Soldato
I didn't realize that LPG was used for vehicles in Mexico, how does the price compare to gasoline?
My shed of a 1978 Ford F-150
- Thread starter geekman
- Start date
It’s mostly used for trucks and taxis - for some reason most non commercial vehicles don’t seem to use it. It alternates between around 1/3 and 1/2 of the price of gasoline. It’s currently at 7 pesos per litre whereas gasoline is at 19. There’s loads of filling stations and I haven’t found any real disadvantages of using it so far.
Another update.
Decided to go to an area with a lot of junkyards in the hope of finding the seatbelt connectors. It drove really well on the way there, so much so that I decided to give it a bit of power and pass a load of cars at about 80. This proved not to be a great idea - the section of road that feels perfectly fine in a normal car is quite bumpy in this truck, and three of my wheel studs decided they didn’t want to be part of the car anymore. I heard a ping as I passed the final car, and the steering wheel started shaking an awful lot. Pulled over to find this
I suspect the previous garage torqued them too tight, and that combined with the age of the truck and the bumps resulted in the failure. I managed to get it off the highway and to the nearest garage, who, knowing that I wasn’t able to go anywhere else, proceeded to rip me off. Still only the equivalent of about £50 in the end, so not the end of the world, but I could have got it done at my local place for less than half of that.
Anyway, I eventually made it to the junkyard, and found a full set of seat belt buckles, including the middle seat lap belt for £4. They were however covered in oil, and the fabric had been cut. This is how they looked when I picked them up.
And this is how they look now after a bit of a clean.
I’m taking them today to a seatbelt repair place, who will put all new fabric in them for £8. Probably a good idea anyway, considering the age of them.
I also started looking around at dash repair places. Most wanted about £120 to repair the dash top, which was a bit more than I wanted to pay considering it’s going to be used for work and I don’t need it to be perfect. Found a guy who did it for £40, which sounded much better.
This is how it looked before
And this is how it looks now
Good enough, I think.
I decided to have a go at sorting out the headlining, using some old fabric I had lying around. Again, this is definitely not a perfect job, but it didn’t cost me anything and I think it’s a decent improvement.
Before
After
I’ll be sure to report back if it falls on my head.
That’s all for now - I’ll be bolting the refurbed seatbelts in towards the end of this week, and when I can find a decent, cheap stereo I’ll be installing that as well. Still very much enjoying driving around in it.
Decided to go to an area with a lot of junkyards in the hope of finding the seatbelt connectors. It drove really well on the way there, so much so that I decided to give it a bit of power and pass a load of cars at about 80. This proved not to be a great idea - the section of road that feels perfectly fine in a normal car is quite bumpy in this truck, and three of my wheel studs decided they didn’t want to be part of the car anymore. I heard a ping as I passed the final car, and the steering wheel started shaking an awful lot. Pulled over to find this
I suspect the previous garage torqued them too tight, and that combined with the age of the truck and the bumps resulted in the failure. I managed to get it off the highway and to the nearest garage, who, knowing that I wasn’t able to go anywhere else, proceeded to rip me off. Still only the equivalent of about £50 in the end, so not the end of the world, but I could have got it done at my local place for less than half of that.
Anyway, I eventually made it to the junkyard, and found a full set of seat belt buckles, including the middle seat lap belt for £4. They were however covered in oil, and the fabric had been cut. This is how they looked when I picked them up.
And this is how they look now after a bit of a clean.
I’m taking them today to a seatbelt repair place, who will put all new fabric in them for £8. Probably a good idea anyway, considering the age of them.
I also started looking around at dash repair places. Most wanted about £120 to repair the dash top, which was a bit more than I wanted to pay considering it’s going to be used for work and I don’t need it to be perfect. Found a guy who did it for £40, which sounded much better.
This is how it looked before
And this is how it looks now
Good enough, I think.
I decided to have a go at sorting out the headlining, using some old fabric I had lying around. Again, this is definitely not a perfect job, but it didn’t cost me anything and I think it’s a decent improvement.
Before
After
I’ll be sure to report back if it falls on my head.
That’s all for now - I’ll be bolting the refurbed seatbelts in towards the end of this week, and when I can find a decent, cheap stereo I’ll be installing that as well. Still very much enjoying driving around in it.
Soldato
Leaf springs say hi.
Soldato
Good luck/bad luck about the wheel - at least it didn't fully part company with the truck 
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2004
- Posts
- 7,606
The dash needs one of those multi colour Jesus things for maximum effect.
Caporegime
It needs a cut up stripey blanket on top of the dash as a protector from the sun.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2004
- Posts
- 7,606
Send him a pair of your old y-fronts.
Caporegime
It will spend most of it's life sitting in the shade, but I might put one on there anyway for maximum redneck. I already removed the rabbit's foot hanging from the rear view mirror as that was going one step too far.
Had to look up his name - Danny Trejo - the archetype Mexican in movies Machete/desperado .. what would he have hanging from the rear view mirror.
Is the cloth upholstery original, or would it have been thigh burning vinyl ? I've only been as far south as texas which was bad enough.
Is the cloth upholstery original, or would it have been thigh burning vinyl ? I've only been as far south as texas which was bad enough.
I’d have thought vinyl but can’t say for sure. I had leather seats in my Range Rover which were fine even when left in hot sun all day, although the tinted windows might have helped with that. Don’t have any plans to change the current seats as they’re not too terrible and will probably get damaged anyway.
Soldato
Those seat belts are probably worth more than the car! 
Soldato
As it's a truck, I suspect it'd have come with a cloth bench, maybe vinyl but more likely cloth but it looks to have cloth bolstered car seats in it now? 
Soldato
I love how you seem to be able to locate someone locally to fix just about anything and for peanuts
had to look
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1419454-78-ford-truck-brochure.html
https://www.blueovaltech.com/history/1978-ford-trucks.php
did you say if it the v8 (7.5L 220bhp) or v6 ?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1419454-78-ford-truck-brochure.html
https://www.blueovaltech.com/history/1978-ford-trucks.php
did you say if it the v8 (7.5L 220bhp) or v6 ?
Soldato
It's more than likely a 302 or possibly a 351, I doubt it's the 460.