Project build "Apep"

New Member here and to diesels(and fullsize trucks)

Making a build thread for my 90 F250HD. After the nightmare I had just getting the thing(PO ended up disappearing with deposit) I figure it'll either motivate me to restore her to her former glory or scatter the parts to the ends of the earth.
Still in the preliminary stages of this, progress may be slow as I have a lot of things to get done before everything turns into dogsleds and polar bears(Canada)

Firstly the details on the truck.
1990 F250HD 4x2 Supercab longbed
7.3L IDI
Hypermax pulse turbo system
460~K kms
E40D Trans

Plans:
Do an audit on the cab condition. Seat bolts on the drivers side are pulled right through the floor. Seems to be some half hearted rocker and corner repair(coverups, lots of bondo) Going to pull the carpets and see what I'm looking at but I feel like it may be curtains for this one(Salt is awful here)
I could get a new cab in around the $500 mark, trouble would be getting them swapped(I don't have a shop, barely a garage and somewhat limited tooling ie no hoists or gantrys, I'd put my expertise level at hobbyist at best)
Electrical audit, somewhere in its life it's had other electrical accessories spliced into it, just wanna remove any old wiring that isn't being used, touch up ground points etc.
Beds basically shot, floors and inner wheelwells are full of holes, crossmembers are nearly nonexistent.
Paint was not done well and I'm not sure what it even was. Very grainy, almost tacky and it was painted at least 3 months ago!

Once/If I get it in roadworthy shape I'd like to clean up the engine, possibly add a water to air IC and moose jr pump. Not looking for crazy numbers just some fun.
Replace the interior carpeting and headliner, upgrade the audio a bit(would like to find a slide out nav system) reupholster the captains seats.
Plan on a body lift of a couple inches, not much, just enough to give it a little more height and make it easier to work under.
Here's a few pics, mostly from before I got it.

Welcome to oil burners love the term "electrical audit"

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Thanks!
Haha, pretty much is, go through and get rid of the random wires that go nowhere. Have found a couple overused ground points so far.
I did some poking underneath the cab last night and I've got a pretty good feeling it's ready for the scrapper. Pretty well any corner or edge and anywhere a bolt goes through is completely rotten. Was able to punch straight through to carpet with the scraper on a wire brush.

WElcome to the forum. Its always so sad to see what road salt does to cars and trucks.Out here on the west coast of California we seldom see any salt damage cars or trucks. Sadly thats about the only real advantage of living in this state...

Thanks, yeah, it's brutal. I've seen the roads bleached white from salt here It's no wonder there's 2014 vehicles with substantial rust already. Hear ya there, theres some nice things about Cali geographically..everything else not so much.
http://imgur.com/a/o5K8M
There's a gallery of all the pics I have so far, getting dark early now so gotta wait till the weekend to get more.
Hoping to pull up the carpet and see how bad it is this weekend, but I need to repair the battery cables and see if it still runs first.

one thing to think about, since youre going through the electrical.
I put a 21 circuit aftermarket wiring harness in my truck, because the stock wiring was old and beat.
the harness cost me less than 200 and went in pretty easily.
power windows power locks and everything you need!

some mods were done to fit the fuse block in the stock location, its a little bigger than the stock block.

Definitely good to know! $200 bucks is well worth not having to hunt through 25 miles of wire for the one spot its corroded. Plus the upgraded fuse block is a bonus, from what I've read these trucks electrical system could have been designed better. Not sure if I'd do the power windows though, both motors are shot on mine atm so I may just go manual(I prefer it as well,dont gotta waste battery putting windows up)
Another option I'm looking at is a fairly large undertaking with little to no info out there.
Swap the IDI into an 08 superduty.
Had found someone who had swapped an IDI/C6/Gearvendors into a 2010, seemed to work out fairly well, though they are a lot better at this I'm guessing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewYQQl4Zcws&feature=youtu.be
As much as I love the Bricknose I can't deny that would be pretty awesome.

when I was exploring options for my 96, I took measurements from the cab mounts on a 96 CC vs the cab mounts on a 01 SD

the cab mounts and center to the front axle were pretty much the same.

rear cab mounts will have to be fabbed

don't know how the 08 differs tho.
I like the front end of the brick nose, but thats where my love for the brick nose stops.
the dash and everything else in my 87 are updated.

Nice,thats a consideration too then. This would be moving the drivetrain to the 08 chassis, mounts have to come from the 90 but with a complete donor thats not an issue. Instrument cluster in the 08 would have to be gutted for the most part as there wouldnt be a CANbus for it to run off, speedo will work without mods, tach just needs a proper signal run, the rest will either have to come out or re-fit 08 sensors to the IDI where possible.
That said, that swap idea is most likely a pipe dream for this one, unless I find $5k under the carpet haha.

I surprisingly like the bricknose interior the best out of pretty well all generations. New enough to not be completely utilitarian but still having the "Old school" control scheme(wipers,lights etc on the dash not the column) The lack of aftermarket sucks though
Question though, can the brick dash be swapped into an OBS cab? I can find a lot more of them in good shape than bricks.

yes it can with a lot of work.
easier to put a OBS dash in a brick nose lol
and I completely disagree, OBS XLT interior is wayyyy better than the brick XLT.
my back will argue this till the end lol
if you havnt seen my brick nose build,
take a peek

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?71291-87-Crew-Cab-w-6-doors&highlight=87+Crew+Cab

Haha duly noted. Yeah your build is awesome! Love the 6 door idea.
Been working my way through laserjock's Big red build thread, your 6 door was next on the list(80 page build threads take a while to go through )

Here is a 6.9 in a super duty.

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?58418-6-9-Superduty

Nice! That helps with a few issues I was thinking of in regards to the e4od as the build I've looked at used a C6 and an OD unit. Wonder if it would be possible to use the 5r110. Would need some sort of standalone tcm though. May end up looking more at a C6 or other non-computer controlled trans. ZF5 could work but I'm not a big fan of manuals(heresy I know)

5r? No.
4r? Yes. Won't be a bolt up and go, but can work. Just run a standalone controller.

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IDIoit where did you get your harness from?