First time b2 onwer

[darkzero]

Hi y'all how you doing? I am a first time 1989 B2 owner. I plan on this summer to rebuild it. It looks like crap right now but it drives. The guy before me painted it black and yellow on the out side and the dash he painted black. I am hoping that I can get the spray paint off the dash cause I like the red and wood that was there. The out side was red and from what I can see of it I like that color too. Something I would like to do is cut the top off and make it a soft top. I would leave it off year around but seeing as I live in Iowa its gets cold and we have snow so I can leave it off. I have work to do to the motor have some leaks needs a ac charge and belt for ac. I am going to redo the suspension seeing as it has 123xxx on it and nothing has ever been done to it. I look forward to a great project. Any feedback would be great, and any parts that you want to get read of would help a lot too.

Thanks for reading.

 

[wildbill23c]

Welcome To The Ranger Station. Congrats on the purchase. My 1984 B2 is in about the same condition, lots of body work needed. Work at it slowly and take your time.

Not sure on trying to get the paint off the dash, anything you use solvent wise can and most likely will harm the dash material. As far as repainting it, unless you are able to do it on your own, it will be pretty expensive, and you really want it done right, or you'll end up with the problems you have now, with the paint peeling off it.

 

[darkzero]

Thank you. I plan on sanding it down replacing what I have to. I would like to do it myself for the paint. The dash needs replaced, but have not found anything oh how to do that. The wood trim is coming along, I just took it out and a little soapy water and some nail polish remover is working alright. I think I might just get a can of red paint and repaint what I can take out

 

[IRingTwyce]

Welcome from another B2 noob! I think you'll find these are a lot of fun to work on....when they aren't frustrating the crap out of you. And what gives? You've got the exact same dent in your fender that I do:

 

[wildbill23c]

I'm not sure how the dash comes out either, and I'm not the person that's going to experiment to find out either LOL.

My B2 runs and drives, looks like crap, and is extremely frustrating to work on any engine related items due to the way the engine is crammed in. They didn't engineer these things to be easy to repair that's for sure. I'm lucky to have had a kid I knew that was in auto shop in high school to do most of the major engine work I needed done just because it seemed like when I needed the work done it just happened to decide it should be below zero and snow/ice. Still have that same problem this year, but nobody in auto to do the repairs so I've gotta wait till nice weather as I don't have a garage to work in.

 

[Spede Demn]

welcome to the forum.... the dash is simple to remove, first you pull the knob of the headlight switch, you just stick a small screw driver into the groove on the back side of the knob and pull it towards you, and then simply pull off that narrow panel as well as the other two similar ones on the pass side, they just snap into place, then theres 7 screws that hold the instrument cluster cover in place, 4 upwards into bottom of the padded dash and 3 at the bottom, that leaves 4 more screws along the bottom of the dash piece. The passenger side speaker always has to be removed on mine before lifting the dash section out. Its less than 10 minutes once you've done it a time or two.

 

[wildbill23c]

welcome to the forum.... the dash is simple to remove, first you pull the knob of the headlight switch, you just stick a small screw driver into the groove on the back side of the knob and pull it towards you, and then simply pull off that narrow panel as well as the other two similar ones on the pass side, they just snap into place, then theres 7 screws that hold the instrument cluster cover in place, 4 upwards into bottom of the padded dash and 3 at the bottom, that leaves 4 more screws along the bottom of the dash piece. The passenger side speaker always has to be removed on mine before lifting the dash section out. Its less than 10 minutes once you've done it a time or two.

Hey, thanks for the info, didn't realize it was that easy to remove the whole dash. I tried last year but must have missed some screws somewhere I was trying to remove the front bezel to find out where all the wiring went that the previous owner had running through there, and the radio is missing so I was trying to get an idea of how to go about doing a radio install. I gave up and figured I'd some day replace the dash panel with one out of a newer model so I could install a regular DIN-1 radio without hacking up the dash panel.

 

[darkzero]

yes thank you for the info there is a junk yard here where I live and they have a total of 15 B2s in the yard 7 of them being 89s so the stuff that I want replaced and can save money I am going to go there the dash is one of them to me as long as it looks nice I well take it and repaint if I have to to match the red in side.


BTW if you need parts and don't live to far from Spencer Iowa try Grab n Go you have to pull your parts but they are good priced and they buy junk cars too. Just putting it out there if you have a hard time finding parts.

 

[darkzero]

Lol I see that too I don't know where the dent came from the guy before me had it for a year and only used it to pack down snow on his long drive way

 

[wildbill23c]

Lol I see that too I don't know where the dent came from the guy before me had it for a year and only used it to pack down snow on his long drive way

WTF, why on earth would you just buy a vehicle and only use it to pack down snow. More money than brains?

 

[Spede Demn]

WTF, why on earth would you just buy a vehicle and only use it to pack down snow. More money than brains?

lol.... hey when the snowblower breaks down you do what ever it takes, Ive had to pack down a trail with my B2 so the wife could get out with her car. Happy wife = Happy husband

 

[darkzero]

he wanted to jack it up and make it a mudding truck he told me it only got maybe 10mpg MAYBE and the fact that he lived an hour drive from work he would have spent a lot on gas thank god he told me this so I changed out spark plugs wiring cap and rotor got a little better gas I was sitting at about 11-12 mpg last week I changed out fuel pump and fuel injectors now I am sitting about 18-20 so I am making some leeway on it lol but I love it I am not a ford guy my family has always been chevy. after have a 96 caprice with a v8 285 I told myself I am going to have a big motor I might as well have a big truck to fit it so when I saw this B2 for 500 I jumped on it talked the guy down to 450 had a full tank of gas and was warmed up for the hour drive home so I set lol. now the wife on the other hand looks at me and "you just get cars that are junk and never last long" she has a 07 vic old cop car for 4000 need about 2500 in work done I buy one for 500 only need 1500 in work done if that lol and I have less miles then she does lol pulse I am only 24 have two kids I want to have fun with them so why not get the fun stuff started so when they are old enough to know its ready to go lol

 

[Spede Demn]

I should have mentioned... if your gonna remove the instrument cluster the speedo cable just seems to push on and pull off but it requires a bit of force which is hard to do in such a small space, and theres two light bulbs that twist out of the center of the cluster(top two) and one multi wire plug. If you pull the cluster out it can be disassembled for cleaning, made a big differance in visability at night on mine.

I added a fuse block behind the dash to run my off road lights, compressor, cd player, and any other options I come up with so Ive had the dash out several times, I can probably pull it out, change a fuse, and put back together in 15 minutes now. All the tools needed is a small flat screwdriver for the light switch and a philips, and in my case a 3/8 socket for the pass side speaker because it isnt the oem speaker.

 

[darkzero]

I just ran into a problem tonight my rear axle has a leak. I have looked everywhere to find out if I have to take off the axle or can I just take the plate off and reseal it. would someone happen to know what I have to do

 

[Spede Demn]

Not sure from your description where the leak is, is it an axle seal at one of the rear wheels? if so I would imagine you would have to pull the axle shaft out although Ive never actually done one on a Ford