The summer before my senior year in high school, I bought an ambulance from the county auction and fixed it up over the next 8 months. It sat for years when I went off to school but I have been trying to get it going again. I will be using this thread to document my progress and ask any question that might arise in the coming months.
This is a picture of the original remodel. Its a 1988 F350 7.3 IDI with C6 3-speed transmission. It sat outside in the weather for about 6 years but cleaned up quite well. These pictures were taken about 2002-2003.
This one was taken last fall
Interior pictures
1997 F450 I purchased a year ago to put the ambulance box on. The wheel base and frame widths are the exact same so the swap should be easy. The engine had a bad miss, transmission has no reverse, and there was no bed so i got it for super cheap.
This is a 1996 PS engine that I was going to rebuild and put in the truck. It came out of a truck that caught on fire. With 260,000 miles on the original engine, I was looking to find a core to build so i would have a fresh motor. The machine shop that was working on it went out of business but I believe the original engine's injector orings were bad and I'm going to try and get it going for now. The fuel in the filter bowl has a blue tint and all compression numbers are good.
I have decided to do a full rebuild on the truck an just take my time. I will paint the frame and all body panels individually. I hope to finish the truck by October but I said the same thing a year ago when I first bought the F450.
Pulling engine out
Parts everywhere
Engine, transmission, fenders, exc. are all removed
Stripped cab interior
Engine and transmission. I still haven't found a replacement transmission or attempted to fix this one but I'm considering putting in a 6 speed. You can see the block and heads I was planning to rebuild in the background. The heads ended up having cracks in 2 of the exhaust seats but everything else looked good.
More parts. I will be cleaning/painting everything before reassembly.
Frame and cab after initial pressure washing. No cleaner used, just getting the big stuff loose.
And that's were it stands. I don't have much time to work on it but I'll post updated as soon as I get things done. I plan to paint the truck and ambulance box a light gray or silver. The black gets super hot here in south GA. Next step is to clean all these parts and either fix or locate another transmission.
Boy, you sure bit off a mouth full, I hope you have sharp teeth because it looks like you're going to be chewing for quite awhile. It looks like an awesome project and I'm sure you will be just as proud of the results as the rest of will.
So far....great job
Rog
__________________ 1997 Red 4X2 CC S/B-3" DP- No Kitty-6637
Cooling Sys. Filter-6 Pos.PHP Chip-140V IDM
The "Cure"-1.0 Turbo-Detroit Locker.
Cadillac Battery Water.
1998 Black Ranger 4X4 4.0 Auto. 102K miles.
I have bitten off a lot but I tend to be a perfectionist. If i didn't go ahead and tear everything down, I would have never been happy with my results. Plus, although I would like to get done soon, I'm in no rush and plan to keep this truck for a long time, if not forever.
After pulling the engine, it only took another 3 or 4 hours to gut the interior, remove fenders, remove hood and remove transmission. The truck was previously used to deliver plants/trees for a wholesale landscaping company and there was dirt and dust everywhere. I wanted to get everything real clean and since its getting a color change and I'll be painting it myself, I wanted to paint each piece individually to make it a little easier.
__________________
Brownie, Ooh-Rah! USMC Member of the NRA!
'95 F350 CC 4x2 - SRW Swap, E4OD, PHP Chip, 6637 Intake, 3" Downpipe, Lost Kitty, 140v IDM, HPX, FPR Shim (65 psi), T.C. Switch, 3.55 gears, 3" Body Lift
'88 F350 CC 4x4 - lots of dents, faded paint, old 7.3 IDI in pieces
Subscribing to see how it goes. It'll be a great truck when done!
I love this style truck for some reason and always wanted a nice diesel. I also plan to build a wooden flatbed for it eventually. There is nothing like having a good, reliable work truck.
one of the projects ive been wanting to do is restore an old f-superduty like that and make a crew cab, regular bed truck out of it. what youve done looks good so far. i will offer one word of caution though. watch out hanging flourescent lights over your truck like that when youre working on anything engine/fuel related. two guys at shops around here have been killed in the last couple of years when a flourescent bulb broke and caught the fuel line on fire and blew the gas tank up on them.
what part of south ga do you live in? i grew up in woodbine and kingsland. right off I-95 just a few miles north of florida.
i will offer one word of caution though. watch out hanging flourescent lights over your truck like that when youre working on anything engine/fuel related. two guys at shops around here have been killed in the last couple of years when a flourescent bulb broke and caught the fuel line on fire and blew the gas tank up on them.
Thanks for info. Honestly, I would have never thought of something like that happening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phillips91
what part of south ga do you live in? i grew up in woodbine and kingsland. right off I-95 just a few miles north of florida.
I'm currently living in Smyrna(Atlanta area) and Swainsboro, a small town about 90 miles west of Savannah off of I-16. I hope to be moving to Savannah in about 6 months to cut down on all this driving.
Didn't get much done on the truck this weekend. I was planning on getting the cab prepped for paint but ended up spending 20 hours cleaning and completely reorganizing the shop. It needed it bad and I ended up finding stuff I forgot I had. Hopefully this weekend I will make more progress.
i will offer one word of caution though. watch out hanging flourescent lights over your truck like that when youre working on anything engine/fuel related. two guys at shops around here have been killed in the last couple of years when a flourescent bulb broke and caught the fuel line on fire and blew the gas tank up on them.
It's always wise to be cautious, but you can literally drop a match into a can of diesel and the diesel puts the match out.
When I was building houses we burned all of our scraps on site. Trying to be cautious, I decided to use diesel instead of gasoline to start the fire. Dam thing took forever to get going. Finally another trade came along with a small container of gas and got it going.
It takes quite a fire to burn #2, you can't just light it with a match or even a torch.
Just thought I'd share...
__________________
'96 F-350 Reg Cab 4x4 PSD
'97 F-350 CC Short Bed 4x4 PSD
it does work great in tiki torches. nice black smoke, no bugs haha
__________________
97 f250 PSD 4x4 auto ext cab long box
tymar intake, mbrp ss turbo back, autometer trans pyro boost, 10k. sky jacker 6 in full spring lift.
It's always wise to be cautious, but you can literally drop a match into a can of diesel and the diesel puts the match out..
thats true for the diesel, but it looked like he has several other cars in his shop he was fixing up too. i had my wife drop a light on the engine while i was checking the fuel injectors on a car that had a bad o ring and was spraying gas everywhere. i jumped my riding mower in one leap getting out of the way and she lost all light holding privileges after that lol.
Last time I worked on a gas engine I bet most of you 'kids' here weren't even born yet.
something good did come of it though. thanks to her i now have a nice halogen lamp stand in the garage lol. i had just intsalled a new set of injectors in my t bird and when i turned the key on it started spraying gas all over the place. as soon as i stuck my head under the hood to see if it was coming out of the rail or the manifold she got distracted by the cat and dropped the light. turns out it had a bur beside of the o-ring that seals the fuel rail. the injector had split and they tried to spot weld it. you gotta watch those fuel injector people
Been almost 2 months since my last post and I haven't gotten much done. Things are going a lot slower than I had hoped because I'm back in school full time, still working, and trying to get our house ready to sell soon as well as looking for a new place to move. Time is less than short. Anyway, I cleaned the engine this weekend and took a couple pictures. I can't decide if I should paint it or not.
Also, what would be the easiest way to tell if an engine has been rebuilt or replace by one from a different year? The valve cover states its a 97 but they could have been moved over from the original engine. The intake manifolds used a gray sealant that doesn't look factory and the block number under the HPOP looks to be 1825849C1. Are there any other numbers that might tell a build date?
This forum is owned and operated by Internet Brands, Inc., a Delaware corporation. It is not authorized or endorsed by the Ford Motor Company and is not affiliated with the Ford Motor Company or its related companies in any way. FordŽ is a registered trademark of the Ford Motor Company.
