Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 1978 F-150 shot box 4x4- New project

Those trucks are made for days like this.

I think you should Dave. It's a nice truck already, you'd have her top notch pretty quick I bet.

Brownine is a great truck. If your looking for another M, c6, or massive heavy duty t-case, I can get you some.

That metallic brown that Ford has now, would look sharp on Browine, Dave. Even with the two tone like it is now.

Yeah I would maybe go original colors on it. I like the root beer metalic brown. if anything I would maybe change the solid color (creamish tan) to something else... maybe a more modern OEM gold that goes with the brown metalic.

that would look sharp with the gold. It would look 70's that's for sure.

My '55 is 1977 Ford Brown Metallic. Probably the same as the dark brown on 'Brownie I'd guess.

I was thinking of doing the '78 that color, but I donno. I was kinda hoping for a dark green metallic/tan combo. I'm yanking a tan seat out of an 85, that is in good shape.

You ever "bedliner" a floor? Carpet was my first though, but it is going to be a hunting truck after all.

well, I like a good heavy molded rubber floor with sound deadening mat, or that foil wrapped bubble wrap insulation under a good jute pad, or both. I like a good insulated floor & I also like running it inside the doors & some sound deadening pad/insulation behind the seat on the back of the cab too.

for us guys up in the great white north anyways.

If i was down south sure I'd probably just go bedliner over the bare metal floor.

But I like that insulation & once you start quiting those old cabs with new side window felt, rubber weatherstripping etc.... well that quiet is nice & it's addicting, you want more quiet.

Yeah, I forgot about the back of the cab. It is nice to "listen" to the quiet.

That insulated foil with the rubber floor sounds like the way to go.

that's what I did on that 78 I fixed up years ago.

it's also what i plan on doing with my 77

Do you put anything over it, when it's on the back of the cab? Mine is bare steel.

I just went as high as my seat back on my 78 so you couldn't see it unless you flipped the seat back forward.

Keep in mind- whatever you use for insulation can't hold moisture- it needs to be water repellent=. It it's not, it'll play hell on your truck metal, especially when exposed to salt on the outside and moisture on the inside. I'm aleady facing redoing cab corners again on the '78. BTW, mine is painted with dark metallic grey- it was an F150 color in the late 1980's.
McMaster-Carr for all your needs....
Jim

I just spent 4 hours in the shop pulling power steering pump, alternator, fant etc out of the way so i could pull the water pump on my 352M since I suspected the fins were rottet off or something (i've been chasing heating & cooling gremlins)

pump was fine, waste of time (except now I know.)

I flushed the heater core while I was at it but it seemed clean... dang.

I had an 85 f150 with that color. Nice. I have about a million colors running through my head on this one, but I keep coming back to dark metallic green/tan combo.

What's the deal?

When I fired mine up the day before I came up to chickenbuck, I couldn't get it to blow heat either. It had good coolant, the hoses were warm, the "in" hose into the heater was warm, but the return hose was not... I didn't know what it was, and I didn't have time to figure it out, so it's one more thing added to the list.

Thermostat.

The 335 series engines (ours) used a recirc design for the coolant system.

If you take the thermostat out of your engine & look down in there you will see the recirc port right under the thermostat.

You need a special thermostat.

The thermostat needs to do 2 things instead of just one thing.

Instead of just opening to let coolent up the neck to the radiator the stat also needs to block off the recirc port.

You need Motorcraft RT139 thermostat or i've heard robertshaw 333-192 works well also.

But if you just go to an auto parts store & tell them you need a stat, they are going to give you the wrong one, likely for a windsor engine.

I ordered the Motorcraft RT139

I'll let you know if it fixes my problems.

good info on the t-stat- mine has never heated for crap. The radiator, water pump, hoses, t-stat, all replaced when I went through the truck the last time. I don't have a clutch on the fan- probably ought to get one of those too....

Good to know. I'm willing to bet it has a Windsor stat in it. He didn't drive it much after it was rebuilt. That is where I'll start.

Thanks man.

have a look at this link, it does a good job of explaining why you need the right stat.

http://www.are.com.au/feat/techt/thermostat.htm

that bipass port I believe runs to your pump & shares an inlet to the pump along with your heater core return hose.

So, unless that bipass port is blocked off by the stat your pump aint gonna pull much at all through your heater core.

The link explains it very well.

That seems exactly like what was happening. Thanks a bunch!!!

dudes, the stat was the missing link.

I put it in today, very nice.

engine temp under control, heat in the cab, it's all good.

Cool man...I'll have to pick one up then. Thanks man.