1968 F-100 Ranger

[willowbilly3]

Does that truck have an F-250 rear end?
That is about my favorite color. I have my eye on a 68 that color.
Way to git-er-done. I think that you will find the only "temporary" wiring fix is the one that falls apart again. Most of us never go back in if it keeps working.

[dcbullet]

Does that truck have an F-250 rear end?

Yes it does. That's another project down the road when I decide whether to have 3/4 ton front end as well or go back to 1/2 ton rear end.

Thanks for the support guys!

[dcbullet]

Ok here is a small update.

As you can see in my first post giving the truck a good washing really helped it out. But you could still run your fingers on the paint and it feels rough, and it looked pretty dull. So I decided to try my hand at restoring it.

My process was:

1. Wet sand with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper.
2. Clean of the residue.
3. Polish with a polishing compound.
4. Wax.

Here is a "before and after" shot. Sorry for the shadows that make it a little hard to see. I did the process from the front of the bed until about 2 feet in front of the wheel well. Hopefully you can see the difference.



Here is after wetsanding:



And here is the final product, you can also see my neighbor's Chevy.




That's all I got done. I've done alot of chores this weekend so I was pretty tired after this. I did it all by hand. Probably would be easier and look even better if I had a buffer, but I'm pretty satisfied for now. The paint is very smooth to the touch.

I probably won't get the truck painted for more than a year so I would like to make it look as good as I can with what I've got to work with.

[flyboy2610]

That looks nice! Well done!

[dcbullet]

Wow, it's been a while since i last updated this thread, but I have been busy with a lot, which I'll be adding here as soon as I get it done.

The most recent project I completed was to add a power brake booster to my truck. I have drums all around.

Here's the booster as I received it from an ebay purchase:



I cleaned it, sanded it, and painted it before the installation and here's what it looks like after installation (ignore the dirty fingerprints...)



The installation was not technically difficult. I first unbolted the master cylander from the fire wall. Next, I unbolted the brake line support bracket from the steering column. This allowed me to pull the master cylander forward enough to insert the booster. One problem I ran into was that I couldn't easily remove the brake line support bracket from the brake lines. There is very little room on each side of the bold head to fit a ratchet. I will have to get it from underneath but have not done so yet. Here are pictures of what I am referring to:

Can't get a socket around this bolt.



So it is still attached but just dangling. I'll need to go from under the truck.



Another item to note is that you will need to remove this plunger from the master cylindar, because the booster has it's own.



You just yank it out. It is held in by a clip attached to plunger as shown below. It will release after considerable force and your hand will fly up and hit the hood hinge causing pain.



Finally, the last snag I had was getting the correct vacuum tree. The one I my truck looks like this:



The hole pointing down is for the transmission and is not large enough for the 3/8" booster hose. I recevied another tree from a forum member but it did not have the booster hose connector either, but it did have a blocked off hole that I could use. Unfortunately the booster connector that I eventually got from a junkyard was too large to fit into that hole. See below (it won't fit):



So I finally got another attachment from the junkyard that attaches onto my orignal tree and is basically a splitter for the booster hose and the transmission hose.



Well, it works GREAT! What a difference. I used to get a sore right cheek from holding the brake down at stop lights/signs. Not anymore!!

[dablack00]

Great Job! Thanks for showing all the problems you ran into. You didn't need to rebuild the booster for installation?

[dcbullet]

Great Job! Thanks for showing all the problems you ran into. You didn't need to rebuild the booster for installation?

I bought it from a seller on Ebay who was selling it as a fuctioning unit and luckily that seems to be the case!

[farmtruckman]

dcbullet, thanks for the pictures. I am in the process of doing the exact same intall. I bought a booster on ebay in the exact same condition and am installing it on a 67 lwb. I have posted other threads with some of the problems I am having. If you have a chance, please check them out because your experience is invaluable. My question to you also, is that when you tee'd off of the trans vacuum fitting, does it supply enough vacuum for both. My 352 has no other openings on the manifold to draw vacuum but other member had mentioned that it is the best place.

Again, thanks for the tutorial. It is a big help.

[dcbullet]

Ok, my latest project was to repaint the hood, which was covered in surface rust, and the tailgate, which came from a different truck and so was the wrong color.

I actually started this project last June. , but then got sidetracked for the next nine months. I bought automotive paint in an aerosal can from two places. The first was paintscratch.com and the second was autopaintdirect.com . The cans from paintscratch.com were very expensive, something around $30, while the paint from autopaintdirect.com was $14 per can. However, I think the color was a little closer with paintscratch.com. I will note, however, that I had the paint from autopaintdirect.com sitting around for several months, so it is possible that had some negative effect on the color match.

Anyways, here is the process and results:

I started with the hood in this condition:





I used a 3M paint removing wheel on my drill and some 80 grit sandpaper to remove most of the paint and rust. Here is half way through:





Very dirty under the F-100 reflector:



After I got most of the paint and rust off, I took the last little bit off with steel wool and Navel Jelly. Here are the results:



Not a bit of dirt



I primed with SEM self etching primer, which a member here recommended



These were the results last June. I had a lot of very "dry" looking spots on the hood and I wasn't really that happy with the results:



So this March, I sanded the hood with 320 grit sand paper, then 600 grit and got a pretty smooth surface. I gave the hood another couple of coats. Overall, I'm satisfied with the results. It definately is a 20 footer, but it will have to suffice until I get it professionally painted in a couple of years.









Here is the before and after on the tailgate. I didn't bother to fill the couple of holes in the tailgate because I don't have a welder and I figure I'll get it done right when I get it professionally painted.





Now I have to do something about that bumper!

I really tip my hat to anyone who can paint well with an aerosal can. It is pretty tough.

[Sharkdance]

That dont look bad at all! Nice job.
And once again, EXCELLENT post!!

[trukcrazy]

Great post dc. No matter what, it looks a thousand times better than it did. Great job. You're right, now you have to do the bumper, then the wheels , then...........

[granitestate68]

dc,


That looks great, thanks for the update. Man am I impressed.

Please keep us up to date. WOW

Lee

[dablack00]

That is as good as it is going to get w/ a rattle can. Looks good.

[Joe Kriston]

Bullet,good job,good pics,good info....Thanks for taking the time...very helpful....

[spartman]

Lots of great info on that post!

When I fixed my rear lights I wound up getting the four conductor round cable that they use to connect trailers to the truck plugs.

Heavy duty stuff with a thick outer covering on it.