72' F250 CS "Rex" Sold! -update

[mcheath]

Then I painted the hubcaps. I'd hit them with silver aluminum some time ago, just to cover the rust. Now I used a dark argent and then repainted the fine detail in black. Much better I think.

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[Cipher43]

WOW I love the progress and I am envious of the condition you got your truck in. Where did you get the phosphoric acid from. I may want to treat my bed with it before I Rhino line it.

[1972hiboy]

Wow, all the little stuff you have done has made a HUGE impact. Truck looks awesome! Im jealous of your a/c setup. What a awesome score.

[mcheath]

Thanks for the praise! I like messing with details, and am really doing this on the cheap as I simply don't have the money to do major reworks right now. I bought the truck because I thought it was a diamond in the rough, that some serious elbow grease and minor repairs would work wonders.

The phosphoric acid I bought at our local Tru-Value store for 18 dollars for a gallon. Oddly enough, neither Home Depot nor Loews had gallon jugs of it, nor did Wal-Mart. They had little 8oz bottles for something like 9 dollars, well geesh forget that.

I've been using the acid all over the place on Rex with fabulous results. Under the hood, around the cowl vents, the mirrors, all over the major scratches and rust spots. After it sits a while, often overnight, I spray some windex on it to shut it down and remove it. There is far too much rust on the truck for having lived in the Central Valley of Calif it's whole life, but the PO left it parked under a bunch of pine trees for decades which explains it. Real micro-climate there, bred rust all over. I've been putting the acid on a little modeler paintbrush and dabbing it on the spots and shazam, they go away!

Here is a snap of the acid bottle. So far I've used about a third of it.

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[Cipher43]

Here in Iowa we don't have the advantage of no rust..... so I should just buy a couple thousand gallons and just dip my truck in.... HAHA. I will definitely be picking some of this up some time and give it a try. Thanks for the info and keep up the good work!

[Cipher43]

Here in Iowa we don't have the advantage of no rust..... so I should just buy a couple thousand gallons and just dip my truck in.... HAHA. I will definitely be picking some of this up some time and give it a try. Thanks for the info and keep up the good work!

I HATE DOUBLE AND TRIPLE POST...... could you please delete the 2 duplicates please?

[Cipher43]

Here in Iowa we don't have the advantage of no rust..... so I should just buy a couple thousand gallons and just dip my truck in.... HAHA. I will definitely be picking some of this up some time and give it a try. Thanks for the info and keep up the good work!

I HATE DOUBLE AND TRIPLE POST...... could you please delete the 2 duplicates please?

[tylerb43]

mcheath - Awesome progress, and nice freaking truck! Details, details, right? Be proud of the little things you've done to it that have made a big difference! I'm jealous of you guys that are able to drive and enjoy your truck while you improve it. The "go while you role" method does have it's advantages if you've got a good solid truck to start with.

Thanks for showing us!

[mcheath]

So I took Rex down to the local high school welding shop and had the boys put a new floor in his bed. Used 12 gauge steel, which is thicker than the original bed. They drilled drain holes in all the channels first, then ground off the paint for the welds around the edges. Bent down the end at the tailgate to better seal. They also punched 49 spot welds in the plate and attached it to the original bed so it won't rattle or shift. Pretty darn impressive work. I paid a cool hundred bucks even for it.

Now I can actually load stuff in the bed! Going to paint it tomorrow the same finish as the rest of the bed.

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[mcheath]

Latest work. Since this is a fix it up on the cheap I'm doing a lot of Pick a Part scrounging for the things I need for Rex. Latest additions are a three point seat belt for the driver and bed rail caps.

I don't like lap belts only, I can just see my lovely mug all smashed up against that hard plastic steering wheel. Fun. So a three point set up was high on my list of improvements.

I priced new three point seat belt kits and they are simply more than I have laying about for this. So off to Pick a Part. I found an early 90's Ford Econoline van with a set up that looked like it could work. It has the reel mechanism mounted up high, sort of like the Ford pickups from the later 70's and 80's, but the reel device is a self contained unit that was not recessed into the panel like on the pickups.

I took the reel and lap belt connector harness. Cost me 15 dollars.

Upon going to install I discovered that the upper harness connector is not tappped with threads! Okay. Luckily I had a tap set and it was quick work to tap it. Hung the reel up, fiddled with it a bit to make sure it would lock, put on the anchor bolt for the bottom and then installed the lap connector. Pretty easy really.

Took it out and did some hard stops to make sure it works. It does! It's not the best looking set up, that's for sure. When I get money ahead I can and will look into getting a better set up, but this will keep me in better shape should an accident occur till then.

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[mcheath]

Next up were the bed rail caps. The tops of my bed rails are all dented and scratched, they look awful. A simple fix would be caps, but I could not find anyone still making them. So Pick a Part again to the rescue. Found a 1986 Ford F-250 with a set of aluminum diamond plate pattern caps in decent shape and quickly pulled them. They cost 20 dollars for both.

Had to bend the angle out a bit to get them to lay flat. Drilled the holes, put three bolts on each side, then hammered the flat angle section back down. They were messy with plant splatters, caulk, tape, and even some rust spots from what looked like metal shaving residue. So I got a brass brush for my Makita grinder and went over them to clean them up. They don't have that new aluminum shine, but they sure look better than they did. And the bed rail tops now look nice and straight and all the scratches are hidden. Win-win.

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Here you can see the new bed panel painted to match the sides. I caulked all around it as well to keep water out.

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[sargentrs]

Good work! Cheap and easy. Way to go!

[mcheath]

More cheapo updates.

I know that low back seats are period correct for these trucks, and they have a certain charm, I just don't want a seat without a headrest. I've been rear-ended twice in my life, once real hard, and each time the vehicle I was driving had three-point seat belts and headrests and I was totally fine. We all try to avoid the other guy, but you can't do anything about some jerk piddling on their phone behind you who rams into you full speed when you are stopped at a light. (pretty much that was both of my times being rear-ended)

So after a lot of internet research I decided to add on headrests to my original bench seat.

Off to Pick A Part again. Getting to be on a first name basis with those people.

Pulled the headrests off a couple of 90's Ford pickups. Neither bench seat was worth taking, all the seats at my P-A-P are trashed it seems, but the headrests were fine. Took two off a tan seat, they are full cloth covered, and one off a grey seat that is half cloth/half vinyl. I needed three because the esposita likes to sit in the middle. (what else is a bench seat for?)

Cost was $27. I thought that was high.

Pulled back the seat material to expose the upper tube rail.

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Measured and drilled holes for the headrest legs to go through.

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Drilled sideways into the tube and headrest leg to fit a cotter key to hold the headrest on. They won't be adjustable, but they will be set so they are the right height to prevent the head from contacting the glass or bending the neck backwards.

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[mcheath]

Pulled all the seat material back, reattached the hog rings and then the cheapo saddle blanket cover I put on last Fall. Ta-da, headrests.

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Another angle.

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I was going to paint them with fabric paint, black, but kinda like the grey and tan look so for now I'm leaving them alone. If I ever find another tan one I might buy it and replace the grey. A surprise bonus is that I can still rest my right arm along the top of the bench while driving. They block some view to the rear, but I'm willing to trade that for not having my head go through the back glass.

So for $15 for the three-point seat belt and $27 for the headrests I've made Rex more to my liking. I know a lot of guys don't like these sort of upgrades, but having been run into by jerks a couple of times I want them. I need to go back and get the three-point set up for the passenger side, and I'm pondering how to fit one in the middle position as well. To really get some modern safety I ought to replace the steering column with a collapsible one.

Here is how Rex stands now. Funny thing about the truck is that the more I drive it the better it seems to run.

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[Fordnatic]

Have you looked into those receiver hitch crash absorber things? They look like they might work pretty well. I would run one on mine, but then it wouldn't fit in the garage.