After being a little disappointed that my '65 has a lot (lots and lots) of body rust...I started looking around for body parts. Found out most of the aftermarket folks don't stock bed parts for a longbed flareside Short yes...long no.

So I figured maybe I could find another truck for cheap that had a flareside bed that I could remount on my '65. Found an ad on Craigslist for a '68. Talked to the owner and yes it was a longbed...but it was a styleside. Bummer. But for the price, I was starting to think maybe the 360 engine would be nice to drop into the '65. After talking to the '68s owner some more, he said if I wanted it, I'd have to come get it ASAP as he had to deploy to Ft. Hood (and then to Afghanistan) and had already called a scrapyard to pick it up. At that point, I made him an offer and he accepted...mentioning that he hated the though of the truck going to a scrapyard.

So, after picking it up today, I realized that the body is in much better shape than the '65. Much better, like no rebar holding the cab to the frame.

So now I'm thinking I might wind up restoring this one before I do the '65. Cool thing is, the guy I bought it from hadn't yet re-titled in his name...so I have the original title from 1968...along with the owner's card.

Anyway, here's the door plate:

F10YLC93236

WB 131
Color E
Model F100
Body 2 81
Trans C
Axle 08
GVWR 05000
172 HP at 3800 RPM
DSO 34

Well, I've set myself for yet another project...but at least I saved this poor thing from being scrapped.

 

Big question...how do you replace the bed floor? I saw that NPD has replacement sections for the 68 bed...they have an entire replacement floor for 73-79, but only the section for the 67-72.

This is also odd...Something doesn't quite look right on the nose of this truck.

It has the F O R D in chrome across of the front of the hood...but smack in the middle of it is a blue oval Ford logo. It just seems a little too large...and just seems wrong. Is this supposed to be there?

I'll post some pics when I find the cable for my phone.

 

F10YLC93236

F10: F-100 2WD
Y: 360 CID 8-cyl
L: Michigan assembly plant
C93236: Feb. 1968

 

Making a little progress on this one. I've been trying to get it started.

At this point, here's what I've done.

Engine Lubricated
-Marvel Mystery Oil dumped in through spark plug holes and left to sit for a couple of days. Based on advice found on internet, I shifted the manual transmission into third, jacked up a drive wheel, and tried to manually rock drive wheel back & forth. Noted that fan was advancing, so removed plugs and carefully took a breaker bar on main pulley and found that I could get engine to rotate with gentle force (YAY )

Battery Cables Replaced
-Positive was missing for some reason and negative was red. Weird

Starter Solenoid Replaced
-Stupid bolts are shorter than the original, so I had to remove the washer.

Starter Replaced
-What a joy to replace. This thing was frozen dead solid when tested

Alternator Replaced
-Broke a bolt off...sigh. Never had it tested, the rusty metal plates visible through the back told me I'd be happier replacing it

Compression Tested
-Not sure yet which cylinder is which number, but in my mind (until someone tells me otherwise) #1-#4 is passenger side, front to back, and #5-#8 is driver's side front to back. Did this test with the spark plugs installed. #1: 100, #2: 105, #3: 110, #4: 110, #5: 105, #6: 107, #7: 92, and #8: 92.

Fuel Pump
-Removed from engine and bowl carefully unstuck. Cleaned out the inside of bowl pretty good and put in a new gasket and filter then replaced on engine. New hose installed.

Carb 'cleaned'
-Sort of. Carb has been hosed down several times with carb cleaner. Something is wrong though as the manual choke is stuck open and can't be moved.

At this point, if I spray starting fluid in the carb, I can get the engine to catch and run for 10-15 seconds. Next step I think is to check the fuel pump to see if it is actually pumping. Later, I'm guessing I need a carb rebuild and a good through gas tank/line cleanout/replace.

 

I think that you can use the 73-79 floor section. I measured the bed floors of my 70 and 76 CC stylesides even though they are shortbeds. The floor section is the same width at 49 1/2". The 76 was about 1 1/2" longer. You could cut it shorter at the cab end. If it comes with predrilled holes, my 76 had two extra bolts on the tailgate end which you could cover with extra bed bolts. The frame mount holes might not line up perfectly because of the different frame widths, but it would be easier to install as one piece.

 

F10 = F100 2WD

Y = 360 2V

L = Michigan Truck Assembly Plant.

C93236 = 1968, assembled February 1968.

131" Wheelbase.

E = Skyview Blue.

F100 2WD, 5,000 lbs. GVWR

281: 2 = Medium Blue Crush Vinyl & Medium Blue Ladder Pattern Vinyl / 81 = 81A Standard Cab.

C = Ford type 3.03 3 Speed Manual all Syncromesh Transmission.

08 = Ford 9" Rear Axle / 3.50-1 / no Limited Slip / 3,300 lb. Rear Axle Capacity.

5,000 lbs. Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.

172 net HP @ 4,000 RPM

34 = Indianapolis IN Ford District Sales Office, where the original selling dealer ordered the truck from.
Absolutely not! A previous owner installed it. Probably has adhesive backing, heat it with a hair dryer, then use a plastic putty knife or nylon fishing line between it and the sheet metal to pop it off.

No Blue Oval emblems on the exteriors of these trucks. The horn button or ring has one, but that's about it.

War Production Board "Whiz Kids" hired by "The Deuce" after WWII ended, did away with the Blue Oval after 1948, saying it was "old fashioned." Only appears on certain car/truck (mostly interior) parts thru 1981.

Ford coat of arms (wreath with 3 lions) replaced Blue Oval. Variations used on myriad vehicles from 1949 thru 1980. Commonly seen on hood ornaments, grille/trunk emblems, horn buttons and etc.

1982: E2DZ-5442528-A: Blue Oval adhesive emblem installed on deck lids of 1982 Granada's. Prior, the last year a Ford car had a blue oval on the decklid was 1940. Also had it on the hood front emblems of 1942/48's.

1982: Blue Oval grille adhesive emblem on trucks (Bronco/Econoline) for the first time since 1947.

btw: Did you contact Mar-K (mar-k.com) and ask about long bed Flareside parts?

 

1966 LWB flareside complete. google ontario kijiji.ca 385502509

 

Zigmyster, thanks for the info. I've e-mailed the guy with that ad. London, ON is only about 7 hours from me. I'm pretty sure I'd be willing to drive that far for a complete bed.

 

Yay After removing and reinstalling the fuel pump twice based on the advice of a friend suggesting that I might not have gotten it put back in right.

After that, a couple of cranks of the engine revealed fuel flowing (spurting) out of the fuel pump. YAY!

Hooked the fuel line back up to the carb, put a funnel on the fuel pump, added fuel...and tried starting the engine again...To my amazement...it RAN! Well, I suppose you could call it running...it sounded like a sick tractor, but still...it ran...and continued to run until I finally heard it sucking dry through the funnel.

Not bad for a computer geek getting this old engine up. Now I just need to get it running well.

I noticed that I could see right through a spot where the exhaust header gasket *should* be. Kind of cool to see that 'flash-flash-flash' as the engine was running, but I'm sure glad I had that fire extinguisher sitting near by, just in case!

Next step, seeing as how the choke was locked up, I pulled the carb so I could clean it well...and that's when I noticed the stuck butterfly valves...so that's why the choke was locked up....

Off to the auto part store YET again for a rebuild kit and lots of cleaning fluid. Found a great tutorial online covering how to rebuild an Autolite 2100.

After getting it apart, I swear it looks like one of the diaphragms was installed backwards! Good thing the rebuild kit has some nice new parts.

What type of tool do you need to remove the needle seat? The world's largest flat head screwdriver?

Well, tomorrow we'll see how things look after soaking in carb cleaner all night. I'd love for the poor thing to look like a new carb again!

 

Well, the carb looked cleaner this morning. Doesn't look like a new carb, but looks way better. Friend of mine loaned me his super-huge flathead screwdriver and that popped the needle seat right out.

The butterflies are still stuck solid though I kept spraying PB blast into it. Tapped the sides of the shaft lightly with a hammer. No luck. Stuck it back in carb cleaner for the night. I'm going to get a small blowtorch tommorrow. Hopefully a little heat and PB Blast will help it out... Next I might try soaking it in a bucket with Marvel Mystery Oil. I'd really rather not buy a new carb....

 

Want to thank you Zigmyster. I've been talking to this guy and recently he was making a trip down to my neck of the woods...so I took delivery of a nice new bed.

It's in really good shape. It came from Texas originally. Only a couple of spots rusted out of the rear of both fenders, but that's about it. The rest is just some surface rust. I'm really happy with this bed...and very happy you let me know where to find it!

THANKS!

 

Finally gave up on fixing the carb myself. Found a motorcraft 2 bbl card at a junkyard from a 1978...but once i got it back to the garage, I found it wasn't going to work out quite so well. (Anybody need a '78 Motocraft 2100?) So I finally broke down and found a company local to me that rebuilds carbs. After a couple of weeks they called me up and had it rebuilt and cleaned. Got it back to the shop...replaced the spark plugs/wires, gave the truck an oil change, replaced the distributor cap and rotor, and finally reinstalled the carb. The truck fires up....still sounds rough though. I think the idle may not be well. When I rev the engine, it sounds better...but it tries to backfire once in a while. Obviously got more work to do, but it is sounding better already.

 

No such thing, it's a 2150 series carb, and that's why it won't work properly. And not only that: There are FIVE different carb kits for 1975/79 2150 Motorcraft carbs, without the ID tag number, you're SOL

1962/74 2100 series Auto-Lite/Motorcraft carbs: There is ONE carb kit: D4AZ-9A586-A (replaced C2AZ-9A586-B) Motorcraft CT-499-D

 

Really enjoying following this post; I need to do the things you've done too, but at this point my '72 has the same deal: the idle is rough and has the slightest puff of a backfire once in a while, but revving a little sounds smooth.

Can't wait to hear more about your project!