Booba5185

Hey everyone,
My name is Matt, and I'm new to the site, but not really new to these trucks. My Grandpa bought my truck when it was new (I was 4) and put a pop up camper on it immediately. From then on, every vacation or break I had from school, we were traveling. By the time I was 18, I had been to 38 states in it. When I was 21, he gave it to me with 55,000 on the clock. It now has 84k on it, and has moved me across the country, from AZ to MO.
Here's one of my first trips in it:

My Grandpa, on the same trip:

I'm a gearhead electronic nut, so naturally, I couldn't leave well enough alone. During the time I've had it (it was BONE stock when I got it), I've swapped in F350 brakes (Booster, MC, and rear cylinders), 3G alternator, dual Taurus e-fans, Saginaw power steering, Explorer injectors, Mustang A9L MAF swap, Mustang HO cam (and roller) swap advanced 2*, put on some GT40Ps, a 4+1 mod in the 3.55 trak lock, dual batteries, an E350 transmission cooler, external transmission filter, Explorer OHC, and a few other odds and ends.
Here's the truck at that point, basically:




After that, things went downhill for the truck. I installed a Transgo shift kit and it never shifted right again. I reinstalled the kit 3 or 4 times, messed with the TV cable a BUNCH of times, contacted Transgo, took pics of the entire install, and never could get it to shift right. Life got in the way (my wife got pregnant with our second child), so we bought a GTP which took my gearhead focus away from the truck...and it sat for 4 years. Well, Grandpa passed in November 2016, so I had to get the truck on the road...after we went on a trip to go see Grandma since she had never met the kids. This brings us to July 2017. I contacted Dan at Silverfox and explained all of the problems to him, and had him build a SPT1 Valve body for me. I isolated the batteries and replaced them, changed the fluids, put some MMO in the cylinders, drained and filled new gas, disconnected the fuel pump relay and coil wire, and turned it over for about 30 seconds to prime it all. Connected the FPR and coil wire back up, and it fired like I drove it yesterday. Gave it a quick wash, and this was it, 4 year old expired tags and all:

Believe it or not, she passed inspection sitting that way. From there I proceeded to do a full tune up, replace the MC, booster, one rear cylinder, new ceramic pads (and greased bearings, etc.), take the brush guard off, and convert everything except the headlights over to LED, added some LED bed lights, underhood lights, etc.


I also slapped on a Gatorback belt and smog pump bypass, I tried running a shorter belt and it squeaked, no matter what. Cleaned up the tensioner a bit too while I was in there:

When I installed the GT40Ps, I never upgraded the valve springs, so that happened. Some Alexparts Springs, good to .540 lift:

I reached my 10 picture max...onward to post #2!!!

Booba5185

Then, through some wheelings and dealing, I ended up with some Hedman 89350 LT headers. I set up an electrolysis hot tank, cleaned them up, painted them, and installed them. Thank GOD they clear the GT40Ps just fine.
Before:

Hot tanked:

Ceramic Painted:

Installed:


Then...to take care of these...they're only from 2006...

I had a bit of a change of direction with the truck. I decided to go for the whole street truck look. It's a long bed, but it's also a 2WD, if I swapped it over to 4WD I'd ding and dent it up playing around, and I want it to stay "clean" in Grandpa's honor. I picked up some Gen 2 Lightning replicas with some Nitto 295 45 18s on them...which gave the truck a gloriously horrible wheel gap. Looked like her skirt was hiked up everywhere she went...

So I went ahead and ordered a Belltech drop kit, lowering it 2 inches in the front on progressive springs, and 3-4 inches in the rear. I just got that installed on Thursday, still need to get an alignment:


Tuesday, I'm installing these:


That pretty much brings us up to current. Believe it or not, I have many, MANY more pics of it all. The only real problems with the truck now are a slight pinion seal leak (which I'm hoping to use as an excuse to go to 4.10s), an oil pan leak, and spongy brakes. The only thing that really has me stumped is the stupid brakes. I've clamped off all hoses with no difference from one hose to the next, done a full brake job, replaced the MC twice, bled about 6 quarts of fluid through it, etc. At this point, I'm going to replace the 3 hoses, then replace the booster again. Then it's ALL new. Again. Sorry for the very lengthy post, but what do you guys think?

McLovin

SWEEEEET rig!!!!!!!

Booba5185

Thanks man! It sure has come a long way, but it also has a long way to go. One of my kids will get it some day. In fact, when my son gets old enough we're going to build a stroker for it. He's 6 now, so it'll be 6 or 7 years of course.

OCMike

iTrader: (1)

Nice truck with a great history! I admire folks that live outside the snowbelt. Up north it almost doesn't matter how well you take care of a steel vehicle if you drive it year round it's going to rust away.

Take good care of it and who knows, you might be passing it on to you're own grandkids.

Mike

Booba5185

That is one of the plans, to POR15 everything. It's an AZ truck, so it's nice to have no major rust. It only has surface rust on the frame now.

Apples

An outstanding thing for you to have posted on Christmas Eve. What a great story. Your granddad was a good man.

Neat truck! too. I think you might go back to the OG wheels. The brakes on some of this vintage can be problematic. Hang in there; you'll find a solution. You're a gearhead.

I'm confused on this point, though: " a 4+1 mod in the 3.55 trak lock". What the hell is that. I'm familiar with TracLoc limited slips, but what's a 4+1 mod? lulz. And is this a 302 or 351 Wheezer? I'm guessing since you're thinking stroker, it's a 302? although a 410-stroked 351 would certainly pull some freight!

Welcome aboard! and Merry Christmas!

Apples

Oh, and did you ever sort out the shifting on the AOD? The TV cable should be fresh, not split or stretching... and, ensure that idle on the trans lever matches idle on the throttle body or carb... and the the WOT positions match too. That's a hurdle with those old things...

UNBROKEN

iTrader: (1)

I dig it.

Booba5185

The new VB fixed the shifting problem. It's still a little soft at WOT, but Dan (Silverfox) is working with me on it. I don't want to pull the VB and ship it off again until I figure out if I'm going to 4.10s or not. I'm also tossing around the idea of a 2500 stall. I tried all kinds of ways to set the TV, cable slack at WOT and idle, with a gauge (with a spacer and watching the gauge as I drive), etc.

We plan on a 351 stroker, up to a 408w. Who knows what Coyote's might cost then, so that's always an option, too.

I went with the Lighting wheels because I'm wanting a semi-lightning type setup, and I wanted something bigger than 15s. The turbines looked good, but I had them for 7 years, it was time for something different. That, and I went from a 9.3" wide tire to 11.6" lol.

The 4+1 mod should really be called the 3+1 mod. You basically stuff another clutch in the stack. The factory setup is Clutch, shim, shim, Clutch, shim shim, Clutch. The way I did it was to take the factory clutch facing the spider and flip it (since it faces the spider it get's no wear at all), and change the stack to Clutch, shim, Clutch, shim, Clutch, shim, Clutch. You end up with 4 clutches on each side, and a tighter stack so it'll bite a bit harder. I had to add in a bit more friction modifier, but it definitely grabs more than before.

Oh, and once the brakes are squared away, I'll probably be upgrading to '74 Thunderbird calipers, quite a bit larger bore, and same pads and all. I need to try and verify that they'll fit my spindles. I know they fit 80-85 spindles because they are the single slide pin design, 86+ uses 2 pins. Pictures make it look like they'll fit, but I haven't been able to verify if they'll fit my style. I have a few buddies who work at JYs, and they'll be trying it for me so I know. I'm going to wait until I either have my brakes fixed, or verify the calipers are the problem. I don't want to introduce something when the system isn't working right. I had the F350 brakes before the 4 year hiatus, and if you were careful, you'd be picking teeth out of the steering wheel.

Thanks guys!