Bullnose Garage Monthly: Dec 2025

Shop talk and grease-smudged updates from the garage.

December turned into one of those months in the garage… the kind where a simple teardown turns into a full-blown saga. The 351 top end finally came apart, but not before six broken bolts dug in and made me earn every inch of progress. As of today, they’re all out… though not without a casualty along the way. I’ll let the bolt extraction video tell that story, because it deserves its own spotlight. And just when I thought the month was all engine grease and stubborn fasteners, the Bronco decided to remind me it has plans of its own thanks to a fellow YouTuber.  More on that soon too.

This blast from the past has me remembering that yanking a crusty old 351 Windsor gets a lot more interesting when your “crew” is two 4‑year‑olds who think a donor chassis is playground equipment. I finally dragged that four‑year lawn ornament into the garage and pulled the engine, with only minor chaos and one toddler trying to out‑muscle a frame rail. If you want to see how the transmission tried to redecorate the floor and where the 351 garage story began, check out this old video!

While the bolt extraction video is getting wrapped up, I’ve been quietly chipping away at the next big deep dive: the 7.3 IDI. Most of the footage is already in the can, and it’s shaping up to be a solid technical overview rather than just a surface-level history lesson. I still need to knock out some whiteboard segments to tie the concepts together, but once that’s done, it should land not long after the extraction video drops. This one’s been on my list for a while, and I’m excited to finally give it the attention it deserves.

If you’ve ever lumped all the “351” engines into one big happy family, surprise! Ford mixed three different soups and slapped the same label on the can. This month we untangle the Windsor, M, and Cleveland mess so you know what’s actually lurking under that air cleaner. Bullnose Bill’s featured answer tackles the classic “How do I tell which 351 I’ve got?” and walks you through the dead‑giveaway clues without making you crawl through every casting number. If you want the quick, greasy, real‑world way to ID your engine, go read the full breakdown.

The top end teardown is officially complete, and after wrestling with six broken bolts, the block is finally free and clear. With that chapter closed, I’m honestly looking forward to getting into the bottom end… that’s where things start getting really interesting. While the engine’s fully apart, I’m also planning a few focused system deep dives, especially around oiling and cooling, to take advantage of having everything exposed. This phase is less about wrenching fast and more about understanding the engine inside and out.

The ’85 is still alive and doing truck things. It fired up, hauled a load to the dump, and came back without complaint… which honestly counts as a win. Beyond that, it’s been in a holding pattern while all the attention stays locked on the engine work. Sometimes progress just means not breaking anything.

I haven’t turned a wrench on the Bronco lately, but progress is still happening… just mostly in my head (and on notepads). I’m putting together parts lists for a full brake system overhaul, a wheel and tire swap, and a CB setup in preparation for an upcoming road trip I’ll talk more about later. The focus here isn’t speed or power, it’s safety and roadworthiness. Especially since there’s a decent chance the kids might come along for the ride.

As the year winds down, I just want to say thank you for sticking around… for the comments, the suggestions, the shared stories, and the patience when projects take the long way around. This year had more learning curves than clean victories, but that’s kind of the point around here. There’s a lot more coming in the new year, and I’m excited to keep digging into it, one stubborn bolt and bad idea at a time. Until then, I hope you and yours have a safe, quiet end to the year… and I’ll see you back in the garage soon.

© 2025 Bullnose Garage and Duskrider Design LLC

If you’re done with the garage chaos, no hard feelings: unsubscribe here.

Bullnose Garage Monthly: Nov 2025

Shop talk and grease-smudged updates from the garage.

Welcome to the first Bullnose Garage newsletter! I figured if I’m going to spend half my life buried in engines, editing timelines, and making questionable garage projects come to life, I might as well keep you all in the loop. November was one of those months where everything seemed to happen at once: wrapping up the Cleveland video, prepping the garage for the Windsor teardown, finishing up my welding table, packing in (and out) a huge garage sale, trying not to break YouTube’s social tab, and realizing I juggle more projects than a guy with two hands and zero coordination has any right to. I bounced between script writing, scene planning, channel tweaks, and software tutorials like a man trying to catch up on stuff he ignored all summer.  Because I did. But hey, if nothing else, this newsletter gives me a chance to put all the moving parts in one place and gives you a front-row seat to the madness I keep calling a hobby.

So I went looking for a simple Bullnose project, and naturally it turned into a months‑long scavenger hunt capped off by me buying a stick‑shift truck I couldn’t even drive yet. What followed was a roller‑coaster mix of repairs, upgrades, surprises, and one forklift-induced therapy session. If you want the whole saga of how a “quick project” became Bullnose Garage, buckle up. Click in and see where the trouble actually started.

This month’s been a busy one. While finishing the 351 Cleveland video, I learned I apparently have the power to resurrect long-dead factories with AI because the Cleveland plant footage I cooked up looks so real it ought to come with a union rep. On the real-world side of the camera, most of my time has been spent getting the garage and the 351 Windsor area ready for the teardown series. I’ve been rehearsing my intro, blocking out scenes, figuring out where the camera needs to live, and generally making sure this whole thing feels intentional. It’s not just “guy with a camera in a garage” anymore, I’m trying to build a proper flow so the teardown plays like a real show instead of a security cam from Harbor Freight. I’ve also been working my way through YouTube’s social tab, trying to use it more without accidentally blasting everyone with random thoughts at 2 AM. Between that, the long-form videos, the voiceovers, and the editing experiments, I’ve kept myself pretty busy. This is the first Bullnose Garage newsletter, and we’ll see if this thing grows wings over time. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while… give everyone a clear monthly snapshot of what’s happening, what’s coming up, and what chaos I’ve created in the garage. Oh, and I may or may not have spent several late nights learning way too much about fiber lasers. Apparently the only thing that burns faster than a brass challenge coin is money.

The poor ’86 F‑250 starts, pops a fuse, and clocks out like it’s unionized, which usually means there’s a juicy short hiding in the solenoid/ignition wiring or a ground that’s gotten lazy. Bill walks through the whole hunt—chafed wires, crusty grounds, fuse box gremlins, and the usual “did a hot wire melt itself on the manifold again?” routine. Bullnose Bill’s featured answer zeroes in on the real culprit: a short in the solenoid or ignition circuit that kills the truck and nukes the fuse. If you want the full wire‑by‑wire roadmap, go read Bill’s breakdown before your truck files for workers’ comp. 

Here’s the highlight: Turns out that “dent” in my Bassett rim wasn’t me being a klutz—it was the factory leaving me a little love note in the form of a heat‑shrink valley. I walk through the whole detective job and how I’m cleaning it up without firing up the welder, and yes, the dramatic size difference between “what I remembered” and “reality” gets exposed too. All the behind-the-scenes details are tucked behind the Patreon gate if you want the full tour.

If you want to see more and get the full versions of these posts, check out my Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/bullnosegarage.

The Windsor videos are slowly climbing back into the spotlight thanks to the channel’s recent momentum. I’ve been planning out the next steps… getting the engine on the stand, prepping it for the machine shop, and mapping out the full series from teardown to quarter-mile run. I’m also still juggling which shop is going to do the machining, what I’m filming there, and how far I can push this build before my wallet taps out and begs for mercy.

Not much hands-on wrenching this month, but the truck is still front-and-center as the “main character” in the upcoming engine swap storyline. Most of the work has been behind the scenes: writing, planning, organizing, and making sure the entire series from teardown to road test actually makes sense on camera. The NP435 swap decision is still floating somewhere between “rational” and “maybe I just like making my life complicated.”

The Bronco hasn’t gotten much love this month, mostly because the 351 (both Windsor and Cleveland) stuff has been eating my life. The tires are just old enough that I don’t trust them for anything serious but I’ve moved it around a bit and at least put the air cleaner back on so it’s not sitting in the garage looking like a parts bin exploded all over my floor. The real progress is in the planning phase. I’m still locked in on the desert crawler direction: TTB stays, 35s down the road, probably a 4-inch lift with a 1-inch body lift so it sits right without going full monster truck. I drilled and tapped the Basset wheels to accept the old Ford center caps (See the video!) and yes… I’ll be running non DOT wheels on it. Sue me. (Please don’t.) And the boosted inline-six dream is still alive and kicking in my notebook.

Thanks for hanging out with me in the garage today. I appreciate you more than you know. Every view, every comment, every shared story about your own truck keeps this whole thing fun. See you next time!

If you want to dig deeper into the builds, check out the latest videos, or support the channel, here are a few places to find me:

🔧 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bullnosegarage
🔥 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bullnosegarage
🛠️ Website: https://bullnosegarage.com

Thanks again for being part of the Bullnose crew.

© 2025 Bullnose Garage and Duskrider Design LLC

If you’re done with the garage chaos, no hard feelings: unsubscribe here.