72' F250 CS "Rex" Sold! -update

[occupant]

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

[Heirloom]

Bwaaahaha...Jo Jo the horse faced boy.....


You got a looker there. Wifey ain't half bad either!

Keep up the awesome budget build up!

[mcheath]

Put a tool box in today.

The box was bought by my dad back in 1985. He put it in his new 85' Chevy Silverado 1 ton. That was a nice truck, bright red/white, all the options and chrome, 454, and single rear wheels to boot. Had a terrible tendency to diesel when you tried to turn it off when it got real hot, that thing would sit there for 10 minutes coughing and wheezing. That was, as I remember, a real problem with the last of the carb engines with all their smog controls in place. FI really solved that problem.

Anyways the box eventually migrated to his 92' Ford F-250, and then I used it here and there until it ended up in the shed as a storage locker. Since the goal of this build is low cost, what better tool box to install than one paid for 28 years ago!

The only trouble I ran into was the second gas tank filler cover. Ford put that rather long cover into the bed and sure enough it extended too far into the bed to fit the tool box in. So off came the cover. Easy process. I think I might try to find another one at Pick-A-Part and cut it down to fit into the gap between the bedside and the tool box, that will look more finished.

And keep the original cover to replace if I ever pull the box off.

The holes for the gas lines that Ford cut are marvels of crudity. Looks like a guy got in there with a torch and cut out holes roughly the right size.

I'll need to touch up the paint on the tool box, and find the key, it's around here somewhere, but I'm very pleased with the looks of it in there.

CAM00024.jpg

CAM00025.jpg

[sargentrs]

Looks good in there. I like how it's flush with the top of the bed.

[mcheath]

Repainted the section above the tailgate in bronze. It was stained and faded and such. Nothing fancy, sanded it, used the Colormatch from O'Reilly, and clear coated it.

plate1.jpg

Also spiffed up the license plate a bit. Painted it with clear and gave it a chrome ring to hide all the decay along the bottom where rust damaged it. California used the blue/gold plate from 69' to 87'. Though I've seen black/gold plates on vehicles from as late as 71', maybe they used old ones.

In one close up pic you can see the 41 years of accumulated registration stickers. I thought about shaving them off, but then it's kinda goofy fun to have nearly a half inch thick mass of stickers on there so I left them.

plate2.jpg

And finally a pic of Rex working last weekend, hauling one of the scooters about.

withscooter.jpg

[mcheath]

Went out to Pick-A-Part today and pulled a few goodies. There were two F-250 bumps, both pretty fresh, and I pulled a fair amount of trim and such.

Even scored an almost new tailpipe off one of them. Rex currently dumps exhaust at the end of the muffler, which was the PO's doing.

Also got the chrome trim for the headliner, for the dashboard, some replacement wheel well chrome and replacement marker lights for my broken ones. Even got a cargo light, but that will be a bit of a chore to install.

Both trucks were pretty nice in the yard. One was a 69' Ranger XLT with a 390 and a 4 barrel. Sadly someone had just yanked the carb, or that would have come along as well. Both had disc front brakes, and all the options of their time even AC, two tone paint and all the chrome.

I've noticed a real trend in my local yard with trucks like this. F-250s seem to now be what mostly shows up, and they are almost always camper specials, and heavily optioned up, and they are not wreaked. Just given up on.

I don't see F-100's much, and almost never a shortbed. They seem to be all used up. What's coming in now are these F-250s that have been sitting in someones yard for years, growing wasp nests and moss. These were some nice trucks once.

Here's a pic of the front of one of them. This was a 70' in mustard yellow/white. I seriously thought about pulling these rims, all four are there and in good shape. But I'll stick with my stockers for now I guess.

1970F-250CS.jpg

[Heirloom]

Where in Cali are you? I've seen a lot of 250 CS's too. There is usually one or two shorties around here (San Diego) somewhere between all the yards.

[mcheath]

Where in Cali are you? I've seen a lot of 250 CS's too. There is usually one or two shorties around here (San Diego) somewhere between all the yards.

Up North from you, I'm near Fresno in the central valley. Very rare to see a shortie here in the yards, they just seem to be all gone.

So today I did a few things to Rex. Added a tailpipe for one. Easy job, got the pipe at Pick-A-Part last week and it was a quick bolt up. Before the muffler dumped right out under the bed with no pipe at all and I don't like that. The pipe was nearly new, someone added it not long before that truck ended it's days.

tailpipe.jpg

Then added a cargo light for the bed. Found the light on a junker at the yard as well last week, it's not in the best of shape but it works. The bezel has been corroded through in places, but it cleaned up fair on the wire wheel. The glass is good. The rubber gasket was fine except for a weird cracking of the surface where it was exposed to the elements. Looked like aligator skin.

gasketbefore.jpg

Put the gasket on the grinder wheel and lightly buffed off the crusty surface. It came out okay, not show quality of course but it looks alright for Rex.

gasketafter.jpg

[mcheath]

Cut a hole in the back cab roof. That was tricky, given my limited, or lacking, sheet metal skills. Drilled a bunch of pilot holes and used a jigsaw. Had to make it large enough to fit the housing in, luckily the gasket worked as a handy template.

roughin.jpg

Looks crappy.

But once I had the light in I think it came out okay.

cargolight.jpg

Wired it into the dome light, so it comes on when you open the doors. The dome light cover looked terrible, all the chrome was off, it was broken and discolored from heat. I bought some of that "chrome" spray paint at O'Reillys and after supelgluing it all back together it came out fair to middlin.

insidelight.jpg

I'm surprised at how good that paint looks. It's kinda convincing as chrome, if you don't expect too much. I might use it on the instrument panel bezel.

Also replaced the spring on the drivers side door catch. Now the door does not fall back on me, got the spring from the yard again.

[LANCE65]

Doin a great job!

[Heirloom]

Nice job! I have been leery of the chrome paints. What brand did you use?

[sargentrs]

Great work, McHeath! I shot my gauge panel with Rustoleum rattle can chrome and it looks pretty good.

[mcheath]

Nice job! I have been leery of the chrome paints. What brand did you use?

I used Duplicolor which is sold at O' Reilly auto here. It's not perfect, but better than I expected, and it would look way better than what's on my gauge bezel right now.

Thanks for the kudos. Somewhere in all this I've noticed the truck has begun to get, "that's a nice truck" comments from people. Early on it did not get that response, it was more of, "that things old".

And of course driving to work today it appeared to me that the water pump was getting curiously noisier.

[Cipher43]

Great job man. Is it just me or is the cargo light in upside down?

[SATURN5]

It is.