Thats one nice truck.

Did you have any problems removing the bed? Did you do it all in your garage? What exactly did you use hoist it up?

 

This might be useful to you:

Zero Rust is nothing more than a Rustoleum-type paint

 

Very interesting writeup, thank you. That was something I did not realize.

 

That is a good write up, very interesting! Still leaning towards rust bullet because I have a buddy that used it with great results. And I want to ensure my frame never rusts. The bed was actually very simple to remove- had to cut a few of the bolts because they stripped in the bed. Unhooked the tank filler tubes and the wire harness to the rear lights and lifted it off. Its really light, could have lifted it by hand with another person but no one was around so i used 4 ratchet straps hung from the rafters in my garage. You can see them in the first pic. Easy as pie.

Finished cleaning up the frame and cut off those homemade braces (see pics). Judging by the many drilled holes in the bed, I'm guessing this truck had a fifth wheel or a camper at some point...

 

FInally got some decent weather, so I went ahead and painted my frame. I ended up going with Rust bullet and am very pleased with the results.

It was a two step process, I did the bottom coat in silver and the second coat black. This stuff does not come off for anything! The only problem I had was in a few places you could see brush strokes when I did the second coat, so I touched it up after with a regular gloss black a few days after it had cured.





Found these at pick n pull a few days ago. Bringing back the dog dish hubcaps!

 

Well, just finished my next project on the old truck. Took the instrument cluster out to fix the problem that I'm pretty sure everyone with one of these trucks is familiar with- the instrument cluster is impossible to see at night. Went with the GE 194-R bulbs (red).


While I had the gauges out, I deceded to go ahead and jazz them up a bit, so I bought some amber model paint and touched the needles up.

(before)




(after)




Then I took the tired old bezel and gave it a coat of chrome paint on both sides. Looks great and doing the back really helps brighten the lights up. I used a black sharpie to touch up the OIL/CHARGE/WATER/FUEL lettering.


Back in the truck!


And the red backlighting! Still not sure if I like it better than blue or green, but it still turned out great

 

Aren't you selling the truck? Pretty sure I saw it on Kijiji a week or so ago....

 

Hey that looks great!!!

 

Ya, a guy I know wanted to sell me his '81 F100 with a 300, also in great shape and better mileage. So I put this one on kijiji to see if there was any interest in it. No one offered what I was asking and I am more than happy to keep this one.

 

Any more updates on your progress?