Twister the other F150 build thread
10-22-2014, 03:21 PM
#1
Maybe to many trucks?
Thread Starter
Twister the other F150 build thread
So I already have a build thread for my baby but I haven't started a build thread for the new F150 that we recently got. Originally I wasn't going to do anything to this truck but keep it stock but things are starting to turn towards modifying it slightly since as we all know with the new things out their they have some better (not all) stuff then back in the 80s and 90s.
So first what the truck is:
1990 Ford F150 4x4 302 E4OD 3.55LS. It only has the LS in the rear unlike my 88. She is a regular cab long bed with white and blue exterior and blue interior. Also she is an XLT Lariat so she has all the power options. She has 181K about to hit 182K now.
Why we got the truck:
When we first moved up to the backwoods area that I live in we had bought a 1986 F150 4x4 302 AOD 3.55LS XLT Lariat regular cab long bed blue exterior and blue interior. Well after running the snot out of her and having that 302 and AOD getting extremely weak my dad decided he would get the Harley blood flowing a bit stronger and traded it for a 07 Harley Davidson heritage softail. He told me for 3 months after that that he missed his old F150 that was his baby. Well fast forward about a year or so and we picked up a 87 motorhome for free and did pretty much nothing to it to get it running and in decent shape. A few months went by and we decided we didn't want the motorhome (it was in the plan all along to flip it) so we put it up for sale or trade. Got a few bites on it but nothing we were interested in (having two chevys is enough). So it was getting to the point where we were about to take it off when a guy calls my dad up and says he has an F150 for trade and he wants a motorhome. Well that turned our head enough for us to go look at the truck. Shortly after we were driving home the F150 with a bed trailer made from an F150 bed so we got 1 1/2 F150s. LOL
Little bit of history that I know of:
The original owner bought it to drive as a good truck on the farm he took great care of it really. Later on he sold it a family in need of a truck they stuck a shell on it and drove it till they got another truck that was bigger. It ended up sitting for 2 years. It went on craigslist (where I had seen it for sale and thought about buying it before but didn't have the money) and the guy I got it from bought it with out the shell. I mention the shell for a reason you will see soon why. He bought it to haul water and ended up getting a bigger truck also. It sat for 6 more months where he saw our posting and we did the trade.
I will end this post and make a post of the problem and fixes next so the post doesn't get extremely long.
Trav
So first what the truck is:
1990 Ford F150 4x4 302 E4OD 3.55LS. It only has the LS in the rear unlike my 88. She is a regular cab long bed with white and blue exterior and blue interior. Also she is an XLT Lariat so she has all the power options. She has 181K about to hit 182K now.
Why we got the truck:
When we first moved up to the backwoods area that I live in we had bought a 1986 F150 4x4 302 AOD 3.55LS XLT Lariat regular cab long bed blue exterior and blue interior. Well after running the snot out of her and having that 302 and AOD getting extremely weak my dad decided he would get the Harley blood flowing a bit stronger and traded it for a 07 Harley Davidson heritage softail. He told me for 3 months after that that he missed his old F150 that was his baby. Well fast forward about a year or so and we picked up a 87 motorhome for free and did pretty much nothing to it to get it running and in decent shape. A few months went by and we decided we didn't want the motorhome (it was in the plan all along to flip it) so we put it up for sale or trade. Got a few bites on it but nothing we were interested in (having two chevys is enough). So it was getting to the point where we were about to take it off when a guy calls my dad up and says he has an F150 for trade and he wants a motorhome. Well that turned our head enough for us to go look at the truck. Shortly after we were driving home the F150 with a bed trailer made from an F150 bed so we got 1 1/2 F150s. LOL
Little bit of history that I know of:
The original owner bought it to drive as a good truck on the farm he took great care of it really. Later on he sold it a family in need of a truck they stuck a shell on it and drove it till they got another truck that was bigger. It ended up sitting for 2 years. It went on craigslist (where I had seen it for sale and thought about buying it before but didn't have the money) and the guy I got it from bought it with out the shell. I mention the shell for a reason you will see soon why. He bought it to haul water and ended up getting a bigger truck also. It sat for 6 more months where he saw our posting and we did the trade.
I will end this post and make a post of the problem and fixes next so the post doesn't get extremely long.
Trav
10-22-2014, 03:55 PM
#2
Maybe to many trucks?
Thread Starter
Now when I got it she wasn't perfect but really I didn't care because technically speaking I only had $200 wrapped up in the motorhome I traded for it and the trailer that came with it is worth that. Besides that I like to work on these old Fords.
So problems when I got her:
Passenger side exhaust manifold cracked all the way through.
Muffler with more holes then swiss chesse.
radio that came with the truck was hooked up like a drunk blind man hooked it up.
windshield had a crack
had some surface rust on the roof
body side moulding was falling off
no cargo light because of the shell (told you the shell mattered)
had some cheap foam like tape on the bed rails for the shell
the tail gate had a few dents in it
alternator was shot
valve cover gaskets leaked
supposedly on the high end she would start running like crap in OD
and she had a knocking noise upon start up.
Well after a couple of days I did this:
new fel pro valve cover gaskets
new upper intake gaskets
new alternator
a cargo light
pulled the body side moulding off
replaced the exhaust manifold (had an extra one from the bad engine in my 88)
replaced the neutral safety switch (because of the supposedly crappy running in OD which wasn't the problem)
replaced the PCV valve
new spark plugs (autolite 25 copper core) as 4 of the 8 were hand tight
and soldered a couple wires to the injector since it was completely chewed off!
Well doing the got rid of almost all the problems but didn't 100% fix the knocking problem. Well I decided to try some fuel injector cleaner I had and since running that the truck only knocks once in a while and now has pretty much stopped.
Well after driving it for a while longer we had no choice but to fix the other issues so I did this:
replaced the windshield (had one)
put full coverage on it
painted the wheels black
painted the wiper arms black
painted primer gray on the roof to get rid of the surface rust (I didn't want it rusting all the way through)
hooked up the stereo and put in two ranger rear speakers for the rear.
Fixed the spare tire mount.
That brings us up to where it is today.
Things I still need to do:
replace the muffler (Have the muffler (stock) but not enough clamps and would prefer to weld it in which I can't do just yet.)
get another center cap
change the oil
Those are the only real needs it has. Other then that just keep it maintained very well and have it reliable for me and my dad to drive everyday until I have my 88 F150 running then we both can cruise around in a couple of nice F150s bricknose style!
So now the wants for the truck:
brush guard like the 89 F250 and my 88 F150 has with a couple small lights
bed rails diamond plate (covers the holes for the shell and looks good) like my 88 has
truck box not a shorty style or in bed mount one either and has to be diamond plate
reapaint the truck either black and white (black where the blue is) or the stock colors again (bright regatta blue and white)
fix the dent in the tailgate
rebuild the engine one day (hopefully very later on)
rebuild the E4OD or get a monster transmission E4OD (again hopefully very later on)
put a hitch on it (this truck unlike my 88 will be seeing some loads other then just the Harleys)
get some 31 10.5 R15 TA Kos
Warn premium manual locking hubs (if these manual hubs ever quit. Plus it would be nice since my 88 can't get them)
better stereo (Sanyo touchscreen with navi and such like this one probably and only after the one that came with the truck gives up)
LED tailgate bar
full LED light conversion
maybe a headache rack (this is up to dad I know he wants something to stop people from getting through the back window)
2.5" true dual out the back with a nice sounding muffler and no cats
Other then that I can't think of to much else that we would do just yet to it. The list really got quite long considering originally we were going to do a full restoration and it turned into doing a lot what we were going to do to the 86 we use to have.
Just so you know we got the name twister because I like storm names and according to my brother their is a truck just like it in the movie twister (personally I can't remember.)
One last post after this for the pics.
Trav
So problems when I got her:
Passenger side exhaust manifold cracked all the way through.
Muffler with more holes then swiss chesse.
radio that came with the truck was hooked up like a drunk blind man hooked it up.
windshield had a crack
had some surface rust on the roof
body side moulding was falling off
no cargo light because of the shell (told you the shell mattered)
had some cheap foam like tape on the bed rails for the shell
the tail gate had a few dents in it
alternator was shot
valve cover gaskets leaked
supposedly on the high end she would start running like crap in OD
and she had a knocking noise upon start up.
Well after a couple of days I did this:
new fel pro valve cover gaskets
new upper intake gaskets
new alternator
a cargo light
pulled the body side moulding off
replaced the exhaust manifold (had an extra one from the bad engine in my 88)
replaced the neutral safety switch (because of the supposedly crappy running in OD which wasn't the problem)
replaced the PCV valve
new spark plugs (autolite 25 copper core) as 4 of the 8 were hand tight
and soldered a couple wires to the injector since it was completely chewed off!
Well doing the got rid of almost all the problems but didn't 100% fix the knocking problem. Well I decided to try some fuel injector cleaner I had and since running that the truck only knocks once in a while and now has pretty much stopped.
Well after driving it for a while longer we had no choice but to fix the other issues so I did this:
replaced the windshield (had one)
put full coverage on it
painted the wheels black
painted the wiper arms black
painted primer gray on the roof to get rid of the surface rust (I didn't want it rusting all the way through)
hooked up the stereo and put in two ranger rear speakers for the rear.
Fixed the spare tire mount.
That brings us up to where it is today.
Things I still need to do:
replace the muffler (Have the muffler (stock) but not enough clamps and would prefer to weld it in which I can't do just yet.)
get another center cap
change the oil
Those are the only real needs it has. Other then that just keep it maintained very well and have it reliable for me and my dad to drive everyday until I have my 88 F150 running then we both can cruise around in a couple of nice F150s bricknose style!
So now the wants for the truck:
brush guard like the 89 F250 and my 88 F150 has with a couple small lights
bed rails diamond plate (covers the holes for the shell and looks good) like my 88 has
truck box not a shorty style or in bed mount one either and has to be diamond plate
reapaint the truck either black and white (black where the blue is) or the stock colors again (bright regatta blue and white)
fix the dent in the tailgate
rebuild the engine one day (hopefully very later on)
rebuild the E4OD or get a monster transmission E4OD (again hopefully very later on)
put a hitch on it (this truck unlike my 88 will be seeing some loads other then just the Harleys)
get some 31 10.5 R15 TA Kos
Warn premium manual locking hubs (if these manual hubs ever quit. Plus it would be nice since my 88 can't get them)
better stereo (Sanyo touchscreen with navi and such like this one probably and only after the one that came with the truck gives up)
LED tailgate bar
full LED light conversion
maybe a headache rack (this is up to dad I know he wants something to stop people from getting through the back window)
2.5" true dual out the back with a nice sounding muffler and no cats
Other then that I can't think of to much else that we would do just yet to it. The list really got quite long considering originally we were going to do a full restoration and it turned into doing a lot what we were going to do to the 86 we use to have.
Just so you know we got the name twister because I like storm names and according to my brother their is a truck just like it in the movie twister (personally I can't remember.)
One last post after this for the pics.
Trav
10-25-2014, 11:16 AM
#5
Maybe to many trucks?
Thread Starter
Haha around here if you drive a full size ford then the chicks dig it because most people around here my age drive a brand new tundra or Tacoma or some type of prius like car. Only a hand ful of guys my age drive full size trucks.
Trav
Trav
10-26-2014, 04:40 AM
#7
Senior Member
i got an extra set of caps which one are you missing. i got an extra set of rims for snow tires but they came off a 2x4 so i cant use all the caps since mine is a 4x4. if your missing a rear cap i can mail you one
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10-26-2014, 11:19 AM
#8
Maybe to many trucks?
Thread Starter
tundras are full size trucks but personally I will never own one. How can somebody like a brand new truck that 15 minutes after going down these backroads around here have messed up body alignment and rattle.
I think it might cost to much to send the cap from virgina.
Trav
I think it might cost to much to send the cap from virgina.
Trav
