Since my new tools still havent arrived yet i decided to start polishing up the chrome pieces from the bike... started with the fenders today before i had to go into work since i found them first....

this was after the first pass with a medium grit/cut metal polish




This was after the 3rd pass of the finer finishing polish...



i didnt think of taking a before of the front one... but put the rear one next to the finished front one to show the difference...



you can see the clarity difference of the before and after there...



this was after i polished off the rear one...



unfortunately the other side of the rear one isnt so great... that part sat under where the battery sits so figuring the acid roached it...

but gonna have to wire brush the underside of them and paint it them there so it wont rust through...

 

Wow those fenders came out great overall! The motor's been soaking in ATF for long enough now, have you tried to muscle it over recently to see if it'll break free?

 

yup... its gonna need torn down as its still not budging.. but still havent gotten the tools i need to tear the engine down... emailed the company just a few mins ago to see what the hold up is with the order... ordered the tools on the 28th but still havent shipped... just says the orders on hold...

 

i also wrote the company i was trying to order the tools from.. they replied back apologizing for the delay.. Said they were hoping to get the last item thats been backordered for awhile in on friday so they could ship the order complete.. but unfortunately it still had not.. so theyre shipping the tools they have right now and will ship the backordered tool when it arrives.. theyre just not sure when thatll be.. so ill be getting 90% of the tools i need... unfortunately i actually need the one tool thats not coming atm to pull the rotor off the crank so i can get the side covers off... why couldnt it have been the one tool i didnt immediately need in that set of tools... lol...

 

Was home by 11am so hit the garage again.
I pulled the grille & head light doors so I could fix some cracks and missing mounting tabs.
First was a good washing so I could see what I was working with. I found there is no easy way to clean the insides of the turn signal lights, they were fill of mud & dirt.
The grille & doors came from the parts truck that rolled over and why the damage.

I used Crazy glue on the cracks on the grille and Plastex to make tabs.
I also used Plastex to finish the cracks and reinforce 3 tabs I either glued back on or had cracks.

With that all done and setting up I taped off the head light doors for painting.
I had to hit the cracks with a little sand paper to smooth them out before painting.
The doors & grille I used Krylon Metallic Dark Metal paint, I also set up all the screws and they got black paint.
I was going to install but the paint was still a little soft so I let them sit.
<img src="https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.ford-trucks.com-vbulletin/640x360/20191007_165714_86bc001a6b23b71af7ed7dabeb0a0d9c1a e96693.jpg" alt="" />
Being still early I started looking at the tail light harness. Well just looking at it I was getting covered in dirt.
So in the bucket I used to wash the head light doors, grille went into the tub, and started cleaning away.
Did not get a picture of the harness or the trailer Tee I will use.
When I get the 2nd new tail light I can mount it and plug in the harness in and make a plan to make them one!
Dave ----

 

Thanks The gate needs the letters and once it is on the road this will get done.
Dave ----

 

Had today off so got to doing some more shining today. Started with the turn signals lenses. Then moved onto the chrome pieces again.

before on the left after on the right...







got the lenses so clear you could see the bulb through it...



These front fender supports both are before.. one was just more worse than the other...





my new buffer.. first time i used it was today.. use to have the buffer wheels on a drill attachment thing... thats why they look used... because they were lol...



this was after using the black and the brown polish... i had to switch wheels for the white... thatll come later photos..



little before and after shot...


the next 2 didnt come out as well as i wanted... i polished only half the rear rack thing to do a before and after and doesnt look like it shows to well...





least it doesnt on mine..



after doing the other half...

Then i had to wait for the buffer to cool off as it was pretty hot after doing all the pieces with only the black and brown polishes... these pics are after the white (final) polish was done...







Unfortunately the stems for the turn signals were too far gone so i ended up sanding down the rough spots and hit it with some primer... ill do the color later when the primer dries...



thats all i have for today...

 

Nice job
So when can I send over some chrome for you to polish?
Dave ----

 

depends on the size of the chrome pieces lol...

 

See, size does matter


Dave, what type door striker bolt does your truck take? Friend was looking for his F700. Ford, Advance, Auto Zone and NAPA all say:https://www.napaonline.com/en/search...Qualified=true

While we have 4 86's and one 85 that take this: https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...striker%20bolt

 

yeah because he might try to "send" me some 200 gal fuel tanks or bumpers.... i aint doing anything that big lol...

 

They look like the 2nd picture in the Advance link but I don't know the bolt size as the truck is a mix of SAE & Metric from the factory.
I also think the ones I had were missing a plastic spacer the latch grabs that holds the door tight.
Thanks for looking that up and will look into this more.

No tanks but maybe a bumper or 2 LOL
I got nothing at this time just pulling you leg is all.
Dave ----

 

10/12
Put a full day in on the truck.
Wanted to get the trail lights working so that meant making a tail light harness for a flare side from the style side one.
Here is the style un-taped and plugged into the truck to make sure it worked before cutting it up.

At first it did not so pulled out the test light and checked fuses, I replaced them all a while ago, it was good then checked where the main harness plugs into the frame rail harness and had power there.
When walking to the rear it hit me this early harness has a ground at each (note each)light NOT in the harness. Used a jumper and got 1 side to work but not the other? Remember the EACH used jumper on that ground and we had tail & turn lights out back so could move forward.

I had to join the old light pig tails to the new lights and get them installed so I knew where I needed to cut the tail light harness to work. You can just make up the pig tails hanging and the trailer light Tee wires wrapped around the hitch in the above picture.
This is what was removed.

This is the harness made with the plugs that the plug into the tail lights on it but before putting split loom on it.

Here is the plate light harness. I used 1 of the style side plate light sockets.

I was able to use the harness loops on the frame to hold the harness in place. I still need to run 10 ga. wires for trailer brakes & power to charge a battery then add the 7 flat pin trailer light socket.

Then moved on to putting the doors together ..... OH JOY!
I must of had the latches in & out a 12 times or more.

When I took them out 4 years ago I tried to keep the rods on them and they were put in bags marked to the side they went to but it was 4 years ago and I remember they were a bear to get out.

I found 1 or 2 rods were on wrong and the slider lock rods needed to be bent a little to clear the door frames but latches are in.

I installed new door locks as I did not have a key for the ones I had and they were paint black. Had to reuse the old clips as I could not get the new ones to fit all the way in.

Next up were the door handles. The new gaskets needed work to fit right and I had to clean layers of paint off them too.

Only thing I could not find was a 2nd door latch pin. I should have 4 and can only find 1??? Going to have to dig thru my parts bins again.

I started to fit the door glass channels to the doors, pulled out the door glass, did a quick cleaning on them and pulled out the vent window assy.
I need to do the vent window seals before I can do more work on the doors.

10/13
Little set back, well maybe a big set back today
I was all set to install the new vent window seals into the replacements I picked up years ago and install them in the doors.
When I pull the old seals I saw they were a little different from the new ones (clue 1) but never gave it another thought.
Had a hell of a time installing the seal, about 90% in and I look at the old seal and see I installed it wrong so had to fix that.

The next fight was trying to install the frame back in the door.
First just trying to get it in the door was hell but do able (clue 2).
Once in I could not swing the frame into place (clue 3). I even pulled the glass back out because I thought the upper hinge was hanging it up.

When that did not work I then moved to see if I could install the other frame I had not touched yet.
Never made it pass trying to get it in the door as it was not going to go (clue 3) WTH?
That is when I pulled out the 2 old frames to see what was going on?

The new ones are longer by 5" and why I had a hard time just getting them in the doors and could not swing it into place. So thinking I could cut the 5" off I tank a closer look and see something else.
The frame the channel seal sits in is wider by 1/2"!


So till I can come up with a fix the doors sit empty!

So I looked at the dash pads and dash cover to see what dash & cover fit the best and see what I need to do to install in the truck.
I took the edging off the pad I was trying to fix to see if the cover would fix better. It kind of dose but when installed there is a gap between the cover & dash frame that the dash pad fills in. So that pad I was looking to fix is now mostly junk.
I was not in the mood to mount the cover to the pad at this time.

With the pad / cover placed in the truck I them fitted the bezels to see what tabs need fixing. Looks like the bezels & pad use the same screws so will need to repair a few tabs.

Being I had the bezels out I found my silver paint pen and started painting the raised parts that should be silver. I went outside the lines in a few places so need to touch up with a black marker and should be ok.

Wife and I had plans to go out for 21 years being married, so called it a day.
Dave ----

 

I went out into the garage to look for a snack in the freezer and instead ended up polishing more bike parts.

Started with the gauge faces... so this is the dull gauge faces.



Then the buffed out gauge faces. I still love how the inner face has aged. Makes it look like they were designed with lightning bolt theme.





and yes thats 14,000 ORIGINAL miles... no roll overs...



Bunch of misc derusted parts. Also cleaned off whatever got "stuck" to the mirror face that was inside the news papers they were wrapped in.





Rear brake pedal cleaned up. Still debating whether or not to paint it.





Little before and after shot of the air cleaner covers... (didnt realize how blurry the pic was.. thought i held the camera still enough..)





Both cleaned up. For 46 year old original paint they sure look good.

 

Washed the f250, sport Trac and atv, started polishing up some wheels for the sport Trac I may or may not use, depending if I can find tires for them. 15" alcoas off a ranger fx4 level 2. Stripped, Sanded and hit them with a power Ball on a drill and some polish. Were originally a brushed finish. Wire wheeled and painted the exhaust manifold for the John Deere and took it for a spin, need to figure out why it's running like crap all of a sudden.