Had a nice storm last night to wash all the pollen off temporarily.

 

We only got a few drops from what I heard on the stove vent hood and did not see it too wet on the ground in the dark last night.
I have not looked outside yet but was hoping for a good rain to wash some of the pollen away.

Heading up north for the weekend so going to have to wash the car Friday morning so it looks silver the not yellow
when I was working I would be driving down the road and think "man where is that smoke coming from"?
Till I got into it and did not smell smoke then figured out is was pollen, just never seen it like that up north.

I see I also need to run the tractor around before I go, this heat has made the grass grow in spots, why cant it be all over?
Dave ----

 

John,
If I remember I thought there was something with the auto trans in that truck?
Maybe the other truck trans will swap so it would be a running and moving truck?

I know we also talked about moving things between the 2 trucks what is with that now?
Dave ----

 

James for all the dramatic Weather Center Alerts that came to my phone I was expecting a big thunderstorm here, but we got a little rain, not heavy but nice, only for maybe 30 minutes. Barely washed the pollen away and today it was back with a vengeance.

Dave on the fuel bowl sight plugs, my guess is the previous owner removed them to try to figure out why there was no gas, gave up on it and probably just put them in his pocket and walked away! New ones came in today, I just got the standard brass ones not the see-thru clear ones.

Moving the truck out into the carport has kinda rejuvenated me, I'm getting my mojo back for working on it. As far as moving things from the parts truck to the "good" truck, I do still have high hopes. At least I hope to do the dash and wiring harness. The tranny if I remember right, the parking pawl was no good. It would still roll in P.

One of the jobs I started but never finished was the front crossmember. I bought a new one 5 years ago and I even painted it and put the bed tag on it, but it was just sitting in the shop gathering dust. I wanted to tackle it tonight but I noticed I was missing a panel.

Panel

No panel

I think these metal panels are just for looks, so that it's not an open space underneath when seen from the side, but it does connect the front crossmember to the bed sides and fender, so I'm sure that helps keep weight off the fiberglass fender when you step on the step. Luckily in my pile-o-parts I saw that I already fabricated a new panel a long time ago.



Installed, as seen from the outside.


And from the inside.

Front crossmember in place, first time the bed has actually been bolted down in 5 years. Although only the front is bolted.


One thing I'd like to know is what the height difference is supposed to be between the top of the rear crossmember and the top of the frame rail. I need to figure that out so I can fabricate something. As I recall the rear crossmember was three or four hundred dollars and very involved, meaning I'd have to remove the tailgate, cut everything out, and weld in the new piece. Whereas the front was a fairly easy bolt-in dealio.

Did I use a 2x4 because that gave me the correct height? Or because that was what I had handy nearby?

 

John, what is the truck you are working on? Looks to be a step side of some sort.

If I can ever get caught up with work on my house and dock I can get back to restoring my little DJ-5. I have plans to put in a roll bar. Cut the top. A few other mods. I'm seriously considering lowering it. Making it a low rider. Stuff the back with speakers. Basically be obnoxious as I can be with it.

I currently have one of my motorcycles for sale. A really nice mountain bike for sale. And a 2wd 4- Runner for sale. Trying to free up some funds for more projects. If yall know anyone looking let me know.

 

Yes James it's a 1983 F100 stepside. Here is a picture of it when I brought it home initially. Originally had a 300-6 but now has a 351w that supposedly will run. We shall see.

 

Nice. The 351 should help move it along. Going to be a work truck, show truck? Or are you going to flip it?

 

John, I am going away for the weekend but after that you can look over my truck if you think it will help.
Thing is I am using a style side metal ribbed floor that I cut the sides off and made it shorter so I dont know how much it would help other than to see how I made it work.

There are different size wood blocks that fit up inside the bed crossmembers. I do know if the flare side cross members are different based on where they side on the frame so I am guessing they are also different height also?
On the style side bed the crossmembers are turned right side up and welded to the metal ribbed floor so they are different height to make the bed level.
The vary front and rear crossmembers are called sills IIRC in the parts books, yea not cheap from what I remember.
I used a combo of both beds make the 2 sills. The front sill also has the step brackets fasten to it so I had to make that work too.
When I get back on Tuesday after PT at 10am let me know when you are up and I can bring the truck by to look over it may help.
Dave ----

 

I just remembered I have some pictures of the bed.
Front sill crossmember. there was channel used in the center to hold it together. You can see the step brackets off each side.


How I fitted the step brackets to the style side front crossmember.


This is the rear sill looking at it from the bottom up. It is like a 2 part piece made as 1. It is the rear crossmember and the outer finish of the bed when looking at the rear of the bed.

This is the outer part with the crossmember part removed as the style side bed has a rear crossmember. I fitted the outer to the style side crossmember.

Under side of the flare side outer part welded to the style side crossmember. I forgot to turn on the gas and why the welds look so bad


As you can see it took a lot to figure out how to make the style side ribbed floor work for a flare side and more so when no one has done it before.
Dave -----

 

James, I always wanted to keep it and fix it up real nice. Maybe not "show truck" but at least "nice driver" quality. But I lost interest a little at a time and decided I just need to put it all together and flip it & let someone else take it from here. Funny thing though the more I work at putting it back together the more I am regaining my interest. Yes that 351w "should" move it along , that is if it runs.

Dave I figured out how to determine the mounting height of the rear crossmember. Looking at the frame from the side, there are 4 mounting points where the frame is flat. The front and back are the same height, therefore I just needed to measure the height of the front crossmember and make them the same. Due to the rounded edge of the frame rail I can't say exactly, but it was around 3-1/4 to 3-3/8. Then on either side of the axle there is a flat mounting spot, which are the same to each other, but are a little higher than the front and back. I'll have to determine that height later using a straight edge front to back.

I decided to go ahead and put the passenger side step on. I can't do the drivers side yet, I need to keep that area open so I have room to work on / repair the rusted out cab corner. But there's no reason I can't go ahead and do the other side. I already cleaned up the steps and primered them 4 or 5 years ago, but they sat so long that I needed to wash them & sand them again, and put another coat of primer on top of that.

A little primer-sealer

Three coats of blue

Realized I have two of these brackets in my pile, therefore they must be part of the step mounting. I vaguely remember taking them off. I cleaned them up and sanded them a little then threw some rustoleum on them


One of the ends is bent wrong, I can see two different angles.

I'm not sure which angle was correct but forming it to fit here seemed to be my best fit, however the hole doesn't line up on the fender side, and the frame hole that I lined it up to here, does not exist on the opposite side of the truck. And yes I did measure & check distance side to side to make sure the bed is centered, there's less than 1/8 of difference.

Dave if you have these braces on your steps, do you remember how they mount?

 

I'm still waiting on a fuel inlet and spacer plate for my carburetor, but I figure in the mean time better get everything prepped and ready. I had just an air cleaner laying over the opening all these years and you can see there's a pretty mean dirt dobber nest in one of the openings. Not mention several vacuum lines with screws or bolts stuck in them.



My useless helper, asleep on the job!


I don't know what this is called but it's apparently emissions related and damaged, so I know I don't need it anymore.


Using a piece of 3/16 scrap I traced out the gasket and built a block-off plate.



Block off plate installed and carburetor based cleaned up. That took a lot of sanding but at least now it's ready, as soon as my spacer comes in I'll be ready to install it.


Lot's of jury-rigged things to be found on this truck. Here is a view from on top of the radiator looking straight down. 3 pieces of wood jammed under the radiator to hold it up. The fan shroud is chewed to pieces also, probably came into contact with the fan. And again, yet another dirt dobber nest!


It's hard to get a photo to show this, but the motor mount is not seated all the way down. You can slide a flat tip screwdriver between the perch and the motor mount.


The motor is actually sitting on the oil pan on the crossmember. What you're seeing there is cardboard that was stuffed underneath to prevent it from being metal on metal.


I don't know if all this is because the original 300-6 perches were used and maybe they are lower, or if it's the wrong motor mounts. But I know how to fix it; lift the engine, remove the mount, and put a spacer between the engine block & motor mount. I have a bunch of steel spacers 1 inch diameter & 1 inch high with 1/2 ID hole. Should work fine to lift the motor up an inch and get it off the crossmember. But my cherry picker is at my friends right now, I was thinking I may be able to do one side at a time using a floor jack or bottle jack.

 

John, Looks like the old egr valve sensor. Not sure. Could be the air bypass valve. They vary from model to model/year to year.

We had to remove all the emissions stuff from my friends truck. His looked slightly different but was mounted to a similar looking plate beside the carb.


AS much as I hate yard work and pressure washing. I spent all day Saturday doing both. First had to go by some mower parts and fix the mower. Then cut, trimmed and blowed the yard. Pulled a bunch of briars. Of course wearing flip flops so my feet look like they were attacked by a gang of feral cats. Then spent until dark pressure washing the back deck and all the stairs leading down to the water.

Sunday I spent the morning putting on water sealer. Then in the afternoon took one of the bikes out for a nice long ride in the country.

 

James, it went into a chamber with exhaust in it and has a valve that turns about 1/4 turn left or right. So it must be EGR related and vacuum line attachment that was on supposed to be on it would have controlled that flapper. But the piece of metal that pulled the flapper was mangled and the vacuum tit was broken off, so it definitely was not doing anything anymore. I'm blocking off the EGR port under the carb so I figure to have hopefully canceled out that system.

I hate doing grass but I love pressure washing. Something satisfying about seeing something old & dirty come back to life!

 

John, them black brackets IIRC are for the fenders. 1 to the front and the other to the rear and they go up to the bed side bolts.
I will see if I can get pictures of mine.
Now to go back and read everything I skipped over to post this

edit: The braces fits from the fender, there should be a threaded stud in a boss that the brace fits over and a nut to hold it.
If you look at the back side of the fender you should see the studs or the boss where it was.
As I said the other end goes up to 1 of the bolts, longer then the rest, that holds the bed sides to the floor and then a nut on the longer bolt.
I can get pictures or if you are out swing by and give a look see at mine.
Oh the braces are different between the front & rear
Dave ----

 

John, that valve you made the block off plate for I really dont thing it is EGR as there should been a EGR plate under the carb.
I believe that was for the intake cross over to heat the intake manifold when the motor is cold.
Most of that type of valve is just after the exh manifold and before the Y pipe to force hot exh thru the manifold.

On my 300 six it had a valve that worked from the hot exh gases and a spring, it was part of the exh manifold.
The sspring would close the valve and the hot gasses would go to the bottom of the intake manifold and as the motor heated up the valve would open.
That is how most worked but some used vacuum and I think that is how yours worked along with a vacuum switch.
Dave ----