72' F250 CS "Rex" Sold! -update

[mcheath]

And here's the truck with them on. I like the look of these hubcaps, I had them on my 92' F-250 as well.

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[motzingg]

ahhhh dude! everything was going so good until those hubcaps!

ya gotta do what makes ya happy, but IMO they look like they belong on a migrant worker transport van.

[motzingg]

ahhhh dude! everything was going so good until those hubcaps!

ya gotta do what makes ya happy, but IMO they look like they belong on a migrant worker transport van.

[mcheath]

Ha! Maybe I could get some bench seats and mount them in the bed! Make ol' Rex earn some money.

In other news I just got a dash cap and plan to install it this weekend.

[mcheath]

Okay new dash cap. Paid $114 clams with delivery, it was made by Accu-Form plastics in Hurricane, Utah. Huh? Didn't they get the memo that all manufacturing jobs were to be outsourced to China?? Get with the times people.

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Here's the front and back.

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[mcheath]

Had to dig out much of the middle of the dash, it had lifted after cracking.

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The defrost grills had to come off due to all the damage, so I painted them and attached them directly to the new dash.

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Used the glue it came with around the edges. The instructions claim you are supposed to only glue the edges so it can expand and contract, so okay then. I had to use some dowels to press down along parts of the front edge, and the old World Book Encyclopedias came out for holding down the top.

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I'll get a final pic tomorrow after leaving the weights on all night.

I'm surprised at how good it looks, hard to tell it's not original.

[motzingg]

double post for extra obnoxiousness.. haha. sorry if i sounded like a dick, didn't mean it that way.

is that cap just the cover or the whole cap? for 114 thats a great deal, really finishes off the truck.

[mcheath]

Hey no sweat, to each their own eh? What I'd really like on Rex are some aluminum rims with nice meaty tires, but that's gonna be a real rare find at my local scrap yard.

The dash cap is just a cover, it's not a whole new dash pad. It's made of what seems to be ABS plastic, and hides the beat up dash pad almost perfectly. Sure dresses up the interior.

[mcheath]

Pic of it installed and finished.

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[mcheath]

Over the weekend I put the fan shroud back on. Thought about getting fancy and getting electric fans, or finding a smaller shroud that fit better, but all that costs money. Much cheaper to make the original one fit, so here it is.

As it did not fit correctly with the new aluminum radiator so I had to seriously Mickey Mouse it. It's way too small for this radiator, the hoses are right in the middle of the upper and lower sections. Only two of the six bolts on the sides will reach mounts on this rad, the uppermost and lowermost bolt eyes are simply not aligned with anything solid.

Had to cut it in two and then use sheet metal to hold it together. Yeah I know, real quality workmanship but I couldn't think of any other way to make it fit.

Then I had to cut out around the bottom hose as you can see in the pic:

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Then I had to cut the upper section off and add a sheet metal flap to hold it all together. The metal piece goes under the upper hose. Cue the Mouseketeers music:

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Here it is all installed. There is a gap at the top about an inch wide that I may have to close up with more sheet metal, I dunno.

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After driving with it for a couple of days it's done what I hoped it would. Before, after stopping when driving for a bit, the front end of the truck was massively hot, now not so much. It runs cooler as well, at least according to the gauge.

But the main thing I was looking for was better AC performance at idle by moving some air over the condenser. Before at idle the fan pulled no air at all over the condenser and radiator, it was pulling it from the space between the fan and rad and blowing it all out the sides. I checked my AC at idle and am getting almost a 10 degree drop in temps now, and I can feel a good suction of air being pulled over the condenser by the fan. It was 90 degrees outside the other day and the air out of the center AC vent was 51 degrees, at idle in drive. Before it would be 60 at the coldest, and probably a bit higher.

Also I note that a curious droning noise the fan made at certain speeds, 34mph in particular, is now gone. So it's all good. Just don't look at it too closely.

[hedz]

Over the weekend I put the fan shroud back on. Thought about getting fancy and getting electric fans, or finding a smaller shroud that fit better, but all that costs money. Much cheaper to make the original one fit, so here it is.

As it did not fit correctly with the new aluminum radiator so I had to seriously Mickey Mouse it. It's way too small for this radiator, the hoses are right in the middle of the upper and lower sections. Only two of the six bolts on the sides will reach mounts on this rad, the uppermost and lowermost bolt eyes are simply not aligned with anything solid.

Had to cut it in two and then use sheet metal to hold it together. Yeah I know, real quality workmanship but I couldn't think of any other way to make it fit.

Then I had to cut out around the bottom hose as you can see in the pic:

CAM00126.jpg

Then I had to cut the upper section off and add a sheet metal flap to hold it all together. The metal piece goes under the upper hose. Cue the Mouseketeers music:

CAM00128.jpg

Here it is all installed. There is a gap at the top about an inch wide that I may have to close up with more sheet metal, I dunno.

CAM00127.jpg

After driving with it for a couple of days it's done what I hoped it would. Before, after stopping when driving for a bit, the front end of the truck was massively hot, now not so much. It runs cooler as well, at least according to the gauge.

But the main thing I was looking for was better AC performance at idle by moving some air over the condenser. Before at idle the fan pulled no air at all over the condenser and radiator, it was pulling it from the space between the fan and rad and blowing it all out the sides. I checked my AC at idle and am getting almost a 10 degree drop in temps now, and I can feel a good suction of air being pulled over the condenser by the fan. It was 90 degrees outside the other day and the air out of the center AC vent was 51 degrees, at idle in drive. Before it would be 60 at the coldest, and probably a bit higher.

Also I note that a curious droning noise the fan made at certain speeds, 34mph in particular, is now gone. So it's all good. Just don't look at it too closely.

great build!

i have the same radiator on my 360. I ended up using a hole saw and plumbed the lower radiator hose through the hole i made in the fan shroud. i drilled holes on the sides of the radiator to fit the fan shroud. nuts and rubber washers and some other hardware used. i felt the rubber washers were important to absorb some of the vibrations.

[mcheath]

Maybe I should have used rubber washers as well.

Redid the instrument panel bezel. Actually I bought another one at Pick-A-Part to redo so I'd not have any downtime.

Sanded it, taped it off, painted it first with an adhesion promoter.

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The I sprayed it with Dupli-Color chrome.

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[mcheath]

Painted the gauge needles with bright orange as they were a bit faded. Touched up some parts of the bezel with flat black and a brush. Washed the lens, cleaned it all up and put it back together.

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Installed.

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Purty eh? Having done all that I don't really recommend that you do it, the chrome paint is way too fragile. If you rub it much it turns dark gray, so to clean it I'll have to use compressed air and try to never wipe it.

Eventually I'll replace the bezel with a repo one which will be durable, but for now this looks better.

[motzingg]

looks great!

you can clear-coat the whole thing to make it permanent

i like the way that the spray chrome comes out slightly satin-ey, not full bright like real chrome. almost looks more like a nickel finish.

[mcheath]

Funny thing is if you spray this chrome paint with clear it turns dull gray. Seems to have to do with the way the paint lays on the surface, I read on some other forums where people did extensive experiments using all different kinds of clear over it and it always turned gray.

Replaced the turn signals, finally. They were basically broke when I got the truck, seems that a wire was touching metal in the steering column. So I eventually just pulled it out and have gone a few months without.

Bought the unit from Dennis Carpenter for 30 bucks. Great deal. However it when arrived I noted that it was made in China. Hmm.

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Here's a pic of the whole enchilada. Install was pretty simple and now we have blinkers!

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