'98 XLT 5.0 Frame Off Restoration

[Jstcruz]

. You don't need to remove that to pull the body off or to pull the engine. I took it out because it was rusted far too badly to save.

I have a rad support but I'm in Florida. If you have trouble finding one maybe we can figure out something.

 

[hans the boss]

ok obie i like the way you did it anyway because now you getting the bad pease of rust away from the engine bay and front of body i saw it goes badly to rust in the front of body were the oil and water radiators goes ford have done this build up badly they could done it better because the sad type of metalshape of the front support i mean better metal better paint and other way to protect the shetmetall of front i got my front badly rusted up to so i now how mutch work i got in the front of body work now well onlt to take up the arms and work hardly hehehe.. good luck my friend ..i look to read more of your skills with this truck..see yaa..

 

[obie]

I have a rad support but I'm in Florida. If you have trouble finding one maybe we can figure out something.

No need, Bob Utter Ford had an OEM brand new one for around $150 with shipping. Which is ridiculous, because I paid more than that for the tupperware to replace my running boards. Somehow plastic is more expensive than a large metal body part.

Though it was damaged in the shipping. They literally just threw it in a cardboard box and taped it closed. No peanuts, bubble wrap, nothing. So some of the tabs and one of the corners is bent, but nothing that can't be tapped back into place.

Today I finally got the last of the body parts over there. They now have all four doors, the hood, and both fenders.

 

[obie]

Ordered some new wheels today

Black Rock Defender Series 905:

There are American made, steel, 15x8 with -19mm offset/3.75" back spacing. Should give me about a two inch wider stance, and look a bit more aggressive. Not a true beadlock, but I'm also using this for city and highway driving.

Price wasn't bad either, about a hundred bucks a wheel from Quadratec. New conical black lugs were about fourty and then fifty-seven in shipping. So just a hair under five hundred and one dollars. This particular wheel doesn't seem to be carried by many stores though, so I'm not sure if I overpaid or not. Though I've seen them listed at a hundred and thirty-seven a wheel.

The last few days I've been trying to think of a nickname for the truck, and I haven't come up with anything I like. Any ideas?

 

[Keeper0311]

Man quite an undertaking! Looks great too man, love it when people save their Ex's from the big sand pit in the sky.

 

[obie]

Yeah, I could never let this girl die. Saved my ass when I got pushed off the road into a median with two feet of snow at 70 by a city bus, or when I had to swerve away from a semi truck going north then bouncing off a wall into the south lanes. Winters spent climbing hills of solid ice, all the dirt trails, mud pits, and fishing trails I wandered down. All the times I would fold down the rear seats and spend time with the girlfriend in the cargo area So many good memories.

 

[delexploder]

Yea the shagging wagon

 

[obie]

Not too much happening lately. Just ordered new body mounts from Daystar, and a new evap canister bracket. Going to be picking up a Ramsey QM 5000 winch from a guy I work with on Friday for $275, not a bad deal considering brand new (though discontinued) they're around $1,150. Made in USA too

I asked the guys from http://www.truckwinchmount.com/ if they have a winch mount/grill guard available for a 1998. Their catalog is 99 and above, but I don't think the frame or body lines are too much different to make it not work. If they've got one I can use, then I can get that plus a skid plate from RCI. If not, I'm going to need a front hitch receiver from Curt and no skid plate

I also got those Black Rock 905 wheels last Thursday. The shop is going to be test fitting them tomorrow. I doubt there's going to be any clearance issue, but it's better to find out now than when I can't return them.

Speaking of the body shop, as soon as they finish this Mustang within the next few days, the Ex is gonna get pulled back in and start the surgery. Made a nice big down payment for that today too.

Gotta admit though, I'm kinda freaking out thinking how much this paint is going to cost. Realistically, I really can't see it being more than three thousand, maybe three and a half. The body is already torn apart and it's not like I want a metallic super gloss. It's gonna be ultra flat camo, not a lot of prep work needed. Even still, I have this terrible feeling I'm not going to get quotes of less than five grand simply due to the pattern work. I've never had a vehicle repainted professionally before though, so maybe I'm just overestimating.

Monmix, if you're reading this, what do you think about the paint cost? Anyone else have an idea of what this should cost?

If it's too expensive, I may decide to go with a wrap on top of a tan exterior and interior basecoat. My brother's fiance's parents have a vinyl sign company, and they do make vehicle wraps. I could probably get it for just a bit above cost. I'd rather have true paint though.

 

[obie]

Holy crap, I just talked to the guys that make that winch mount, and for the deluxe model plus built in front hitch receiver plus truck freight its $1,085. Looks nice, but for that price I could probably get a completely custom fabbed offroad bumper with tubed headlight guards and a winch mount plus hitch receiver. And I already have a grill guard they could weld into the bumper to make it even cheaper.

 

[hans the boss]

why not do it your self and get something thats you are the only of whith your handycraft you can fix it easy

just think alittle bit then do some pics on paper the just buil it i belive in you obie go for it man go for it!!!

 

[drifte]

Ah nuts. Just read through all this and Im caught up. Keep the updates coming! I've always wanted to have a custome front guard and winch mount..just can never make up my mind what to do with the front bumper. leave stock, modify it, or completely replace it.

 

[hans the boss]

do you wanna have it in some special way tell me how and i trying to make an picture to you..youwanna mount in that winch okej??

well i do like the job you allready have done so keep up the good work obie..

 

[obie]

I'm not going to be getting a new bumper for quite some time, I was just looking for stuff for the future. Thanks for the offer though Hans.

Today was a pretty good day. Got my new Daystar body mount bushings, picked up that Ramsey winch, and finished undercoating my F150 before winter hits. If anyone wants to know of a good undercoating for pretty cheap, go with Amsoil HD Metal Protectant. It's wax based, very durable, and leaves a dark brown, almost black, color behind when it dries. But it smells like a crayon factory for about a week. With the Amsoil wholesaler thing, I think I paid 60 bucks for a case of twelve, and five or six cans will cover damn near everything on a full size truck.

 

[ford99_1979]

Is that stuff in aerosol spray bomb form or do you use an undercoating gun with air to apply it?

 

[obie]

Aerosol can. The cans are 16 ounces and last for quite a while. I did my whole truck twice over in about six hours total, spread over a few days. I don't know if Amsoil makes it in bottles that hook up to a schutz gun, I'd say probably not. They market it more as a chain lube. Works great for that too, used it on all my ATVs.

 

[obie]

So not too much has happened lately. Working on scrapping a 98 Eddie Bauer I have that is completely shot. Should get at least $600 for it. Gonna take my driveshafts over to a driveline shop tomorrow. Front needs a new boot, it got torn when I took it out. They'll be checked for balance and everything too. Got some more parts in that I dropped off at the bodyshop, and talked a bit about the paint while I was out there.

They're going with DuPont Imron paint for the primer/sealer, the four colors of paint, and flat clearcoat. This is supposed to be, basically, the toughest paint. And this is plus the POR15 on the underbody and areas of panel replacement and the few rust spots on the cab floors. I should get twenty years more out of the body, easy. I'm just wondering if I should still bedline my rockers, dog legs, and fender lips. Those are vulnerable still, and even more so because those Duratrac tires throw stones back up pretty hard. Eh, maybe the clear rock guard stuff would work well enough.

And good news about the cost too. I was talking with one of the people that run the place, and she said there's no way that paint job will cost me six grand, despite the pattern work. This isn't an exact quote, but she said it'll most likely be between three and four. For paint that will last me that long? Worth every penny. And that's a big load off my mind.

So the plan is that once they're done with the body work and paint, they'll put the liftgate and doors and exterior stuff back together, minus the fenders and hood. I'll take it back to my garage and do what I do best: wrenching! I'll finish the reassembly of the engine bay and all the other systems. Interior will remain stripped for a while. I'll put just the center console and driver's seat in. This will make it easier to re-tighten the body mounts bolts after 500 miles, plus make it easier to troubleshoot any electrical problems and whatnot. And that'll save me a lot of money.

Then the shop's gonna come pick it up again and bleed the brakes. I don't have the thing I need to bleed that ABS valve, so they're gonna take care of it. Once that's done, I'll have them do a once over and we'll fire it up and test drive it. Then I need emissions testing If everything is good, I'm gonna get the trans flushed, new pan filter, and then install a secondary filter. And that'll be it for a bit while I save up again. I really do want a TMHs and a new front offroad bumper...

As much as I would love to have this thing running this winter so I can play in the snow, it probably won't be. I'm going completely by the book on the reassembly. That means every single fastener gets anti-siezed and torqued to the specified amount, minus the percentage for using anti-sieze. Every single thing gets double and triple checked. I'm already **** about precision at work, and this is going to be even worse, haha.

Oh, and I realized I never posted a picture of the work they did on the liftgate. This isn't the finished product obviously, but even at that point it looked perfect. They have some damn good body guys.

 

[obie]

Oh man, I wish I had a picture of my rear driveshaft to show you guys. Looks like it came off a plow truck. So I dropped them off at Indiana Driveline in Schererville, Indiana today after work. They may have to weld a new tube onto the rear shaft, but they gotta see how it looks once they clean it up and check the balance. They also are going to modify the front driveshaft to go from CV style to a 1310 u-joint connection on the transfer case front output. It's about $200 for just that, but the first time I need to fix it on the trail it'll pay for itself. That's not to mention that the u-joint connection is stronger too, and a helluva lot easier to fix than a CV.

Also, for having 150k on the factory "lifetime lube" u-joints, they are in perfect shape. No brinelling, true or false, no scoring, no pitting, no heat damage, no grease/oil seperation, nada. Perfect shape. So these are gonna be used as trail spares. Never imagined a "lifetime lube" u-joint could go 150k miles and still be in perfect shape.

 

[FIND]

I keep telling people they last a hell of a lot longer than greaseable joints. No dirt/dust/moisture infiltration problems caused by seals made to be able to bleed off grease. No pumping in nasty stuff along with your fresh grease. No overfilling and blowing out the seals. Just well made parts with high quality lubricants.

 

[com4tably.numb]

Looks good so far

Looking forward to the continued updates.

 

[obie]

It's still going to be a few more months before it's even driving again, but there's a lot of suspension and axle work still to go.

I just got a very large raise at work, so I'm able to breathe easier about the financial part and take it a bit slower. I was starting to worry about not being able to have enough money to get my F150 fixed if it needed it. I got rear ended twice in the last six months and if it would have gotten totaled I would have been screwed. But God bless steel bumpers and the plastic cars that hit them As it is, the worst damage was to the safety chain tab on one side of my hitch, and my favorite hitch cover got broken.

I've been thinking about doing something different with the hood though, maybe making it similar to a Super Duty hood I really like:

I like this one too:

I'm not sure how that would look on the Ex though. Very few people have custom hoods that aren't the tape on plastic ones. I'd like to do it with full steel and no glassing. That's easy for a low rise cowl, but a lot more work for a ram air setup like that.