1972 F250 Camper Special - My Project for 2006

[phawgg]

I am here ... thanks for askin'

Typically busy or contemplating being so.
Awoke this morning to birdcalls & dippin' temperatures, wondering why
the Congress is such a pit and where the bill was for my annual dues
to the local homeowner's association was. It's due at the end of the month.

The truck remains a shining example of thrift.

It's been the fuel pump issue thats given me the only thing to worry about, really. The second one, a "micropump" like the first one that failed, started to give me curious, loud intermitant noises ... a clattering that made a mockery of the otherwise solid chassis & running gear. I'd pull into the grocery store parking lot and next thing I know it sounds like some distant reminder of the Ford Model T days with some addon feature a guy could buy to relive those halycon days dutifully ticking and bouncin' just below the deep throuty cadence of the exhausted regularly paced internal explosions. Ugh. It ran, but to my ear, with a compromise.

$40.00 is forty dollars, so I had decided to let it live out it's useful life, despite my chagrin.

All things have their purpose, the F250 had found it's way into my heart (and wallet) by offering to haul stuff. Me included. Nice of it, considering that my Chev van at 16 years old has developed a need for several replacement and/or fabricatied items that have conspired to render it's functionality "at risk".

So there it sits under the trees, all maroon & white & magnificent.
Pine needles & cones, pitch & airborn particulants at odds with the surface treatments I'd made early on in our relationship, but it appears rather disdainful of such small matters.

*new wiper blades* though!!

Naturally I'd pictured a better wipe.
The blades were, after all, half-hangin' off the arms and what the cracked & hardened remainders thereof offered was a consistant layer of fine powder, black and presenting a new angle in the micro-technology of squeegee-meets-wet glass. The wet part being a blend of rainwater and the above mentioned particulants. I did have the washer bottle hooked up and full of 20/10.

But they smeared my vision ...

I stopped at the closest auto parts store. (yeah, that one)
An amazing display of possibilities, taking up 18 feet of full case display space! My thought "where's the book" immediately found competition with my thought "Oh, a keyboard thing". So, I punched in numbers and scanned for a catalogue usually found dog-earred and hangin' on a thread. My eye darting technique for some kinda security in this endeavor proved to be useful though, as I found the second time through the selection of numbers to press. The weak LCD display, remincient of the available technology in the early eighties, responded well to reflecting the overhead lighting. So well that the option of "dazzling white bar across the screen" was the runaway favorite choice until I realized I need to **** my head a bit .... That was the ticket, I proceeded to learn (primarily by repetition) of the fact two company's product's, representing
a high-end model & the standard offering, plus as a real bonus ... just the blade(s) only. Guess it's no secret that I felt blades alone would suffice.
No such luck, Jack. That number ain't available.

Leaving me standing, have'n given up entirely on ever finding a printed document hanging on string, desiring to either come to an understanding of exactly what was available (including any and all claims made of their virtues), or an understanding with the management.


In the end I walked out with Bosch's "what ever they were called" German model and assurance I was doin' the best thing since opening the vent window.
I had a reciept that represented the return of braided fuel line and purchase of these warrented complete assemblies, the net return being one cent since both were priced at about twenty dollars, give or take tax.

I fondly recall the old days when blades meant you were out around $5.00

Armed with arms, rubber & plastic, packaged in a revolutionary new design aimed to please, instructions printed so small it would take magnifying glass or scanning into the computer/blowing the image up to read ... I decided to devote the whole 25 minutes of ferry ride to installation of the new improvement. I did get one on. The passenger side had to wait til I got home.

Precipitation, by the way, has been absent from our skies more this year than ever before since the Dust Bowl days. I was thinkin' about how well they'd do against a bone dry pitch covered windshield. The other option being clean glass and a ragged outline of semi-clean hood, cowl and leading edge doors. I do have a garden hose, though. It's a shame about all the miracle chemicals that a guy should be buying to optimize performance at maintaining a 35 year old vehicle. Tip-top shape being the goal of course, I began to see the shape of a lumber rack in my mind's eye.

[phawgg]

I could see using the 6 square holes in the top outside of the bed.
Make the lumber rack so it'd carry a lot of weight, and be the basis for a campertop or canopy as it developed. Out of wood using 3" deck screws.

Restoration would be takin' a back seat to functionality enhancement.

In fact, a back seat could fairly easily turn into a sleeper area across the width of the bed, either above the cab or behind it if I did it right.

I kinda needed to.
The plan being a trip to the ocean to offload pre-assembled panels for a cabin roof being built, the load was lookin' like it would be a heavy one.

I typically had the van's bunkbed arrangement to sleep in, too.
Two 2"x12" boards suspending a mahogany door that I placed a foam mattress on when staying overnight on a construction job.
The van carried more stuff securely also, meaning some careful planning might well be required in advance of the 300 mile roundtrip.

Details of whats been going on with the Camper Special are soon to come, its been about enough to get whats been done finished, let alone appraising it after the fact. That I will, though. With pictures (still of a mediocre quality level I'm sorry to add)

[69F110]

phawgg,

Thanks for the updates. My apologies....I was out the entire month of October and my internet access was limited to zero. The Army has a way of doing that to us.

Anyways, great stuff. I do look forward to the photo's, mediocre or not.

Thanks again!

[69F110]

phawgg,

You still out there man? How is the Camper Special coming along. Is it too cold to work on it up there?