Re: Paint?

> If it'd been anything other than white it would have been toast a

>> long time ago, here in the desert. Did you know that flat black can >> and does, get 15 degress below ambient temerature on a still, clear >> night here? You can have frost on things like railroad ties and >> only get down to 45F. Weird huh? :) > Dang, that is kinda weird....Maybe I better starting dying all my > summer sleeping bags and blankets flat black and start sleeping on the > hood of the truck...:/

How about painting yourself black and forgetting the bag? 8-/

I also want to do the same thing to my '68 > f-250, and it's also all white. For the same reason too...It gets hot > in Houston. I think mine was wimbleton originally, but it's been > repainted in the past, which is about shot now. It's a brighter > white...I'm not sure if I want to go back to wimbleton, or go with the > whiter white. The whiter white was a "stock" ford color so either can > be "correct". I've got the name of it somewhere...

Didn't know that, I always thought the bright white was "chevy white". Ever see a white ford with the bright white spoked wheels on it? I did before I boughi my 16x7 wheels, I went with chrome. ;)

I have utility > beds,camper shell, etc, and I'm going to paint it myself. I want to do > all the boxes, bed, interior, inside and out, and it would cost a > small fortune to have it done. Being I'm going to do it myself, I'm > going to stick with simple acrylic I imagine. But 3 or 4 coats. I > don't have the gear, experience, etc to do the fancy clearcoat > stuff...That stuff is dangerous too if you snort too much of it. I > have done plenty of "old style" acrylic though.

I haven't been able to get ahold of my friend in Douglas, might end up painting mine myself too. I wonder if Imron is cheaper in Mexico? ;) DuPont R12 was $8 a can a year or so ago.

I just got done > totally rebuilding the front end on it a couple of days ago. I changed > EVERYTHING. :) Then new tires, balance, alignment at a qualified frame > shop, but it ended up only needing a toe adjustment. After that the > front end was so tight, I started to notice some slop in the steering > gear, which I had never really noticed before. > I adjusted it yesterday, and it's driving like a new truck.

I hope you didn't get carried away with that and hope that was where all your play was both. Mine was in the sector shaft bearings (or lack there of!) and had my orignal steering gear housing line-bored and bearings installed. The sector shaft play was my last bit of play mine had, I eleminated it from everything else, even the steering column.

My tires should last a while now I hope...

I betchu! :) I set my own toe-in as close to straight as I can get it but less than straight (1/32"?). It handles best that way. I use a couple 4"x8"x16" solid cement blocks leaned over to hold a couple straight 4 foot pieces of 1+1/2" thin-wall square tubing against the tires... and a tape measure.

It may be totally wrong! But I didn't settle for crummy handling because the tape measure said it's right, I try different adjustments and "box in" what's best, just found I can trust it after all these years doing air-cooled VWs (front -and- back).

Whats a swing loc mirror? I want to eventually > replace my big "semi-truck" looking mirrors with some aerodynamic > looking things to cut wind drag. Those big flat mirrors I have now are > like drag chutes at highway speeds..I want some like you see on a new > truck. Not real big either...MK

Mine are stock stainless steel "low mount, swing lok" and whistle at high speed if they are set a certain way. I couldn't have the "western style" since i wanted to go through brush and up in the mountains etc. Their swinging out of the way and re-adjusting with the positive locking positon features sure have been nice over the years! :)

The bolts and acorn-nuts weren't stainless steel tho. :) I replaced them years ago with some from Ace Hardware after grinding off the words etc and refinishing the bolts' tops installed new nylon washers too... all of it was cheap and easy.

I really liked ramva (r.a.makers.volkswagen.aircooled) because of the sharing and learning of other's ideas they came up with for fixing and improving their cars. I was hoping for something like it that was for old ford pickups. Like I spent ~8 hours figuring out how to keep my tailgate braces from rattling in an "elegant and straight forward way" and then finally spent about 15 minutes actually installing my idea. It's really cool, so why should someone else have to re-nvent it? And the same... why can't I learn what they worked out, maybe stuff I didn't even notice was "wrong" before. :) The old VW were so much alike and old too that I guess it's only for them?

The little ranger owners kinda have that here, I'm jealous. :/

Alvin in AZ

Reply to
alvinj
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It seemed to do the trick. I didn't have to adjust too much. I just did a little bit at a time, until it felt right, and the returnability was still there. If you get too tight, your wheel won't return to center like it should. Also you can ruin it, if it's too tight for too long. You have to be careful on those. Just a wee bit at a time.

I tried setting it myself before I took it to the shop, but I found it to be difficult. Hard to keep the tape held correctly, etc...I got it close, and let them finish it. I've got a puter printout of all wheels, specs, etc. I was off a good bit on one side. My toe after the alignment was 0.66 o for the left, and -0.40 o for the right. My total toe is now 0.26 o, where 0.12 to 0.38 is the accepted range. My cross caster ended up perfect at 0.00, right in the middle of the range. The guy said being I rebuilt the whole front end, it made his job easy. Didn't have to bend any axles.

I wouldn't settle for crummy handling. Thats how mine was after I got through with it. :( After the alignment at the frame shop , it feels great. Straight steering wheel too. The only downside was the guy broke my plastic horn retainer plate trying the take the steering wheel off. I had to order one from LMC truck, which I got the other day. I'm just glad LMC had them. Those would be tough to find otherwise for a '68...

I'll probably just get some of the aftermarket "streamlined" mirrors. A friend of mine has them on his '74, and they seem ok.

About the only other place for old trucks I know of is alt.autos.classic-trucks

MK

Reply to
Mark Keith

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