online locally weeks before.

That's the news for today! Now I'm off to cut some trees down in the back yard for Mrs. Rembrant!

Well done, Cory!!

Some times you get lucky on things and you did on the shock mounts. And, they look great framing that spring.

I understand the issue of "it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go..." I'm, THERE! When I look back I see a whole lot of things have been done, but when I look forward there's so much more to do.

I'll keep you in my prayers re the surgery. Please let us know how it goes.

 

[Rembrant]

Well done, Cory!!

Some times you get lucky on things and you did on the shock mounts. And, they look great framing that spring.

I understand the issue of "it feels like it's getting somewhere, but still so far to go..." I'm, THERE! When I look back I see a whole lot of things have been done, but when I look forward there's so much more to do.

I'll keep you in my prayers re the surgery. Please let us know how it goes.

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

 

[salans7]

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

That same rust along the firewall is what really caused me to pause on the F150. It was all along the seam on both sides, with around 8 holes. There was more behind the brake booster and the reinforcement panel.

My F350 has a couple small holes, but they are much more manageable than the entire seam on the F150 was.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

That's intriguing Cory.

I'm glad you didn't have a whole lot of rust to deal with in the cowl!

[grumpin]

That's intriguing Cory.

I'm glad you didn't have a whole lot of rust to deal with in the cowl!

Very cool! Nice wheels!

Prayers for the surgery!

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

I would have thought that it would have been obvious that seam needed sealer. But I guess in a transition it could be forgotten. But wow, that's quite an oversight.

So what are you going to do? Put seam sealer in there?

[Rembrant]

Thanks gentlemen,

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys something I discovered with this truck. I knew that there were a couple rust holes in the firewall when I bought it. Turns out there were more like four rust holes in the firewall, but anyway...rust is always worse than what you can actually see. There was some rust in the seam just above the heater box, and the cowl trough was full of leaves...and I mean full, like there was a blanket of leaves in there. This truck had been sitting for years. Anyway, I cleaned all of the leaves out and shop vac'd the trough and scraped all the corners and edges clean, etc. The seam in the cowl trough was never sealed. I was certain that after I removed the leaves I was going to find terrible rust holes, but it was actually in really nice condition in there...but no seam sealer, and no evidence that there ever was any. I assume it is because this is an early truck? Built in Sept or Oct of 1979...maybe they missed a few of the early ones at the Canadian plant? Who knows.

I just checked my 84, and it has a fat bead of seam sealer all along this seam in the trough.

Starting to actually look like a truck again...

Installed the PMGR starter and exhaust downpipe this morning before installing the fenders and liners. I loosely organized the wiring harness since it has been pretty much laying in a big lump on the engine. Starting to look like something again. It's still a rusty pile, but at least I'm not bored!

Tomorrow I have to cut the hole in the floor for the 4x4 shifter, and install the shifter and bezel, etc. Then finish tightening down the cab mount bolts. I might deal with some of the engine bay wiring, but I need to also get the core support ready to install, and it needs a little bit of work first. Time to make a list...lol.