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.

Oil leak and MPG

The 352 v8 the truck came with has an oil leak... EPA style problem. I got about 9 mpg on the drive over from California. So I was thinking about an engine swap to get a bit better mileage. The 1969 F100 I drove in 1989 had an inline 6, I don't remember 240 or 300. So I have always had that in the back of my mind.

I was searching Craigslist for "f100 | f-100" my standard search.

I found a 300/C6 transmission combo for $200! The kid needed money and I got to him first. Well, sorta. My truck isn't trustable to the distance I would have to go.  Gilbert to Wittman, Az

I had to get my brother in law's truck, and that proved to be tough...Thanksgiving week, Christmas choir concerts, it seemed like I would lose it to another person who could make it over quicker. However the kid stuck to his promise to sell to me. I got the engine and headed out to Roberts house to drop it off. Robert will help me rebuild it as soon as he has garage space.

A local FTE member had a Offenhauser DP intake for sale... and I got that and a Holley 4180 4bbl carb. I ordered EFI exhaust manifolds and need to source some exhaust parts next.

New Tires

The Craigslist tires I got were weathered and cracking a bit more than I liked. They worked well for "rollers" to make sure that the lowering gear was going to work right. But.... they needed to be replaced.

My local tire shop made me a deal, and the tires were replaced.

I came out Saturday night to pull the truck into the back yard, and the front tire was flat. The valve stem sheared off. So I jacked it up and took the tire off. I'll take it back to Kevin on Monday.

I get this picture as a text from my son Sunday morning. Another sheared valve stem. Disappointment.... 

Monday morning I called Kevin, he sent a tow truck at no charge, and found that the box of valve stems was old and he tossed them all. Kevin replaced the stems and told me to come get my truck, no charge. I understand problems, I know things happen, it's all about how you deal with them. Kevin treated me well, and I will keep going back.

Bump steer, steering stabilizer and alignment

After the DJM kit, AC, radiator and 3g Alternator upgrades, my truck came home. All the way there it drove like a skittish cat. I ordered the Moog SSD20 steering stabilizer. $52 from Jegs, O'Rielly had it for $90+tax. That was just too much of a difference to buy locally. Kevin at the tire shop installed it for me, he has a lift... I don't. $40, so all in $90 and I got some steering stabilization.

Alignment is a tough one on these trucks. The people that used to have the tools sold them, or sent them to scrap after not being used for months on end. In Mesa, Az I found Bailey's Brakes still did Twin I beam alignment. $60 later, she drives straight and true.

3G Alternator

Alternator died during the installation of the AC unit. I didn't want to put in the correct underpowered one. I hit the Pick-a-Part on Extension and Main in Mesa, Az. I found a 3g alternator in a 1996 Taurus. Pulled it and paid $34. One the way home I took it to Autozone and they tested it for no charge. Alternator was good! Sourced a fuse and holder from Napa. Sourced a carne asada burrito from Filliberto's and went to change it out on the truck.

It was simple, the alternator bolts to the same bracket. The pulley was swapped from the serpentine back to the V belt.

I live in Arizona or Install the dang AC quick!

I live in Arizona, I have a job. I WILL afford AC in this moving oven I call a truck.
I bought a kit from Nostalgic Air that included the underdash style of AC for this model truck.
A bit spendy at $994 but it should look good when it's done.

The truck was at Roberts house for the DJM kit install so I dropped this off and asked him to install while I was traveling. He said ok!  The install went ok, the fittings arrived as shown, Robert ended up at a local shop to get the fittings crimped on once he got the right length on the tubing. The fit on the underdash wasn't a "perfect" fit like it should have been. but overall it looks ok.

This did tax the radiator, and the truck was overheating... so a new radiator was ordered from Jegs and it helped alot. 

Lowered

Hello, I am Robert aka The Keeme aka Dave Williamses'friend. I did a few things to the 67 Bumpside, here are a few pics and descriptions of what was done. Enjoy!

Lowered the front with dream beams from DJM and the rear with hangers and shackles. More details and stuff to follow.