1965 F250’s Rejuvenation

Over the last few months I have seen a few different 4wd vehicles parked up on the side of the road with the gearbox sitting on the ground. I dont know if this is some sort of a new sport going on but I dont want tp play this game.
Almost 45 years back when we were driiiiiiiving FJ, FC and FB cars and did a gearbox we found it easier to get the rear wheels up on the car ramps so when we were placing the bax back in it was gravity helping us.

When the Viets were next to my yard at Willawong,they had a novel way of doing Volvo clutches.......take all the wheels off the truck and sit the brake drums on bricks,then tunnel under the truck to get to the gearbox ,pull it back on the dirt .......but the funny part was they did the clutch wrong,cause Volvos had pull clutches and push clutches ,and they got the wrong one from the wreckers.

Where I did my time we had a fleet of Dodge brick trucks that we serviced.
Many a time one would turn up on a tow truck with a burnt clutch, we could turn them around pretty quick.
Had an Austin 1800 sump guard and chains to go over the chassis rails, unbolt every thing and just slide the box back on the guard, new clutch in then just slide the box back.
Hard part was not burning yourself on the hot clutch that came out. All cover bolts on the floor were easy as they never had time to corrode before the next clutch.

Hey all,

Prepped the wheel arches and under the cab for some body deadener this afternoon then painted the side mirrors and fuel tank.

Between jobs an old 308 I purchased 10+ years ago got the better of me so I pulled the intake and 1 head off to get an idea of its condition for rebuilding. I picked it up to build a stroker motor for an old Holden I have but just never got to it for various reasons, although, it’s still on the to do list. Thought I’d share some pictures of its insides…… filthiest motor I have opened up. The positive was it measured up to be a standard bore so never been seriously worked on, which was good news. I got concerned when I pulled the intake manifold that it could have been a junker as you will see from the pictures. The oil is just caked onto everything.

I wouldnt even say that was a bad one, Ive seen Holden V8s that badly sludged that the only room under the rocker covers was where the rockers were moving and up until I pulled the covers they were still running reasonably well. A stroker Holden V8 just makes a a great engine better, Ive had a few over the years 333, 355 and 383, Im keen to try a big paw 400 one day.

600Dodge,

Yeah ok. Would almost think at that point you mentioned friction would get the better of it, although it might just act like a grease.

A 355 is planned for this one. These days I’m tempted to go a low compression motor + Holley Sniper + forced induction but it’s a not so common car so need to keep myself in check and just keep it as a nice cruiser with a basic stroker build.

Body deadener went on in the wheel arches and under the cab today. Ended up being a bit of a headache but it got there.

I had a one 1L tin of spray on deadener and purchased an extra 4L tin to refill the 1L to keep using the spray gun. The shop gave me the stuff off the shelf when I was discussing what I was doing and I didn’t check it, my mistake. They gave me brush on instead of spray on. Rang Septone and they said to cut it with 5% thinners and it will work with the gun. That kinda worked to start with but was just too thick and the air passing through the gun was drying it within the discharge tube then it just turned into a hell of a mess. If you are ever needing to do the same thing I found around 10% thinners was more manageable.

For reference, wheel arches are actual spray on and under the cab is the home brew.

Nice work Urchy. I would have been caught by the same mistake, buying the brush on instead of spray. I thought clean up/thinning could be done using turps.

Cheers cobbadog, it was good to get this done. It’s a bit of a milestone getting to this point for me as it means everything can start going back together. Gearbox/interior in etc, should all start coming together now.

Hey all. Well, the gearbox box is back in drive shafts connected and the wheels are turning. Battled with the gearbox for a bit trying to utilize the motorbike jack, ended up going to the trolley jack which
I was first concerned about using due to stability. It turned out to be incredibly stable as the NP435 is quite compact and heavy so it just sat really nice in the lifting plate.


It took quite a lot of playing around and then it just slipped in like it was no problem, had me worried something wasn’t right but all was well.

Other than that I’ve replaced a leaking wheel cylinder reinstalled the front wheel hubs after the kingpin saga and bled the brakes again. I seem to waste so much brake fluid when doing brakes. Perhaps I should get one of the air bleeders to minimise wastage. Have also hit the chassis with some black paint to tidy it up.

Tomorrow I will drop the steering box off to the local fabrication shop to turn a new bush required for where the sector shaft exits the box, can’t wait to get that in and take it for a drive around the block. Also now the gearbox is back in that allows me to get the interior reinstalled, will start on that tomorrow…..fingers crossed I can get it mostly complete.

Have also had a lesson learned moment. I left the gearbox tucked against the shed with a rag tightly stuffed in the shifter hole. We have had an incredible amount of rain for this area and the direction the storms have been coming from was favorable for funneling some water into the gear box. Thankfully I thought I’d check if it had happened before I filled it with oil. There was a few hundred ml of water in the box. Thankfully there was only a small amount of surface rust forming.