1965 F250’s Rejuvenation

Nickel welding rods will be your friend with cast iron, never had it fail yet

Very dear to buy but shrink warp of twist

Probably pre heat etc and a wheel barrow full of dry sand to bury it in to cool down slowly


Paul

Agree with Paul on the nickel rods and yep they are pricey but the good news is you can buy small packs of 6 or so, enough to do your repair. Preheat only make it a better job as does the slow cool down. I have even seen a jobv thrown into an open fire after welding and let the fire go out. Find it in the morning so you can have a beer in front of the fire after the job is done.

Cheers guys. I have grabbed some of them already. Had planned to do something like what you mentioned. I’m an ordinary welder, never had to do much so hoping it turns out ok.

Have a look nickel welding using Tig
Have Silicone Bronze Stainless Steel to Cast with this before

Hey all. There has been a bit of progress with a couple overdue fiddly and too hard basket tasks complete. The intake manifold has been welded. I’d been procrastinating about it as it’s one of those tasks which I considered out of my league. Finally gave it a crack over the past couple days and it worked out better than I thought. I used nickel rods as suggested with a stick welder. A small amount of pitting is present on the finished product but not enough to concern me. Some sections must have had some crap causing issues, whereas other parts were great. I’m average at best when welding so chances are it might have just been me.


The manifolds has been reinstalled and it’s running as intended so I’m calling it a success.

I made a small nylon bush which took longer than I care to admit for the wiper mechanism which links the 2 together. A couple washers and an E clip completed the process. Yet to test them out but I’m confident it’s sorted.


Wiper blades, new indicator lenses and the side mirrors are all but sorted now too.

One of the bonnet hinges needed to be repaired. They have never worked properly and flopped about as a pivot point had pulled through. After fixing them and engaging the springs I opened the bonnet up. The hinges kinda snapped into position and now it’s stuck open. I’ve not tried to hard yet to sort it. Do any of you know why they might have done that? Was it an old way to keep bonnets up and there is a trick to get it down? Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

I cannot remember what system my F250 had but I sold it in 1985.

If the hinges are anything like an International, they will have a small semi-circle on the hinge mount for a round pin on the hinge to click into. If it is like this, just pull the bonnet down enough to pull the pin out of the hole and the bonnet will drop down.

English vehicles had a hinged or concertina-ing two piece bonnet stay with a small level near the join in the stay for you to push towards the rear of the vehicle to unlock the stay.

Dad had an F700, & sometimes if the Bonnet was opened Too High. The Hinge used to go over centre..(if that makes sense) From Memory it was a 2 person Job to close the Bonnet.
One person t ogently pull down on the Top/front of the bonnet & another to Push the Bonnet Up at the Hinge area..

I probably haven't explained myself very well..though....

I think hayseed is onto something there with the lift going too high and hinge is now over centre.

Thanks guys. Had a look at it a bit this afternoon whilst my partner was around to assist. Spot on with them going ‘over center’. Its meant to stop on a notch but they passed it. The hinges have an insane amount of play in them. Tomorrow I will pull all of the rivets tight with vice grips and weld them into position. I’m hoping that will fix my issue, don’t really want to purchase new.

Also tested the windscreen wipers out today. The new bush worked a treat. Just had to remove one of the wiper arms and reposition so they were both at the same point of motion.

Well, I’ve done some work to the hinges. Although they are operating way better and opening correctly they still won’t close properly. The bonnet needs to be pushed down at the hinge point after it is closed to sit properly. Not sure how that will fly on a roadworthy so have started looking for a replacement set, chances are I’ll purchase new. I really didn’t want to open this can of worms as I believe they are prone to rusting the nutserts and it requires surgery to repair as they are not accessible. All of that is subject to you lot having suggestions. Thanks.