"Rocky" - 1981 F250 Restoration

[taskswap]

You are braver than I am with the silver soldering. But why not put a later model "pin cushion" cowl on? It'll solve the problem without a screen.

I wasn't aware of any "pin cushion cowl". Is there a part number or photo or link or something you can share? Part of me wants to try to reuse my current cowl since it's in really good condition considering the age of the vehicle. Around here, cars parked outside tend to get murdered by hail over the years, and despite being weathered almost to bare metal, it's pretty straight and not deformed. But if there's a drop-in alternative with a smarter vent design I'd definitely consider it. This design is... not Ford's brightest idea...

Today was a big day. I was finally ready to lay my carpet down plus do a bunch of other interior "trim" finalization: dome light, kick pieces, etc. And the moment I started it all went wrong. I dropped the shifter-cane alignment pin into the transmission!

I was SUPER careful the first time I took this out - I had read about the problem and was ready with a magnet to grab it. What I didn't realize is that the pin itself had become a bit magnetic somehow, or maybe it just came that way. I got the pin in place just fine but when I went to drop in the cane, the nearby metal yanked the pin out sideways and down it went!

Oh no.....

Suddenly this is a bigger job than I'd originally planned but I'm a "life hands you lemons, grab the vodka" kind of guy. I had always intended to check the transmission oil level and now I had the perfect excuse for that and a visual inspection of the gears. I yanked the drain plug and pulled off the PTO cover so I could retrieve the pin.

That was reassuring. I was worried for a 30-yr-old vehicle with unknown history and a manual transmission that there would be some gear damage. I had mentally prepared for a transmission rebuild at some point. But I think I have some time. The gears mostly look good, as much as you can tell at a glance. No broken or damaged teeth, and the magnetic pickup tool only pulled out a few small metal slivers (plus the pin). Nothing I wouldn't have expected for a tranny this old...

I'm 99% certain work was done to this thing at SOME point. The sealant on the cover was clearly Permatex Black, I would recognize that stuff anywhere, and it was very sloppily applied. So I'm wondering if maybe this thing had some transmission work done already. Here you can see all the scratches, which is where I'm betting somebody in the past cleaned up the original Ford sealant. Those are (almost totally) not from me - I used a brass bristle brush for my cleaning.

Unfortunately AutoZone was closed and Walmart didn't carry the right weight of oil, so I've got an order coming from Amazon (more waiting!) Thursday with the right stuff. But, since I was finally able to reinstall the shifter cane by this point, I was able to cut the hole in the carpet in the correct location, and lay that down.

And that... well that just looks amazing to me. This isn't something you'd ever have in a showroom, but for a hunting rig for my wife and I to fart around in? It's perfect. I had bought some floor mats from Amazon to go along with this but I hate them so I'm going to spring for some nice Weathertech's to round it all out, and I should be able to finally start installing interior trim.

One last project for the night, I may have mentioned I wanted to convert my dome light to the dome/map combo. I had already run an always-on (fused) circuit a week or so ago. But I didn't have one of those oddball black plastic screw/wire terminal connectors Ford uses on the dome light and wasn't in love with that setup anyway. I was also missing the plastic "spacer" piece the map/dome combo needs. So I cut that out of neoprene, and using some ring terminals, star washers, and a crimp style connector I converted the map light to have a nicer connector, then cut a spacer out of a sheet of 1/8" neoprene:

I'm pretty happy with how this all turned out. The only exception was at some point over the years I had bought a terminal/connector kit of some generic style (not Weather-pack). I had never used them because I like Weather-pack so much but figured this was as good a time as any to try it, since it's easy to access/replace later, and a non-critical item. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092Q11S98 if you're curious) Well... they're OK but not great. The pins don't seem to seat as firmly and the alignment isn't as smooth. If you're in the market, Weather-pack is where it's at IMO.

 

[Gary Lewis]

You are braver than I am with the silver soldering. But why not put a later model "pin cushion" cowl on? It'll solve the problem without a screen.

I wasn't aware of any "pin cushion cowl". Is there a part number or photo or link or something you can share? Part of me wants to try to reuse my current cowl since it's in really good condition considering the age of the vehicle. Around here, cars parked outside tend to get murdered by hail over the years, and despite being weathered almost to bare metal, it's pretty straight and not deformed. But if there's a drop-in alternative with a smarter vent design I'd definitely consider it. This design is... not Ford's brightest idea...

Today was a big day. I was finally ready to lay my carpet down plus do a bunch of other interior "trim" finalization: dome light, kick pieces, etc. And the moment I started it all went wrong. I dropped the shifter-cane alignment pin into the transmission!

I was SUPER careful the first time I took this out - I had read about the problem and was ready with a magnet to grab it. What I didn't realize is that the pin itself had become a bit magnetic somehow, or maybe it just came that way. I got the pin in place just fine but when I went to drop in the cane, the nearby metal yanked the pin out sideways and down it went!

Oh no.....

Suddenly this is a bigger job than I'd originally planned but I'm a "life hands you lemons, grab the vodka" kind of guy. I had always intended to check the transmission oil level and now I had the perfect excuse for that and a visual inspection of the gears. I yanked the drain plug and pulled off the PTO cover so I could retrieve the pin.

That was reassuring. I was worried for a 30-yr-old vehicle with unknown history and a manual transmission that there would be some gear damage. I had mentally prepared for a transmission rebuild at some point. But I think I have some time. The gears mostly look good, as much as you can tell at a glance. No broken or damaged teeth, and the magnetic pickup tool only pulled out a few small metal slivers (plus the pin). Nothing I wouldn't have expected for a tranny this old...

I'm 99% certain work was done to this thing at SOME point. The sealant on the cover was clearly Permatex Black, I would recognize that stuff anywhere, and it was very sloppily applied. So I'm wondering if maybe this thing had some transmission work done already. Here you can see all the scratches, which is where I'm betting somebody in the past cleaned up the original Ford sealant. Those are (almost totally) not from me - I used a brass bristle brush for my cleaning.

Unfortunately AutoZone was closed and Walmart didn't carry the right weight of oil, so I've got an order coming from Amazon (more waiting!) Thursday with the right stuff. But, since I was finally able to reinstall the shifter cane by this point, I was able to cut the hole in the carpet in the correct location, and lay that down.

And that... well that just looks amazing to me. This isn't something you'd ever have in a showroom, but for a hunting rig for my wife and I to fart around in? It's perfect. I had bought some floor mats from Amazon to go along with this but I hate them so I'm going to spring for some nice Weathertech's to round it all out, and I should be able to finally start installing interior trim.

One last project for the night, I may have mentioned I wanted to convert my dome light to the dome/map combo. I had already run an always-on (fused) circuit a week or so ago. But I didn't have one of those oddball black plastic screw/wire terminal connectors Ford uses on the dome light and wasn't in love with that setup anyway. I was also missing the plastic "spacer" piece the map/dome combo needs. So I cut that out of neoprene, and using some ring terminals, star washers, and a crimp style connector I converted the map light to have a nicer connector, then cut a spacer out of a sheet of 1/8" neoprene:

I'm pretty happy with how this all turned out. The only exception was at some point over the years I had bought a terminal/connector kit of some generic style (not Weather-pack). I had never used them because I like Weather-pack so much but figured this was as good a time as any to try it, since it's easy to access/replace later, and a non-critical item. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092Q11S98 if you're curious) Well... they're OK but not great. The pins don't seem to seat as firmly and the alignment isn't as smooth. If you're in the market, Weather-pack is where it's at IMO.

You had a big day! Well done! The truck is really coming together, and now you know the tranny is good. There's a silver lining in every cloud.

As for the pin cushion cowl, it came out in 1987 so you should be able to find one in a salvage. The part number is shown below, and they obviously think the pin cushion version, which is the E7 part number, is superior to the Bullnose version 'cause they took the E0 Bullnose number out of the catalog.

And here's a shot of the one on Big Blue. It is a bolt-in on a Bullnose truck, and seems to solve the leaf or pine needle problem.

[taskswap]

You had a big day! Well done! The truck is really coming together, and now you know the tranny is good. There's a silver lining in every cloud.

As for the pin cushion cowl, it came out in 1987 so you should be able to find one in a salvage. The part number is shown below, and they obviously think the pin cushion version, which is the E7 part number, is superior to the Bullnose version 'cause they took the E0 Bullnose number out of the catalog.

And here's a shot of the one on Big Blue. It is a bolt-in on a Bullnose truck, and seems to solve the leaf or pine needle problem.

Thanks. If I see one of those at the junkyard I may pick it up, but I think I'm also going to give a go of re-using mine. It's in really good condition, so I might as well try...

I got a tiny bit of progress today, might do more tonight. I was originally going to LineX this thing but I'm overdue getting started on the camper restoration and that's going to take some money too, so I decided to stick with a rubber bed mat for now. I found one pre-cut for this bed and it looks really nice:

I also got the dome light mounted. The map lights are traditional amber/non-LED bulbs on purpose, I want a less-bright light if my wife uses the map light while I'm driving, and also I have probably a dozen of that kind of bulb floating around. The center I did put an LED into.

It all turned out really well but there was one disappointment. Oh LMC... They sell a "clear dome light cover" for this unit and it was cheap so I got it. But caveat emptor, it doesn't fit very well. It won't stay on, it seems like the cover is just a millimeter off on the width and the mounting tabs are so short they don't grab the slots they go into very well. It's hard to tell from the photo but it's actually hanging down in the back here.

The neoprene gasket did do its job. This is the "wrong" light for my cab ceiling so my mounting boss is a smaller rectangle. I used the gasket both to trim out / fill the air gap where the new light sits on that boss and also make sure the terminals don't contact the roof of the truck. I could have made it about a millimeter smaller all around but it looks fine if you don't look too close.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks. If I see one of those at the junkyard I may pick it up, but I think I'm also going to give a go of re-using mine. It's in really good condition, so I might as well try...

I got a tiny bit of progress today, might do more tonight. I was originally going to LineX this thing but I'm overdue getting started on the camper restoration and that's going to take some money too, so I decided to stick with a rubber bed mat for now. I found one pre-cut for this bed and it looks really nice:

I also got the dome light mounted. The map lights are traditional amber/non-LED bulbs on purpose, I want a less-bright light if my wife uses the map light while I'm driving, and also I have probably a dozen of that kind of bulb floating around. The center I did put an LED into.

It all turned out really well but there was one disappointment. Oh LMC... They sell a "clear dome light cover" for this unit and it was cheap so I got it. But caveat emptor, it doesn't fit very well. It won't stay on, it seems like the cover is just a millimeter off on the width and the mounting tabs are so short they don't grab the slots they go into very well. It's hard to tell from the photo but it's actually hanging down in the back here.

The neoprene gasket did do its job. This is the "wrong" light for my cab ceiling so my mounting boss is a smaller rectangle. I used the gasket both to trim out / fill the air gap where the new light sits on that boss and also make sure the terminals don't contact the roof of the truck. I could have made it about a millimeter smaller all around but it looks fine if you don't look too close.

The dome light looks good, save for the lens. Obviously the one from LMC isn't acceptable. But your adaptation is well done.

And the bed rug should serve you well. Dad had one in his truck and it didn't cause the bed to rust. (But it did trap .22 casings - he shot a lot from the bed.)

[grumpin]

Thanks. If I see one of those at the junkyard I may pick it up, but I think I'm also going to give a go of re-using mine. It's in really good condition, so I might as well try...

I got a tiny bit of progress today, might do more tonight. I was originally going to LineX this thing but I'm overdue getting started on the camper restoration and that's going to take some money too, so I decided to stick with a rubber bed mat for now. I found one pre-cut for this bed and it looks really nice:

I also got the dome light mounted. The map lights are traditional amber/non-LED bulbs on purpose, I want a less-bright light if my wife uses the map light while I'm driving, and also I have probably a dozen of that kind of bulb floating around. The center I did put an LED into.

It all turned out really well but there was one disappointment. Oh LMC... They sell a "clear dome light cover" for this unit and it was cheap so I got it. But caveat emptor, it doesn't fit very well. It won't stay on, it seems like the cover is just a millimeter off on the width and the mounting tabs are so short they don't grab the slots they go into very well. It's hard to tell from the photo but it's actually hanging down in the back here.

The neoprene gasket did do its job. This is the "wrong" light for my cab ceiling so my mounting boss is a smaller rectangle. I used the gasket both to trim out / fill the air gap where the new light sits on that boss and also make sure the terminals don't contact the roof of the truck. I could have made it about a millimeter smaller all around but it looks fine if you don't look too close.

I had ordered a regular lens for my f250, then saw the clear one from LMC. Bought two, the one in my Bronco works great.

The one in my truck is in the center console. Kept falling out. So I put the original style in to see if it would stay in, it does. I need to put the clear one in the garage as a back up for the Bronco.

Weird, the two bases look the same to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

[taskswap]

I had ordered a regular lens for my f250, then saw the clear one from LMC. Bought two, the one in my Bronco works great.

The one in my truck is in the center console. Kept falling out. So I put the original style in to see if it would stay in, it does. I need to put the clear one in the garage as a back up for the Bronco.

Weird, the two bases look the same to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

Ha! With the price of brass these days I doubt I'll be "losing" any rounds under the mat.

I had ordered a regular lens for my f250, then saw the clear one from LMC. Bought two, the one in my Bronco works great.

The one in my truck is in the center console. Kept falling out. So I put the original style in to see if it would stay in, it does. I need to put the clear one in the garage as a back up for the Bronco.

Weird, the two bases look the same to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hmmm interesting. I didn't get a perfect view of it but from a quick glance I think my clear LMC lens has two problems. First, the "tabs" that hold it into the fixture aren't long enough. Second, the lens has a bit of ridge around all of its edges and this flares out very slightly - I think it's the "draft" from the mold used to make the lens. It's subtle, but I think it's just enough to cause it to not sit very well in the fixture, which has its own slight draft angle.

I don't really want to sink a lot of time into this thing but I may try to shave a sixteenth off the outer edge with a dremel just to see what happens. If that fails I'll just use the original lens. It's yellowed, but otherwise in good shape.

[grumpin]

Ha! With the price of brass these days I doubt I'll be "losing" any rounds under the mat.

I had ordered a regular lens for my f250, then saw the clear one from LMC. Bought two, the one in my Bronco works great.

The one in my truck is in the center console. Kept falling out. So I put the original style in to see if it would stay in, it does. I need to put the clear one in the garage as a back up for the Bronco.

Weird, the two bases look the same to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hmmm interesting. I didn't get a perfect view of it but from a quick glance I think my clear LMC lens has two problems. First, the "tabs" that hold it into the fixture aren't long enough. Second, the lens has a bit of ridge around all of its edges and this flares out very slightly - I think it's the "draft" from the mold used to make the lens. It's subtle, but I think it's just enough to cause it to not sit very well in the fixture, which has its own slight draft angle.

I don't really want to sink a lot of time into this thing but I may try to shave a sixteenth off the outer edge with a dremel just to see what happens. If that fails I'll just use the original lens. It's yellowed, but otherwise in good shape.

“I don't really want to sink a lot of time into this thing but I may try to shave a sixteenth off the outer edge with a dremel just to see what happens. If that fails I'll just use the original lens. It's yellowed, but otherwise in good shape.”

I’m interested to see if that works.

[taskswap]

I’m interested to see if that works.

I'll post here with details, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, a few items of interest...

So the "clear" lens cover from LMC various from stock in a few critical ways. First, you can see that the general "thickness" of the plastic (side lips) is higher than stock. My stock cover's "sides" are almost exactly 1mm thick, but the LMC lens is 1.9mm (each side). The stock unit is also 68mm "long" (between the sides where the tabs/fingers are) while the LMC lens is 71mm. Finally, the overall width is about 0.5mm wider on the LMC lens. It's hard to see the clear lens clearly in these pics, so I put a bit of blue marker on one section so you can see the difference better.

I didn't try sanding mine yet but I will tomorrow and I'll report back.

As for general progress, it was warm today (warmer than it will be for the next 2 weeks) but I wasted it on "work" and only had about an hour to play with the truck. But I got some small things done. The seat belts are finalized now. The brackets from Jegs worked out really well but I did end up cutting slots in the seat for them to pass through - they were clearly designed to do that. Overall it worked out really well, my seat belts stay put even when the seat-back is tilted forward, and they're long enough to comfortably fasten. I think I gained about 3" length overall between the bracket height, change in angle of the attachment TO the bracket, and passing them through the seat.

Other small items included attaching a few more dashboard screws and installing my new sun-visors. I had bought the LMC ones with the chrome fixtures. They're not quite identical to stock but mostly in the screws themselves, oddly enough. The stock screws have what I believe is called an "oval" head screw but the LMC sun-visor brackets came with flat-head, countersunk style screws. But I ended up using what LMC provided because even though they don't look quite right, at least they weren't rusty. I have a grinder with a buffing wheel but even I'm not crazy enough to try to "polish" six screws I'll barely see in normal use. Like I said, this isn't a showroom restoration...

The rest of the week could get crazy. A lot of stuff arrives this week, in particular the correct ("yellow parts friendly") gear oil to refill my transmission, the Torklift camper tie-down attachments, the winch, etc. My hope is that I'll be getting into "exterior stuff" over the next few days, and get the truck running again by this weekend. Fingers crossed!

[Gary Lewis]

I’m interested to see if that works.

I'll post here with details, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, a few items of interest...

So the "clear" lens cover from LMC various from stock in a few critical ways. First, you can see that the general "thickness" of the plastic (side lips) is higher than stock. My stock cover's "sides" are almost exactly 1mm thick, but the LMC lens is 1.9mm (each side). The stock unit is also 68mm "long" (between the sides where the tabs/fingers are) while the LMC lens is 71mm. Finally, the overall width is about 0.5mm wider on the LMC lens. It's hard to see the clear lens clearly in these pics, so I put a bit of blue marker on one section so you can see the difference better.

I didn't try sanding mine yet but I will tomorrow and I'll report back.

As for general progress, it was warm today (warmer than it will be for the next 2 weeks) but I wasted it on "work" and only had about an hour to play with the truck. But I got some small things done. The seat belts are finalized now. The brackets from Jegs worked out really well but I did end up cutting slots in the seat for them to pass through - they were clearly designed to do that. Overall it worked out really well, my seat belts stay put even when the seat-back is tilted forward, and they're long enough to comfortably fasten. I think I gained about 3" length overall between the bracket height, change in angle of the attachment TO the bracket, and passing them through the seat.

Other small items included attaching a few more dashboard screws and installing my new sun-visors. I had bought the LMC ones with the chrome fixtures. They're not quite identical to stock but mostly in the screws themselves, oddly enough. The stock screws have what I believe is called an "oval" head screw but the LMC sun-visor brackets came with flat-head, countersunk style screws. But I ended up using what LMC provided because even though they don't look quite right, at least they weren't rusty. I have a grinder with a buffing wheel but even I'm not crazy enough to try to "polish" six screws I'll barely see in normal use. Like I said, this isn't a showroom restoration...

The rest of the week could get crazy. A lot of stuff arrives this week, in particular the correct ("yellow parts friendly") gear oil to refill my transmission, the Torklift camper tie-down attachments, the winch, etc. My hope is that I'll be getting into "exterior stuff" over the next few days, and get the truck running again by this weekend. Fingers crossed!

I'm tagging Keith/FORDification, who's Mr Ford @ LMC. He needs to know about how poorly their dome light lens fits.

As for the seat belts, I think the bracket is a good idea as several have complained bout the lack of length on the belts for these trucks.

And good luck on getting all the things done so you can start the truck this weekend!

[taskswap]

I'm tagging Keith/FORDification, who's Mr Ford @ LMC. He needs to know about how poorly their dome light lens fits.

I didn't realize they paid any attention. :) Well if Keith wants more info I'd be happy to provide. To be clear, what I'm doing with Rocky would have been impossible without LMC existing, and I've probably thrown $5k their way so I'm definitely glad to have a vendor available! I particularly like how their parts diagrams are clickable, which makes it easy to home in on the exact thing you need, especially when it comes to hardware.

The main issues are with what are generally third party components. Seat heaters, dome light lenses, floor insulation and carpeting... All those things seem to be "not perfect, but better than nothing". I'm pretty data driven as you've all probably guessed, and I'd be happy to share specific details on any items that might be improved... "Have calipers will share" and all that...