Flux core wire then they are really good welds as I thought you used gas and why I posted about outside and gas.
When I first got my welder it came with flux wire and the welds were ok but the clean up took hours.
I was glad when the wire ran out and I switched to gas and never looked back.

For gas I first started using C02, got it for free, but when I started working on the truck project I went with Argon mix and the welds come out a lot better.
Thing is I cant use gas outside and don't have flux wire so all my welding has to be done inside or a tent and I don't have a tent LOL

Keep going your doing great.
BTW when I did my AC firewall swap I did catch all kinds of crap. I was new to the forum and only 1 person knew what kind of work I could do.
Once I had the firewall done and people could see the work I could do no more crap.
Dave ----

 

I remember reading all that and all the praise you got afterwards. I was surprised no one step in here to give dire warnigs about firewall integrity and the amount of risk you take by cutting and welding on one. Guess you made everyone soft lol.

 

To be honest, these firewalls are total crap. I've ever had any other vehicle with a messed up firewall. I'm surprised to find this with the top selling truck. Sorry Ford dudes, but I don't like the firewalls one bit.

 

I have a question Fuzz. Is there a difference in the thickness of the sheet metal with the A/C firewall? Or is it the bent over edges around the A/C holes which adds the strength. I'm adding A/C also and was thinking I would do something to add some strength as well. I could chop out that whole section and install 1/8" if I want to. Or a gusset.

 

LOL you remembered that did you LOL

I Ford or any company made stuff last for ever they would not need to make anymore and be out of business.

The 2 firewalls are the same thickness and just that little bent lip makes it strong.
Remember once the HVAC box is bolted up the firewall will not flex.
Dave - - - -

 

Havent had a chance to post here until now.

No matter how bad it seems, every truck can be restored.

I have a thread posted here, if you really wanna see just how bad and into the nitty gritty my dad and I got into this thing. This truck had been restored previously before these photos in the early 90s. If you look closely you will see rememnants of previous repairs, such as cab corners and rockers.

 

That had to take a while. Looks great.

 

Started it around fall of 2015. Really didnt work on it over winter other than buy parts every year. Summer time, we just worked on it for a few hours here and there kind of at our leisure. The most recent pic is the one in traffic and that was about 2 weeks ago.

I'd say we have about 2 years actually wrapped up in it but 4 total. I think monetary wise hes in it about 10 grand. If you check the thread out, just about everything you can replace has been with the exception of the dashboard and cab itself. Sometimes multiple times.

 

Holy **** Slashfan! What a comeback. Was that truck sentimental or something?

 

That truck was bought by my father when he was in high school (truck was 2 years old) and it's been in the family for 30+ years now. There was no way in hell he was getting rid of it.


By the way on the topic of welding, all welding done on this truck above was done with a Lincoln 3200HD flux core.

 

Here's some super old pics. 1991-93 era. 2 of them are from the first restoration.

The last photo is from 2017 beleive.

Here is the link to the restoration thread.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1404510-so-it-begins-rebuilding-the-old-85-update-11-09-15-a.html

 

Well that makes sense! Good for him. Glad he brought it back from the dead. I understand the whole sentimental thing.

The truck that I have is a 1985 F-250 that my dad bought in 1987 and used it as a work truck/farm truck at our place in the mountains. After having it sit around for 4 years 2 months ago I got working on it and did a full body swap on it to convert it to a diesel one ton. It was a fun project, and man going from that 460 getting 7 MPG to getting 16 with the diesel made it so worth the swap, not to mention it's 10x more reliable now.

Here's a couple pics of my swap too:

Here I was getting the truck back in 2014 or so. Then here's some pics of it before the swap & during & after.









We did a little bit of welding on this. I used a Millermatic 211 with C25 gas. Whole build thread is below:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...onversion.html

 

Slashfan, I have to commend your perseverance. I would have ran for sure and used it as a parts truck. I like the way you replaced the floor with thicker stuff. I noticed a comment when you said it's the welds that rust first, but I'm noticing on my cab, it's the seems that rust first. With my repair I'm making sure not to leave any overlaps except for the 1/8" needed to weld it together, and most of that gets burned up once the puddle hits it anyway. I've also thought of using weldable primer, but I really don't have enough overlap to worry about it, so I'll skip it.

Fuzz, I noticed in his thread you mentioned rubberized undercoating. I did that to my old Dodge years ago and have to strongly recommend against it. That crap is like tar, and if you ever have to do any more repairs to the metal down the road, it is very difficult to remove. I'm only speaking from a welders stand point. My Dodge floor rusted underneath the rubber coating, and the only way I could have removed it is with a chemical bath, literally. Like the floor half of the cab completely submerged, real stubborn ****.

*****, I had already checked out your build thread, It's sweet. One question. Did your friend give you any money for the left over truck? I did a body swap on my old Dodge years ago. It started with me as a D150, then became a W350 over a weekend it was fun. The donor truck was even the same Glacier Blue color, and the same year. I really miss my old Dodge.

I enjoyed your build threads and watching the pieces come together, and now I feel spoiled rotten even with having to fix my firewall. Here's an updated pic. After this pic I wire wheeled all I could and wet sanded everything in the cowl area with baking soda and distilled water. I've been using baking soda and distilled water for a lot of things the past 3-4 years, and I gotta say, it's awesome for wet sanding. I'm gonna take a new pic this morning and go weld the upper cowl in. I'm a little disappointed about the fitment of it. On the drivers side the sawsall got away from me and I cut out a little more than what I needed, so I had to patch in a piece. I will cover all that when I do another thread of the firewall repair, coming within a week or so. Here's a pic of all but the upper cowl welded in, turned out good I might say. In the future I would like to get a TIG machine and learn how to use it. I could have done much nicer work with the ability to weld with less and more controlled heat. I will have the option to weld it from the inside later down the road for a secondary fix if need be.

 

The way I see it, is the original firewall had those factory crimp welds, my repair has at least 90% solid weld, so it should be stronger right? My only concern is the sheet metal around the welds cracking down the road, but like I say, I will be able to weld it from the inside if that happens without having to cut it all out and do it again. Alright, I'm going to weld in my upper cowl today, just getting my coffee in me. Once that's done, I have some 3 parts zinc epoxy primer to cover it all with, then body fill, then primer and paint.

 

I need to do some welding on my firewall, got a little rot around the heater box on the passenger side. Just think it might be all but impossible to find a truck that is heat only that I can chop the firewall out to make a patch panel for mine.

On the brakes, what are you going to go with vacuum brakes?

Im holding off to see what I do once I get my motor in, if I don't seem to have good brakes I am thinking about picking up a $180 ac delco reman hydroboost for a '86 F Superduty truck. It looks like the firewall was the same so it should be a bolt in and hook up to the stock pedal with no special adjustable linkages. I also see that a customers '99 F250 with a diesel, it looks like the power steering pump and reservoir is identical to the older pumps just with a serpentine belt, need to do more verification but if so I would pick up a can to swap onto my stock pump to attach the hydroboost return to.

I also am still trying to find out, these trucks have a low pedal and I was told that there is a bolt on ford master cylinder from a newer application that will resolve the low pedal of the stock master cylinder. Still haven't heard back from the guy that said he would get me the part number. Mine isn't that low but if improvements can be made then I want to do improvements.