I picked up a new truck last week, an 88 F250, diesel 5 speed and 4wd. I bought it to bring with me when I go back to school in Iowa in August. After getting back, I decided to spend some time to repair it before I started driving it. I'm glad that I did.



The truck runs really nice. Engine is strong, transmission is smooth, but everything else needed work. The first major thing that I decided to do was investigate the sloppy steering, and I found that all the tie rod ends were shot. I ordered a full new set of inners and outers, and moved onto the next project.





The interior was in **** shape when I got the truck, so I decided to pull the carpet so I could thoroughly clean it. After yarding it out, I noticed that there is water getting in on the drivers side, and there is rust starting to form on the floor. I'll treat the rust, put down a layer of a roll in sound deadening material, then run wires for sound system.







I'll update more as I do work!


-Jameson

 

i would love for the floor in my 88 to look like that.
and it will once i put the new cab on.
as it sits now, i can stand on the ground inside the truck.

 

So far so good Jameson

 

Hahaha I got lucky with this truck. Usually trucks from up here in Washington have some rust, but this one came up from California recently, so it's in really good shape rust-wise

 

This update covers the past few days;

Here's what I found under the carpet on the drivers side.









After removing the loose rust with a wire wheel, I coated everything in Rustmort, an acid-based rust converter I've been using for years with lots of success. It sat overnight, and the following day I wiped the residue off and sprayed it with a coat of self etching primer to seal it.









Then last night, I started coating the floor with Al's HNR, a roll on sound and heat deadener that again, I've used for multiple projects. I did half last night, and I'll do the other half today.







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I also spent time on the carpet the other day. I didn't take a picture before I started, but after vacuuming I went through and scrubbed the whole thing with a deck brush and a mild solution of TSP (Hard surface cleaner. Works wonders on carpet). After letting it dry, I found the really worked in stains, and I'll need to go through and spot treat them.


More to come!
-Jameson

 

Nice...Looks like you're going to have a nice solid truck, wish mine looked that good.

 

I went to do the other half of the floor with the HNR, but realized I didn't have enough to do everything. I used up what I had, but didn't bother buying another can. After that dried, I put down a layer of spray in bed liner. Took 3 cans








In between drying periods, I pulled the leaky valve covers to replace the gaskets and clean the covers. De-greased, sandblasted clean, 3 coats of self etching primer then 3 coats of Ford grey engine Enamel









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Lastly, I've been chasing down a cold start issue. Replaced the glow plugs first, then found that the relay on top of the glow plug controller wasn't making good connection. Replaced the relay, still no luck. Found out the glow plug controller was toast, so I ended up having to replace that. Afterwards, we had to trace down a short that was causing some wires to melt. After splicing out the short, it started like a champ!

Cool thing about the glow plug controller; I had taken the truck over to my bosses house, where we metered the GPC and found it was bad. I was complaining about how much it cost ($160 retail, $105 with employee discount). Being the awesome guy that he is, my boss told me that if I changed out the starter in his new tow truck (89 F350 super duty), he'd give me the controller for free. 45 minutes later his truck was starting and I had a new controller


-Jameson

 

The ones on the coast do, usually pretty rust free on this side of the mountains.

 

Well done, keep up the good work