Lol, yeah I already burnt the piss out of my wrist just installing the new exhaust, I don't need any welder burns! Well they should share the same suspension and rear axles so it'd be a swap of front axles, front suspension and transfer case and this other truck has a new tranny in it so it's far better than the one in my current project truck. Removing the cab means pulling the steering parts and wiring harnesses and risking damaging the glass in the cab. Not sure but from my perspective it seems a lot easier for me to just convert the new 2wd to a 4wd. The transfer cases are easy to change and it needs pulled and resealed anyway. Maybe one of those 6 of one half a dozen of the other types of things. The front cross member may need to be changed to and if so that may change my opinion. I can do it either way.
Thanks! I would have been further along had I not taken off to let this burn heal. Bad place on the wrist, right where everything scrapes it and it doesn't like to heal because everything there moves in several directions and stretches. It worked pretty good today though. So I talked with the guy with the other truck for sale and I am pretty sure I'm going to go pick it up tomorrow. I was figuring things up and it has about $5K worth of good parts on it I'll have to buy for this one if I continue with it anyway. I'm getting this one cheap enough that by the time I slap my current one back together as a 2wd and sell it I'll be into my dream project for not much money at all and it'll gain me about two months worth of time and labor. Oh and the new truck I'm buying has the integrated tool box in the bed I wanted and a really nice interior. This one came from Arizona so it doesn't have the body rot that our native MO/KS classics gets. It's 2.5 hours from me now so not too far.
Good call, I would have done the same thing! With the 2wd one, put some air bags and fancy rims and tires. Then you can sell it for twice the price you paid for it. It's the trend right now. Lol Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Lol, I'd have another $2500 in it by then...I'd better get twice what I paid for it or I'd really be in the hole, lol! I'll probably find a decent use bed to put back on it to make it easier to sell. Doesn't need the fancy integrated tool box for that. Oh and the new truck also has nice wheels on it (from the pics anyway). They may not be the size I wanted but I'll take them for nice starters.
Gotcha guess that kinda makes sense. And you're probably right, it's half dozen one way or another. Also would take less shop space goin the route you're planning. Having 2 bodies and 2 rolling chassis tends to clutter ha. Like said either way good luck, sounds like kinda coming together. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I ended up doing something similar when I restored a '64 Impala SS. I bought another Impala that had a great front end, all the glass, trim and interior but the idiot had put hydraulics in and absolutely ruined the frame and suspension.. The bonus was the sweet little 283 high performance it came with. I ended up using it instead of the 327. Numbers didn't match anyway so.. But hell yeah man, keep posting updates! I'm patiently waiting for all of the house building/moving stuff to calm down and the search for my old Ford pickup begins!
Yeah I'm not overly concerned about my build not being numbers matching, it's pretty common for people to convert 2wd's to 4x4's, not many people want the 2wd's. This one has been on Marketplace for about three weeks and it's about about as good a shape as you'll ever find one I think from what I can see. I can't see doing anything but increasing the value of it by changing it to 4wd even though it makes it non-numbers matching....which it may be anyway for all I know. My 1953 3100 deluxe cab has a 283 in it with a five speed. It's always been a hot little sucker and a good little engine. What kind of Ford truck are you going to look for?
'72-'76 F-100, preferably a Ranger. I'm not to concerned about 4wd so it makes it a little easier. I grew up in central Missouri and we had a '79 Ford w/400 small block 4wd automatic, loved that truck as much as it loved going to the gas station, lol. It was our farm/winter truck/tank. I learned lots of colorful language feeding cattle and watching my dad get it stuck and unstuck, great memories.
Well I kind of struck out on the latest truck. I was lied to about it running...that's the short version. Read on for the long version if you want: Started out kind of late today due to fog and storms. Stopped for lunch and texted the guy and he said he had the tires aired up and had it sitting out front of his house. I said oh good it fired up then? He said, No, it needs a battery and some gas. I said so do you have that covered, I'm on the way and in town if you need anything. He said nah I got it. So I get there expecting it to be a running vehicle...I know because I specifically asked twice in messages before I decided to buy it if it was running and would pull itself up on my trailer...to which he said yeah it's a strong running truck. So I get there and it doesn't look bad, a few small spots of rust, trim is rougher that was told. He'd agreed to throw in a few extra parts he had on hand so looked at those and they were fair'ish. I said okay well so you got her started then? He said no, I just got back, I said okay did you get the battery and gas....he said no. He said if you'll pull your truck and trailer down the hill we'll hook it on my truck with a chain and ease it down the hill and roll it right up on your trailer and put it in park and set the parking brake because the brakes aren't working either. This is where I kinda lost my chit....and it went down hill from there (pardon the pun). I said, no...now... I asked if it was a running truck and would pull itself up on (and back off) of my trailer and you said yes it's a strong running truck. He said well it was last summer (2017 summer) when I had it running last, it ran fine and I pulled it out back, I've not had it going since then but I figured it was fine. Now...I'm 2.5 hours from home in an area I'm not familiar with at 5:20pm up against dark thirty with a trailer with a flat deck and nothing up front to stop a rolling truck...if something goes wrong easing it down on the trailer with a chain and another truck, I have a 79 super cab riding piggy back on my $55,000 2016 lariat F-250. I said no thanks, I'm walking away from it this evening at least and heading home, call me if you get it running and I'll come back. He said fine, thanks and sorry you drove all the way here and it didn't work out. So I left, got down the road about five miles and his buddy that was there calls me up on the owners phone and said hey man if you're still interested...he needs the money bad he said he'd come down on it a grand. I said nah I'm headed back and just don't want to spend the time tonight dealing with it, tell him I'm still interested and I'll call him tomorrow and talk about it. He said okay...oh...well he says he'll come down on it $1500 if you'll take it tonight. I said nah I'm still interested in it but I'm not going to drive back and wrestle with it tonight and drive 2.5 hours back with it after dark in 30mph wind on unfamiliar roads and driving through Springfield MO. Conversation ended... So I'm back home and a bit salty... The truck was good and solid as I was told but it did have some old body work and the bed wasn't top notch as I was told. It'd been weld patched in the middle of the floor plate and wasn't attached by OEM fasteners or fastener points which raised some red flags. It did have the other style of suspension on it as well so it was going to be harder to convert over, probably looking at the body swap the other way with it. Interior wasn't nearly as good as I was told either. Pretty sure the engine was locked up actually, radiator was bad. I don't know, it was iffy given the fact he came down on it quite a bit and it had the extra parts that were so so. I was largely just put off by being blatantly lied to about it running. I mean you have it for sale for three weeks with flat tires, advertised as a good, strong running truck and it won't start or run and has no belts on the engine and hasn't had for years. Pretty damn dense if you ask me. Still wasn't priced quite low enough really given it's condition. I doubt I'll revisit it even with a lower offer the way it went. I'll pour the extra money in mine.
I would run and not look back! If he lied about that, you can only imagine what else is wrong. There will other trucks around in time. Or just buy new parts, at least you know what your getting. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Right, well it had a good cab on it, everything else about it I thought was valuable was not as great as I was led to believe. Coupled with the fact it didn't run as I was told and it was supposed to have a transmission freshly rebuilt with less than 500 miles on it...which was also probably utter BS. It just felt like it was mostly just a donor cab and that knocked the value of it down to like $1500 at most. The wheels on it were also garbage. The guy was careful to take pics of everything so far back from it that you couldn't see the flaws, just the shiny stuff. It also had an old clear coat paint job on it that would have been a real PITA to get down good enough to paint over.
Covey I realize this is kind of far for you but might have the box you are looking for? https://fortwayne.craigslist.org/cto/d/new-haven-1978-f150-xlt-supercab-4x4/6816334109.html corners, interior, and trim look really good. Box is a little off line but other than that actually looks really clean for that price.
Yep, mine has cruise on it as well. They're an interesting setup. Mine is set up with a little electrical device set up in-line of the speedometer cable. I have no idea if mine works, everything else was so rattle prone and rough riding last I drove it that I never tried it out. I put it in the shop and tore the crap out of everything now and it's been too super sloppy here to drive it anyway. I have the gauge cluster all out, thinking of going back with one of these in green rather than the stock cluster: https://www.intellitronix.com/product-page/1973-1979-ford-truck-direct-replacement-dash That's a pretty clean looking one but too far away. After the deal the other day driving just 5 hours round trip, I think I'll just double down on mine and hammer away at it. I know I can fix the cab rust in the front and top of the cab, the back floor edges I think I have a plan of attack for those with just plain sheet metal and there's patch panels available for everything else. The bed I can buy completely new for around $1600...just without an integrated tool box N/A in repop parts and the beds bolt together. If I ever find a good used right hand bed panel, it's an easy enough job to swap them out, or maybe cut out the tool box and weld it in my new panel. I found a bed with the tool box down in Arkansas for $300 but I'm about to fall out of love with that tool box at this point as much trouble as it's been to obsess over it. I probably should have turned around the other day and went back and bought the truck I looked at for $2K for the donor cab, doors and the bed with the tool box. Had I had a winch on my trailer to pull the dead SOB up on the trailer I probably would have. That's an issue I have resolved as I added a winch on my trailer today in case something like that ever happens again. Here's the truck I looked at the other day, started out priced at $4K but he offered $2500 by the time I had started back home. He marked it sold by the time I got home so I don't know what happened if someone else showed up with the cash or if he gave up, lol.
So, update time. Not a lot to report, so cold here lately I've been really slacking just staying in with the PS4 and the weim outside of doing chores. Space heater in the shop gets on my nerves with the roar and kicking on and off all the time. So I think I just bought a fair used bed here locally and one good passenger door with the glass in it. Got the bed for $200 and it HAS THE INTEGRATED TOOL BOX and TWO good fuel doors on it. Score...! The bed has more rust on it than I'd like but it's just over the fenders and I can patch that okay. Floor of the bed is dirty and surface rust but otherwise straight as an arrow and solid and it's been undercoated most of it's life. The tool box door is mint and the inside plastic box is perfect. So if I take that when I see it in person...that'll be a savings of like $1500 vs a new LMC bed and I get the tool box I so very much wanted! It's also within an hour drive from me. I have not seen pics of it underneath but at this point I think I'd pay the $200 just for the right hand side of the bed and the fuel doors which I'd need in any case. It also looks to have good trim on it so that's a bonus. Worse case scenario, I buy it and use just the outer right hand shell for the tool box and still go new with everything else. The used door will save me another couple hundred or so. That's all I got for now. Otherwise the truck is doing fine, the interior is stripped and I'm about ready to pull the cab off to work on it.
