72' F250 CS "Rex" Sold! -update

[mcheath]

So after a warm welcome from the forum over at: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 15#p617837 I figured I'd start a build thread for anyone interested to follow the progress.

Here are the stats.

1972 F250 Camper Special. Found it on Aug 5, 2012 as we were puttering around town on our scooters. Been looking for something old and hearty for some time and this one caught my eye with it's all original survivor condition.

The Good:

Original paint
Original interior
No body work
All bright work trim intact
Dealer installed AC all intact
120,000 original miles
Sport Custom trim, so all the dash gauges, etc.
C-6 auto trans shifts smooth
Camper special goodies, i.e. West Coast mirrors, etc.
Power Steering and brakes
Two tone paint
Matching tires and spare have lots of tread
Minimal to no rust on body, perfect floorboards
Engine does not smoke and runs smooth
PO spent a pretty penny just having the Rad, water pump, thermo and all heater and coolant hoses redone

The Bad:

Massive rust out in floor of bed from PO leaving it full of grass for what must have been YEARS!
Power brake booster and master cylinder shot
Wheel cylinders leaking
Accelerator pump leaking gas onto intake manifold
Blown exhaust gasket by cold air intake pipe
Power steering pumps leaks
Valve cover gaskets leak
Oil filter leaks
Tires are ancient and hard bias plys
Massive hesitation to the point of stalling
Radio is dead
Fuel gauge is dead
Second fuel tank filler hose shot and leaks
Dash cracked badly
Steering wheel cracked badly
Tailgate top bashed in a couple of spots
Lots of minor scrapes and scratches

Here it is when found:

72' F250.jpg

for sale.jpg

sale.jpg

Seller wanted 1500 dollars. It drove like crap, hesitated badly, huge sucking vacuum leak sound under the dash, massive brake fade, horrible ancient bias ply tires that were hard and out of round from sitting so much. Offered 1200 and he took it. Maybe should have offered less and he did not hesitate on taking 1200. Judging by the cobwebs it had been sitting there a long time.

[mcheath]

Here is the interior when bought. The magazine on the seat came with it, LMC truck parts. The CB radio is pretty cool but does not work, gives it that "Breaker Breaker we got ourselves a convoy!" flavor.

inside as bought.jpg

Cleaned it up, and here is the inside from the drivers door.

interior cleaned up.jpg

That little gizmo on the dash is a cruise control unit. Added in late 77', the truck came with the owners manual for it and this cruise control gizmo. It's not hooked up but is all there.

The PO got into the shift selector and "fixed it", and messed up the turn signals in the process. Interestingly the right side turn signal has healed itself and works now.

[mcheath]

Other positives were the title was clear and he had it in his name, and the tags were up to date. Registration cost $54, insurance is a whopping $16.06 per month through my regular agent.

First order of duty was fixing the worst of the leaks, and changing the oil, and a general clean up.

"Fixed" the brake booster leak with a pair of vice grips on the hose! That stopped the leak and improved drive-ability a lot. Next up was a carb kit from O' Reilly, only 15 bucks, to fix the accelerator pump problem. The old pump was hardened in position, and the diaphragm material had collapsed and was see through fabric. Discovered that the main hold down bolt that doubles as the air cleaner wingnut bolt is stripped. Did some creative grinding on the bolt the lengthen it to reach unstripped threads and it's good to go.

Whoa, suddenly it's almost driveable!

Still hesitated when cold and took forever to warm up, but once warm ran good. Checked the choke, which was not engaging at all. It was loose, the spring cover, and was so far leaned out as to not be working at all. Enriched it by turning it counterclockwise and shazam, it worked. Could start and drive it when cold now without having to wait 10 minutes for it warm up, also the fast idle now worked.

Next up is a new brake booster and master cylinder, then some wheel cylinders. Boring stuff but needed.

The really interesting thing is how much fun I've been having working on it. Used to be my old cars were my only transport, and so if they were DOA I was SOL to get to work and etc. Now that I'm, uh, older, , I have enough income to have decent daily drivers, so this is my first ever fun project vehicle where it does not matter if it does not work the next morning. Seems to make a world of difference in my attitude. I remember being so damned mad at whatever ancient car I had at the moment because it was 10:30 at night on a Sunday and the #$@%^& thing still would not stay running and I'd been working on it all #@$% day!

But now I can just shrug and walk away. It's pretty enjoyable.

Picture of it cleaned up, with rims and hubcaps and even tires painted. Figured I'd paint them to start making it look more like someone cares. Also painted the back bumper and hooks on the bed.

120820_100.jpg

[basketcase0302]

Very seldom will see one of our trucks here with a dash pad in that good of shape!
Looking good.

[kf7mjf]

Going to be a slick truck, very slick indeed. And you have the hubcaps along with a really solid dashpad. Good deal

[Calfdemon]

Nice truck and a great price for what you got!! Where in CA are you? I actually have an extra tailgate that is near perfect and the exact trim you have which I was planning on selling. Only difference is instead of white/brown, the one I have is white/green. But thats an easy fix. Anyway, if you are near SoCal, I would love to see the tailgate go to a worthy bump, and yours is nice! PM me if interested. In the meantime, keep us updated on the truck!

[mcheath]

Sadly the dash pad is cracked all to heck and gone, my pics just don't show it. The section over the speaker is gone and there is a good crack as well. I found an intact one on a junked truck at the local pick a part and I need to get back over there and pull it sometime.

Puttered on the choke some more tonight and hooked up the timing light to see what it's set at. Can't read the little plate for the timing numbers, need to clean that up. The line seems to wander a bit, hmm.

I think at this point I'm going to try to revive the original paint. I've read that CLR will remove rust stains, is that true? Then go over it with a good rubbing compound and then wax it. The paint is in surprisingly good shape, other than nicks and scratches, there is really no flaking or peeling at all. I shined up a section and was impressed with how it came out. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

Thanks on the tailgate offer Calfdemon, trouble is I'm in central Calif and a long way from you. I've never done body work on any sort of major dent and am kinda looking forward to trying to pull these dents and repaint the upper section. Maybe I'm nuts.

[Calfdemon]

Well, trying to repair that tailgate is going to be EXTREMELY tough and just swapping it with another is the way to go. But if you want to try and fix it, more power to you! You are a braver man than me! On a side note, there is another member here from the Sacramento area who is talking about renting a trailer to come down and buy the extra bed I have. Maybe if you pitch him in a little for gas, he could bring the tailgate back with him for you? There is always a way to work it out. I will take some pics of the tailgate tomorrow and send them to you via PM just in case that is something you may consider.

[mcheath]

Yeah that dent in the tailgate is serious, something dropped pretty hard. I dunno, I may give it a try still.

Here is a pic of my first repair, of many more to come I'm sure.

Fixed!.jpg

Had to use a vice grip to shut off the brake vacuum booster so it was driveable!

[TNIceWolf]

Sadly the dash pad is cracked all to heck and gone, my pics just don't show it. The section over the speaker is gone and there is a good crack as well. I found an intact one on a junked truck at the local pick a part and I need to get back over there and pull it sometime.

Puttered on the choke some more tonight and hooked up the timing light to see what it's set at. Can't read the little plate for the timing numbers, need to clean that up. The line seems to wander a bit, hmm.

I think at this point I'm going to try to revive the original paint. I've read that CLR will remove rust stains, is that true? Then go over it with a good rubbing compound and then wax it. The paint is in surprisingly good shape, other than nicks and scratches, there is really no flaking or peeling at all. I shined up a section and was impressed with how it came out. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

Thanks on the tailgate offer Calfdemon, trouble is I'm in central Calif and a long way from you. I've never done body work on any sort of major dent and am kinda looking forward to trying to pull these dents and repaint the upper section. Maybe I'm nuts.

That wandering line on the timing could mean a couple of things. One possible would be a slipping balancer . But my guess would be that it is an indication of a worn timing gear and chain set. Something similar to what happened if you rode a bike with pedal operated brakes and had a loose chain. Its always over running and catching up so the line moves around. It might be worth checking because if thats the case sooner or later its going to do just like a bike chain and slip and jump a tooth or few.

[Weapon_F]

nice looking truck! the booster line you have the vice grips on is an easy fix, plus repairing it will improve your braking. enjoy your truck and the journey! it is a lot more fun to work on a vehicle knowing its not your only way to get to work!

[mcheath]

Piddled with the truck a bit this weekend and found the following.

The timing was set at 6 degrees BTDC, more or less. I advanced it to about 14 degrees, again more or less, and it runs A LOT better. Smoother power and running at speed and idle. Had to go to O Reilly's to get a wrench that would reach the dist nut, the AC compressor totally blocked me from using anything else. Goofy design, but hey.

Checked the idle screws, they were 3.75 out on the passenger side and 3.25 out on the drivers. Hmm. Screwed them in to 1.5 each and discovered that it would hardly idle. After a good deal of tinkering over both days ended up with both set at 3.5 turns out. Hmm. Must be some serious gunk in that carb.

Still has occasional hesitation on acceleration but it's nothing at all like it was when I bought it. (it was near on undriveable then) Curiously it's not consistent, so it could be crud in the carb. No hesitation at all when the choke is on, so that leads me to suspect it's a carb problem and a lean condition when the throttle plates are opened.

Getting a scraping sound when braking. Ah yes, something is worn in there. And speaking of brakes, this months big fix is going to be a new powerbooster/master cylinder.

The timing mark has had someone put white paint on it at 10 degrees. They did a very sloppy job, but it's hard to tell if that is the source of the perceived wobble that I get when reading the timing with the light.

When I got out the dwell/tach meter to hook it up I had to relearn how to use it, and wipe all the dust off! It's probably been about 18 years since I last used it, and that was on my 77' VW camper van. That was probably the last time and vehicle I used the timing gun on well. Good lord where do the years go? It's fun dusting off all this ancient knowledge and tools from the age of the Dinosaurs. Looking forward to seeing the points!

[mcheath]

Replaced the power booster and the master cylinder today. I figured it would be a 2 hour job, tops.

Well it was 6.

Those four bolts holding the unit to the firewall are @#$!% to remove. I thought I'd do the four holding the booster itself to the frame that mounts to the firewall, but not enough room to get any wrenches I had on them. So it was the firewall ones. Took a different wrench setup to remove each one.

Really a pretty simple process overall, just some hard to get to stuff. The bleeder fittings on the wheel cylinders on the fronts were hard as well. Had to take the bracket off that holds the brake line so I could get to the bleeders. After that it was a piece of cake.

Bought the refurbed booster from O' Reilly. It's a Cardone unit, and it's okay quality wise, but nothing to crow about. The metal is pitted, clearly this thing saw some rust before the refurb. The boot they included did not fit, it's too short and I had to reuse the original one. Paid $102 for the unit.

Brakes work well now, which is nice as stopping is important and all. Got a squeal coming from the drivers rear brakes that started up a week or so ago, so next up is pulling the drum off and seeing what's up.

Picture of the new unit installed.

Newbooster.jpg

[mcheath]

Pulled the drivers rear wheel and drum off today to diagnose the scraping noise I'm getting. Turns out it was a broken spring. Amazingly O'Reillys had a new one, in a kit of all the hardware for the rear drums for $6.98. Put it on and no more scrape.

Ended up using a chisel to remove the axle nut, which someone else had done before as there is a notch in the nut. It sure was not very tight! Nor was the inner nut, I unscrewed it by hand. Crazy.

After I had it all back together I filled the rear end with oil, it took nearly a full bottle. I once had a rear end seize up from lack of oil, it was a 1960 Chevy Bel Air and I was at freeway speeds when it just locked up.

Here's a picture of inside the brake I was working on. Looks like the seal has leaked a little from the wetness in there. Eventually I will do all the brakes the right way, this was just a quick fix to keep it drivable. Obviously the blue spring is the replacement for the broken one.

Brokenspring2.jpg

[48prerunner]

That's it I'm moving to CA! $1200 bucks for a running bump where you can still see paint on the frame. And then to top it off my bike insurance was more than $16 a month and was only for 6 months cause if you try to ride past oct your hands freeze to the handle bars.

Nice truck I'm sure you will have a ton of fun in.