1967 F250 Camper Special

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Got my hands on an F250 Camper Special with a 352 V8 5.8L. The engine is in pretty decent shape, but needs some attention. First order of business is the carburetor. I was TOLD by the schmuck that sold it to me that it was a new carb. It's probably new for the truck, but it's definitely not a NEW carb. Not that big of a deal.

This video is how the engine sounds currently. Carb needs tuning and most likely to be taken apart and made sure everything is in it's spot because we went at it a little bit today and still have a vacuum leak somewhere that we can't pin down. Tomorrow I'll throw up a video of where we got it to so far.

The exhaust gaskets need replacing as well. Those are the two items we KNOW need attention at this point. There's a mystery leak somewhere up front, and the frame tank seems to be leaking somewhere toward the front, but the plan is to remove that anyway to bring the weight down for now anyway.


Here's the video.
http://vid46.photobucket.com/albums/f14 ... xjwfba.mp4

She's not quite pretty, but she will be.
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[Heirloom]

Where did that truck live? I'm curious because there is rust cancer in places I've never seen before (I looked at your photobucket) . You certainly have your work cut out for you (err, actually you have a lot of cutting out to do!) Good luck with your project!



EDIT: Florida, saw the license plate after studying all the trees on your street.

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Where did that truck live? I'm curious because there is rust cancer in places I've never seen before (I looked at your photobucket) . You certainly have your work cut out for you (err, actually you have a lot of cutting out to do!) Good luck with your project!



EDIT: Florida, saw the license plate after studying all the trees on your street.

Yeah. Central FL to be more exact. It sat for a good bit of time in a field apparently. Luckily I know a couple of welders who have offered to help me out. Plus through a friend I may have access to someone who does soda blasting.

Once the engine is dependable and I knownits going to stay that way, the rust game begins!

[duaneo]

Holy cow! That is some impressive rust you have there. I'd be afraid of falling through the floor getting in the cab.

Judging by what I see under the hood, neither the heat or the AC work.

I'm intrigued by the tee off of your lower radiator hose. Where does that go?

If you decide to fix that rust it will truly be a bumpside phoenix story for the ages!

Cheers,
Duane

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Holy cow! That is some impressive rust you have there. I'd be afraid of falling through the floor getting in the cab.

Judging by what I see under the hood, neither the heat or the AC work.

I'm intrigued by the tee off of your lower radiator hose. Where does that go?

If you decide to fix that rust it will truly be a bumpside phoenix story for the ages!

Cheers,
Duane

Haha yeah we are curious as hell about that T off as well. Once we get more into it I'll definitely post an update.

Oddly enough, the cab floor is pretty solid save for a few small spots. We do plan on just replacing a few of the more ragged panels.

To be clear too, we aren't planning on a 100% original restore. We will do what we can, but I predict a lot of patch welds and bondo .

[motzingg]

ha! you call that rust?!

a bunch of floridians and californians talking about rusty vehicles... you notice nobody from wisconsin is chiming in... all our bumpsides rusted out 20 years ago. There ain't anybody on this forum from the rust belt. haha!

i think its a salt air thing. I bought some parts off a truck that came from corpus christi TX, the gulf coast air rusted it out in the wierdest places.

I think the look is beautiful. I'd probably drive it just like that, but i'm kinda weird that way. The tires and wheels look great on there!

[Fall_of_Olympus]

ha! you call that rust?!

a bunch of floridians and californians talking about rusty vehicles... you notice nobody from wisconsin is chiming in... all our bumpsides rusted out 20 years ago. There ain't anybody on this forum from the rust belt. haha!

i think its a salt air thing. I bought some parts off a truck that came from corpus christi TX, the gulf coast air rusted it out in the wierdest places.

I think the look is beautiful. I'd probably drive it just like that, but i'm kinda weird that way. The tires and wheels look great on there!

HAHA yeah I'm originally from Massachusetts. I've seen some rust buckets up there.

The frame, while coated in rust, is at least solid. Just a lot of elbow grease coming up.

[Fall_of_Olympus]

So some headway has been made on this project here.

Firstly, we removed, cleaned and retuned the carburetor with new gaskets and, diaphragm, power valved and all the trimmings, and installed a fuel filter as well. We actually found a decent amount of PAINT inside the damn thing, so thanks PO for that...
There's still a little adjusting to do after I cycle some fuel system cleaner through it and we see if it improves further. A little light reading revealed that the float may be a little high so we shall see on that. You can definitely tell a difference though.

BEFORE
http://vid46.photobucket.com/albums/f14 ... xjwfba.mp4

AFTER
http://vid46.photobucket.com/albums/f14 ... 1pccpn.mp4

The bulk of the noise is now coming from the exhaust, which is in rough shape. One manifold does have a "new" gasket in it, but it's still burping exhaust out the front and back mostly. The side is half way decent. The driver side has the original (I think) steel gasket in it still and there's basically no seal on that side. I did replace the doughnut seals between the pipes and manifold which helped a LITTLE but not much. There's still some leakage on the passenger side. I can't tell on the driver side. I do have a question though, should there be flange gaskets as well? There were none when I removed everything but I'm not sure if they just disintegrated or were never there or not.
The bolts are going to be hosed at least twice daily with PB Blast until the can runs out and hopefully we can get away with not having to take the heads off. *Fingers crossed*

Either way, with just THAT bit of adjusting, it already drives a little smoother.


The second bit of progress was diagnosing and stopping a gas leak. Being that there's been just about NO maintenance done to this beats for the past 40 years, some parts are just done. One of those parts is the auxiliary tank. When we bought it, the PO was pretty emphatic about "do NOT put gas in the rear tank" with that "learned it the hard way" tone in his voice. Well it seems that he put about 5 gallons or so in there and fuel just started dumping out of the bottom. After the past 2 weeks I finally got the bolts on the bottom pan to break loose, and as soon as we got that off, we definitely found the leak, which was just a fast drip. Until we loosened the two front bolts...

"I smell gas..."





So this tiny little pinhole was SLOWLY draining the 5 gallons the PO put in there. No more! Now I just need to get that last 2 or so gallons out of there and I plan to scrap the pan and tank at a local yard and put the cash I get from it back into the truck.
Eventually we plan to replace that tank with a new one and remove the seat tank so we can have some storage in the cab. WAY down the road.

So that's where we stand currently.

The next two projects are FIRST, the radius arm bushings...cuz damn...


Trying to get those manifold bolts to break free without breaking off, and diagnosing where the transmission is leaking from. We are thinking the rear seal.

Pray for me

[sargentrs]

Lol. My prayers are with y'all. Especially with those manifold bolts.

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Lol. My prayers are with y'all. Especially with those manifold bolts.

We need EM . Luckily, worst case, I have access to a machine shop

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Holy cow! That is some impressive rust you have there. I'd be afraid of falling through the floor getting in the cab.

Judging by what I see under the hood, neither the heat or the AC work.

I'm intrigued by the tee off of your lower radiator hose. Where does that go?

If you decide to fix that rust it will truly be a bumpside phoenix story for the ages!

Cheers,
Duane

So, upon further inspection, we have determined that that whole T off to a T off to a T off on the radiator hose has to be the transmission cooling line. Now, looking at diagrams for it on here I can tell that SOMEONE SOMEWHERE just did whatever the hell they wanted with replacing that. There's basically what looks almost like galvanized fittings at the T offs, complete with plumber's tape on them. It actually circles around to itself up top after the T and runs down to the bottom side of the transmission on both sides.

I have no idea what's going on with it honestly and am kind of afraid to try and return it back to what it's supposed to be like for fear of killing something else....

[motzingg]

I call it "Jenga Theory'

the process of natural selection with complex mechanical things, over 50 years the problems that don't result in a broken truck go unnoticed... so that sometimes one problem (say a carburetor vacuum leak) doesn't show up because another problem (worn points ) counteracts it (no high idle). By a totally improbable process, the few trucks still remaining in service have accumulated oddball problems that once you start fixing them, you find or create other problems.

Kinda like a jenga tower towards the end of the game, you can't get the blocks back in it without knocking it over!

Trans cooling lines are nothing to mess with... if you can't get them fixed, it would probably be best to short circuit/loop them so you don't loose pressure if one blows, or risk contamination.

I've seen cars where the heat exchanger in the radiator rusts out and blows, and a mixture of water/coolant/ATF gets circulated through the transmission and engine. Doesn't bother the engine much but it will kill your auto trans real quick.

[Fall_of_Olympus]

I call it "Jenga Theory'

the process of natural selection with complex mechanical things, over 50 years the problems that don't result in a broken truck go unnoticed... so that sometimes one problem (say a carburetor vacuum leak) doesn't show up because another problem (worn points ) counteracts it (no high idle). By a totally improbable process, the few trucks still remaining in service have accumulated oddball problems that once you start fixing them, you find or create other problems.

Kinda like a jenga tower towards the end of the game, you can't get the blocks back in it without knocking it over!

Trans cooling lines are nothing to mess with... if you can't get them fixed, it would probably be best to short circuit/loop them so you don't loose pressure if one blows, or risk contamination.

I've seen cars where the heat exchanger in the radiator rusts out and blows, and a mixture of water/coolant/ATF gets circulated through the transmission and engine. Doesn't bother the engine much but it will kill your auto trans real quick.

Exactly why I'm sketchy on replacing it...

Here's a video that shows it's path for the most part. On the bottom it has another T that runs it to the other side of the transmission

http://vid46.photobucket.com/albums/f14 ... fgwpor.mp4

[Petewrench]

How about a shot of the cooler on the trans?

[Fall_of_Olympus]

Yesterday we FINALLY got Ironhide up and her wheels off to go at these radius arm bushings. Talk about a fun project...or not. Looks like I've at least got new brake lines in there. The springs are in good shape, just surface rust, and everything else involved in the front end looks to be in decent order aside from a good deal of surface rust. The alignment is all kinds of out of whack, but that's not a surprise.









The ride was IMMEDIATELY better. About as smooth as it can be all things considered.

However, the fun started on the way home. The little hood trim on the front, with the FORD emblem has been hanging by a thread (and zip ties) and finally decided it was done. It's last remaining weld popped and the piece that the hood latch is attached to also decided to buckle slightly, causing the hood to raise up about 8 inches, while on the highway, while going 60mph. I've decided I do not enjoy when that happens. So it looks like next week I'll probably be starting some body work at lot earlier than I had intended...





So I'm this guy now... ^^^ .