Slash's '85 Ford Pickup: Fuel Injection!!

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Such a badass truck, great progress. đź‘Ť
It's getting there man, been a lot of work. We are making a piece to brace the frame rails and pull them tight together. Today dad cleaned up the most problematic areas on the cab and began playing with bondo.

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Cab corner came out good, few rough spots but not bad...will be done up good when it goes to paint. Paint faded so the new paint looks dark. Ordered a new vinyl floor, and tank straps. Should be hear soon then thatll all go in, the interior will pretty much be done minus a dash pad. Then we can fire it up and take the box off...we estimate for everything behind the cab there's maybe a day and a half left of work to do. The front clip should be getting sent to paint soon...it's all about to get tore off.

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We got the fuel system together today and had it running a little while ago. It has some issues, mainly the front float is sticking so it's flooding out gas everywhere, the fuel pump relay is sticky and it needs plugs. But it runs nonetheless...and likes to spin rpms. I got some vids...they are uploading.

All the lights work minus the drivers turn signal (rear bulb is out of the socket) and the farthest drivers side cab marker light, and driver fender relflector light. Also some of the dash lights for the aftermarket guages aren't working.


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It's going to sound really good once it gets running smooth. You guys are making some good progress!
 
We had it running fantastic last night, all through the RPMs until the pump died. We took the front float bowl off and replaced the plastic float with a brass one and put in all new gaskets. The needle and seat appeared fine. Its all good now, so once the pump gets replaced we can turn it around, take the plow off and then start tearing into the motor and front end.
 
;) Cab corner done, sound deadening material going in, and also pulled the cowl off toremove the crusty old original supports for new stainless ones that we painted up.

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We also seam sealed a lot of small crevices and holes between panels and resprayed the back wall of the cab, and lined more of the frame.

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Holy progress batman! That thing is really starting to look good!

Also, where did you find that vinyl floor? My right ankle desperately wants to know, as mine is bubbled/creased all coming down the trans tunnel into the foot wells and right underneath where my foot rests when driving, and it drives me off the wall
 
I'll ask my dad...he went through some special company that made it, and it came with sound proofing material. He said it cost about $200, and is oversized needing to be trimmed to fit.
 
Started cleaning up the cowl and sanding off bondo from the 1993 rebuild. The bondo seen here is from that build.

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Haven't had a chance to update until now. The cowl is finished, and this new paint matches much better. I think we will be using this from now on. There is new trim on the way for around the windshield, and the new wiper arms went on. The old drivers side arm splines were stripper, and they were old and ugly and were in need of replacing. Instead of upgrading to newer style arms, we decided to go with the original pin style, my dad says they hold a little better. We also reinstalled the old double blades from back in the day...one thing I didn't know about them or old blades in general is that the rubber strips are replaceable. The radio antenna is he wrong one and will be replaced.

We also got a brand new headliner it. It looks fantastic. The CB radio no longer works so it was removed. Inside the cowl looked great. some factory seam sealer had broken away so we reseam sealed it and sprayed the hell out of it with undercoating. no signs of rust were evident. that solved the issue with water leaking into the cab promoting floor rust. New weatherstripping on the doors are also in but with it they don't want to shut right. The passenger side rocker does sit low so we are probably going to fart around with it some more and relevel it...even going off my cabs measurements when there's nothing to really go by it makes it a bit tough to rebuild.

Most everything electrical as it did when it was parked in 08. Couple bulbs out, a guage or two not working. But for the most part its little things.

The original hood is in great shape so we are going to sand it down and paint that like the cowl to match, and the new bug shield will be installed. The fenders and doors will also be done. We are slowly working our way towards the front. We have ironed out the carb issues and figured out what the issue was...after relocating the fuel pump and removing an inline filter my dad installed, the pump was pushing too much pressure for the carb to handle without a regulator causing the flooding issue. We have since ordered a two flare regulator so we won't need to use n inline T. That irons out the fuel system issues.

The hole in the frame from the exhaust is going to get a full plate and patch...the current piece has a piece of modular home thick rail behind it until the exhaust leak is repaired. The engine will likely be getting at minimum full exhaust with headers and an X pipe, roller cam and roller rockers, valve covers and possibly aluminum heads. That will suffice until the crate motor is bought.


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Well we got the regulator installed but still.having issues with the fuel system, somehow the pump lost prime. It's set at 7psi right now, 3 empty.

Door came out alright for being paint code matched rattle can, and one of the new fenders got sanded down and primed with sandable primer. We startef taking the badges off as well. The paint on the door is the same as the DuPont Light canyon red as was the second paint job and original from the factory. You can see how much brighter, more scarlet like, it used it be. For comparison I put in a pic of fresh paint on a fender in the same color back in 93.

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That one image: Fender? What fender? :lol::lol:

Seriously though that paint and just the whole truck in general is coming along really nicely. Makes me glad that my first car is probably gonna be a project so long as it's still able to go on the road. đź‘Ť

EDIT: Do I see an ancient :P motocross helmet in that first pic?
 
That one image: Fender? What fender? :lol::lol:

Seriously though that paint and just the whole truck in general is coming along really nicely. Makes me glad that my first car is probably gonna be a project so long as it's still able to go on the road. đź‘Ť

EDIT: Do I see an ancient :P motocross helmet in that first pic?
That fender that you say what fender to is the same one that had fresh paint on it in the other picture.

Getting there, got a lot to.do but it's all easy stuff from here on out really.

And yes you do, those helmets are old FX helmets that came with my dads 200X's when he bought them. I still use one from time to time.
 
That fender that you say what fender to is the same one that had fresh paint on it in the other picture.

Getting there, got a lot to.do but it's all easy stuff from here on out really.

And yes you do, those helmets are old FX helmets that came with my dads 200X's when he bought them. I still use one from time to time.
That's insane. And out of all you have left to do that you haven't already started, what are you looking forward to the most?
 
Getting the front clip on, that's the worst of it, but that just unbolts and bolts back on so it won't take long to do, just got to get the fenders all painted up. The bed is being difficult to find.
 
Started the other fender, sanded it down, rust neutralized it and started laying bondo. Next step will be the other door and then I think we will be putting them on and sanding down the original hood.


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Whilei was away helping a friend work on his vehicles, my dad bled the air in the system out of the fuel lines and got her running, she moves under her own power once again. Also took he plow off and the frame is coming off this week.

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Disconnected all the hydraulic lines for the plow today. Both batteries are coming out and are being relocated to the bed in a separate compartment. We are also working out where to put the distribution block and pump or the plow when we start tearing the front end off. The new core support is will lift the front end level with the cab as it's sagging a lot. This will regain lost lift and add a bit more. The new fenders will follow after but we need to pull the stuff out from under the hood and then the grille and bezels will be coming off shortly after we take the plow frame off, likely tomorrow.
 
Here's one better shots of what we are up against. Luckily the only major work that needs to be done is cleaning up the frame and welding in frame savers on the mounts. Everything else is an unbolt affair :)

This is it from the front, disassembled. It looks so goofy. As you can see, the hoods rust is very minimal, the lip is just dirty, and the edge underneath is still solid. As usually the bottom of the core support rotted out at the mounts. Mine also did. Typical of these trucks.


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The undercoating done back in 93 held up well to the heat and salt and did its. Minimal to no rust under the hood.

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Oh god ew

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Both battery boxes rotted completely. The inner plastic fender is beginning to collapse on that side. I wish I could find a set of steal inner fenders instead of plastic.

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Core support mounted rotted right through. This was not the original mount and bolt...it had been fixed before. The rubber bushing is also very worn out, which is why the front end is sagging so much.

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The other side looked a little better but not much. You can still see some of the frame undercoating on it.

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The engine fan and shroud also came out.

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Awesome progress. Coming along really really well! Looking forward to future updates.
 
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