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Hey all. first post. Meet Skeeter, the 71 my wife "MADE" me buy at auction 2 weeks ago. I like old Ford trucks and my wife has always wanted an old Ford truck. We purchased this lovely unit from an auction of my friends dad who passed a year ago. This was the 3rd of 3 auctions at 3 locations. All told over 250 cars sold, over 100 tractors sold and more than 10 trailers of tools and misc. The first auction netted me an old Ford LGT 120 Garden Tractor.
My wife says we are chasing endorphins... We lost our almost 14 year old daughter in a car accident in January so this truck will provide some healing time for us apparently. Anyway, I'm not hear for sad apologies. The first picture below is of the first time I saw the truck back in March. I had purchased a Taurus from my buddy and was out there tearing seat belts out of a parts car and thought "Oh man Jess would like that truck". Going into the auction I knew she wanted to at least watch the truck sell. The next few pictures were from the auction listing.
Right before the truck goes up I look at her and say ok what do you want to do. I wasn't going to pull the trigger. We have a lot of other things we SHOULD spend the money on, one of which is a kitchen remodel, but it's something she's always wanted so I put her in the drivers seat. She told me exactly "Bid to $1,500, and I mean it. I'm standing here to make sure you bid that high". Back story, She gave me free reign 3 years ago to buy a John Deere 420 with hydro blade and deck for a grand and I stopped at 450 and she won't let it go. Bidding on the truck nearly stalled at 750 then picked up to $1000, we won!
She Broke out in hives and had a WTH did we just do moment. Me too, now I have to get this thing home... And Oh wait it doesn't list a title, and crap there are no keys! OH NO WHAT HAVE WE DONE!
The truck sat 30+ years supposedly for having a bad valve but no one really knows. The mice infestation was REAL. Read later posts for that...It's got presumably 143,000 miles and is fairly rust free amazingly. It was painted at one point as there is bondo in the box side. As it turned out it did have a title and keys. I'll post in another post about that. The truck is a highly optioned Ranger XLT, power brakes, power steering, factory air, western mirrors and the strangest of all it never had an in-cab tank. it came with the optional factory under box tank and no in cab. There isn't even a hole in the cab for the tank. Pretty neat!
Last edited by tcanthonyii; Oct 7, 2022 at 02:40 PM.
OK so why is it named Skeeter? That's where my wife and I went our first date 10 years ago. I don't name cars, my kids and wife do.
We watched other cars sell and one of my friends bought a unique 50's chevy panel wagon for $3500. (Pictures below. The one shows my '96 F150 that was my grandpas). I spoke to the friend who's dad died and he said yea we should have a title for that I drove it and dad drove it. Ok mind at ease there. When I went to pay they handed me the title! Sweet deal.
Went to yet another friend's house and snagged a couple car trailers. I had driven my '96 F150 and under no terms was I going to pull the 71 with my truck. It needs a couple things and is totally gutless with the 300. I should have driven my Chevy 2500.. Oh well. I hauled the panel wagon and my other friend pulled my truck to the friend's house. There we dug through the tire pile to try and find some tires so I could roll this around at my house if needed. I used his jeep spare, my 96 spare and we found 2 tires that held air for a couple hours. The forklift worked well for this task. It was then that I noticed the gas tank was damaged beyond repair which makes the decision for a new tank much easier.
At home we threw a blanket on the seat to cover the mouse turds and pushed it off the trucks. SKETCHY is an understatement. No brakes and it rolled nearly a block. We put the tow bar to use and towed it back to the driveway with my 4 wheeler. After a couple beers we decided to get it started. Boat battery, check, wire from coil to battery, check. 2 stroke fuel and brake clean, check. Popped the dist. cover off and found what looked like a new cap, rotor and points that were installed 30 years prior. A quick sanding with emry cloth and we had spark. Dumped some fuel in and nothing. After some tinkering, we discovered a bad crimp on a replaced wire from the coil to the distributer. Now we had reliable spark. She fired right up made noise and sounded healthy. Not bad for days work.
Right when we were done my buddy looks over and says hey man I found your keys. SERIOUSLY? I thought he was joking. Nope there was a set of keys tied to the master. One door key, one ignition! We went to try starting again and the starter turned over super slow. I figured we killed the ancient solenoid at that point so we stopped and had a few more beers.
Last edited by tcanthonyii; Oct 7, 2022 at 03:13 PM.
Now we make it to Sunday, the next day. I know it runs, time to clean it out. I screwed up and didn't take pictures of the inside, but I assure you it was gross. Seat bolts came out with hand tools that how little rust is on this truck. I thought I would have to bust out the torch. Carpet was disgusting and inside the door/fender jams was huge mouse houses. Also, the rear cab support was rotted from mice and is full of a mouse house. After removing the carpet, I revealed basically 3 holes in the floor, much smaller than I anticipated. One on the left side of the seat, one in the normal location in the foot well and then the side of cab where the mouse houses were. That one is going to be the worst to fix.
Next up was removal of the lumber rack. That netted me a bunch of project steal. I like to build stuff so having some scrap is really nice. I have several items I want to build for the aforementioned LGT. Now the thing is starting to look better.
Now it was time to bust out the $50 hotsy knockoff pressure washer. Everything I own almost was broken or super cheap. I really like this one. I sprayed out the cab, figured I couldn't' hurt anything the mice didn't already do. Then it was on to the paint to remove the moss. You can really see the left/right side hood difference. Note the mud flaps. These are my wife's favorite part of the truck.
After washing my wife was out there and we saw movement which turned out to be a mouse moving her babies into a tree! YIKES. I need to get some decon around the house stat!
The next day, Monday I ordered plugs, wires, points, brake hoses, master cylinder, coil, fuel pump and carb rebuild kit.
Tuesday was pressure wash the engine bay. I didn't do that good of job as it turns out but I'm not eating poop when it starts. I also read a post somewhere about being able to get a Autolite 2150 knockoff on Amazon that was decent quality, so I decided to go that route and ordered a new carb. The carb on the truck was clearly a 2150 and not the stock 2100 and gut feeling told me to question it.
Last edited by tcanthonyii; Oct 7, 2022 at 04:03 PM.
I didn't have a lot of time the rest of the week but I did manage to pull the carb when I thought I was going to rebuild. It's hard to tell but there is wood shoved under the RTV and in a hole in the back. The carb tag states it's off a 75 galaxy or something near as I could decode it. Yup good decision to replace it. I will still TRY to rebuild it to learn how.
That weekend we went camping and were over an hour from home. Facebook netted me a set of newer rims for $100 with tires that hold air. Date codes on 2 of them say 2001 so they aren't good drivers but I do have a set of rims that look OK from 15 feet and the truck looks a lot better. I was able to pick up a seat out of an 80's ford for $40 that sunday evening as well. The stock one needs re-covered for sure and the newer seats allow for more belly room which I NEED. It's getting a saddle style cover for now. Both of our grandpa's had trucks as kids with those so we think it will look neat for now. I also added coolant earlier in the week and determined the no longer available heater core was totally shot. GREAT! I bypassed it to stop the leak in the cab.
As I was putting the tires on I juiced up all the brake fittings and discovered the drivers shock mount to be broken and that that part is not reproduced. GREAT again. The joy of old stuff.
My parents did find the matching door mat at Dollar General though! Too bad it's a shortbox in the picture.
Monday started get it ready to RUN and drive. I installed the seat but didn't bolt it down. I still need to clean the dash and, in the dash, but I wanted to be able to sit in it. I had to drill the holes out large on the seat to accept the seat track but otherwise was a direct fit.
Next up was plugs. They all looked really good I thought and no rust for 30 years of sitting which is amazing until I got to the passenger firewall. I thought that attached device was an adapter from a compression tester but soon learned what an antifowler was. I'm betting I found the bad valve/cylinder. I followed this up with installing the master, fuel pump, starter solenoid and carburetor.
I had trash picked a boat tank several years ago and stashed it in the loft of the shed. I found a lawnmower cap from stash of mower parts (I'm a mower flipper for toy cash) and I was in business for a supplementary tank. It even fits under the hood closed!
My neighbor came over and we found that the headlights worked but not tail lights. Blinker switch is busted (found the lever on the floor), flasher didn't work, brake lights didn't work, windshield washer doesn't work and cargo and dome light don't function. And of course the radio doesn't work. Some tinkering and fuse replacements has the front right flasher working and tail lights. I'm hoping it's just some bulbs but I'm sure the mice ate some wiring in the dash.
Fired it up and idled Tuesday night but had a large fuel leak from the upper hose and fuel filter into the carb. Snagged parts Wednesday and got that fixed. It ran mostly ok Wednesday but would just cutout and die to the point it eventually wouldn't start or run at all. Some testing I found I wasn't getting fuel out of the brand new pump. So yesterday I grabbed a new pump locally and installed it. The old one definitely was bad, the arm wasn't working right. Now it fires right up, idles and has no strange dying. Large exhaust leak at the y pipe and a slight miss but I'm still on old points and wires and from what I can tell the timing chain is past it's limit so I need to set timing, replace the chain and tune the carb. I did pop it into gear and it immediately went into reverse. Teh fluid is a little low but bright red. I added a bottle of Lucas and topped it off with type f.
That's where I'm at now. Tomorrow is brakes and I think I found a shock mount so I will drive an hour and get that home. With luck I can test drive tomorrow.!
Had a little time to dink around tonight. The Husker game was bad so I just listened. Figured I’d start looking at the lighting situation.
It ain’t great. drivers side front blinker housing is basically shot. It was full of water when I bought it so I figured it wasn’t gonna be good. Pulled the covers on the rear and both bulbs were good but I replaced them for good measure. Passenger side was frozen in but I was able to rip it out. The springs behind are stuck. I still only have running lights back there. Flashers and brake lights are a no go. I looked at the wiring under the truck and at the rear it’s barely hanging on. It’s pretty rough as one would expect. There are a couple wires I’m not sure what they do and one that appears to be ran to the front by someone to the solenoid. I’m guessing for a power tow wire? It has no trailer wiring but does have a ball.
Next step is to test it at the plug in the engine bay. Maybe I’ll have time tomorrow for that.
I did find a shock bracket an hour away so I’ll head there in the morning to snag that. I got a bad feeling there’s some ate wires in the dash. I should tear into that too.
Here is my running list of “needs fixed”. It’s not inclusive of everything because it needs door seals and window seals. It’s just the make it safe and drivable list. Wires
Brake day! Started WAY too late. Headed an hour west to pickup a radius arm with a good shock mount. I need to go back and cut some of the cab out of one of the trucks in a couple weeks. My drivers kick panel and door seal are rotted and he has a junk cab where that’s good so I’ll be able to splice it in. He’s also a machine shop and loves fe’s so I have a source for some additional parts when I’m ready.
The rear drums were on really tight. The drivers side I had to pry pretty hard to get off and broke a couple pieces of the drum off and some of the hardware broke. Passenger rear came off easy. Basically brand new pads on the rear.
Fronts came right off without issue. Every wheel cylinder was totally locked up.
I have one hard line left to undo on the passenger front but so far every single hard line has come loose. I’m a huge believer in aerokroil. I swear that stuff is magic in a can. I understand why my grandpa used it now.
I goofed and ordered two rear drivers wheel cylinders so I need to pick up a passenger rear tomorrow. The rear soft line and front drivers is in.
Absolute bonus of the day was the ebrake cable isn’t frozen. I’m shocked but that’s neat.
Found a HUGE vacuum leak at the base of the carb. It appears as though the factory spacer is warped. I’ll try to pick up a phenolic this week.
Swap meet tomorrow so maybe I’ll find some goodies!
going to have the front turned tomorrow and will button everything up hopefully tomorrow.
Sorry to dwell...sitting here in tears...I know that your almost 14-year-old daughter would have LOVED that truck...already said a prayer for her looking down on you. Make her proud with that truck!
Sorry to dwell...sitting here in tears...I know that your almost 14-year-old daughter would have LOVED that truck...already said a prayer for her looking down on you. Make her proud with that truck!
Geoff
She always had my number when I brought “junk” home. Why do we need another of xyz. That looks terrible. Haha. She would have been all over her mother bringing this thing home. But guaranteed she’d want to drive it to school.
Sounds like she was one hell of a young lady, and a lot like my young 'un, who wants to make Tik Toks with my truck.... Currently teaching her how to power-brake and not wreck...lol!
Well some progress today. It was the Wahoo (home office of Letterman’s late show) swap meet. Always wanted to go but found out after it was over so I made sure to get there this year.
Should have gotten there first thing. I missed out on a full grill assembly for $70. BUT I did snag an entire factory AC assembly (in cab pieces) for $20. My truck dies have factory ac but the heater core is shot. Dude said this one was good and from what I’ve read it’s impossible to find a heater core for factory ac.
Bought 3 dwell meters. Why 3? Because that’s all that I found and they were like $2 a piece. One of them is bound to work right? Grabbed Ranger emblems as I’m missing one then realized it was the earlier style. Wall art now…. And a factory 2 barrel carb spacer that doesn’t have the coolant lines. I’m pretty sure mine is warped and causing a vacuum leak so we’ll try this one and still have the pcv piece for the valve cover. I really wanted to find a factory air cleaner but no dice.
Tried to have oreilly’s turn the front drums but they were out of spec, didn’t have the shoes or hardware kit for the front so I got some vacuum line, rear hardware kit, tailpipe fox thing and a wheel cylinder.
Spent the afternoon getting the brakes all back together and bearings packed. The last fitting came loose no issue so I didn’t break any brake lines which seems just impossible. Everyone disappeared when it came time to bleed the master so none of the brakes are bled.
Turned my attention to the throttle linkage. I had the geometry wrong in my head so I need to stop by Speedway and grab a different end piece.
Sooo maybe tomorrow we can drive it? I keep saying tomorrow….. we’ll see.
And we have brakes! Finally was home with enough people to get someone to stomp on the pedal. Bribed my 17 year old to come out. He’s not a mechanic. Loves to weld but tools are not his forte. Gets it from his dad.
I tried using my air bleeder and it just wasn’t working. Aedan starts pumping…. Doh forgot a fitting. Explains why the air bleeder doesn’t work. Used the bleeder again to draw fluid through and then finished with pumping. Did all 4 corners that way and now we have a solid pedal.
It’s still old drums and shoes. All drums need replaced and I don’t see the point in replacing the front drums when I know with my wife driving that I want disks. The rear shoes are almost new anyway. I’m not towing or anything with it so this will get us to groceries and back now. And really I just want to make sure it even drives before sucking a ton of money into it.
Tomorrow the carb comes off again to cut a piece for the linkage I’m making. I’ll drop it back in and see if I can seal up the leak while I’m at it. As soon as I get some throttle pedal I’m hoping I can go around the block. I’d go further but I have no brake lights.
Got a shot of both my single cabs today. I’m a new Chevy truck guy but a pre 96 ford guy. The 96 was my grandpas. My tow rig is a 2012 Silverado 2500.
Set to work today to move this thing out of the driveway. Stopped by speedway at lunch and grabbed a different end for the carb linkage. Got that all worked out.
The. The carb link. As many of you pointed out the 2150 wont seal on a stick spacer. I then remembered the carb came with a thin spacer. Sure enough it solves the issue but then my studs were too short so I backed them out enough to tighten down the carb temporarily. Fired right up and sounded way better. Warmed her up and added 4qts of trans fluid and a bottle of Lucas. Shoved a screw driver in the intake to hold the choke and my wife and I hit the road. 20 through town and then hit the highway. Made it up to 50 in a short distance and shifted gears. Bright it home and parked it.
Success!! Skeeter drives. 30 years since he drove on his own.
Anyone have a reasonably priced stock air filter? The thing that came on this does not fit worth a darn and is total junk.
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