1986 Ford F150 Engine Detail

[cnfowler]

I've been wanting to clean up the engine bay of the '86 since I first got it back in June. However, with six months at the State Patrol academy and then the winter weather, I haven't been able to do it. The weather was great this weekend so I jumped at the chance to tackle it. My father-in-law gave me this truck last year. He was the original owner and I can say with 99% certainty that the engine bay had never been detailed in its 23 years of existance.

I used degreaser (purple bottle stuff at Wal-Mart), various brushes, and a lot of passion. I cleaned, scrubbed, and wiped anything I could get my hands on. These older vehicles are so different than the new cars; at one point I was sitting in the engine bay in order to get to the hoses and components at the rear of the engine! Well, after 2.5 hours of cleaning and a final mist of M40, here's the results.

Colin

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/1a1.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/2a1.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/3a1.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/4a1.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/5a.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/6a.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/7a.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/8a.JPG

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/9a.JPG

[Andrew C.]

Wow it looks amazing. Looks like it was a lot of work.

[Hemin8r]

Engine came out looking great. I agree on the older engines being easier to access. The new engines are very restricted as far as getting your hands in there.

[Tuck91]

Nice job, the engine came out looking great.

[AeroCleanse]

Reminds me of when I did my '93 F-150

[J. A. Michaels]

Great job on the engine. Looks great.

[Nappers]

Holy Cow Colin!

Great job on that engine bay! That purple stuff works great but to be respected!

Made it better than new!

Good show:bigups

[RaskyR1]

Looks great! Brings me back a few years seeing those pics!

I can pretty much take off those distributer caps in my sleep now. When I worked at this high volume shop they never covered anything up and those caps ALWAYS got wet. (We used pressure washers) Eventually I said this ***** and we started covering them. :D

[Hellspawn]

very nice!

[cnfowler]

Thanks, guys. It was a lot of work but at the same time, fun.

Aaron, yeah the purple stuff is great but you're right; you'd better respect it, especially using it full strength! I have APC+ but knew I would be using a ton of it because of how bad the engine bay was. I didn't want to use up all the APC+ so I reached for the purple stuff.

Colin

[roushstage2]

Great work! Get to rebuild one of those engines for an 86 Bronco one of these days, yay, lol. Looks like new!

[Mr Mustang]

that looks fantastic!

[J. A. Michaels]

Glad to see you back on the forum. How is it going? I was wondering what happened to you and then this week I see that you were posting again. Welcome back Colin.

[Mark Kleis]

Simply amazing turn around. That's the type of turn around that surprises even the detailer it looks so good :chuckle1

[Jokeman]

Nice turn around on that one!

[termigator69]

It looks great. I love engine details. I've always felt that the engine department is the most neglected because it's always covered so no one sees it.:nono1

[cnfowler]

Glad to see you back on the forum. How is it going? I was wondering what happened to you and then this week I see that you were posting again. Welcome back Colin.

Hey John. Yeah, its been a while since I've done any posting. I've been lurking here and there. I was a State Trooper in Florida and decided to make the move to Colorado. I was at their academy for 6 months, then field training for 2.5 months so I just haven't had the time. But now I'm back and it feels great.

Colin