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I'll be the first to admit I have a.....different..... way of looking at things. A while back I got a diesel Chebby in a trade and I've never had the time to fool with it. A fellow has a 1985 Ford F-350 with a Kustom Koach conversion on it. It's a dually but otherwise is something I can work on (NO computers but the ignition brain box) and I'm familiar with the trucks. It's a big son of a gun being a 4 door cab, 8 foot bed and dual wheels. It needs a lot of work, mostly little things. 460, automatic and 2 wheel drive. While it will mostly be something to tinker on and maybe go to car shows, if I need to pull a trailer, U-Haul won't say it isn't heavy enough.
I need to find a matching aluminum wheel for the drivers front. It's steel and the rest are aluminum. The paint is faded but it has almost NO rust on the body, or chassis. It's goot Ziebart plugs all over the place. We'll be doing a title for title trade and he's bringing it down here.
Last edited by Ol' Grouch; Mar 1, 2026 at 05:30 PM.
Reason: i kant spel wurth a durn
Nice rig and yes they are BIG!
Back in the early 80's I had I think it was a late 60's crew cab 8 foot bed but single rear wheel granny 4sp and no power steering.
Buddies and I would use it a few times to cruise around in but ended up selling itas it was not what we really needed.
Dave ----
Nice rig and yes they are BIG!
Back in the early 80's I had I think it was a late 60's crew cab 8 foot bed but single rear wheel granny 4sp and no power steering.
Buddies and I would use it a few times to cruise around in but ended up selling itas it was not what we really needed.
Dave ----
The rear seat was pretty bad so it was tossed. I've got a couple of seats out of an Expedition that have sat in the garage so I'm thinking of having rear theater seating in this puppy. I'm not sure what I'll do with the box on the front of the bed. It's set up so someone could sleep in the back seat area and store stuff by reaching through the rear window.
The transmission slips going forward. I suspect it is eating the clutches up. I found a used one with 70K for $400. Same year and engine and 2wd. There is a lot of wiring that is a bit sketchy that I'll clean up. I admit, the look on the other fellows face when I showed him how to tilt the steering wheel was priceless. One thing bout being an olde pharte, I remember when these were new vehicles.
I look forward to working on it. The simplicity of it is refreshing. This is when Ford, and Chevy, and Dodge and International, et al, built trucks that worked. My cousin bought a Chebby with the 6.2 and at 900 miles he was driving to work, not towing or driving hard, and it started slowing down. Then it stalled and after he coasted to the side of the road, he tried to start it and the engine was locked up.
The old 460 (I'm old, and I'm not METRIC!) is a reliable engine and the C6 will be an easy replacement. Add some new cooler lines and cooler to bypass the trash in the radiator and it should be on the road.
I had a Chevy 6.2 diesel and at 100K installed a Gail Banks turbo kit, sold the truck with 230K as the body was getting pretty bad and I did not want to deal with it.
Other wise ran great. I bought it new because it did not have a computer, had more power than gas and got way better MPG.
Dave ----
I ran a shop from 1980 to 1984. This is a little larger than I anticipated but well within what I can work on. With the straight and solid body, this should last the rest of my driving days. With tried and true technology, it will take some elbow grease, but not computers. When I learned to work on cars, it was beside my grandfather and his friends. They learned their trade in WW1 and WW2. Critical tools for this truck will be a wooden stick, a volt/ohn meter and a vacuum gauge.
I would throw in a timing light but yes you can use the vacuum gauge to get it close.
I had a shop with my dad from 78 to 83 when I went in a different direction from working on cars.
Dave ----
I need to find a matching aluminum wheel for the drivers front. It's steel and the rest are aluminum. The paint is faded but it has almost NO rust on the body, or chassis. It's goot Ziebart plugs all over the place. We'll be doing a title for title trade and he's bringing it down here.[/QUOTE]
You might try, car-part.com the junkyard site for the wheel. Or call them, as I didn't find those exact wheels...
Last edited by Max Capacity; Mar 3, 2026 at 03:11 PM.
I would throw in a timing light but yes you can use the vacuum gauge to get it close.
I had a shop with my dad from 78 to 83 when I went in a different direction from working on cars.
Dave ----
I used my ear to listen when the engine sounded "happy". In the intervening decades, I can't tune by ear like I used to. My first timing light did help out. When it failed (the strobe bulb burned out) I would sometimes sit in my old '98 P71 Crown Vic and aim it out the window. The speed limit is 35 but when I was a volunteer officer, I brought a radar gun home and clocked cars as fast as 72 mph. My current timing light has a timing adjustment. That makes things a lot easier.
You might try, car-part.com the junkyard site for the wheel. Or call them, as I didn't find those exact wheels...
There are several salvage yards near me. Plus a company called "Auto Wheel and Rim" that can probably get me a new one. This 1 ton is at the bottom of their product range. The yard nearest me might have parts and another one a little farther away has some really old stuff. Over in Illinois is one yard that specializes in truck parts. I'm pretty sure they's have one there.
