'96 F250 PowerStroke Build (Another Ridiculous Build Thread Provided by Cam)

It's pretty redonkulous at the moment.

Looking forward to seeing it on it's new rubber.

GallopingFord said:

It's pretty redonkulous at the moment.

Looking forward to seeing it on it's new rubber.

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x2

Jesus some of those pics are big! First pic is a diecast toy incase you didn't know.

Good luck on the build. Those look a million times better then the new ones.

The picture resizer doesn't work 100%, so I blame it on that. The first picture is suppose to be a picture of a diecast toy - it's the one I own and just a token of how I wanted one of these.

As for looks, I agree that this is one of the best looking F-series.

How much does it cost to restore a set of wheels like that? The ones on my fox body need to be redone, I kind of like the factory 10 holes

I got estimates all over from 145-195 per wheel. There is a lot of labor in it so I wasn't too surprised, just a lot to consider compared to plenty of after market wheels out there.

Working on some smaller stuff today. I still haven't gotten the truck and the wait is killing me.

Got a gray dash a couple weeks ago for $75; it's in good shape but needs some touching up.



Snagged power door harnesses for $40, this includes windows, locks and mirrors. Here is a pic of the driver side.



I need to spend time taking the whole harness apart because it smells like smoke and has been bathing in a storage shed for a while - the whole harness is sticky and needs to be re-wrapped to meet my standards.

Finally found gray power door panels for a good price as well. Good condition, just need some TLC.

Well, the FedEx man fucked up my door panels.

Ugh. Any recourse?

Wow and both of them
Fucking FedEx...

FUK that sucks Cam. Time to track down another set.

I was just thinking about this build... wondering how it was going.

Glad to see your swapping out the porno red for gray inside. And damn the fexEx man!

Strengthrehab said:

Ugh. Any recourse?

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quiksilver05 said:

FUK that sucks Cam. Time to track down another set.

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I told the eBay seller and sent them pictures. Lucky they are handling the FedEx claim and they had another set of gray ones that were being pulled this week, which are apparently in better condition. They said I could even keep these damaged ones which I'll probably strip down.

I was so pissed off when I opened them up... it was moments like these with projects that make me want to burn everything down.

Deez-67 said:

Glad to see your swapping out the porno red for gray inside. And damn the fexEx man!

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Me too. My GF is in this project with me 50/50 and she prefers the red, but I have a plan down the road when I decide to disassemble the truck entirely down to the frame and repaint/restore it completely.

Great job so far Cam! Going to be another epic build

Hey Cam,
I have a '96 F250 Powerstroke 2wd. Our mileage is pretty similar, I'm sitting at 328k. I'd like to do exactly what you're doing to mine. Right now I have the brown interior and would like to change to gray. Can you PM your sources for these parts replacements?

Do you have any major mechanical issues to deal with? I had to do all 8 injectors about 4 years ago and that's the last big money I've had to sink into it.

I am getting some white smoke now, no idea what that means or where it's coming from.
Could use a new steering box, mine is a bit sloppy.
My E40D is the shiz-nit after I had it rebuilt for performance.
My doors sag still and this is after I changed pins/bushings in the hinges.

Glad to see this thread and I'm sure I'll be getting some value from it.

LOVE my PS F250!!!

(Bought it in 2000 for $8000 bucks)

Chris,

For the interior I've been using eBay and car-part.com. I like eBay because it has pictures. Car-part.com is pretty much salvage or recycle yards. I have also used Facebook groups for OBS Ford trucks. That's how I got the Dana 60.

Biggest issues I dealt with was simply preventative maintenance.
-Full fluid flush
-Replaced the rusted rear shackles, which is a common issue
-Replaced the alternator

After I get the truck back from the shop I am doing the following though
-New glow plugs and testing each injector independently too
-New glow plug relay
-New gear reduction starter
-AFE Intake

I have a little smoke just on initial start up when it is below 40-45* which I believe is the glow plugs not functioning properly. I have to cycle the plugs twice on the first start of a cool morning. Other than that I never have any smoke or blow-by.

Between that or it could be a fuel bowl heater. I plan to remove the mechanical fuel pump system and replace it with a E-fuel system. It's expensive to do but it's worth while mod to do on 94.5 - 97 OBS 7.3 trucks.

White smoke for diesels can mean a variety of things. Usually the culprits can be injector rings or turbo seals going bad. I'm very new to understanding diesels so it could be other stuff too.

The steering box I got is awesome. A little pricey but worth it. Red Head Steering box.

My E40D isn't the healthiest out of the bunch. If you floor it, it shifts like it is trying to eject you from the truck (not too far from normal for a good one though lol). I've thought about rebuilding it later, just not sure what it needs. I plan on a fair amount of performance for the truck but nothing stupid.

Are the wheels/tires on yet?!?! That's all I want to see right now. lol

It's killing me too - we got a lot of snow here and somehow that is responsible for them not touching the truck yet (as of Monday).

Awesome looking truck. For a while there last year I really really wanted one just like it. I don't know what it is about them but I think they're great. (First time I ever drove on the interstate on a long trip was on a friend's 96 F250).

I could never find one at a decent price and I'm over looking for one but I'll definitely be following your progress!!!

Bad news - called shop they still haven't done anything with the truck. I'm annoyed and going to go pick it up and figure it out. It may be a while before I get to it now since my brother is using the lift for his Jeep and I don't have a set of wheels I can swap out on the truck while I wait for them to refinished.

I'm super annoyed with this since I wanted it done last week and then I called this morning and they almost needed a refresher on what I wanted done.