I've noticed the low-brow fish jokes have dropped off in this thread. That's dolphinately good.

 

I thought you'd come back, it was getting 'crappie' without you.

 

Take a picture of your rust. A few of us here may have some insight. It's not too bad depending on how you go about it.

I haven't had one issue with my brakes. I noticed a huge difference when I went to stainless steel brake hoses. I would recommend that first. The hydro boost sounds like a sweet option, I would like to see pics if you can find some. I didn't even know they made em.

 

Seems to me like I get about zero notifications on subscription replies anymore. Maybe folks would show me more love if I started working on my truck again. On that note though I also don't check the forum often for new threads, so I don't know if the population is decreasing. BASSically what I'm asking is, are there less people around to enjoy one of your worst puns? LOL! It started out pretty good, but I think you're basically beating a dead fish.... With itself at this point. Also, seen Matthew around? I'm not on much so don't know, but the emissions thread is full of crickets and my popcorn is getting cold...

 

He's probably away on vacation. We haven't been herring much from him lately.

 

Been a couple of months. Shot him a message awhile back, no reply. He was online since. But no idea what he's got going on. Maybe one of the old timers around here who knows him could check on him and shoot me a message. Also, this isn't much of a motivational thread, I barely looked at my clapped out project since it got started and I spent a whole hour in the same room with it in the last month. It refused to put the paint on its skin without getting the degreaser again, so I left it to stew. Motivate me. ... although I have been wanting to fish more...

 

Well I just lost some motivation. I went out and started tacking my upper cowl into place, it's looking good.... then noticed I had forgot to tape over my ****ing windshield, so now my brand new wind shied with less than 1000 miles on it is spattered thanks to that damned flux wire garbage. It's not terrible cause I caught it early, but now as usual I'll be rolling down the road with a less than nice wind shield. This firewall weakness is a major setback to me. Never in all my life have I encountered a bad firewall......

 

Dont they sell some kind of weld-be-gone spray in a rattle can? Its preventative though. What kind of damage are you looking at on the windshield? Beads on top or did the heat mess with the plastic between the layers, reducing visibility, or did it mess with the glass itself?

 

I wouldn't worry too much. I'm sure eel be back online soon.

 

The windshield looks like it got peppered with tiny rocks. I have a can of that stuff, but it's the heat from the spatter of the flux. it's like a bunch of tiny pebbles and sand melted into the glass. It's only on the bottom and I realized it before I got too carried away. But I'm still pissed. I'm gonna buy another new windshield when I have free money.

 

That dose suck. I got one of them welding blankets from HF when I was doing the welding on the truck near stuff I did not want hurt. Well it worked like crap as some of the splatter burned thru it but was lucky it did not hurt anything under it.
Don't have to tell you but knock that splatter off the best you can before turning on the wipers or the rubber will get chewed up in no time.
Dave ----

 

Mine isn't bad either, pedal does travel a little further than I would like but its not like a lot of what I see on this vintage of truck coming in, I have one I put a 5.0 coyote in at work that thing is about 1" off the floor when you press it down with the engine running. With the engine off and bleeding the vacuum out of the booster it doesn't go down but a inch or so like my truck does. Mine with engine running pedal goes about halfways to the floor, you can stick your foot under the pedal still.

But for me once I do my 306 build lots of people have mentioned with how much overlap my Crane truck cam has it might not have the same soft brake pedal it had requiring minimal effort to depress. If that is the case I will pick up a hydroboost brake booster and just bolt it in.

This is a install done from the '87 - '96 forum.

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

He talked about slotting the holes in the firewall to line something up. I don't know why, I replaced my booster, it bolts straight to the firewall and the pedal lines up perfectly with the hole in the firewall for the rod.

If there is a problem then Hydratech makes a unit that will work on these trucks but its a lot more money than simply buying a reman hydroboost for under $300 vs close to $800 for just the hydratech booster minus hoses. I wouldn't get the hose kit anyways as they are stainless braid and I hate them they are too stiff. I would convert the hydroboost if possible on the '88 Superduty application to AN and get some cloth braid hydraulic pressure hose and get some proper AN hose ends for that hose and make my own up. For the return I was looking at getting just the pump housing from a newer truck probably the '88 super duty as Ford I don't think changed the pumps themselves just the reservoirs. This one would have the small nipple up in the neck for the hydraboost return.

But in the end the only way I would do this is if I its simply straight bolt in. As far as I know I cant find any differences in the '88 Superduty cab and the '88 non Superduty cab when it comes to firewall shape and bolt pattern. I also highly doubt ford would use a completely different unique pedal for the Superduty. The end on the hydraboost looks just like the end on my vacuum booster for my '82. In my eyes it should be a straight bolt in without any modifications.

The rust I have on the firewall is behind the heater box, you cant see it but I did bend the metal alittle prying on the heater box trying to get it to come out before I realized there was a bolt I missed since I have dealer A/C its was hard to spot that bolt on the inside. Once I got it apart I saw the bottom edge was rotted but I totally forgot to straight the firewall back out so the heater box doesn't have a perfect seal right now I been meaning to pull the box back off again as I been meaning to look up the part number for the seals for the heater door and the heater itself to put around my new heater core I put in a couple years ago.

 

How bout painting the under side of the hood and cowl cover for motivation

To install it by your self you hang it from the rafters and drive the truck under it to bolt it up.

Then cleaned out the bed and pulled it so I can prep the cab for paint.

Dave ----

 

Or try doing like me and pulling the hood two times to paint it twice because the paint just doesn't last. Third time will be my last time and I am going to pay someone to paint it. Im going to have them do the truck like ford, paint the whole damn thing argent silver, mask off the two tone areas, then spray it with that midnight blue poly I think is the name then I will pay someone to paint the oem pinstriping on since its not available then clear the whole damn thing. I wont worry about the metal on the fenders under the hood nor the firewall, I can paint that myself one day later on by getting base coat/clear coat rattle cans from automotive touchup.

 

Get after it Fuzz, I was looking for a like button....but this will have to do.

I forgot I have an 8X10 painters drop cloth I can triple up and cover my windshield with, but today I'm in here cleaning a very neglected house. Too much wrenching and not enough nesting. Tomorrow.......