Resurrecting dad's old 68 F-100 4x4

[JoshT]

oops

[Manny]

That stinks your had a brake line bust but its allright you can take care of it. Just stinks to bleed the brakes again.

[JoshT]

What stinks is that it didn't bust. The flare didn't seal like I knew it wouldn't when I made it. Reflared the old steel line, down here rust isn't a problem with brake lines, but the surface was too rough to seal properly.

Got the new line made and installed today. Didn't have an extra set of hands available to bleed. Will get to that in a few days.

When I finished up with the brake line had a little time left so I pulled the instrument cluster to start cleaning it. Got it pulled apart in my spare time at work tonight. Had broken traces and general poor condition on printed circuit. I could probably repair this one, but replacements are available through DC so I ordered one. Next up:

• Clean & Polish lens (replace if I can't)
• Paint gauge needles (Testors Flourescent Orange)
• Possibly repaint backplate for light reflection (flat or gloss white?)
• Decide on a LED backlight color (leaning towards warm white)

[JoshT]

So bled the brakes again Thursday. No leaks I can find, but still doesn't stop. I suspect that the master cylinder input rod is not adjusted correctly, going to look into that some later today. Probably need to pull the drums and work on freeing up the parking brake cables a bit too. The work, but sometimes don't want to release very well.

Called Wednesday and scheduled for new windshield install. Quoted ~$300 installed at my location, best price I could find locally. Was supposed to happen Friday morning, but instead I get a call saying that warehouse sent wrong glass. Was pushed back to Monday.

Dug into the cluster and got it cleaned up. Amazing how much difference a little paint and a new lens can make. Tried to polish the lens, but the more I worked on it the worse it got. Nothing I did seemed to remove the yellowing from the lens. Probably could have gotten it out with one of those drill powered head light cleaning kits, but a new lens was about the same price as a kit so it got replaced. Got new printed circuit and bulbs installed as well. Now I need to figured out why my high beam indicator isn't working, unfortunately I don't know if it was working before either.

[Idaho Chris]

...Called Wednesday and scheduled for new windshield install. Quoted ~$300 installed at my location, best price I could find locally. Was supposed to happen Friday morning, but instead I get a call saying that warehouse sent wrong glass. Was pushed back to Monday...

What did you end up doing for a windshield gasket? Does your windshield have the stainless trim?

[JoshT]

They are providing the gasket, but it'll be tomorrow before it gets installed. Told them that it has the stainless trim and that I would like to keep it. From the quote they gave me I think they are using Precision brand gasket. My anti-rattle kit was that brand and it seems ok, so we'll see. If its not great the glass will be coming back out in a few years for paint, and I'll replace with something better then.

[JoshT]

Okay, so good and bad this time.

Good, Brakes much improved. Followed instructions found elsewhere on the forum to measure and adjust the master cylinder input rod. Turns out it was probably close to 1/2" short. After getting it adjusted out (and not saying its exactly right) it's much improved. Feels like I still need to do some more bleeding and the rear drums probably need to be tightened up a bit. Need to pull drums to check out parking brake cables, then I'll get on adjusting and bleeding again.

Bad, my refreshed instrument cluster is dead. Not sure about the ammeter, but the fuel, oil pressure and coolant temp gauges didn't work. Couldn't figure out what might be causing all three to not work fail, so started taking the cluster back apart to look for anything I did wrong. Well apparently I went a little crazy when reinstalling the gauges to the cluster and way over tightened the nuts on fuel, oil and temp gauges. Fuel looks like it survived, but damaged the oil and temp gauge when trying to remove take them back loose. Looks like the nuts started cross threading when I over tightened them, and when removing it caught and broke the "cardboard" holder for the studs. Did not break electrical path on coolant gauge, so trying to reattach stud and see if I can save it. Not sure what I'm going to do about the oil pressure gauge, probably going to have to replace it.

EDIT: Forgot to say that I'm pretty certain that my gauge issue is a faulty ICVR. I had dismissed it as the cause earlier because it does not appear to be connected to the oil pressure gauge when looking at the wiring diagram in the tech section. Upon closer inspection I see that the diagram in the tech section is for warning light instead of gauge. Tracing the traces in the flex circuit I can see that the ICVR is the only thing that all three gauges have in common after the wiring enters the cluster, the body side of the harness wasn't touched since it was working previously. New ICVR is on order.

[JoshT]

More not going as planned. Glass guy shows up this morning and proceeds to inform me that he will install glass, but will not reinstalled trim. Apparently he's had too much trouble with it in the past and doesn't like dealing with it.

Need a Windshield and tired of waiting on crap like this so told him to go ahead. Not happy, but at least I'll be able to see again. Will try to get trim back in again when I hopefully get the truck painted in a few years.

Chris, did not get to see packaging to know what brand gasket is. Seems to for well enough. Down the road I'll be ordering a DC gasket to still on the shelf with the trim for reinstall after paint.

[Idaho Chris]

...Chris, did not get to see packaging to know what brand gasket is. Seems to for well enough. Down the road I'll be ordering a DC gasket to still on the shelf with the trim for reinstall after paint.

I see Dennis Carpenter now has the gasket back in stock. I will probably buy one to have as an extra. DC makes the windshield gasket in the USA using the original Ford tooling, so I have been told.

http://dennis-carpenter.com/windshield- ... 8103110-B/

Sucks that your windshield guy wouldn't install the stainless trim. It's a bitch to install, but still...

[poke em]

Grizzly glass in Hayden will do the windshield with trim. They did mine, and it turned out great.

[JoshT]

Yeah, I'm thinking about doing the same. Probably a blessing in disguise that it didn't get reinstalled. Windows is in and will hopefully be coming back out in a few years for paint. I can take my time to properly cleanup and polish the trim, to have it ready for installation then.

Given condition of mounting clips, I'm probably pulling most of the rest of the trim before it can fall off going down the road. Also going to paint the tube bumpers black to match the wheels, so no windshield trim probably suits the truck better at current.

[JoshT]

Grizzly glass in Hayden will do the windshield with trim. They did mine, and it turned out great.

Thanks for the recommendation, but Chris just got his done and I'm not driving to Idaho for glass install. The way my windshield was I really didn't want to drive it anywhere.

In hindsight I probably should have just said no to him installing the glass and gotten another company to do it. He was there with the glass and I really wanted it installed, so I caved. Disappointed, but happy to have a clear windshield. I know I won't be using this guy again.

[poke em]

Grizzly glass in Hayden will do the windshield with trim. They did mine, and it turned out great.

Thanks for the recommendation, but Chris just got his done and I'm not driving to Idaho for glass install. The way my windshield was I really didn't want to drive it anywhere.

In hindsight I probably should have just said no to him installing the glass and gotten another company to do it. He was there with the glass and I really wanted it installed, so I caved. Disappointed, but happy to have a clear windshield. I know I won't be using this guy again.

Oh wow, I guess I need to pay more attention. My reply was for Idaho Chris. Well if you are ever in Idaho, you know where to get a windshield installed!

[JoshT]

In hindsight I probably should have just said no to him installing the glass and gotten another company to do it. He was there with the glass and I really wanted it installed, so I caved. Disappointed, but happy to have a clear windshield. I know I won't be using this guy again.

Correction, in hindsight sight I definitely should have said no. First good rain since install and it appears to be leaking. Want to make them fix it, but chances are they will make it worse instead of better. Next time I order from DC I think a window gasket will be in the order and I'll find someone else to install it.

Still fighting with brakes. I think I e got.the push rod adjusted right now, but still not stopping worth a hoot. Definitely needs more bleeding, but not accomplishing anything with my attempts to vacuum bleed. Since last post I've either been working, sick (cold/sinus), or short a set of hands/feet to pedal bleed. Got to do something tomorrow, want to drive it to local swap meet this weekend, need a truck in case I find any parts for it.

[Idaho Chris]

Correction, in hindsight sight I definitely should have said no. First good rain since install and it appears to be leaking. Want to make them fix it, but chances are they will make it worse instead of better. Next time I order from DC I think a window gasket will be in the order and I'll find someone else to install it...

That sucks Josh. Hopefully you'll get it all fixed with the DC gasket. At least you'll have your stainless trim back!