I've been a Chevy guy my whole life until now. Bought a beautiful 95 F150 4x4 about two weeks ago. I have been admiring the OBS body styles for quite awhile and found a nice Western rust free truck, original paint, 123000 original miles. It was a forest service truck from Oregon. Short bed, quad shocks up front. Has an automatic trans with the 302, crank windows, rubber floors with the bench seat and no AC .The truck is 100 percent bone stock. It was love at first sight. Beautiful smoke grey exterior with a light grey interior. This girl had it going on.
Bought it with nothing more than a few internet pictures and a prayer in my heart. I had it shipped to my home in Wisconsin and that was the longest two weeks I have lived in quite a while. It was 24 degrees out and snowing when it arrived so it went from shipping trailer to the garage and no farther. Can't let my new love get hit with the dumptruck loads of road salt used around here. I'm gonna keep this girl safe and warm till spring time.
Well.. this past weekend it was in the 40's so I started her up and oh well, what the hell lets go around the block a few times. She started up just fine and away we go. The truck runs perfect and shifts well, no issues. I knew she was the one. When I pulled back into the driveway I left her run and popped the hood.
My dream truck was spewing coolant from the thermostat housing, the bottom weep hole in the water pump and the rubber plug below the radiator cap. She was pissing all over my shoes. I guess she was testing my commitment to this relationship right out of the shoot.
I gathered my composure as I did not want to give an air of weakness. I sped off to the auto parts store in my other F150 and left there with my credit card smoking a bit when I took it out of the machine. New water pump and gaskets. New thermostat and upper and lower hoses, Flush kit and new coolant. New fan clutch and all new hose clamps and grey permatex for everything.
I've read all the horror stories of the broken water pump bolts and warped thermostat housings. I need to prove myself here so I told the parts guy to give me the water pump bolt kit too.
I tore her down gently, one step at a time as I have never been this intimate with a small block Ford before. Lots of PB blaster for lube. The water pump bolts fought a bit but I got them all out without breaking a single one. The thermostat housing was next. Is she gonna give it up??? Tried the top one first... No problem. Went for the second after a few extra shots of lube. Crack! out she came with no issues! This girl is looser than I thought.
I cleaned and tapped bolts and threads and blew out with brake cleaner and compressed air before inserting the new......Parts.
At this point I think I won her over. Everything went back together real smooth. I filled her to the brim with my new coolant and burped her hoses like I had had been there before. Started her up and drove her around for a while with Led Zepplin blaring on the four blown to crap factory speakers. She runs like a champ and did not leak a drop. Swallowed the whole load of new coolant without spitting.
I think this new relationship might work out. Like they say... Once you go Ford, you never go back.

 

Congrats on your purchase and welcome back from the dark side. You will find a lot of help and advice from people here. Like a proud new parent, you need to send pics of your ride. We are glad to have you on FTE!

 

O! Boie! pics

 

Congratulations on the buy.
Personally, i think the 95 is the nest of the obs years.
I think that because it is the last (f150) to use the old eec 4 obd1 system. And Ford had basically worked all the bugs out by that point. And the 96 was all one year stuff so some of the parts are difficult to get.
Knock on wood my 95 has been very reliable for the most part, and what i have had to replace is all wear and tear as i have well over 300k miles one it.

 

I haven't seen you that excited since I took you to Knotts Berry Farm.

 

Oh man--sounds good--but you just have to post pictures so that we can fuilly enjoy it too.

 

 

 

Thats all I have for now. More to come

 

Those pictures didn't disappoint me. Great looking ride.

 

Very nice looking truck

 

Thank you. I want to replace the front and rear bumpers with some chrome ones. She needs a little bling.

 

Normally I would agree with the chrome bumpers but those painted bumpers look good on that truck. Not only that but aftermarket chrome bumpers won’t hold up like OEM.

 

Think about painting the bumpers and mirrors body color. Would look great for not much money.

 

I have a good friend that owns a large powder coating shop. If I don't go with chrome I would go that route. He can color match just about anything. I had him do some engine cases for an old Yamaha dirt bike I restored a few years back. I told him to make them look like polished aluminum. They came out great. The thing is it would cost double what the chrome ones would cost. This is just going to be a summer fun truck and toy hauler for my 4 wheelers so the chrome won't see much bad weather.
Still in the planning stages on this one. I have 2 more months of winter to ponder it.