My 01EX Rust Removal and Refresh
 

Working on extending the life of my 01 EX. Bought it brand new in Dec 2001. It is a Limited 4X4, 7.3L. It has been a great truck, but the Ohio winters and their support of the salt industry are taking it's toll. I haven't done any real upgrades other than a SS exhaust system when I blew the seam out of my original muffler a few years back and a transmission cooler and external filter at the same time. The truck was bought as our vacation vehicle, going boating in the summer and snow skiing in the winter. It was my DD off and on when I was without a beater as my DD. It replaced a 1996 F250 4X4 7.3 extended cab, which was getting small for a 6' teenage boy in the back seat. It is now mostly a people hauler and tow vehicle. I have 4 grandchildren, all still in car seats, (2 local and 2 in the Austin, TX area) and it is nice to be able to have all 4 and the wife in one vehicle when we are all together (plus 2 more). We still tow our boat as well as a Toy Hauler that's about 33' long and a few other trailers. Other than the rust, the truck is in great shape, no dents, dings, or missing/non-working parts. Now that I have bored you with all of those details, The PLAN:

I originally was going to replace all 4 doors and have the rockers replaced. I was going to clean up the frame as best I could and go about life. That has morphed into this.

Since my daughter and her family live in the Austin area I thought I would pick up some rust free parts to help with the plan. What I ended up with was this:https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...a057353233.jpgAnd all the junk insidehttps://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...9c54a1ee63.jpg

A 2000 EX Limited 2X4 6.8L, with no engine, transmission, front seats, wheels, (and other minor items) and most importantly NO RUST. I brought it home in July 2017 and thought and thought and changed my mind numerous times. I'm going to use the rear passenger doors and any other body parts that are no longer available. I wanted to make this truck as new as possible and had already decided on:

New springs (most likely whatever Jr suggests)
Shocks
All brake lines and cables
Fuel lines
Add rear anti-sway
R&R all wear items for suspension
New oil pan
Fix oil/fluid leak(s)
All fluids
New radiator
All rubber hoses
Swap hitches

With all of this and deciding to clean my frame well, I figured most of the above work would be easier if I just lifted the body off of my (Ohio) truck. If I was going to go this far I figured (and with Nicmike's encouragement) I decided to swap frames. So now it will have a Texas frame and an Ohio body (with the rust fixed). So the Texas truck will be donating more than just body parts.

This is a huge under taking, for me anyways, as wrenchen is something that I do only when necessary. I have learned a ton from this forum and the people on it, so hopefully that and some friends helping me, I can git 'r' done.

Stay tuned

Please take LOTS of pictures! Looking forward to watching the progress!

A few before pics

The Texas truck in the barn getting ready to dismantle.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...b417dfd881.jpg

The Ohio truck with our toy hauler. WDH bars not on since I was just moving it from the house to the barn.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...5e12cc1a4e.jpg

The Ohio truck with the local food pantry trailer that I use to pick up food twice a month from the food bank.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...8205a7e563.jpg

Apparently no pics pulling the boat.

Matt, this has the potential to be a great thread, and it WILL help a lot of people in the same boat as you. Looking forward to the details on the process! You planning body mount replacements?

Reps for taking this on!

I look forward to seeing this build. I too am an avid hater of salt. :-drink

Yes!! Love to see these threads!! Can't wait!! Good luck!!

:-drink

I assume you mean the rubber insulator between the body and frame. I have not had any problems with the ones on the Ohio truck, but I was looking at replacing everything that wears especially if it is only accessible while the body is off. I haven't looked into it yet, although I suspect they are not available anymore. What are your thoughts?

will be a fun adventure forsure.

subscribed. Love build threads

I miss being back home in Texas. Only 2.5yrs till I retire and go back. Never see salt again!

I am thinking your upper and lower washers that sandwich that rubber insulator are rusted out when you get the body off. You can still get them. Just order the F250 set, but NOT the 08+ sets. They are junk. Made of some foam junk that falls apart within a couple of years. Get the old rubber ones for a same year F250...or as close as you can get to same year.

Best of luck to you! Nice to have rust free donor. I had to make some of the rust repair panels for my Ex which was also from Ohio coincidentally lol!

The previous pic of the Texas truck in the barn is pretty much how I bought it. After some work it now looks like this

Just prior to lifting the bodyhttps://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...5e13506aa0.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...8d097cd842.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...f6bcea2301.jpg

I didn't document much of this part as a fair amount of the dismantleing had already been done. A few notes:
1. Other than the front passenger door wiring (which was already cut when I bought it) I was able to unplug the entire wiring harness and keep it intact, other than a few broken clips due to brittle plastic. To accomplish this I did have to take the dash down to the firewall.
2. I didn't spray a single bolt/nut. Everything just unbolted with no problems. You rust belt folks get how different this is for us.
3. Since I did this at home (without a lift) I made some blocks that I thought would make it safer to lift the body using a variety of jacks, jack stands, cribbing, etc. I took some scrap 4x5 oak and cut a kerf wide enough to slide over the rocker. I actually made it tight enough that I had to drive them on. This enabled me to jack and support the body from the rockers without damaging the rockers, since I may need to use some of rockers in the rust removal process on the Ohio truck. The blocks were tight enough that there was no movement of the blocks once I drove them on.
4. I underestimated how heavy the back half of the truck was, compounded by how much of the front end was now off. I could still jack at the very back of the rockers where the wheel well and C post come together, but this was not where the blocks I made were located. I then needed to support the body all the way in the rear. I just used cribbing and jack stands under the body where the most rearward body bolt is located. This will be interesting when I use a lift to lift the Ohio body off of the frame since I won't be able to support the rear in the same manner. I may need to employ some counter weight on the front. We'll see.
5. Since there were only 2 of us working this was a slow process. Lift, support, move, lift, support and so on.
6. Going up was actually easier than coming down.

End view of block
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...134aa74268.jpg

Blocks in place
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...f2694f84fb.jpg

Supporting rear
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...12c4c9294b.jpg

Why didn't I just use the forklift to lift the body???? Forks are too short, hard to control slowly, and what fun would that be.

Well done! Reps! So, where would you say the center of gravity is on the body?

On the Texas truck, probably near the rear of the rear door. But that truck had no fenders, hood, dash, etc and all the interior wiring harness is behind that point.

Seats and Carpet are Out
 

Got the seats and carpet out. Was pleasantly surprised that the bolts came out with no issues.

Before
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...485faed576.jpghttps://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...275745282c.jpg


After
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...c58e49c853.jpg

That didn't happen without some work. For about a week and a half I sprayed every bolt that I could get to. I used a product called . You can get it at Amazon, not cheap, but it does seem to work well. 3 days before I was going to remove the seats I then ran a thread chaser on each bolt, followed by 3 more days of Aerokroil. I started by using a 1/2" breaker bar to just get them to turn. I loosened and tightened each bolt about a 1/4 turn. Another shot of Aerokroil, let it sit overnight and then the next day I used a 1/2" air impact wrench, and they all came out , no problems at all. I don't know if doing all of that helped, but it certainly didn't hurt.

A few pointers
I had the Texas truck, already stripped out, so it was easy to locate all of the bolts. There were 6 bolts that I couldn't see.
1 & 2 - The front of the front row buckets, 1 on each seat next to the hump. Covered by thermal covering. I was not able to get to these 2 at all. They did come out a little harder, but not much rust on them as they are pretty well protected by the cover.
3 - The 2nd row bench on the 60 split side, on the left rear there are 2 bolts. The right one is hidden by a channel. I could spray it through a small access hole, but cold not run a thread chaser on it. It came out easier than the bolts I couldn't spray, but not as easy as the ones I could spray and use the thread chaser on.
4,5 & 6 - The 2nd row bench on the 60 split side, on the right rear there are 2 bolts, and on the 40 split side, on the left rear there is 1 bolt. These 3 were hidden behind a metal cover. I was able to remove the front 2 screws of this metal cover and gain access to all 3 bolts to spray and use the thread chaser. (Pic below)

Looking from front to back. In the blue box are the 2 bolts for the 2nd row seat belts that stick up through the middle of the 60 split bench. (These technically didn't have to come out). The red box to the left of the bolts is the metal cover.https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...da9c66bca2.jpg

Just take out the 2 screws you can see (front side of the cover), and there they are.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...00cf8b2aa0.jpg

My seats and carpet are in good shape, so a little cleaning and they will go back in. Going to put heaters in the front 2 seats while they are out, it didn't have them and that leather can be pretty chilly when it's cold out. Plus heat on low makes the back feel good on those long drives.

Cant wit to see more. You have got a great start on it.

I'm not going to do anything until my truck is done. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with what is leftover. Whatever I sell will go on the Marketplace.

Got the running boards off and all of the cladding removed. Also removed front and rear bumpers as well as the front lights, grill etc.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...0646251dec.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...7ef1bfb60a.jpg

Bumpers and grill and such were pretty straight forward. On the rear bumper (with backup sensors) I just unplugged both license plate lights and there was one plug behind the license plate to unplug for the backup sensors. The cladding was easy and had it all off in less than 2 hrs. I wasn't concerned with scratching anything as the whole truck will be painted, I was more concerned with not damaging the cladding. When I was done, it really wasn't scratched up too bad.
Here's the process I used.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...a59a146b54.jpg
I had tried a few different methods, using razor blades, utility knives, pocket knife etc, but this is what worked best. If you notice in the top pic, on the doors, there are 3 strips of double faced tape towards the top and one across the bottom. Using a long serrated bread knife (won't the wife be happy about this) and starting at the top corner I cut through the top strip of tape enough to get my plastic trim removal tool behind the panel to pry out a little. I then used the same knife to cut through the next 2 strips of tape, while prying with the trim removal tool until I could get the piece of wood behind the cladding. I then would cut the top piece of tape by itself, followed by cutting the other 2 strips at the same time, all the while advancing the wood to keep stretching the tape to make it easier to cut. I kept working across the door until all 3 strips were done. I then pulled the cladding out until I could get to the bottom strip of tape and I cut that with a utility knife. I used the serrated knife on the wheel well pieces too.

I was surprised that there was little to no rust caused by the cladding, although very dirty behind there. All the rust on the doors is coming from salt sitting on the seam on the inside. The wheel wells have some very small areas on the face that I don't really see any rust, but can feel almost like an orange peel feel. Not sure if that is fixable or if I will need new fenders. I really don't see any other rust around the wheel wells. The other weird thing is that there is more rust on the driver's side than the passenger side, pretty much down the whole length of the truck. Since the salt spreader is mounted on the drivers side of the salt truck, there is obviously more salt in the drivers side wheel track.

When looking for info on front bumper removal I did not run across any threads that had pics (although I usually have limited success with my searches). I also ran across conflicting info on the number of bolts to remove. So 2 pics to remove any doubt.

Two bolts on each side by tow hooks (from the front).
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...e1f4b75a6e.jpg

One bolt on each side behind the bumper on the support bracket.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...a68949af07.jpg

thanks! 6 bolts total then

I got the body lifted off of the frame.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...5bf73d7b91.jpg


I originally thought I would lift the Ohio body just like I lifted the Texas body, but decided there might be too much damage to the rockers. I lifted on some channel. I will get some better pics of where I lifted at once I get the frame rolled out from underneath the body. Took about 3 tries to get the right balance. I tried to remove the least amount of stuff as possible and move both pieces back to my barn to work on it at home. It sure was nice to use the lift this time. I will take it back to my father-in-law's to put the body back on the frame when the time comes. We spent almost as much time looking things over to decide what to disconnect and where as we did actually doing the work. We were able to unbolt the AC compressor from the engine and leave the system intact and connected to the body. I tagged everything and covered all connectors and open pipes/hoses. There were only a couple of things we didn't get disconnected before we started lifting. The lifting went very slow at first, between checking to see that everything was disconnected, and disconnecting the few things we missed, and making sure we had the balance correct. More pics to come.

I just took my front bumper off last night for a fresh coat of paint. I removed the 6 bolts, but there was a bolt in front of both of the support brackets, not allowing for me to pull it off. I ended up removing 2 more bolts on the support brackets, and loosening the other 2, so I could twist it out of the way. Is there a trick to getting the bumper out with those 2 bolts in the way?

I don't recall any other bolts being in the way, and I know I didn't remove any other bolts on the bumper. Maybe there is a difference between 01 and 05? I don't recall reading anything about that.

I'm not where my truck is, or I would post a pic of the area where the bumper goes. Maybe you could post a pic of the offending bolts.

It's this one in your picture. Since there is one on both sides, I wasn't able to maneuver both brackets around the two bolts at the same time.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...186a2f3459.jpg

Jason,

The brackets where that bolts on are different. Now that I have both frames in the same spot, I have noticed some differences between the 2.

My truck (Ohio truck) is 2001 4x4 7.3L, the donor truck (Texas truck) is a 2000 2x4, V10.

Ohio truck:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...7dcccf0585.jpg

Texas truck:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...f7d3aef8a7.jpg

I'm not sure if the difference is due to the model year, engine type, or the front axle difference.

2001 looks like less metal on the bracket, so probably just a way to save a few pennies per truck?

There were 2 different styles of front crash bar. Maybe it relates to that.

Quick couple of pics. Have been very busy and not had time to do much work or post any updates. I hauled the frame home and got the body on the temporary support.

Here is a crate that a local trailer manufacturer had:https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...703072948a.jpg

The crate modified to hold the body. Harbor Freight vehicle dollies lagged to the bottom and the crate cross braced,as well as blocked and shimmed to contact the body in more places than when it's on it's frame. The body is then lagged/bolted to the crate.https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...6b9a99ea94.jpg

Moved the body/crate about 100' down a slight grade to a storage building to free up the lift until I can work on it again. It rolled very smooth, it just takes a little coaxing to change direction.

I should be able to post some more specifics later this week.

I want a garage with that high of a ceiling

probably 10 feet ceilings

You can't tell me that not a hold my beer moment. Awesome idea

Can't disagree.

That is actually the 3rd crate that a buddy (he's also been working on the EX with me) and I have picked up. This company puts all of their pallets/crates out by the road. The standard pallets are gone quickly, but these are big and heavy and most people can't load or haul them. They are mostly white and red oak. The first 2 were disassembled for the wood, since we both are into woodworking too.

good firewood when your done too.

Does anyone have any experience with these seat heaters. Looking to put these on the front seats while they are out. Wanting the set with both seats on one switch and mount it next to the power point in the dash.

Thanks

A few pics of the 2001 ohio rust would be great to see what your dealing with..
Love these threads.. Massive REPS !

Kyle

Have not been able to work on the truck since I hauled the frame home and put the body in the storage building. Between getting ready for 2 trips to Texas taking those trips and doing all the normal getting ready for spring stuff, it has crept down on my list. I hope to start tearing down the Texas frame and getting it cleaned up next week. I did get the opportunity to get some pics of the more severe body rust.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...b24f49a34b.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...4eecc7c2fe.jpg


Note the wiring in the next pic. This is on the very back of the truck on both sides. It is the wiring that runs up to the taillights. The loom is melted, but the wiring seems intact. Can't quite figure out what has caused it. It lines up to be just outboard of the body mount. Looks like it has been this way for a while, so I don't think it is from spraying the bolts with Aerokroil. We didn't use any heat on any of the bolts. Any ideas?https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...e1ca77d8b9.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...af7c4c4682.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...00d08dc7aa.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...f5930984dc.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...696e95eeea.jpg

All in all it could be worse, I have seen worse. In some areas it didn't take much to protect it, ie there are 3 heat shields that are open on both sides, and the area under those shields doesn't have much rust.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...24a44c61b3.jpg