Project OBSessed – Interior

Part Two: Ford F-350  Interior Cleanup

Last month, we introduced an all-new project build—Project OBSessed. This 1996 7.3L Power Stroke F350 has 224,000 miles, had one owner, and has seen its fair share of tough miles. However, given its age, it’s in great overall condition. After spending its life in Utah, where snowy salt-covered roads are the norm four months of the year, it’s still solid and rust free.

For many, these 1994-1997 Ford trucks hold a special place in their heart. Maybe you had one 15 years ago, or your dad had one, or your neighbor had one. Most folks who have been around diesel pickups have a story about a 7.3L Power Stroke, and it’s usually a good one. Like many of you, I grew up in a home that had an OBS Ford parked in the garage. I drove one similar to this truck my senior year of high school, and I later owned two other 7.3 Power Strokes that fostered my love for the diesel industry.

I cut my teeth working on Power Strokes over 15 years ago and had a lot of fun doing it. Getting 600 hp from a 7.3L was a big feat in 2005, and I took pride in achieving it. But, with time, I was drawn to the ease of making power with common rail technology. I jumped off the blue oval band wagon eight or nine years ago and built a couple Duramax trucks with no intention of ever getting back into a 7.3L Power Stroke. I hadn’t forgotten how noisy they are, how stubborn they are to start on a cold morning, or how relatively underpowered they can be. But when the time came to move on from my 2012 Silverado Duramax project, for some reason, my past started whispering in my ear. I felt nostalgia for that classic, old-body-style Ford and the thought of getting back under the hood of a 7.3L intrigued me. Much to my wife’s displeasure, here we are, the proud owners of a loud, rough-riding F350—and it’s perfect. Over the course of the next year, hopefully you’ll enjoy following this transformation as we show you that an old truck can still be great truck.

In part one of the build, we started off with some cosmetic upgrades. We ditched a camo bug shield, tinted the windows, replaced a beat up front bumper, and updated the front end with new clear lens lights, a chrome grille, and all new taillights from Complete Performance. While this is a diesel performance magazine and you’re probably ready to see the horsepower bolt-ons get installed, that will have to wait a bit. When you’re daily driving a 20+-year-old truck, some things are more important than horsepower. With that in mind, we will focus on the interior this month. We spent $200 at the local detail shop having the carpets and seats shampooed, replaced a couple front window switches, rewired a passenger rear window that wouldn’t roll up or down, and even tossed the crusty old dash mat in the washer.

The factory instrument cluster bezel around the steering wheel had been cut up for a switch install or something, and a couple of the clips that hold it on were broken. The bezel had a pretty gnarly rattle to it and just looked worn out. If you own one of these ‘94-‘97 Ford trucks, you’ll want to become familiar with the Rutledge boys at Complete Performance in Jasper, Texas. They specialize in the Ford OBS and will have just about everything you’ll ever need to fix one up. Their online store had a brand new factory bezel that was just what we needed to freshen up this interior. Being an OE part, it fit perfect, looked great, and fixed some rattles. The dash was easy to swap out, which allowed us to replace a couple of burned out light bulbs in the instrument cluster.

Next on the list of repairs was to give the sagging doors some attention. All four on this crew cab had some movement in the hinges, and the driver’s door sagged so much when open, it took two hands to get it to close properly. The latch was nearly an inch lower than the striker, making it very tough to close. Again, through Complete Performance we ordered a full set of door pin hinge kits, which include all new brass bushings, pins, retainers, and the striker latch for each door. The factory bushings wear over time with the weight of the door hanging on them and most owners using the door to hoist themselves up into the seat. It’s just a wear item you should expect to replace after 20 years of service. Swapping the bushings and pins out is pretty straight forward, but it can be time consuming. Drilling and knocking the original pins out may require removing the door, but it’s worth the work the first time you swing the door closed and hear the latch effortlessly click shut.

Lastly, inside the old truck something had to be done with the busted-up, barely-working, 15-year-old head unit that had sunken so far back into the dash you could barely reach the volume knob. Giving up some of life’s latest creature comforts as a driver hadn’t been that hard of a transition. Sure, the A/C-cooled seats in my previous Silverado had been nice, but they weren’t needed with cloth. The sunroof was kind of fun to have, but again, was not really needed. So, jumping back in time a decade or two wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought, but it didn’t take long to miss a modern stereo. No USB port, no Bluetooth, no navigation. I missed the convenience of some of that stuff. So, after chatting with a friend at Laketown Speed and Sound in Draper, Utah, we rectified the situation. The new Alpine iLX-259 offers all the features of a new truck’s stereo such as Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth, voice texting, navigation, music streaming, and a big, easy-to-navigate touchscreen—all in a single package to fit the factory Ford dash. It was installed with just a couple of conversion harnesses and instantly brought the old Ford into the 21st century. Yes, we have to yell into the auxiliary microphone to complete a Bluetooth phone call or send a voice text (thanks to minimal sound deadening and that obnoxiously loud 7.3L under the hood), but this has been some of the best money spent on the truck thus far.

Next month, we’ll finally do something on the horsepower side of the build with some updated tuning, a cold air intake, and an all-new exhaust system. Don’t fret though—that will just be the beginning as we plan to do a complete, electric-fuel-system conversion, larger injectors, intercooler, bigger turbo, and a healthier high-pressure oil pump. We’ll also have to address the transmission, tighten up the steering, and update the suspension to get this thing riding like a new truck. That steel-wheeled buckboard and outdated front-shackle, leaf-spring design got really old after the initial excitement of getting back into an OBS Ford truck quickly wore off.

SOURCE

Complete Performance
www.cpaddict.com