I ripped the insulation off the floor, once again savoring 30 years of lovely fragrances and wondering how many body parts had been stashed under the seat. After a lot of scrubbing, things were looking much better than I feared. Lots of scuffs on the back wall that weren't coming off, so I misted them with white primer and a few shots of Wimbledon White. The body plugs back in each corner of the cab were shot - why are those things so hard to find? I ended up coating 'em with gasket maker, and glued a smaller plug I had into each one.

 

That earlier photo showed part of the wooden tray that was screwed behind the seat. Laying in it, among the bullets and coffee cups and assorted debris, was a pair of disconnected Jensen speakers, the box type that are fully encased. They were pretty beat up, so I was once again surprised when I hooked them to a stereo in the house and they both worked. At this point I hadn't decided on a sound system, but with the seat and sill plates out it was a good time to run some new speaker wiring. So I cut up the tray and used the wood to make simple speaker holders. I padded them top and bottom with sticky-back black foam from Michael's, and strapped the speakers to them with zip ties. I used the holes the PO had drilled for the tray, and got what you see here, with all the screw holes in the floor filled with gasket sealer.

And in the second photo, holy smokes, it's black after all! Unfortunately it's also so dried out that it cracked in about six places, and a new one is now on the punch list.

MAJOR PROPS to whoever posted a suggestion to use recycled denim insulation from Home Depot. (Not yet attached in this photo.) I'm pretty sure I read that on FTE last year. I had to order it, but it's the cat's meow. I put down a few dabs of carpet adhesive, and the rotting corpse smell is virtually gone.

 

So rolling back that vinyl flooring, sure enough, nice field of rust. A few minutes of detective work revealed that the outer weatherstripping on the driver's window was mostly gone, allowing rain water to pool in the bottom of the door, causing a rust patch, which opened up and allowed said rain water to run down beneath the vinyl flooring. I got a new seal from Rock Auto (actually got the inside piece too, but haven't done that since it's stapled to the door panel). I went through several Dremel brushes grinding out the rust and fortunately only had three pinholes that had made it through the floorpan. I filled this area with Liquid Metal, then masked it off and coated it with 3M undercoating. I did the same to the patch on the door, but sanded/primered/painted it.

 

I pulled the Sanyo boat anchor out of the dash - fortunately the way it was plugged in to the cigarette lighter hadn't hurt the lighter - and went hunting for a radio. I found a guy on eBay who rebuilds radios, and had an '81 Ford unit with cassette deck, fully functional. While waiting for that to arrive I looked at the Chilton (page 6-17) and realized that when the Sanyo radio had been gooberized into the truck, they had pitched the radio mounting plate. eBay again, a fine fellow in Virginia had one. They arrived on the same day.

UPDATE 3/4/2012: Thanks to 81-F-150-Explorer, I've learned that this radio is from an '84 Mustang. Vroom.

ctubutis, we're out in Denver once a year or so, and I'll be buying you a beer or three on our next trip. That radio wiring post you made here saved my bacon. Festus had a rounded, two-hole harness in the dash for the original monoradio; upgrading to the stereo cassette deck was a piece of cake thanks to you. I had a yellow/black and a red/blue, and by removing the connectors your information gave me the right match.

Remember that early 80s Stephen King movie, Christine? As soon as I powered up the radio, I rolled on over to my favorite country station, and the first song that came out of those Jensen speakers was "Seven Year Ache" by Rosanne Cash. 1981. Actually gave me a shiver.

 

And because nobody ever gets tired of heater box photos, here's what was inside mine. I spent three hours getting it on and off, only to discover that the core had already been replaced at some point and actually looked pretty good. I should have realized it - when they reattached the box to the firewall, they apparently couldn't hold the foam gasket in place, so they sealed it up with what appeared to be a coat of tar around the whole box. I cleaned it all out, found a "Spirit of '76" keychain in the back end of the duct under the dash, and attached the foam with double-sided foam tape. I plan to redo it, as I'm still getting a whiff of engine smell in the cab.

 

She looks good man! And holy crap the floor was dirty. I thought your mat was grey!

KEEP THE JENSEN SPEAKERS!

Those were and still are the go-to speakers in the music industry for guitar amplifiers and other sound devices. Their quality is legendary, and are really good speakers!

You found the only thing on the 300 that I dislike, the location of the water temperature sender! I thought the oil sender was in a good spot in my opinion. And, from what I've seen (I haven't really cared enough to confirm it) I have another slot on the side of my motor next to the fuel pump where another oil pressure sender would hook up.

 

Looking good. I am about to do the same to mine (almost identical to yours). Nice pictures, Thanks

 

I really don't think Festus every got anything but rainwater to wash him off. Maybe all that gunk and crud protected parts of him from too much corrosion.

Here's a tip - a few years ago I bought a 100-pack of bamboo skewers to use as paint stirrers in small cans of wood stain. Those skewers are ideal for cleaning sockets and the millions of nooks and crannies where gunk accumulates. You can also get a 5-pack of toothbrushes at Dollar Tree (for a dollar). I've gone through a lot of those so far.

I've got a new oil temp switch and plan to install that after I replace that push rod cover gasket on the side.

 

Thanks man, I've been reading your thread with interest. You sure work a lot faster than I do!

 

Wow, that was awful clean for a truck of our age.
And you sure have been really busy doing all of this work to your truck today, and finding time to post about it in between.

 

Naw, these photos started in October. This might be the first day I haven't done something to him, just decided it was high time to cease work, get in here, and start posting some pictures.

 

I read a lot of posts on body mounts here and elsewhere, so when I got ready to tackle mine I took a lot of photos.

Photo 1 - Thanks to the towbar and the long-gone shocks, my body mounts were done for. I fired up the sawzall and started cutting right above the bracket. This is the left side.

Photo 2 - A look down at the niche inside the engine compartment. There were two inches of farm crud packed in here, preserving the paint. I soaked it with Liquid Wrench just to get the washers to loosen up.

Photo 3 - Ten minutes of cutting, with the whole shootin' match pieced together outside the truck.

Photo 4 - A look inside, with an inset of the bolt. No way, no how it was gonna get unscrewed.

Photo 5 - The piece on the left is the top of the original bushing; it has a lip that fits inside a dimple in the bushing from Energy Suspension - I bought the set from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard for $59. Next is a spacer, that is indicated by a green arrow in the first photo. The third and fourth are washers that go around the bolt on the topside. Nothing wrong with these, I just gave 'em a shot of Rust Treatment and scrubbed 'em down.

 

Photo 6 - A look at the bracket with the mount removed. (Just to the left, welded to the frame, is the vertical support that was holding up that side of that infernal towbar.)

Photo 7 - The new assembly ready for installation. I bought 1/2-13x3.75 Grade 8 bolts from Fastenal, along with nuts and fender washers. (I have since seen Grade 8 bolts at Lowe's.) The bolt, fender washer, and lower bushing go in through the bottom of the bracket on the frame. On top of that bracket are the upper bushing, the top plate of the original, and that spacer. I got the bushing and plate on top of the bracket, but there was no room for the spacer. I had a block and floor jack under the cab, so this told me how far those old bushings had been squished down. I gave the jack a few cranks, and as soon as there was room, I squeaked that spacer in there and tapped it in place with a rubber mallet.

Photo 8 - A peek inside with bolt removed.

Photo 9 - Jacking up the body. Easy does it.

Photo 10 - Once you get the parts lined up above and below the bracket, the bolt will probably fall out, unless have you have a buddy hold it while you install the topside washers and nut. I didn't have a buddy that day, but I had a bunch of scrap wood which did the job. This was taken on the right side mount.

Photo 11 - All done. Once both sides were finished and I was satisfied, I applied Loc-Tite to the nuts. The Energy Suspension set includes the four cab mounts as well, and I'll get those done this spring since I have them - my originals are in surprisingly good shape.

 

Glad my old radio stuff helped, Willey. I think that was stuff I wrote for Shaun at one time?

I went over my free-account limit on Imageshack and recently deleted about 150 pictures I had up there, hopefully the impact isn't real severe........

If you're coming through town, lemme know.

 

I'm raising it to a six-pack, because your post on air intake numbers - which apparently is classified Ultra Secret and not to be found anywhere else on the planet - helped me track down my air intake! More on that soon.