Hi

My name is Earl, the anatomically correct 56 F-250 from Ohio. Think Earl’s a pretty boring huh? Yah, well go figure, the little girl makes most of the important decisions around here so I guess I’m stuck with it. You might want to use the restroom before you start, this webpage is 317 pages long. George is gone right now so I thought I would take this opportunity to try and escape.

It all started about four years ago. I was resting in a field when “**** retentive man” found me. At first I thought it was a good thing. And then I soon realized how it was going to be. “Can’t use this bolt, why it’s only 13 threads long and Ford originally used a 12 thread". Puleeeeze, would you put the crossmember bolt in while we’re still young! Then there was the time we waited 3 weeks to find brake return springs with the proper shade of paint. And George can’t buy tools like everybody else, he has to design and build them himself. What’s up with that? You planning to drive me again or you leaving that up to your heirs?

I was hoping maybe someone on FTE would buy me. But then I realized he was depreciating out the garage and land and adding them to my cost basis. Bill Gates couldn’t afford me now. Could one of you guys steal me please? Maybe somebody cool like Niolon or Rage or ‘fenders. Or maybe MTFlat or Uncle JT or 41Clay. Actually just about anyone would suit me at this point, just get me outa here. I want to be slammed with a flip clip and 18 inch billet wheels. Maybe some ghost flames and a CD player. Oh, gotta go, he’s coming out to the garage. Oh man, he’s got 132 spools of wire. No, he’s not going to make his own wiring harness from scratch is he? Tell me it ain’t so.

I’ll unlock the garage after he goes to bed on Friday, better bring two trailers.

Sincerest Desperation,
Earl


P.S. We could be nice to you all the time George, but it would just make you weak!

 

hey fat-what-ever.

What the heck, if he wants to rebuild to exact specs so what, why do you have to get on his case.... jeezzzz, at least his post are concise, and I understand what he is doing or trying to do... unlike some post with the hill billy, diamond plate, held on with duct tape post. If it brings this man some joy, let it be.

robert
PS to the others sorry for down loading, I just hate to see flame wars start

 

Hi Earl,
Oh you poor dear thing, George should take better care of you! Here's the scoop here - you're welcome to hide out here in Montana with all the other outlaws, hooligans and undesirables, but if you have a garage to sleep in, you might want to just stay and put up with George. There are so many projects sitting around here that you'd be out in the snow waiting in line - I need my points adjusted and carb cleaned up and Tim is so far behind trying to get an addition built on the shop that he has to stick a heater under my hood for a couple of hours just to get me started in the morning. I'm sleeping under a fir tree at night. I'd love to see you, but I honestly think you'd be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Love,
Wendy

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 18-Nov-02 AT 07:09 PM (EST)]Cabby Daddy

Don't worry, there will be no flames. Have you ever been to Earl's World. Everything George has done is with absolute precision. It's unreal. He knows he doesn't have to defend his truck. He will get me back soon enough. I have left him all the ammunition he needs these past few years. If you read George's posts, you'll see he likes to have a little fun razzing people on FTE too.

You have been here long enough to know most of my posts are in a joking manner. I have posted a couple mean spirited ones for sure. I apologized for them and wish I could erase them. But unfortunately I can't.

'fenders

 

OK you guys and gals. I duck-taped Earl's grill shut. Now, down to business.

cabby daddy, I thank you from the bottom of my oil pan for your support. Getting serious for a second - that's what makes FTE so great. In this case, I know fenders is just ribbing me and is not getting on my case at all. You're a good man for stepping in when you thought I was done wrong. Thank you again.

Now, as for Dewayne and Tim, since you guys have a wimpy F-100 and F-1, respectively, I'd be careful about messing with the MONSTER F-250 named Earl. He can be mighty touchy at times - even without an engine and transmission.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=10350&.jpg

And by the way, Ford used 14 threads on the engine mount bolts originally. I couldn't find an exact match so I'm working on shortening a longer bolt and using a dremel with a miniature diamond tip to lengthen the base thread so I have the proper unthreaded shank length as in the original.

 

George

Hey, that yellow paint is pretty snappy. Tell us the truth, you're gonna slam Earl this weekend aren't you?

'fenders

 

>George
>
>Hey, that yellow paint is pretty snappy. Tell us the truth,
>you're gonna slam Earl this weekend aren't you?
>
>'fenders

Sir fenders, that "yellow paint" is not only "snappy", it's also a correct match to the original Ford colors for those parts, thank you very much. At least according to my research and chips of paint I took off the parts.

I already have to hold off my son from turning Earl into some twisted shadow of himself - I don't need you guys trying to get me to deviate from my master plan ... yeeeeessss ... my master plan. First, a perfect restoration of Earl, then a hybrid of Earl and a potato plant, and finally I TAKE OVER THE WORLD BWAH HA HA HA! Sorry, sorry. I'm going to go take my medicine now ...

 

>Sir fenders, that "yellow paint" is not only "snappy", it's
>also a correct match to the original Ford colors for those
>parts,

All joking aside, are you serious? If so, you must share the paint you used here. I'm only surprised because I can't imagine Ford using such a bright and bold color back in the mid-50's.

Thanks George and *huggs* to Earl.

- JT

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 18-Nov-02 AT 09:06 PM (EST)]DeWayne,

thwarted again !!! I contacted Earl off line and we had worked out a plan... We found a way to get around the 64 zone alarm system that George designed and installed.. the infra-red sensors and even the air pressure change sensors were easy, but that body odor trigger ...well there was no way around it... You have to maintain a specific body chemistry with a Ph of 5.3426 exactly and if your silk underwear generates any static electricity it energizes a VanDegraph generator that wil electricute the intruder... the man is just too smart for us..

Earl and I tried... but until George is busy with the machine shop turning new reproduction rear universal needle bearings to the right Rockwell hardness... we're just gonna have to wait for a better chance...

Sorry Earl !!!

Really a good one DeWayne... really good.. and George, you know we love you and are just insanely jealous of your ingenuity and perserverance... can you give us the specs on that duct tape... is that the original Ford duct tape ???

john

 

George and all 48-60 FTE'rs

I know I go a little overboard here sometimes. (OK constantly lately) I hope you guys know I mess with you because I consider you good friends. It is part of the Dewayne AKA 'fenders package. It's what we do at work all day, every day while we fix howitzers and Hummers. It is a brutal hackfest. We argue about putting Chevy engines in Fords and other trivial stuff instead of worrying whether I spend Christmas in Baghdad instead of with my little girl. I worry quite a lot about my friends already in the Gulf. This may sound like a big wild stretch but I am being sincere. My truck and FTE are my vent right now. I'm sorry for being so uptight lately. I'll try to stick to truck issues here for awhile until I learn to relax a bit.

Sincerely
'fenders

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 18-Nov-02 AT 10:09 PM (EST)]>>Sir fenders, that "yellow paint" is not only "snappy", it's
>>also a correct match to the original Ford colors for those
>>parts,
>
>All joking aside, are you serious? If so, you must share
>the paint you used here. I'm only surprised because I can't
>imagine Ford using such a bright and bold color back in the
>mid-50's.
>
>Thanks George and *huggs* to Earl.
>
>- JT

OK JT, serious for a minute.

I had a VERY greasy/dirty bell housing to start with but under the crud it was completely painted as was the front engine mount, the clutch fork lever, and the lower bell housing sheet metal cover.

Here's a kinda crappy pic of the bell housing where you can see some of the yellow peeking through the grime. I don't have a pic of the paint chip but maybe you can see it's pretty intense yellow even through the crud. I can't prove this is original paint but if it isn't, someone did a lot of work to get every square inch of all these parts covered with the exact same color paint. Kind of like I'm doing I guess - I could very well be wrong about its originality. Anyway, I grit blasted the parts so I got to know every nook and cranny pretty well ( ) and they were all painted with this color.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=10360&.jpg

A second source is this (admittedly somewhat faded) advertisement picture I got from a buddy in Michigan. These are, of course, just illustrations - but the other illustrations in the 20-page brochure match interior and exterior colors and paint schemes I've seen on actual trucks. The illustrators seemed to be fairly realistic in their depictions.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=7967&.jpg

I've also looked around at various web sites and found this bright yellow color mentioned quite a number of times. For example, this is from another restoration project web site: "The original 292 cubic inch Y-block V8 needed a bath and a tune-up, badly! School bus yellow was NOT an original engine color for '55! ..." Well, either it WAS an original color or we're all working on previously restored trucks whose owners all used this same color purely by coincidence. There's also a picture on this particular site and the yellow looks fairly bright.

One note - it's almost impossible to match colors with any degree of accuracy from a photo, web page, or illustration. There's just too much variation in the various ways the original light from the paint gets recorded and redisplayed. That's why I finally decided to use a chip from my parts to do the match. I chose an area that seemed "well protected" by oily crud so I'm hoping it hasn't been faded by the sun too much over the years.

The color match I found to the chip from my truck was Krylon Rust Tough Enamel "Sun Yellow", part number RTA 9211. Interestingly, some of the Auto Zone stores I visited actually had the exact same Krylon part number (RTA 9211) in cans with "Sunflower Yellow" on the label. The "Sun Yellow" and the "Sunflower Yellow" are DEFINITELY NOT the same color if you're going to use this paint!

John, I cut off Earl's phone privileges so he won't be plotting with any of the riff raff to escape.

And fenders - my wife (Barb) and I have been sitting 'round here all evening (we don't have a life) laughing our a$$es off at the whole thread. I hope you, and all the folks serving, get to spend the holidays with their families but I know that's not likely. BTW - I work at an Air Force Base so I know how you guys "Fix" howitzers.

 

>John, I cut off Earl's phone privileges so he won't be
>plotting with any of the riff raff to escape.

Hello, I'm Earl.

A truck is a truck, of course of course
And no one can talk to a truck, of course
Unless your name is the famous Mister Earl.

Go right to the source and ask the truck.
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.
He's always on a steady course.
Talk to Mister Earl.

People yak-it-ti-yak a streak
and waste your time of day,
but Mister Earl will never speak,
unless he has something to say...

A truck is a truck, of course of course,
And this one will talk 'til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking truck?
Well, listen to this...

I am Mister Earl

- JT

 

... too bad that I have to sleep (over here in good ol' Germany) while you guys have all the fun !!! ...even so the battle is over I still had to throw in my crap ...

... and Earl, I have heard that the only paint the trucks came those years was flat orange. I found some chips under the truck when I bought it. That's must be the proof. They must have fallen off the truck while it was parked ... or was that just the left over of a rotten orange that someone kicked under my truck. oooh god, I am all wrong. Now I messed it up. All in orange. No money to buy new paint. Do I have to hide my truck in the barn til the day I finally win the lottery. What, you have to buy a ticket to win ? Ooooh no, no money, all spend for flat orange paint..... I am lost. Guess I buy me a gun and hang me. What, you don't need a gun to hang yourself. Cool, that saves me money ...

But at least flat orange will help those guys to see me when I am behind them on the left lane of the Autobahn. No need to flash them away.

I stick to the paint. I love it. However, my girls made it clear that the Mustang will NOT BE PAINTED THIS COLOR !!!

 

OK, I didn't bother anybody all night and now I have changed my mind, I will only mess with George and John and Rage because I know they won't get mad. Anyone else who needs harassed will have to make a special request.

Kai

I thought about doing this to George quite some time ago. His teasing you on the paint thread gave me an opening. He shouldn't pick on poor guys where English is their second language. Kai, you gotta get away from the defensive strategy of yours. You are still defending your orange paint. Tell George he better start liking it now, then get on offense buddy. Could it be any more obvious that this man has clearly painted his bellhousing Corvette Yellow? John, Uncle JT, doesn't it look like George painted Earl's crossmember Vette Yellow? As long as George is defending himself, he can't hack on your orange paint. The shade of yellow paint might be completely proper but that doesn't really matter now. He has the burdern of proof that Vette Yellow was also used on 56 F-250s. See what I am saying.

Somebody help Kai with this, show him how to make George stop stealing his lunch money.

'fenders

 

"then a hybrid of Earl and a potato plant"


Earl, you stay away from my baby, I don't him to come home with some crazy ideas about 18" billet wheels, or have some potato infection growing under the hood. At least until you get some therapy. Until then you two are not allowed to play. Got it?

Although that yellow seems like a nice color, I was wanting to paint my driveline yellow, although it wouldn't be origional for my baby. Hmm, on the other hand, maybe you two can have lunch or something.