I wandered in here two days ago from the 80-86 forum, and I haven't made it out yet. Just wanted to say that this is one of the best build threads I've read in a while, and that I now find myself wanting an F-4. I'll be giving my wife your name when she finds out...

Anyway...congrats on being an inspiration, and keep working on that truck!

 

It looks like you have been infected with the disease. Don't fight it, just go find yourself a truck and embrace the sickness. Just sneak the new truck into the garage, she will never notice.

 

Thank you very much indeed for the kind words, Matthew!

There are seemingly only a handful of F4 - F6 owners on here, and we'd surely love to add to our numbers.

I'll try to live up to your praise, and I'd be glad to talk about old Ford trucks with your wife! Betsy certainly keeps me out of mischief.

 

I mentioned in an earlier post that I scored a good fan from Ross. I cleaned the rust and painted it right after I got home with it, but life has gotten in the way lately, so I just got around to putting it on Betsy tonight.

I guess I should have realized that the shroud has to come loose to get the fan out, but I learned it very quickly. No pics of that process, but I will say the guy who designed the shroud never had to remove or install one. Seldom do I have to use an open end wrench to get on any bolt head. And my arms don't contort to that position easily. But it's done...

Here's the "new" one again. Thanks Ross.




And I wanted to show this one so you can see how badly the one blade is bent. I'm glad I got this off before any serious damage was done (I hope)...








When I took the bent fan off, I could see where it has made contact with the radiator. Nothing leaks, but I don't like the way it looks. No overheating problems, so I guess I'm okay for now.

I hope the wobble didn't screw up bearings in the water pump or generator. It's always something, right?

 

If you are careful (and very, very patient), you can straighten the bent fins on the radiator with an ice pick or similar device. The softer modern aluminum ones are sometimes realigned with a purpose-made steel "comb."

Oh, and this permits better airflow (read: "cooling"), it's not just for looks.

 

I straightened the bent fins on my radiator with a thin flat head screwdriver when I had the radiator out.

 

Well, I'm sure I'll have the radiator out someday, so I'll work on the fins then. I did start her last night to watch the fan spin (more exciting that watching her rust). Noticeably smoother compared to the first video I took after rebuilding the carb.

It Idles! Video by JollyRogerJoe | Photobucket

DSCN1756.mp4 Video by JollyRogerJoe | Photobucket

The cab will be coming off to get a new floor and paint. The front clip will be coming off for paint. The engine will be getting painted, so the radiator will come out.

But, all that is far into the future and since she's not overheating... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

For straightening your radiator, look to get a "cooling fin comb". These doohickeys have a plastic head with five different spacings for straightening a wide range of radiator and evaporator cores. Just Google for one, and a pile of hits came up. The brand I have owned for years is a Robinair, makers of all sorts of auto AC tools. Price runs around 13 bucks. Most jobbers carry them.

It is one of those tools that seldom get used, but are great when you do need one.

 

Thanks JD. I'll look into that. Never heard of a cooling fin comb before.

 

It's been too long since I wrote anything here, but until today, I had nothing new to add.

I haven't gotten anything (other than planning) done on Betsy for several weeks now. But today I'm in the Salt lake City area and I was able to connect with Josh Madsen for lunch and a tour of his truck storage yard!

Thanks for the great hospitality Josh! You have a nice collection there. And it's always refreshing to discuss old trucks with someone else so afflicted!

And talk about a collection of wheels..... Oh, and I saw the difference between the front bumper on the F4 - F6 and the COEs. The latter are a lot wider and a lot taller.

Wish we could all have gotten together when Stu cruised through here this week, but that wasn't in the cards.

 

Joe,

The planning is alway a fun part of the restoration.

I noticed you are just over 44K views. That shows this is still a popular thread!!

 

Joe,
It was great to meet you finally. sorry I didn't have more time.

Like I said before you are an inspiration and a great motivator for me to get back to working on my 52 F-6. even if its only a couple hours a week.
keep up the good work !

 

Josh, we all have such different lives with obviously at least one single common interest. I think we all work on our trucks when we can. So for the first two years I owned Betsy, I was rather maniacal about getting her on the road.

But recently, I haven't had as much time to work on her. Plus, as we discussed, my next project will take her down and hog up the garage for however long it takes to correct whatever is causing the lock-up. It may be the tranny gears (probably) or it may be the u-joints or rear end (according to Ray, who has seen those before).

But until I can take over the garage and get the time to do what's needed, I'll just be lurking on here and trying to help where I can. Unfortunately, I sometimes chime in when I don't know what I'm talking about (hence the Blabbermouth nickname).


I am thrilled to have so many views of this thread. I hope it has inspired others ( besides Josh ) or at least helped out through seeing my mistakes and how they were corrected. Compared to many of the guys on this forum, I'm very much a rookie, and prone to those mistakes and misunderstandings.

But more often than not, I misread or just plain don't see an answer provided by one of the guys who knows what I'm doing. That always makes me feel foolish, but I guess that's the way I learn.

 

Man, I have done that several times too. I'm glad I'm not alone. I feel like a fool when I look back through some posts in my thread and see the answer, if I had just read more carefully. It's just great that the experts here are patient with us rookies. Keep plugging along, us Joe's have to stick together.

 

Joe, Heck, I chime in all the time when I don't know what I'm talking about. I can't help it, its just the kind of smart-alek I am. Seriously though, don't ever be bashful about chiming in. If you happend to post something that isn't right someone who knows will chime in and straighten you out (usually in a very nice way) and we all learn something.
One of the things that make your thread so great is that you do post your mistakes and what you did to fix them. It takes a big man to post up his mistakes and put them out there for everyone to see. We all learn from it and chances are we've made similar mistakes and just didn't fess up to them.

I do that all the time. For me, whats even better than the experts being patient with a rookie is that the experts are even patient with guys like me who have been here awhile. This is a great site.

Bobby