'71 F-250 Diesel conversion and more 01/10 starting back in

[Ranchero50]

Yeah, that surprised me as well. It has the tar about 1/8" thick under the insulation, but it hides everything well.

[Ranchero50]

Made a new dome lamp bezel and lens today since my old one fell apart when I took it off. I also took advantage of the california mustang discontinuing sale and bought carpet, door scuff plates, door and windshield rubber, and a dash pad for the old girl.

http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... hp?t=25709

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Got my dash pad in and other bits from California mustangs going out of business sale.

http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 438#232438

Jamie

[HRDROKN]

Got my dash pad in and other bits from California mustangs going out of business sale.

http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 438#232438

Jamie

Well... I really wasn't ready, but I just couldn't pass up this half off deal!

Thanks for the link!

[dablack00]

In earlier posts I saw that you had painted part of the firewall body color. What paint are you using? I'm guesing spray paint?

[Ranchero50]

The firewall was some old Ford Blue engine paint sprayed for motivational purposes. I've been slowly working on the old beast because there is so much other truck stuff that's getting prioritized and I'm working a bunch of OT for cash and working on the dome light bezels for guys on here after working 12hrs. I did get a door skin from NPD for the passenger side and started fitting it on. The inner skin has a lot of rust as well so I'm going to clean it up before putting the outer on. PITA. I did a dana 60 hub rebuild on a '88 F350 dump truck and had to get it to start and make all the lights work. It's amazing what salt will do to wiring... I've also been tasked with getting a '84-'92 body swapped F250 running correctly. It's running, but the glow plug ckt isn't working and it won't charge. The dump is first when it's light out, then the body swap, then the '71 when I'm motivated..

Jamie

[rjewkes]

thanks Jamie, for doing the dome lamps for everyone. did you ever figure a price on them?

good luck and keep up the good work.

[dablack00]

That blue looked close to the original color. I thought you had bought some in a spray can.

[Ranchero50]

Ahh, bodywork Hell. I tried to swap the door skin on the passenger side and butchered it so I had to get the green door off of the '69 I parted out and repair the even dozen mirror mounting holes and the rust in each lower corner.

The door skin install went pretty smooth at first, but when I tried to wrap the bottom seam over the inner panel the panel gave causing the door edge to wander all over. The front edge did the same thing and once done it didn't fit into the door opening very well. The more I worked it the worse it became until out of frustation I tossed it outside and moved on. If I had to do it again I would drill a couple dozen holes in the lip of the inner panel and puddle weld the outer to the inner before trying to fold the outer over the inner.


The drivers door just needed on corner patched and the old mirror mounts smoothed over. The passenger side was a mess so I bought the repair panel. In this picture the cab seams have been wire wheeled to remove the old sealer. I bought some 3M brushable seam sealer to put back in before priming.


The passenger door from the '69 custom cab had the extra moulding along the bottom that helped both corners rust out and since it was a box truck there were twelve holes in the panel for mirrors to mount to. The bump ridge had a quarter size dent and there was another lower down. Luckily the mirrors didn't pull the panel out of shape. Oh yeah, It also had four layers of paint on the outside. This is after the second skim coat of mud. It still needs one more in the corners.


The inside of the passenger side cab corner showing the welds and fitment.


The outside of the same corner with the first coat of bondo on. The bummer was once the patch panel was on I hit it with the wire wheel to prep it for bondo and opened up some more holes under the paint. This is after one coat of bondo.


Jamie

[TheEskimo]

Looks like it's moving along rather well.

[MadMaxetc]

That home made Lizard Skin looks interesting...

I will have to read more into that...thanks for the idea!

Your truck is looking great!!

[Ranchero50]

Woot Woot, it runs.

Needed some motivation since I hate bodywork so much I was actually doing things around the house instead of working on the bump... Had to run the fuel lines into a bucket of old heating oil, hook the batteries up, run a jumper to the injector hot and a battery jumper cable to the glowplug controller. took a couple cycles of the starter running for thirty seconds and cooling off for two minutes to get the fuel up the in the injectors and bled, then I cycled the glowplugs and it fired off. It's really flipp'n loud running straight piped without an air filter. I put the air filter on and spot welded a set of flowmasters on and it's almost too quiet now... The O-rings on the injector return ckt are leaking so that's another $8 to Ford to fix those leaks. Once it worked the air out of the injectors it started right up and I'm really impressed. The whole frame rocks and it revs just like a gas motor.

Now, back to the bodywork...

Jamie

[HRDROKN]

It's alive!

I know how that bodywork stuff goes..... "it sucks"

Great job!

[dablack00]

Great Job. Can't wait to see it all together.

[Ranchero50]

Weekly update time... Been suffering over the passenger door trying to get the bodywork straight. I'm into my second quart of bondo and it's coming together ok finally. I took a bunch of pics as I worked the waves out of the metal and finally made a longboard out of a peice of aluminum and realised I had to add a bunch more to get the panel smooth. I hope to have it done by the weekend so I can get back to the rest of the cab and the other door. I'm really glad there's not much else wrong with it.

Jamie