Poncho Loco build thread, yes here it is ...

[ArdWrknTrk]

We're tearing into Poncho Loco more every day. Today after draining the rotten old gas, my daughter and I lubed both window mechanisms. There appears to be new felt in the window channels, and new rubber at the top of the door panels. Lubing it all up with silicone lube and grease reduced effort considerably. The driver door crank has a lot of axial play but still works. We have a spare out in the field too.

The door panels have sheet metal pockets in them, never seen that on a Bully. Do you think somebody fab'd these up? The door panels themselves have almost no cracks. Even the push pin attachment points are unbroken. Hard to believe for a 1982 truck, I wonder if the panels were NOS. If they were repro they wouldn't have these Ford numbers on them, afaik.

Take a look, what do you think?

Here is one of the door pockets. Very well done, no sharp edges.

Here is the back side. Looks fab'd to me.

That's fabri-cobbled.

Door pockets on these trucks are soft vinyl with elastic at the top.

[Gary Lewis]

That's fabri-cobbled.

Door pockets on these trucks are soft vinyl with elastic at the top.

That's an interesting use of space. But Jim is right, that ain't factory.

[RenoHuskerDu]

That's fabri-cobbled.

Door pockets on these trucks are soft vinyl with elastic at the top.

Our 86 XLT Lariat has those pockets, indeed. Tomorrow in the light I am going to compare.

The back of the pockets looks like a kluge, but the front is remarkably smooth.

We also determined that this truck is an assembly of at least 3 Bullys, as revealed by factory paint found when removing parts.

[RenoHuskerDu]

That's fabri-cobbled.

Door pockets on these trucks are soft vinyl with elastic at the top.

Jim's spot on. Here is a factory door panel from our 86 XLT Lariat. More bright trim but elastic pocket.

I guess Poncho Loco started life as an XL and his PO wanted more door cubbies, spotted that wasted space below the armrest.

If LMC were to offer door pockets that we could install in there, they would sell like hotcakes ... to the tiny audience of us Bullnose lovers.

Here is the door panel of another XLT Lariat we got as a parts truck, blown motor and rusted cab down low. This may find its way into Poncho Loco some day. If only it were blue ...

 

[RenoHuskerDu]

Dear UPO,

I do understand the concept of undercoating and why it's done. But this is Texas. Rust only happens down by the coast. I researched your truck's history a bit and found it was owned by an Austin business, hours away from the coast. I just wonder why you undercoated it.

Furthermore, why did you undercoat right over accumulated dirt? As in soil. Seems curious, given the time you took on many projects.

Thank you for the new brake lines and hoses! It was cool to see that shine come thru as the black goo came off.

Finally, did you really mean to undercoat the 9" diff so heavily that the cast webs almost shrunk from view? And the wiring? And the driveshaft? It's balanced, ya know.

Welp, it's mostly cleaned off now. We presoaked it with kerosene twice, then squirted it with 50% Pinalen. That product sure beats Simple Green. Still remains to send a kid under there with a putty knife and scrape off the low horizontal spots... I know that not everyone has a handy cattle guard for this kind of op. If you tried it in a suburb, the HOA would have a siezure.

In cleaning up the black goo off my pressure washer later, I became very appreciative of the fact that Acetone is sold in gallon bottles. Man that stuff eats thru undercoating fast.

[RenoHuskerDu]

I think the bed bolt change happened in '85, but I'm not sure. We have that documented somewhere.

On the vents, here's how I handled the tank vents. I like the filter as it keeps crawly things out.

We've removed both tanks and cleaned off the black goo. Now it's time to start plumbing in the rear 36 gal tank we have on hand. It came out of our 86 Bully diesel after we had one too many sender and pickup issues. Time and thought have convinced me that those problems were due to poor install by a production garage. Swapping a bigger tank into an 1986 pickup is outside of the range of their competence. While that gentleman has done excellent work for me on newer vehicles, on older vehicles I believe firmly that we should do it ourselves, or given the budget, contract with a restoration specialist in the area.

Here's my question. We have a 36 gal rear tank, which has a poor sender arrangement, having been modified from the original 18 gal tank. It just hit me that my rear 36 gal tank was originally designed for a Bronco, right? And Broncos are very collectible now, so I bet somebody makes good repro sending units for Bronco 36 gal tanks.

UPDATE: I'm not sure about that anymore. Bronco Graveyard lists 25 gal tank for 80-83 Bronco.

All I need is to find a vendor. I tried Carolina Classics, but they don't do senders. Jeff's Bronco Graveyard is still there, but they offer nothing for a pre-85 Bronco. It looks like Ford put an electric EFI pump right in the tank around that time. Our pump was mechanical on the block (but will be electric soon). The pickup in the tank is also the sender, see pics.

I did find this ACP on the CarID site, but its slick marketing makes me suspicious. Their idea of details is just marketingspeak, which was my job for decades.

"Expertly manufactured from the highest grade materials...Meticulously Tested for the ultimate in quality...Innovative engineering, solid design, and proven reliability" All they need is Billy Mays to jump in and pimp the sender. They don't even mention the capacity of the tank, but if I dig around a bit I find it fits 16 or 19 gallon tanks. Didn't all Broncos some with big rear tanks? Hence the spare tire on the back door crane.

UPDATE: CarID has chat support. I got a Karen on the line (really!) who confirmed that it only fits 16 or 19 gal. Why aren't nice girls at home with their family? Don't get me started....

Anyone have an idea where else I could buy a 1980-1984 Bronco fuel tank pickup/sender? Here's one of my old ones. Not reparable, and we already tried extending the arm on our 86 Bully. Fabbing a longer fuel pickup is easy, but not the float/sender. Too much weight, eventually breaks the arm.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

We've removed both tanks and cleaned off the black goo. Now it's time to start plumbing in the rear 36 gal tank we have on hand. It came out of our 86 Bully diesel after we had one too many sender and pickup issues. Time and thought have convinced me that those problems were due to poor install by a production garage. Swapping a bigger tank into an 1986 pickup is outside of the range of their competence. While that gentleman has done excellent work for me on newer vehicles, on older vehicles I believe firmly that we should do it ourselves, or given the budget, contract with a restoration specialist in the area.

Here's my question. We have a 36 gal rear tank, which has a poor sender arrangement, having been modified from the original 18 gal tank. It just hit me that my rear 36 gal tank was originally designed for a Bronco, right? And Broncos are very collectible now, so I bet somebody makes good repro sending units for Bronco 36 gal tanks.

UPDATE: I'm not sure about that anymore. Bronco Graveyard lists 25 gal tank for 80-83 Bronco.

All I need is to find a vendor. I tried Carolina Classics, but they don't do senders. Jeff's Bronco Graveyard is still there, but they offer nothing for a pre-85 Bronco. It looks like Ford put an electric EFI pump right in the tank around that time. Our pump was mechanical on the block (but will be electric soon). The pickup in the tank is also the sender, see pics.

I did find this ACP on the CarID site, but its slick marketing makes me suspicious. Their idea of details is just marketingspeak, which was my job for decades.

"Expertly manufactured from the highest grade materials...Meticulously Tested for the ultimate in quality...Innovative engineering, solid design, and proven reliability" All they need is Billy Mays to jump in and pimp the sender. They don't even mention the capacity of the tank, but if I dig around a bit I find it fits 16 or 19 gallon tanks. Didn't all Broncos some with big rear tanks? Hence the spare tire on the back door crane.

UPDATE: CarID has chat support. I got a Karen on the line (really!) who confirmed that it only fits 16 or 19 gal. Why aren't nice girls at home with their family? Don't get me started....

Anyone have an idea where else I could buy a 1980-1984 Bronco fuel tank pickup/sender? Here's one of my old ones. Not reparable, and we already tried extending the arm on our 86 Bully. Fabbing a longer fuel pickup is easy, but not the float/sender. Too much weight, eventually breaks the arm.

Bronco tanks aren't exacty the same as the deep truck tanks.

Bronco's are shorter behind the axle for a better departure angle.

I don't personally have any experience with the deeper truck tanks but Big Blue is wearing one and I'm sure Gary has well documented what pickup/sender module he used.

On further thought Gary is using in-tank pumps because he has plans to fit fuel injection to the engine that Scott built.... 🤔

It might be worth doing a search on Big Blue's thread if just to see what he's figured out about the deep tank and which manufacturer he decided to go with.

[RenoHuskerDu]

Bronco tanks aren't exacty the same as the deep truck tanks.

Bronco's are shorter behind the axle for a better departure angle.

I don't personally have any experience with the deeper truck tanks but Big Blue is wearing one and I'm sure Gary has well documented what pickup/sender module he used.

On further thought Gary is using in-tank pumps because he has plans to fit fuel injection to the engine that Scott built.... 🤔

It might be worth doing a search on Big Blue's thread if just to see what he's figured out about the deep tank and which manufacturer he decided to go with.

That EFI in-tank pump would be the bee's knees. Until its high pressure hit the float needle valve in our .... carburetor. Eh ... nothing is easy on old trucks.

Maybe we'll just run this truck off a bed tank, as we do with our 86 diesel

[ArdWrknTrk]

That EFI in-tank pump would be the bee's knees. Until its high pressure hit the float needle valve in our .... carburetor. Eh ... nothing is easy on old trucks.

Maybe we'll just run this truck off a bed tank, as we do with our 86 diesel

Well, the '87-on senders also read backwards and a different range than the 10-70 ohm Bullnose gauges.....

So that would be another stumbling block.

Let me poke around Big Blue's thread.

I don't have everything categorized and saved like Gary does.

[RenoHuskerDu]

Well, the '87-on senders also read backwards and a different range than the 10-70 ohm Bullnose gauges.....

So that would be another stumbling block.

Let me poke around Big Blue's thread.

I don't have everything categorized and saved like Gary does.

I poked around on FTE and found a bunch of threads on this tank. It's not for a Bronco and never came on a F-series, as far as I can see. It's a Spectra Premium aftermarket tank. LMC sells it too. Nobody mentioned finding the correct pickup/sender for the deep tank.

Lots of guys stood on their heads doing fancy fab to get a stock rear tank 19gal pickup/sender working correctly in that 38gal tank. After due consideration, I'm taking the path of less resistance.

NAPA (whose prices often rival RockAuto these days) sells that pickup/sender for $70. I'll extend the pickup with fuel hose, just as we do when the pickup tube breaks off part way down (ask me how we know). Then I'll bend the sender float arm down a bit. That should make the gauge read full for about 10 gal from full, and hit empty with 8 gallons to spare. Give or take a country mile...my daughter can also monitor the trip odometer. And we'll drop in a 50gal bed tank in for gravity refill.

Should be an acceptable setup. FYI