I was thinkin tryin 8 but seein yours spaced like that I think 6 will look good.

 

Today I went out to try and seal up my windshield. Upon scraping out all the leaves and crap, I found out why the windshield leaks.

The urethane is all dry, and the windshield is barely hanging on.

I can put my plastic putty scraper at the top of the windshield and push the windshield out of the cab.

I'm not quite sure how to go about fixing this. I could pull the windshield and attempt to reseal the entire perimeter, but there's a vertical crack on the windshield that covers about 3/4 of the windshield height, so I'm fairly certain any attempts to remove it will break it.

I'll probably end up having to buy a junkyard windshield and then throw that in the truck and completely re-seal the perimeter.

If I just leave everything as is, the rust will continue to eat the cab and eventually I'll lose the entire cab. When I bought the truck in 2008, there was no rust on the passenger side at all. Now, there is about two quarter size holes right next to the weatherstrip seat on the rocker panels.

 

Bummer! But, I'm not sure a junk yard windshield would be my pick. It cost me $125 to have a new windshield installed, at my home I should add, although they used the later one which obscured the VIN. But, the difference between the view through the old glass and the new glass was astonishing. Well worth the money - but make sure you get the right glass.

As for fixing the cab, you really do need to pull the glass if you think rust is in the windshield opening. If you've caught it early enough you could POR it and stop the rust.

 

See, I plan on pulling the windshield out when I start all the repair work on the cab. I would rather not spend $125 on a new windshield, only to have to remove it again down the road, and risk breaking it. The junkyard window will not be the permanent one, it will just be temporary since I'm about 60% certain my current one will break when I remove it.

 

Ahhh, ok. Missed that. Then maybe the JY glass is appropriate - if yours breaks as you think it will.

 

Today I installed my newly carpeted map pockets since they dried way quicker than I thought.




I also added a new piece to my small 1980 Ford literature collection. This time it's the 1980 Accessories brochure. I still need to find the factory shop manuals, but after that I *should* be finished.




It will be a miracle if it the current windshield doesn't break. Maybe I'll try to remove it first and see if it breaks. If it doesn't, I'll just re-seal and re-install that one.

 

Shaun, your truck is looking good. I enjoy reading your posts and watching the progress.

 

Thanks!

 

Heck ya. I love hearin bout it to, you have come so far since I joined here.

 

Throwing it in the truck will definitely break it.

 

Have you looked into the Cummins B3 or B4 swap? They are a direct swap for breadtrucks to replace the 300I6. The bad thing about doing 1st gen swaps is that there are a lot of issues that come up. Such as the AC controls dont jive and it takes quite a bit of engineering to make it work. You can get a ZF5 for around 1/3 of the cost of ZF6 . Unless you have a direct line on a ZF6 even the JY's get over $1600 for one. You can pick up a ZF5 for about $400-$500 with everything included.

 

You are such a smart @$$

 

Yeah, a ZF5 is an easy swap - go for it.

Somehow I doubt Shaun, who wants the proper t-case gearshift ****, will be swapping to a tranny that wasn't offered that year.

 

Yup.

I really don't like it when people use terms like that, they seem to want to minimize the amount of work & effort involved in doing something, try to make themselves appear as super-mechanics who are better than everybody else.

 

There are purists among us. Some prefer their trucks to have the right shift ****, and some prefer that posts which discuss installing things go to 8 pages instead of glossing over the details.

But, we know Shaun wasn't trying to appear as a super-mechanic. On the other hand, it would be easy to "throw" a ZF5 behind a 351M or 400. It'll bolt right up. So, maybe I was wrong and that's his plan.