I haven’t cleaned any of the engine yet or painted but here is what it is looking like today.
I replaced the inner fender on the passenger side because at some point it was almost completely cut out. My guess is to access the starter easier? You can see why I need to rewire the truck.
I was able to find a really clean rust free inner fender at the salvage yard. I then sanded and repainted it.
I also installed the rear emblems and reflectors.
The first order of business it to have the driveshaft rebuilt and the carrier bearing replaced. During the drive over the mountains I noticed a good amount of vibration.
As the truck sits after the trip over the mountains, haven’t even cleaned it yet.
My dad picked up the truck for me at a local implement auction in Grand Junction, CO in 1996. The truck would not start when it was time to be auctioned off so no one bid on it. Last minute my dad though in a bid last minute for $500 and won. He was able to start it up and get it home to surprise me.
The truck is an F250 Custom explorer originally painted Grabber Blue. The truck originally came with a 360 and a C4. When I got the truck in 1996 it had 115k miles on it. At some point in its history the motor and transmission were changed out and supposedly rebuilt. The truck now has a 390 with a 4 barrel carburetor out of a 1969 Torino and a C6 transmission. The truck also has power steering and power front disk brakes as part of the F250 Explorer Camper Special package B.
The first thing I did was replace the carburetor. The attempt at rebuilding the old one was failed so I installed a new Holley 600 CFM vacuum secondary 1850. I also gave the truck a full tune up.
Next on the list was front end work. I replaced the tie rods, bushings, front brakes, etc. I also has a new exhaust system installed around the same time. The exhaust is a full duel system with turbo style mufflers.
I drove the truck in College in the late 1990’s and tapered off driving it in the early 2000’s. I put about 30k miles on it over those years. From about 2002 to the present the truck was not driven all that much.
I finally got the truck going this month and drove it the nearly 500 miles to Colorado Springs, CO.
So when I was cleaning things up last night I found out is is definitely a remanufactured motor. I found a plaque on the motor with a serial number, build number and a date of 5/01.
The front is cut off the car. I went over last night after work to help a little. I cleaned the radiator and helped with sanding and taping. The first layer of primer was laid last night after I left.
Saved the best for last:
Total cost just shy of $800 (time to pass out now)
I also completed my collection of stickers to be installed on the car.
I received the Bönez Performance Converter System in the mail last week. I plan to install it while it’s in the shop along with the throwout bearing. It looks exactly like the photo on Rotary Performance’s website. I will give an update as soon at the part is installed.
I an able to get the paint done on the car sooner than originally planned. The car went into the shop on February 18th. I’m having rust and dent repair, front subframe repaired, paint, wheels refinished, new seals, emblems, and decals.
We had hoped that the front end was just slightly damaged and could be straightened. After the bumper, front cowl, head lights, and fenders were removed, the damage was severe in front of the shock towers. I cut the front of my old RX-7 off at the shock towers a number of months ago anticipating that we would use some of the parts. I never thought we would end up using basically the entire section. The painting of the car should take less than a month to get done.
I’m actually helping with the painting proccess. Over the weekend I pulled everything out of the front of the engine compartment. Parts that I removed included the radiator, radiator support, battery tray, air box, a/c condenser, oil cooler, etc. I also moved things like the wiring harness out of the way.
Here is the car before we stripped the engine compartment:
Here is what the car looked like when we were finished:
