Fishface - good lookin g truck! Yours is the first one I've seen with larger side mirrors. I've replaced all of the acorn nuts (rusted) with crome, including the washers, bolts, etc., looks sharp. Your tailgate is interesting, It think there's a difference between the custom and the XLT models, which may account for the seat differences? Not sure, but my tailgate has an insert. W/O the insert it looks like yours. What happened with in the smoke pictures.

 

I had a 72 F250 Campber Special with dual tanks. one tank was behind the seat. My seat wouldn't fold either. I spend twenty minutes one day looking for a latch that wasn't there! haha eventually I found the welded brackets.

I can also understand what you were saying about wanting some shoulder harnesses to go with your factory-style lap belts. I have had two headon collisions; luckily neither was my fault. Even better I walked away from both. In the 1st, I was driving my 65 F100 SWB when a 86 Buick Century slammed into my front end on a snow covered road. I walked away, just had the lab belts, but the kept me from going through the windshield. I had such a grip on my steering wheel it doubled in half. I busted my bottom lip on the horn ring. It was swollen huge! Yet that lap belt undeoubtedly saved my life. However, if I were not driving that tank I would not of been so luck with a traditional lap belt. ~Shaun

 

These style trucks had a In-cab delete option.

The only seats that are supposed to move and fold forward are the ones equipped with either the behind the seat stowage caddy, or the rifle caddy, or on trucks that did not have the standard in-cab tank.

Trucks with the In-Cab tank the back of the seat is not supposed to fold downward.

You can however make the seat foldable, by loosening the two bolts where the back of the seat and bracket bolts to the bottom potion of the seat. Has a torx headed bolt if I remember rightly. Just loosen it enough to let the seat fold back and forth. I do not recomend leaving it like this though. Cause of safety in a wreck etc... Very common trick though.

As for Shoulder belts, they were an option. If you look at the back cab pillars you will see two rubber plugs. This is where the shoulder harness bolts into the cab on models equipped with the option.

Finding a factory shoulder harness kit for the 1972 would be like finding a gold brick I bet. Something simular to the factory stereo door speaker bezels and radio I bet...

I do remember reading on here that there is a mod that works using the factory shoulder harness location to bolt a belt in place. Perhaps do a search in this this forum for Shoulder Belts.

As for A/C, my 1972 had factory air, and it is a very bulky dash bolt on unit. Say goodbye to the glove box, cause it is taken up with most of the junk back there. However if you can find all the parts in good working order, a factory air conversion wouldn't be too hard to do cause it was mostly bolt on anyway. very minor holes to drill in the firewall and radiator support etc... And you would have to plug off the non a/c heater core holes with rubber plugs cause the factory air heater core exits the firewall in a different local etc.. You should find the plugs on the doner truck with A/C cause the non a/c core holes were pre drilled. At least on mine.

I did a a/c non-a/c conversion to my 1972 and it took 3 hours to do the whole thing. Working backwards, it would take longer perhaps a couple of weekends if you had all the parts to add etc... To do the wires etc...

Anyway hope this helps you out.

 

Guys - Check out the thread on Air Conditioning started by Whitetrash. It's on page 2 of this forum's list, lots of good gouge on AC!

 

On the seats that don't fold, you have to take the torque head bolts all the way out to fold the seat. they will need to be put back in place to keep the seat back from leaning to far back when you are done. A trick for setting them up t fold whenever you want the to is to cut out the bottom of the hole in the bracket and then rig a swinging latch to secure the seat back so it doesn't fold foward in an accident. Otherwise you have to take the bolts out every time you want to fold the seat.


As for the gas leak, look at the cab seal for the fill neck. If there is a crack on the bottom of the rubber gromet, then when the tank is full and it is hot outside gas will flow by the cap in into the cab. It will also do this if you overflow the filler neck when you are filling up the tank. Tempory fix is to rotate the gromet about 20 degrees so that the gap is not right at the bottom. This stops the gas form flowing into the cab and woll also keep the water out when it rains.

 

My '71 came from the factory with in-cab gas tank and a folding seat.

 

well...and I thought the folding seat question was a no-brainer! Who knew there were so many options. Seems like it depends on a lot of things.

I think I have found a small lever-like part as part of a metal bracket on the driver's side (near where banjoplayer66 indicated.) It's not moving; I think I need to lube/WD-40 it and see if it actually does anything.

72XTL, right back at ya with the good looking truck. I know that the XLT had some nicer stuff -- I think the control panel is woodgrain (or woodgrain look, at least), so it would make sense that they had the bed logo to match.

Definitely going to look for the belts, and may attempt a/c once the weather gets nicer (of course by then I'll already need the a/c...sigh.)

 

That is probably an exception to the rule. I asked these same questions to my friend at my Ford dealer before.

It was a saftey feature, (so I've been told) that the seats with in cab tanks do not fold forward so people would be less inclined to store stuff next to the tank that could cause or catch fire etc...

I can see a dealer doing the same trick that Redhawkssh44, and I mentioned earlier though. That's where I learned it actually. Redhawkssh44 explained it a lot better though.

It's also possible you got lucky and got a factory folding seat with the handles and bracket. they were avaliable, but were only supposed to be put on trucks with the in-cab tank delete option.

Does your seat have the handles and brackets that unlocks the seat back to fold the seat, or does it just fold forward without locking? Just curious...

 

Ford first offered seat belts with shoulder harnesses for trucks in 1967, but it's not just a simple matter to add a shoulder belt only. You will need the entire seatbelt with the shoulder harness. This is if you want the set up to be original.

BENCH SEAT: The inner portion of the right side (passenger) seat belt had 3 actual belts. One female end for the lap belt, another female end for the shoulder harness, and a male end for the left side lap belt. The left inner seatbelt has three female ends, one for the right side lap belt, one for the shoulder harness, and one for the left side lap belt.

BUCKET SEATS: The two inner belts have two female ends, one for the shoulder harness, one for the lap belt.

All the outer seatbelts R/L are the same with one male end.

The female ends of all the seatbelts have the buckle and release mechanism.

Something else one might do, is add the entire shoulder belts from a later truck.

Confused? LOL Trying figuring out and typing all of this from the lousy pics!
__________________________________________________ _

 

No handles or brackets. It just folds. I was 18 when my father bought the truck, and I drove it a lot when it was new. Looking back, it's kind of scary to think about a vehicle with 4 wheel manual drum brakes, 2 lap belts, a seat that folded on its own, and a gas tank in the cab.

 

You think that's bad? Consider this...

1928-1931 Ford Model A. No seat belts, mechanical brakes, and a gas tank mounted in the cowl (!!) behind the dash panel, inches away from you.

Those tanks leaked where the metal gas line attached...inside the cabin. Ergo: gas fumes=no open flame...no smoking!

 

There's also a rubber grommet around the gas tank filler neck that dries up and cracks. That along with a leaky gas cap will pour a little gas into the tank after a fill up. Make sure that the gas tank seal isn't cracked and the grommet.

 

Hey, I can't figure it out from the actual truck

But thanks, that actually made a lot of sense.

I have a bench seat; with what looks like three sets of lap belts (one male section is missing, but I found it dangling behind the seat -- part of what predicated the folding seat question.) And definitely have have the plugs for the shoulder harness -- I was pretty sure that's what they were for before I asked.

So now onto an even more basic question:

People keep talking about the "in cab gas tank". I've been trolling around online looking at pictures and it looks like with that option, you can actually see the gas tank as a separate unit behind the seat. (Or is that even older models?)

I have a panel behind my seat; the gas tank cap is up by the driver's door, and there is a gas pipe behind the drivers seat that heads down toward the floor.

Does this mean it's not an in-cab gas tank?

 

You are saying that the tank is under the bed, on the left side There is no gas cap on the side of the bed. Is that correct?

You have no gas tank behind the seat...but, the filler neck is behind the door, in the cab, and a hose runs inside the cab thru the floor to the fuel tank below?

Or, are you saying the fuel hose runs behind a panel behind the seat?

An in cab tank, fits behind the seat on a regular cab.

So if you have no in cab fuel tank, and a hose running through the cab thru the floor...That is not original and was rigged up by a former owner.

 

Man - its a mystery! There's actually good gouge in the forums on these "in cab" tanks, they're pretty safe. The theory is that whatever might penatrate them that high up is so severe you're probably a gonner anyway.

You'll know its a tank when you see it, there's only about 4 in of rubber hose between the fill spout and the tank neck.