Hi guys,

My name is Mihai, from Romania, Europe, and i am a motorcycle rider. I am no mechanic, far from it, but i try to fix old things, and this truck is one of those things. This is my first time working on a truck, but owning 3 Land Rovers in the past 12 years brings out the grease monkey in anyone of us, i guess ))

Truth be told, this is my second post. First one was swiftly answered with lots of very useful info.

I want to use this post to introduce a truck that somehow creeped under my skin somehow. I knew old Fords were special, as i started driving 20 years ago behind the wheel of a beat up Escort, with a busted alternator and leaky sunroof. I still miss that car and it's still going, by the way.

I have a very good friend who recently purchased a big black pickup truck, and he has no idea how or where to fix it. Mind you, down here, US made cars lack the tech support they need, as the market is flooded with EU made cars. You can't even find spark plugs or air filters for it, so everything has to be shipped from the US.

The truck in question is a 1980 bullnose F250, 6,6L V8 Auto, 4x4 HD, Regular Cab, Long bed, with the speedo cable broken at around 80k kms. Truck was imported from the US into Germany a while back, patched up and butchered by a crazy tattoo artist, before my friend bought it and brought it home.
As the truck is over 30 years old, he can register it as a historical vehicle, but it has to be in mind factory condition for approval. There are a few things working on the truck, mechanically, but not much else looks factory

As winter set in, me and one of my US expat army tank mechanic friends decided to help out and bring the truck back to life.
To get things moving, we first created a soundtrack for it, with Mr. Church, Brooks & Dunn, Rob Zombie and Willie Nelson. Then we tried to crank it up, with no joy: ignition cylinder is busted, Holley carb had black soot all over, valves were sticky, and the exhaust was spitting fuel.

Truck came with minor improvements, such as a Edelbrock Performer 400 intake manifold, Holley 4412 2BBL carb, Edelbrock valve covers and a new AC compressor.

The good part: AC works great, we found a set of house speakers behind the bench seat, a Popeye's Drive In receipt from Florida, and powerful brakes. Also, the frame has no rust at all, which is weird, but great. Cab looks good as well, no signs of frontal collisions, it even sports a billet grille (this will be replaced with a OEM style one). Rims have been replaced (sadly with a set of 16.5's). There's even a set of dual exhaust mufflers. Other than that, the rest is bad. The bed is rusted, tailgate does not work, and it now sports a rattle can matte black paint.

So we took the heads off, ordered a top end gasket kit from Summit, and sent the heads and those sticky valves to a shop for a clean up. New fuel pump, lines and filter, new pick up coil, rotor and cap form MSD, new wires and spark plugs. Just to be on the safe side.
Ordered a rebuild kit for the 4412-5 Holley, hoping that will do the trick. New Edelbrock 14' air filter (we found a tiny 10' rusted one in there). If the Holley still does not work properly, we'll go for the Edelbrock carb.

As far as steering, we already have in stock a full set of tie rods, ball joints and steering damper from Moog, thanks to the good guys at Summit.
For suspension, we already have a set of leaf spring bushings set, but we are looking for some decent dampers. Ordered a set form Monroe, but fronts are way too short, and we'll return them, hoping LMC has something better.

Interior has been hacked and now sports around 14 shades of browns, blues and blacks. I found a OEM Bronco steering wheel on eBay, but the turn signal cam was aged and broken, so that had to be fixed. Ignition cylinder wouldn't crank the engine, so we assumed it was the rod. Rod was in perfect order, so we'll just replace the cylinder and hope for the best.
Manual windows were frozen, so we'll order new cylinders, take everything apart, replace all the weatherstripping, and repaint the door panels. Dash pad was cracked, so that is also off to the shop to get new UV proof vinyl. Plastics inside were faded, painted over, or badly repaired, so everything is off to the paint shop for a OEM finish. Cab bushing set is a must, as well. New seat covers and carpet kit is on the list as well, together with a dashboard cleanup, new retro stereo and selector boot.
We also plan, if the budget allows, to repaint the whole truck, once it's in running order, in Raven Black.
The only 'modern' concession is a retro stereo, for USB accessibility.

As you can tell, we plan to turn back time, as we all dream with these trucks. Probably because they do that in return, once they're up and running.

I've attached a few pictures of the truck, as we first found it.

Now, a couple of dilemmas:

First: front axle looks wider than the rear. Is this normal? Found Warn hubs, but no spacers. We plan to revert to regular tires, looking for recommendations. I don't believe this is how it came from the factory. I don't even know if the rims are a match. They sport 33x12.5x16.5 BF Goodrich tires, front and rear, but they're old and need to be replaced. Remember, we want factory spec look, otherwise we cannot register the truck at all.

Second: i want to order a carpet set from LMC, but they have a low/high hump option. I have no idea what we have here. It has a collar shift, and a transmission boot on the floor.

Third: how do you guys afford to drive these trucks every day? )) Milage is a disaster, especially down here. In Romania, we have the highest price of gas in Europe, with a whooping 4$27 cents/gal. No, it's not a tipo. It hurts you in ways you cannot imagine)) I believe Nascar cars are cheaper to run, and you can even throw in some steaks for the mechanics))

I need some help, guys. This will be a sweet truck once i put all the puzzle back together, but your input is more than welcome.

 

Mihai - Welcome to FTE! That's a good looking truck. I like it.

On the front axle, look for a tag, as shown here: Axle Ratios - ???Gary's Garagemahal. If it is still on there I can decode it. And if it is there that suggests that the axle is original.

The carpet question is whether or not the truck has the higher transmission cover. But that didn't come out until the late 80's and was used with the ZF5 transmission. So, yours has the low hump.

As for driving them, our gas runs a bit over $2/gallon here, but that varies by region. Having said that, what are you getting in MPG? That 400 should be getting at least 10 MPG. But, in my estimation, the carb you have won't help MPG. The guys here know I don't like Holley carbs, and one reason is that in my experience they've come out of the box jetted very rich. So, you should be able to lean the carb down and improve your MPG.

 

It is not uncommon for the front track to be wider than the rear. (after all, the front tires must still clear the frame and springs while turning)

The door tag confirms that original tire size was 9.5 inches width with 6.75" width rims.
16.5 inch diameter tires are rare these days and unless absolutely necessary to match 'as built' I would suggest a set of 16 inch steel rims 7 inches wide.
235/85 16 was the stock tire size for many years after the 16.5 wheel diameter was dropped, and a wide variety of tires in this size are available.

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm to get this truck on the road.

 

Good looking truck you got there. All I can say is I recommend purchasing a spare duraspark ignition module and keeping it in the glovebox before you actually need one.

 

Nice truck! Will be very unusual there! Romania! My grandfather came to the USA around 1900 from Kleinschelken, now called Seica Mica. Saxons who dated back to the 7 Cities grant from the King of Hungary. The people are gone, but I see pictures that the fortified churches they built still remain.

One of my kids has a BMW 750iL, with the 5.4L V-12. I never saw a water-cooled alternator before! Or an engine with 2 throttle bodies, 2 air filters, 2 engine control computers, 2 distributors, etc. He's sending dollars to all over Europe for parts

 

Does Kreator or Krokus play in Romania?

 

In my years, I've learned not to question certain things. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss

 

Hi, Mihai in generel, your Truck lock better than my.
U can try some German shops for mecanical parts such engine, tranny, brake or suspension things. saves alot, cos the shipping from the US has more than doubeld the last two jears.
in my case the doorpanels were sprayed over, so I can wipe off the wrong color to get the original tan tone.

hardy

 

Welcome, but a word of caution to both of you living in Germany and Romania.
This is an American website, and we are guests here. Make sure you boys have your papers in order,
otherwise you risk being banned from this forum if Trump decides to buy a Bullnose and join up here.
(I updated my own passport last week).

Mookie from Canada

 

Please keep the politics down in the Club.

I don't want to see this thread get locked or deleted because of some non-constructive comment....

 

Hi guys!

Thank you kindly for the warm welcome! Glad you like the truck, i hope i can get it back to work asap.
Mihai