Black Friday Ambo

[patoz]

Between the 95* heat, rain every afternoon, mosquitoes, and my lower back injury, not much right now. I'm trying to finish up a bunch of little home repair projects and making sure I'm ready for hurricane season, then clean off the carport some and try to make a place to work. I really do wish I had a shop or garage to work out of.

I am working on little things on it like moving wiring, etc. but it's just too hot to get much done at any one time. Once I get caught up some, I'm going to start cleaning up some of those lights I got from you so I can tell exactly what I've got to work with.

 

[flightcancled]

I bet you could build most of the electrical on a bench. Pre- make the harnesses and sort out bugs with a car battery. That'll keep you in AC.


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[patoz]

Actually, I have a couple of small 5,000 BTU window unit air conditioners that I can use, and I was trying to figure out yesterday how to mount one temporarily. Of course that won't help until I get to the inside. First thing is to get the cab, engine, and transmission gone and then figure out the frame and tongue part. No point in spending any money on it until I know that part is going to work out.

Basically this is what I'll end up with, and I'm planning on putting a long diamond deck tool box across the front between the body and the triangle part of the frame. This looks like a short box, but mine is about 12.5' long.

 

[flightcancled]

I never knew you were going to build it into a trailer! Does that mean you will have van parts you don't need?

Huge advantage there is storing propane on a standard RV holder on the yolk would be really safe and easy.


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[patoz]

Yep, everything forward of the box, with the exception of about 4' of the frame, will go including the 7.3 engine and automatic transmission. I was hoping to find a welder who needed the engine and/or transmission, and trade it for removing the cab and building the tongue, but so far no luck. I've also considered removing the box and having it set on a custom made trailer frame using a straight axle and single or dual wheels depending on the remaining weight. So many decisions to make and this is why I'm not making very much progress at this point. That, and the 111* heat index!

I'm hoping to mount the tool box, propane, and possibly the spare tire horizontally in between the frame rails of the tongue, utilizing a Ford F Series spare tire winch assembly to lower it down.

Do you need some parts?

 

[flightcancled]

I'm missing the cup holder tray and the rubber boot over the overdrive button on the shift nob. Beyond that I might be interested in some misc stuff depending on what's there.


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[patoz]

This is a '95 but my dash looks just like it, except the steering wheel is different in the center. I don't have any kind of drink holder, much less one with a tray. What year is yours? Also, the OD button at the end of the shifter is hard plastic with no boot.

 

[flightcancled]

Older years had a pull out tray where the trim is below the radio. If you can I'd take that trim and all the other bottom parts like it. Mine have all been spray painted to look like carbon fiber. Tacky!

So I started by realizing I had some black wheel paint laying around and ripping of the simulators from the font wheels. They were super thin and dented badly.

Not 100% sure I like the black. Loved it on Tony's though.

While painting I noticed something funny in the wheel well on the driver side. Things deteriorated quickly...

No idea how I'm going to fix this well without welding. Maybe sheet metal and rivets or something. Removing the seats and stock carpet/ cleaning the floor/ painting POR-15/ sound deadening/ replacing everything back/ relocating the inverter and maintainers was a planned future phase, but I wasn't expecting to be trying it now.

This blows




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[java]

Ouch. Sounds like you need a welder. Rivets work for holes, but that's kinda a structural part under the door sill. Oh and welding rusty metal sucks....

 

[patoz]

What you need is my whole cab, the floorboard is in great shape. I wonder how much that would cost to ship? :yikes:



Once I make a definite decision and separate the cab, I'll start stripping it. Right now I want to keep it together in case someone local wants the whole thing. We can figure out what you can use then, if that's OK?

 

[flightcancled]

That sounds great Pat!

The damage stops right at the crossmember. I'm going to try and see what I can figure out. Maybe my neighbor who does a lot of metalworking will be able to help...

Seats and all my hard work on the electrical system removed. The only thing left are the seat belts which are fastened with monster star pattern bolts. I'm trashing the OEM carpet and switching to more grey utility carpet.



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[cjken]

Here is the tray.
Un fortunately my donar ambo is missing it.



Alex check the rib where the cab mounts to the frame for rust. That is another place that could be an issue.

 

[patoz]

Yep, I went and bought a Torx bit just for that job.

From all of the vehicle restoration shows I've seen on TV, the correct way to repair that floorboard is to find a matching cab in a junkyard and cut out that section, but make it larger than the damaged area on yours. Then use it as a template, cut out the damaged area on yours, and weld the donor part in place.

Not exactly something you can do with a jigsaw and a propane torch.

 

[flightcancled]

Yeah well get ready to see some serious redneck "restoration"


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[flightcancled]

Making progress

Also this was just too funny:

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