Hey guys. Great site ya got here. So far it's been very helpful. I've now got projects for a few weekends that I found here. Great stuff.

So, here's where I'm at: Got a '60 F250 as a project truck with the boy, and he'll start driving it to school in a year or two. It seemed like a good find as we drove it home and we're driving it every few days for small chores and whatnot. We're in Idaho and there is not much rust at all. Still has the 292 Y in it and runs okay.

First question: I think the stance is a little high in back, as this will be a very light hauling truck, more of a cool cruiser is what we are going for. Is it bad to lower the back with a couple of blocks I've seen in the magazines? I'm not building a curve busting truck or anything, I just want a slight rake, and it's about 3" higher in the rear today.

Second: The truck has a redneck straight pipe off the passenger side header, maybe there is a tube muffler also, but she's plenty loud. I'm thinking of putting on a Flowmaster and extending the tailpipe to the back of the truck. Anyone here run a flowmaster on their beast? Do you like the sound?

Oh yeah, one last question: The truck came with what I was told were newer model 16" steel eight lug wheels. Where do I go about getting some dogdishes to cover the lugs but let the rim still show through? I assume I can measure the diameter of the inner lip that is in the steel wheels to cover up the lugs...any thoughts here?

Thanks for any opinions or suggestions you have so far...

I'll get some gallery pics up soon...we just painted the wheels and have the grill and bumper off for a fresh coat of white. The rest of the truck is original yellow that we will be covering with some flat yellow to hide the 40 years of scratches and dings, and we are thinking about light green wheels with chrome dogdishes.

Thanks,

Too Slow

 

Too Slow -

Like your ideas for the truck. And I like your "handle".

You can remove some leaves from the rear springs (not hard to do) and that will lower it some. Don't go below 4 leaves total. Change to air shocks and you'll still have hauling capacity.

I run Flowmasters on my 56. It has side dump pipes and they woke up the neighbors every morning. I added glasspacks. Now it is very nice and throaty. If you run the pipes out the back it should sound really nice and not too loud.

Can't help ya on the doggie dish caps. But others here will have the 411 on that.

Welcome to FTE!

 

I think lowering blocks work only if the axle is mounted above the springs ... and on these old Fords, it's mounted below them. To lower it, you could remove some leaves from the springs ... or you could possibly replace them with F100 springs. I'm not sure on that.

Also, word on the board is that a Y-block sounds awesome with a set of Smithy's mufflers.

 

If they're later rims with the outward facing nubs, use 67 or later hubcaps. They're on Ebay all the time. They are silver or stainless with the FORD crest painted on the center. If they are the rims with the nubs pointing inward with a deep center, I've got a pile of them here.

Barry

50 F-1

 

Remove springs and start with the short ones

• Removing springs gives a better ride with no load or very little load you use hauling capacity which you don't care about.
• Removing every other spring seems to be the advice I here around here. I am trying to remove the shorter springs first and leave one short one for the axle to rest on. I figure the shorter springs have less give and I want a bette ride.

Also put duals on that old y-block you know you wanted them when you were a kid. Do make it quite enough that it is not a cop calling stereo system especially for a teenager.

 

Hey guys...thanks for all the input so far. I'll go check out those wheels sometime today and see if I can get a picture up. From what you guys have said, it looks like it's probably the later 60's style of wheel.

A appreciate the help and I'm sure I'll have plenty of other questions as I play with this old truck.

The boy and I took it out to the dump as we were cleaning up the house. Drove about 25 miles and it was great. Got to the dump and the engine died and smoke came rolling outta the dash. Long story short, the previous owner had the wire that connected from the ingnition to the coil spiced about five times and the tape he used when he twisted the wires together must have come off and grounded out. Luckily, we traced the wire, undid it from the ignition switch, took the coil straight to the battery and got 'er home. From the looks under the dash, I'm going to have my hands full as I rewire this. I did get new wiring done to the coil, just have plenty more to tackle.

Too Slow

 

Use a soldering iron and heat shrink tubing to fix the wiring.

 

When soldering do not use acid core solder, it will eventually rot the wire. It takes 10 years, but it will happen, and then you get listed under the PO Hall of Shame

Broomfieldbum

 

OOPS, what is this about acid core solder? I thought all the acid did was clean the area where you are soldering, and then boil off when the joint got hot enough to melt the solder. I learned electronics in the Navy 40 years ago, and acid core is all I have ever used!

I kind of remember manufacturing moving away from acid core but thought that was because of the EPA and worker health issues. There used to be a cloud of fumes over the tables where the girls were soldering.

Never heard of a copper wire rotting - perhaps you are talking about aluminum or some other type of wire?

 

Acid core solder is generally used on plumbing, rosin core on electronics. It's relatively easy to clean off the residual rosin flux with flux remover so the electronics don't have any foreign material on the connections. It's a lot tougher to get all the acid flux off a connection. Here's a link with a thorough discussion.

http://yarchive.net/metal/soldering_flux.html