Cantankerous The PowerStroke Rebuild.

[masakimm]

So back in 2014 My Dad Bob passed away and I inherited his truck. Which used To belong to my Bosses Dad Bob. No my name is not Bob. Well my dad loved this truck and I always gave him a hard time bout the poor fuel economy(compared to festivas). Well after he passed I put a clutch in her and started driving her and found out it got better milage and was more comfortable the the durango I was driving(don't ask sore subject). So sold the durango and kept the truck. So in 2016 I decided if I was going keep her she was going need some love. at 349,000 miles all her major components were original. So made a plan to tear her down and in a few months rebuild her. What was that saying bout the best laid plans. Well it took a little longer then a few months. Actually put her back on the road last April.

So the name of the Truck reflects not only her personality but also those of her 3 owners. Luckily I knew them all and even have the service history from 92,000 miles when the shop I work at took on all the care for her. And its not a bad name I mean could u imagine Someone doing something crazy like putting This on their truck.

And I have no Idea how he got such things for his truck.[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]
So this Truck only has this life because of my Dad so it only seemed fitting to make it a memorial to him.

And of course had to add in my heritage while I wad at it. One thing bout my dad is he always wanted to be in the drivers seat. Well he never has to ride shotgun again now. I am a Texan born and bred just with a hint of Japanese tossed in there. I am also a proud military brat and a partially disabled vet. I will stand for either of these flags no mater what even if I disagree with the politics of the time or not these flags have allowed me to be who I am and enjoy things like owning my truck. I never want a hand out but will take a hand up and offer a hand up if I can. This is who I am. I am Cantankerous amd this is my truck.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[fatherdoug]

Nice! Thank you for posting.

 

[dustybumpers]

Good Job Mikey

I met Mikael a few years ago on another forum, and "adopted him, as he needed an old fart to be his internet dad.
He's been a fun friend, and good internet son.
His other half heavy Doc is my other internet son

We have another young'in Mikey posted in the one picture we call turd, working on him to come over, ya'll will get a charge outta him.

Ok, now back to the scheduled build...….

 

[dustybumpers]

But first, thread needs some kittys

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[masakimm]

But first, thread needs some kittys

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Now Rob has no reason to join.[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[dustybumpers]

Oh, he will out do me,that's for sure

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[masakimm]

Oh, he will out do me,that's for sure

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

now all u have to do is convince him.[emoji848]

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[Sparky83]

Well after he passed I put a clutch in her and started driving her and found out it got better milage and was more comfortable the the durango I was driving(don't ask sore subject).

since you insist.... Why were you driving a Durango?? lol

 

[dustybumpers]

Get him Sparky....

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[masakimm]

Ok you asked for it. So It lets see well it began with my dad letting my little sister steal his festiva and then my festiva and blowing them both up. The truck was down because of a clutch problem and I wasn't fixing it on purpose because my dads leg was bad and he had to pick it up and set it on the clutch pedal. So i asked some friends if he could borrow it. And well he got out in weather he should not have to help my good for nothing little sister who was always getting money out of him and draining him dry. I didn't realize it till he was dead how much i was spending on him cause of what she was taking from him. So While out he hit a patch of ice and spun out and wreaked the driver rear corner all cosmetic stuff nothing bad but enough my only option was the buy the car from my friends. So I ended up with it and eventually started to sell it to a co worker who got tired of his crazy girlfriend and ran off to another state. He left the durango behind and she and her dad tried to hide it from me had to get the cops involved was a real pain in the butt. So in the end it worked out cause he paided me 400 dollars a nice aluminum extension ladder and put 2 new tires on it. when i did finally sell it I sold it for 1200 which is what i gave my friends for it so in the end I came out money ahead. I still see it and talk to the lady that bought it.What funny is we have had a lot of ice this winter and she has spun it out and hit it in the exact same place. some one should have told it does that on ice if u don't use the 4 wheel drive.[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]
So I tried to warn ya but ya had to ask. and this was the condensed version.[emoji39][emoji39][emoji39][emoji39][emoji39]

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[heavydoc]

Oh boy and so it begins, I feel like I've seen this build somewhere else[emoji848][emoji848][emoji848]

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[heavydoc]

........

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Sparky83]

Ok you asked for it. So It lets see well it began with my dad letting my little sister steal his festiva and then my festiva and blowing them both up. The truck was down because of a clutch problem and I wasn't fixing it on purpose because my dads leg was bad and he had to pick it up and set it on the clutch pedal. So i asked some friends if he could borrow it. And well he got out in weather he should not have to help my good for nothing little sister who was always getting money out of him and draining him dry. I didn't realize it till he was dead how much i was spending on him cause of what she was taking from him. So While out he hit a patch of ice and spun out and wreaked the driver rear corner all cosmetic stuff nothing bad but enough my only option was the buy the car from my friends. So I ended up with it and eventually started to sell it to a co worker who got tired of his crazy girlfriend and ran off to another state. He left the durango behind and she and her dad tried to hide it from me had to get the cops involved was a real pain in the butt. So in the end it worked out cause he paided me 400 dollars a nice aluminum extension ladder and put 2 new tires on it. when i did finally sell it I sold it for 1200 which is what i gave my friends for it so in the end I came out money ahead. I still see it and talk to the lady that bought it.What funny is we have had a lot of ice this winter and she has spun it out and hit it in the exact same place. some one should have told it does that on ice if u don't use the 4 wheel drive.[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]
So I tried to warn ya but ya had to ask. and this was the condensed version.[emoji39][emoji39][emoji39][emoji39][emoji39]

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

sounds interestin....

 

[masakimm]

Ok So back to the build. One of the things I did after my Dad died was decided It need some new wheels.

So this all took place the year my Dad passed Did a few other odd and end things but nothing major. So drove her this way for a while(unfortunately due to a hard drive failure I lost most of my early pics). But towards the end of winter into the spring of 2016. I noticed truck was getting harder to start she smoked more when cold the idle was a little off cold. So I decided to buy a car just to get by while I took 8 to 9 months to fix up the truck.

So I started to tear into her after getting an old junky car for 460 dollars to putt around in while the truck was down. Ripped the front end off of the truck fenders were bad core support left something to be desired. Luckily at the time had room i the shop I work at to have her indoors for all this.

So before all this(remember I said I didn't realize how much I spent on my Dad) Well it was enough I bought a new riding lawn mower and a 4 wheeler for hunting(yap it was that much). But I decided I didn't have enough storage for all the crap I like to carry So got the blue and black box from Lowe's and built a frame for it to sit on that still lets me put full sheets of plywood drywall etc. under it so I don't lose all my bed use. But in placing that box it made it to where my 4 wheeler no longer fit so i devised a plan and built the ramp out of all things tubing salvaged from old atv shipping racks I got from a cycle shop a friend worked at. This allowed the 4 wheeler to be carried and the tailgate to be closed.[emoji16]

So the bed well the bed had seen better days. In its early years it got a fifth wheel dropped on it. They made it look nice with half an inch of bondo.[emoji45] But that was small potatoes to the destruction brought against this poor bed. When my dad was alive he decide to switch from fifth wheel to gooseneck. Well he found a nice flip over ball plate and had a guy he knew start installing it. well the place he worked at where my dad and me drove for in the past fired him before he finished the work. only real problem is he cut out sections of the bed to give him access to mount bars to the frame to give the plate a strong base to bolt to. Well when he got fired he didn't tell us right away and by the time we found out and went looking for the pieces that he cut out and was suppose to reinstall we could not find hide nor hair of them. Then you start packing on rust and bashed in fenders I decided it was time to retire this poor bed. It now has a new life as a scrape bin behind my house.[emoji23] So I know there are holes You can see I have not mentioned well they will come into play later as the build moves forward.

Well the turn over ball my dad had got was nice and all but required a very large hole in the bed and was not my cup of tee. But in the time since my Dad had died I found a guy selling an almost new looking turn over ball hitch for an OBS Ford(I spend way to much time on craigslist[emoji39]). Well he was asking a fair price for it but I didn't want a fair price so I watched it and watched it several months went by and he still had it for sell. Well I decide it was time I contacted him and offered him a real lowball offer figuring we could go back and forth and end up at 100. Well to my surprise he said come and get it for my 75 dollar offer he was tired of dealing with it. One good thing the military has taught me was patience. And this time it paid off for me. Well hopefully I can continue to post these up and get caught up to where I am at now. Until the next update.

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[masakimm]

So part of this upgrade took place before the main rebuild began. I had taking a trip back home to Texas to retrieve My 57 Fairlane Retractable. During said trip my rear tank started leaking. So started looking at my options. Well there were the 38 gallon bronco tanks I could make work. I also looked at an aftermarket company but their 800 dollars made me run for the hills.

So I had an old motorhome out back that I had started taking apart and got to looking at the fuel tank and how it looked really close to being able to fit in place of the rear tank.

So off came the bed and out came the tape. And sure enough it would fit It was tight side to side but it fit. So out came more of the atv crate tubing and 2 brackets were made to cradle the tank. I set the tank so that it tilted slightly towards the pickup tube. Now the pickup tube is a cause of one of the wholes in my original bed. I had a problem in the winter of the tube becoming restricted by thick diesel. So cut a flap in the bed and pull the pickup tube and added a piece of metal screen to it and solved my problem. Now the filler neck was fun to make. Had to get some fuel submersible tubing to go on the inside of the filler neck I bent up so that filler was till in the fender. I though bout just making access for it at the back but decided I wanted to keep it as hiding as possible. So with that all said and done I needed to know how much fuel the tank had. So after some searching I found an adjustable float that fit the tank and had the right ohms to work with my gauge in the dash. I also made the lines up to go from the tank and plug into the factory quick connect lines. I ran this tank from fall of 2015 till the spring of 2016. When I went to fill it though it was slow because of the internal venting. But it held 42 gallons of fuel and that made it worth while. But like all things I decide while I was doing the rebuild something would have to be done with the filling problem.

But first things first those brackets did the job but they stuck out like a sore thumb. So ordered some straps off the internet and modified them to hold the tank in place. Now only problem with the straps were they allowed the tank to swing front to back. So brackets were made to keep the tank from swinging. I also used one of the top straps from the original tank to keep it from bouncing up. This all allows the tank to appear to be more stock and hiding.

So to solve my filling problems I decided an external vent was needed. While this did solve my filling problems It crated new problems. But those will have to wait for the next post.

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[masakimm]

Sorry been a life weekend. So with the new external vent on the rear tank comes the problem of what to do about the filler at the fender. I could have tried to make the factory fillers work drilling then brazing in vents. But I decided to go another way instead.

So I found these thru a supplier online and realized they would work great. they would not only solve my vent problem but also upgrade me to be able to use the larger truck pumps at truck stops.

So got the new neck in and decided to see how it would fit. And come to find out the flange was way to small to work. So what to do. Well I had some extra filler necks from a truck I scraped(bent frame destroyed body but lots of good parts). So cut the rings off both necks and got ready to fit them to the new filler necks.

So mounted the ring to I could make sure they would fit when I was done. Then made sure that the neck fit and cap would work. also had to think about where to position the vent for proper performance and that it would not hit anything once installed in the fender.

Now first thing first. I suck at welding and have access to very poor equipment flux core welders(one craftsman on harbor freight) So don't expect much from my welds. That being said Got the neck all welded up and then painted(to make them look pretty) so they would not rust. All said and done I am very happy with this filler neck does a great job and allows me to fill my tank very quickly unlike the internal vented version did.


Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[Sparky83]

if your ever near me ill give you some lessons on how to weld better... show you the difference between cheap crappy welders and good welding machines too...

 

[masakimm]

if your ever near me ill give you some lessons on how to weld better... show you the difference between cheap crappy welders and good welding machines too...

I know the difference but I use what I got And what I got is free.[emoji1787] My grandpa was a master welder and he could lay down a bead no matter what. and if I get everything just right I can lay down a good bead but most of the time its get the weld done. it would also help if I didn't go forever between welds.

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.

 

[dustybumpers]

Even the crap horrible freight welder works if you add gas, and decent wire.

Just saying.

I have one I use with a gen set.

 

[masakimm]

Even the crap horrible freight welder works if you add gas, and decent wire.

Just saying.

I have one I use with a gen set.

Well this one I got for free and it don't take gas and its an odd size wire or the fact I live in podunk mo. But I can't complain it has done the job even if its not pretty.

Give it to Mikey. He won't eat it he hates everything. Hey Mikey!! He Likes It.