nice build man. truck is coming along great

 

Thank you!

As is with most guys it's not happening near as fast as I'd like but I chip away at it. Hoping to be doing a lot of little things to the truck now that I have it home, probably when my kiddo takes her afternoon nap or have her "help" me with things.

 

Good to hear you got it back & got some work done. I'm looking forward to pics of the LED conversion on the tail & reverse lights.

 

My cell phone is having a really hard time with trying to take pictures of lighting.

Gauge cluster with VLED brand blue 194 LEDs



Will try getting night pictures to turn out, may see if a video will work then figure out how to post that.

This is the only 78-79 "Simulated Leather Wrapped" optional wheel I've seen in person, snagged it out of a buddies parts Bronco. Can also see the factory option extinguisher out of my SCS parts rig mounted in it's correct location. Gotta love that Ford put the Dimples for driling just about any option they had in every piece of sheet metal.



And then I have this problem, since my truck never had a rear tank it doesn;t have the correct pair of crossmembers for a rear tank. One of them is correct but in the wrong location and the other is just a small piece of angle. So now I am trying to source at least the one before I cut all the rivets to put the tank in and do the 3" spring swap.

 

Nice score on the extinguisher. One thing on the list I have not done yet. Mine rolls around in my bed tool box for now.

 

I need to look into Re-charging it as it's dated 1974 and is a little low on the gauge.

Going to a yard Saturday that a fellow FTE member posted pictures of where I saw the Optional "Slide Out Steps" on a truck and a few little things. The last time I saw a set I didn't know what they were and one of them was half smashed from the JY forklift, getting factory options and Literature is an odd little quirk of mine, even if I end up passing them on to someone else I just HAVE to have them. haha. Due to this I have a pile of things that I'm never going to use in my truck and need to find a very small Niche market for, like a Bumpside Contractor Special behind seat storage box that takes place of the fuel tank and a Stowline Outers behind seat storage for a Dent, I had the Stowline in my truck but pulled it in favor of stereo equipment.

Been scrambling to come up with money for things lately, we need to move again as our crappy little house is giving the wee one Lead poisoning (us too but she is priority) and in order to do so I need to replace the IP in my box van that has a 6.9. Then there is a good Swap Meet coming up beginning of March. We got a good Tax Return so that covers everything related to moving but to have truck money I sold my T-bird SC and did the 5sp swap on it for the new owner. After we move I will be doing some work to the 61 Econoline 5 window and selling that as it's entirely impractical for putting a car seat in it and I ended up with a 68 Dodge A108 that belonged to a friend who pasted a few years ago, that I can make family friendly and it has over a decade of sentimental value already so the Econo goes.

Also when we move I am demanding a garage so I'll be getting everything out of my buddies shop, tired of having to drive 120 miles to use my own tools. When I have my tools at the new house I'll be able to start chipping away at things on weekends, so this thread will be a little more active.

 

Just went out and tried more pictures of lighting. But first, the main reason I need a Crew Cab.



Under-Hood light is a V-LED brand White 1156 replacement.





Gauge cluster has had the blue plastic "domes" inside removed and installed V-Led brand Blue 194 replacement bulbs.



Tail lenses Run/Stop/Turn bulbs are V-LED brand Red 1157 replacements.



Unfortunately the brand of the LEDs in the Reverse lights are unknown.





The Camera/Phone can't pick up all the light that's cast out but the Under-Hood light cast a VIVID shadow of the engine pulleys on the pavement under the truck. The Reverse lights light up the front of the house across the street from mine.

 

Nice! I would like to eventually upgrade my lighting, especially the exterior.

 

I really like good lighting, surprisingly the one I am most impressed/pleased with is the under-hood light, it's like daylight so no more trying to check the oil by Brail.

 

So the tail & reverse light setups are just basic bulb replacements huh? They look pretty bright! I was thinking you were doing something custom, but if you can get that much light out of just a bulb swap I'm all over it!

 

Yes is that just a bulb replacement for the tail lights?

Looks great and the pic of the kid made me smile....congrats.

 

Yep, just bulbs. I am pleased with the results for doing it the simple way, I may not even Redo them in the future. haha

Picked up some Pilot brand LEDs last night but since they had 3 different "height" sizes for 194 bulbs, I of course got the tallest with the most LED bulbs on the unit, well they're too tall to fit in the side marker housings. Can't decide if I'll return them for shorter ones or modify the housings, I do hate that Ford didn't center the bulb in the housings anyway.

I also put Pilot brand Amber 1157 LED replacement bulbs in the front Marker/Turn lenses, found out that I need to really clean the contacts in the Bulb Socket better and I now need to get a different Flasher Relay as since changing both front and rear they will light up but not draw enough to cycle the Flasher.

I ran all over the countryside trying to get to a junkyard (F&$%^$ GPS), once I finally got there I scored the pair of Slide-Out Steps that are in GREAT condition, just need to replace the mismatched hardware (half of it snapped) with Stainless. Also got a good set of [XLT] Cowl Emblems, Cruise Speed Sensor, door interior handle rubber seals and a Driver's side Battery Tray in great shape.

Will take some photos tomorrow.

 

Awesome Build for an Awesome Truck