Sanding

So, rather than sand the truck with a hand sander, I bought a Harbor Freight 6in air sander for $35 - 20% coupon.

This made a long job much easier. However, HF doesn't carry higher grit papers for this tool. So I ended up at the auto paint store for some 320, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 discs for it.

De-FORD-ed the hood.

Minus-ed the F100 emblem.

And sanded the truck. There is still some rust to take care of, but hopefully it's moving forward. 

I just want to drive my truck.

A little oil leak...

A little oil leak has become a full blown project.

A few months ago I got an inline 6 cylinder 300ci engine and C6 automatic transmission for $200 from Craigslist. I thought that the efficiency would be nice to have, and I don't plan on pulling any stumps out, so I don't really need a 5.8l V8. Well, the V8 started to leak some oil, and I thought it would be time to do the swap.

So, here is the engine...

And here is the transmission...

But since we are taking the engine out we should clean up the engine compartment, right? Well, I want to paint the truck anyway. So I should buy some paint and do the engine compartment the same color as the truck. So I went to the paint store. I found a great deal on some paint. $80/gal.

So since we are going to paint, now we need to do some body work. Floor pans, other lower metal and some roof area have rust that need to be repaired.

There is rust on the drip rail.

From the inside of the cab.

Sanded down the bubbling bondo. Oh the horrors....

Tunes

I got sick of the radio, 1980's Kraco cassette player in the truck. So out it comes...

 Someone clipped the ears off a few years ago.

Night picture after a bit of Dremeling... truck looks Orange at night... weird.

Test fit. I was hoping that I didn't need the Metra 99-9222 kit. but from the sideview. I do.

I got a headunit that has Bluetooth for iPhone streaming.

Since I don't plan on moving the gas tank this year... I got an slim underseat sub/amp combo.

Soundstream slim subwoofer

Still working on this, I hope to be done in the next few days.

Fixing the seat

When I bought the truck, the seat looked good... looks are deceiving sometimes. I drove it from Irvine, CA to Gilbert, AZ and that seat bottomed out every bump I hit. There are definitely some broken springs.

So I have it back at the house after a couple of months at Roberts. I decided to fix the seat.
Amazon had a deal on Acme Headliner seat covers for the F100.
Acme U501-110 Front Black Vinyl Bench Seat Upholstery with Graphite Cloth Inserts
I got this for $33.44, today on Amazon it lists for $247. It's not the color I wanted, but for $34 it will do for now!

Seat is out... Carpet is horrible. Guess what is next?

Broken springs, one already replaced.

Gave the support bars a hit of some black paint after a light sanding.

I went to our local carpet and upholstry shop Mesa Sales. I bought...

70inx26in 2in high density foam (butt foam) ($36)

70inx26in 2in medium density foam (back foam) ($28)

12x No Sag springs ($2 each)

Bag of border wire clips ($4)

Burlap to cover the seat bottom ($6)

Total out the door was around $105ish with tax

 

I put 4 springs under the driver and passenger and cliped them in 3 places per spring.

The burlap was hog ringed in. I bought the Harbor Freight pliers. I did not like them at all.

HF Hog ring pliers However, they are better than the ones that came with the kit. More on this later...

I placed the foam on top of the burlap. 70 inch is too big and there was more overlap than I needed. BUT... you can't add to the foam after it's been cut... so too big wasn't a problem. I test fit and while Arizona isn't too cold in the winter, it was chilly enough in the garage that the vinyl needed some coaxing to fit over everything.

 
Some springs on the seat back were broken as well. I took the seat to a friend who does custom upholstery. He saw a Facebook post and said "I can help". I had completely forgotten that he did upholstery as a stress reliever.

We added some bar to the springs and clipped them in with a couple of clips...

When we went to put the 2in foam on the seat back, it was going to be too thick. Jim had some 1in foam for another project. I traded him my 2in for his 1in. Not a bad trade for him, the 1in was worth about $8-10. But it was there, no going to the store, which was closed 1/1/2015 when I was doing this anyway. The 1in works nicley (based on garage sitting, since I haven't put it back the truck yet).

 We worked in his "Arizona Room" shop which had heat! Here is the finished product.

 Home in my colder garage....

I pulled the carpet and this glue was underneath. I am cleaning it up now....

After thoughts... the hog rings that come with the kit are attached like staples for a stapler... not loose. They are straight. Jim had some that were offset a bit from tip to tip. Jim's allow for the ring to come around in a circle easier.

I wish I would have prepared a bit more with the hog rings, the tool they sent was cheap and nearly un-usable. (included in a $35 upholstery kit, I won't complain on price... but I didn't look at it before I got the kit out.) I suggest you buy this and get it shipped in, no place local to me had it.

Bostich P7 or the DeWalt Hog Ring Pliers for $27 form Home Depot (online only). Same thing as DeWalt bought Bostich.

Update 2/1/2015 :
I realized that the frustration with the Harbor Freight Hog Ring Pliers was due to the hog rings themselves. What I got was a set of rings like staples, sorta glued together. The rings would close on themselves and meet at the end.

Jim had some that were offset a bit so that they would close into a tighter circle. These made the HF pliers work MUCH better.