Starting my 72 camper special project update 8.08

[terry1167]

Pics of the modesty panel restore

[terry1167]

Now onto the bezel soon! Still need to figure out why my gas gauge won't work but with the help of Fordman and Thunderfoot, I think I'm getting closer!

[forrestbump]

Terry,

Your patience, attention to detail and finished product are most impressive.

Thank YOU so very much for sharing your labor of love with us.

Larry

[terry1167]

Thanks Larry for the compliment. I love sharing it with y'all!

Ok, I had gotten the stainless steel Ranger XLT trim from a fellow Fordification member. The trim had some of the clips on it so I drilled a few holes at 3/16" and also put a little putty into the trim grooves in the back and used a little epoxy to make sure it would stick on good. The 3/16" holes were perfect and the clips snapped right in. It looks great. I also had redone the instrument cluster bezel, taped it and sprayed it with black and then the spray chrome. I put in new woodgrain decals to match the other woodgrain in the dash trim plates and modesty panel. The bezel came out "ok" for now. I am redoing it since i picked up a couple of "lessons" so I think I can make it even better. I had also picked up a couple of plastic chrome seat pivot covers from the junkyard so I chrome sprayed them and installed them. Not bad for chrome spray but definitely not chrome. Oh well, all of this is on a budget and so far, I haven't spent much at all since most parts came from the local Upull and mostly it's been my time and efforts. The interior is about done, just need to buy new seat upholstery from Mac's but I'll have to save up the $ first. I also removed the ancient stainless steel wiper blades. I'd like to try and use them again since they are original and nice but Im not sure if I can get just the blades to put into them. We'll see. Oh, I also painted the seat adjustment handle black as well as the gas tank selector metal panel. I used a silver paint on the gas tank selector handle. This Friday I am excited as I am taking the day off and going to install the new shocks, service the diff, transmission, and repack the bearings. I did crawl underneath it yesterday and degreased the C6 housing and trans. filter pan with the purple power...stuff works great. I also scrubbed the frame rails and aux gas tank shield. I'd like to paint the undercarriage at some point and since we are having unusual warm spring weather, I figured I'd get a head start on it. Here are some pics of the dash.

[terry1167]

Pics of redone bezel-Ok but not perfect...but I also didn't pay $150 or $200! Woodgrain all matches now.

[ta TACO]

Damn nice work! You have patience I could only dream of. My truck also being my daily doesn't help anything. From those first pics, I never thought that truck was in that good of shape. It looked good, but not that good. Great job . Please post updates on the suspension. I'm about to buy some gabriel shocks for my F250 and was worried it would lift it too much. I want to know how quiet that cab is. You should post a video if you can.

Davin.

[terry1167]

Damn nice work! You have patience I could only dream of. My truck also being my daily doesn't help anything. From those first pics, I never thought that truck was in that good of shape. It looked good, but not that good. Great job . Please post updates on the suspension. I'm about to buy some gabriel shocks for my F250 and was worried it would lift it too much. I want to know how quiet that cab is. You should post a video if you can.

Davin.

Thanks Davin for the compliment. The truck had great "bones" and it just needed some luvin. I really enjoy the painstaking detail kind of work, which is why I also like restoring the old campers, etc. Takes lots of time and patience with a "toothbrush" sometimes but I find it to be a stress reliever.

I'll let you know how the shocks work out. They are the Gabriel overload shocks that have the coil springs over the shocks. I figured that the suspension is getting a little tired and since my goal is to put my restored 11' cabover camper on it (weighs about 2700 pounds), then I better get the suspension up to speed. I hope they aren't too stiff.

That's a good idea about taking a video of how quiet the cab is now. My bro in law drove it last weekend and couldn't believe how quiet it is now, compared to when I bought it. You can actually have a conversation in it at a regular voice tone now.

[hazelnut]

The interior looks good, Nice job on the gauge cluster. Id like to see a video to of how quite the cab is now, I put some air bubble foil in the roof of my truck last week when the sun was shineing and it got up to 80. Put my hand on the roof (black) and put my hand on the foil and could really tell the difference in the heat not coming through. I bet it makes a big difference doing the hole cab. Keep up the good work.

[Mancar1]

Lots of patience and great work! You are turning out a CS to be very proud of.

[robroy]

Good morning Terry,

It's interesting to see trim pieces that most trucks don't have being re-done. They sure make the interior look fancier than bare-bone trucks like mine!

I can relate to you on enjoying insanely detailed work. You obviously have strong patience!

Robroy

[terry1167]

Damn nice work! You have patience I could only dream of. My truck also being my daily doesn't help anything. From those first pics, I never thought that truck was in that good of shape. It looked good, but not that good. Great job . Please post updates on the suspension. I'm about to buy some gabriel shocks for my F250 and was worried it would lift it too much. I want to know how quiet that cab is. You should post a video if you can.

Davin.

Today I did the following; Installed the 4 Gabriel overload coil over shock absorbers. Rides great now and handles better too. I am very happy with the results. They will supposedly provide 500lbs of extra carrying capacity. I was concerned that they might be too stiff but not really. I had also picked up these rubber spacers a while ago so I decided to put them in the front coil springs to see if it would lift the front a little. I think it might of lifted it 1/2" or so. Changed C6 tranny fluid, filter even though the fluid looked great. Changed rear diff fluid. Repacked front bearings as they were a little loose but not bad. Handles much. better now. Adjusted the accelerator linkage to the carb/throttle since I lost some of the play in the pedal when I installed the carpet and insulation. I noticed that rear brakes were making noise and noticed that the rear brakes were down to the metal and one of the springs had broken so I took it to my mechanic and he looked it over and we decided to completely replace the rear drums, hardware/springs and brakes. Also fixed the emergency brake at the same time since that was not working. Also decided to flush the brake fluid system while he had it. I hadn't anticipated the rear brake issue but I decided to get that all done before I try putting the big 11' cabover camper on it. It really rides nice and smooth, plus it's very quiet. I noticed that when I changed the shocks, some of the front end clunking stopped.

So, I think it's good to go for now. Down the road, it will need a tune up and carb rebuild. Also I noticed that the front radius bushings will probably need replacing at some point but ok for now.

[Joe Kriston]

Great project and tutoriol...There's people who do things, and there's people who get things done...You have a great knack for getting things done---and that really makes me jealous

[ta TACO]

Nice. Good job! I've not seen those front coil assist shocks. I knew I was going to get the rears you got, but not sure about those front one. They look pretty nice though. Can you post a side shot of your truck? I'd really like to see the stance. Any progress on the video of the cab while driving? I'd really appreciate the side shot though.

Thanks,
Davin.

[terry1167]

Nice. Good job! I've not seen those front coil assist shocks. I knew I was going to get the rears you got, but not sure about those front one. They look pretty nice though. Can you post a side shot of your truck? I'd really like to see the stance. Any progress on the video of the cab while driving? I'd really appreciate the side shot though.

Thanks,
Davin.

Hey Davin. I was going to try and do the video thing this past weekend but just didn't quite get around to it. Let me take some side shots of this this week and see if I can get my act together to take the video as well. I've never posted a video and I assume I need to post it onto Youtube but it can't be all that hard. I have 3 kids (2 are teens and seem to know everthing about electronics) and I am sure they can help there old man out.

[ta TACO]

Cool. Thanks Terry. Don't rush, just thought it would be neat to have that and hear what you have done. I'm sure it will make some of us jealous . I hauled my first load in the bump this weekend. A so called yard and a 1/2 of garden dirt. It was pretty heavy for the suspension. I"m hoping I"m not going to have to replace leafs. We'll see after I get the shocks. I took some pics of it loaded down, but that was before he put the other 1/2/ yard in it. The bed was completely full. I'm not sure how that equates to yards, but when I did the calculator for how much I needed, it said 2.30 yards. I filled both garden boxes and have plenty left over. I need to figure out how much was put in my bed. Thanks for posting your updates, I really appreceate it.

Davin.