'71 F350 motorhome conversion, "Bessie"

[Jacksdad]

It'll be up and driving soon. I really wanted to switch motors, but my friend needs his yard back, so that will have to wait. The FE runs - not great, but it starts and drives. The 351W can come later. The main thing is having it registered as a truck, so I'm not subject to the RV parking ban in effect here anymore. Moving it every day was a serious pain in the butt.
I have to give a shout out to my friend Jorge, for letting me use his yard. He's been instrumental in finally getting my butt in gear and converting it. Apart from giving me somewhere to immobilize it for months at a time, knowing I'm on a time limit has given me the kick in the pants I needed. I wouldn't have done 1% of the work back at our place.

[hfdco4]

Good friends make things easier for sure!

[Jacksdad]

Good friends make things easier for sure!

It's been a game changer.

[Jacksdad]

I got a couple of days in before the rain came. Each panel is sealed thankfully (black underneath, and brown on top), so we were ready. Once all three are bolted and screwed together, the bed will be 88" wide and 12' long.
I finished up today by cutting all the extraneous crap off the chassis at the back. It was all related to the motorhome conversion and had no purpose on a truck, so out came the angle grinder and cutting disc. I have to give credit to whoever did the welding back in 1971 - it took me a few hours to cut everything free. Now I have to make a bumper, light brackets and license plate holder, and eventually the headache rack.

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[Jacksdad]

We took a break from the bed yesterday to concentrate on the motor, and it fired up (first time in six months) and ran on quite a few cylinders. The carb was leaking pretty bad, so we shut it down before the fire started, and I have a rebuild kit arriving today.
I was worried that maybe we had bent pushrods after sitting for so long, but thankfully, they all looked good. My son pulled the plugs, and most of them were wet. They needed changing anyway, so I'll put a fresh set in this week. I could have done without the poop on everything - I'm not an expert, so I couldn't tell what animal was responsible, but we used to regularly find a squirrel sitting in the battery tray when we popped the hood. Time to finally unbox the new pressure washer and test it.
My son broke down the last of the RV paneling and the fridge while I was sifting through the poop to pull the carb, and we now have enough to justify a final landfill run. We'll need the space around the truck clear anyway when we (hopefully) move it to another spot in the yard later this week. I'm so glad the camper box is finally a thing of the past, because the fiberglass insulation was making me miserable. Scratch, scratch...

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[hfdco4]

Awesome work you two!

[jzjames]

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Good job!

[Jacksdad]

Thank you.
It's been a journey, but thankfully we're almost there. I'm back into it this weekend, and hopefully a carb rebuild and a little TLC will get it running on all eight again. I'm sure my friend will be glad to get his yard back, and I'm sure my neighbors will be even happier to see it back and reducing property values

[Jacksdad]

It's alive. Threw a new set of plugs in it, fresh gas, rebuilt the carb, changed a couple of rock hard fuel lines and it started. It was down on two cylinders at first, so we let it get nice and hot, and they finally showed up to the party. Stuck rings, I'm guessing. And it still heat soaks the damned starter, so no change there.
The front pump seal has been steadily leaking, and the transmission was 5 quarts low. I topped it off with Type F and a bottle of stop leak, and it's shifting fine. We moved it away from the giant cactus that's slowly making it impossible to open the driver's door, and my son painted the steel that's going around the perimeter of the new bed.
Back to it this weekend and I'll get some pictures.