If ya gotta have a toy, may as well have a damn nice one, lol. If I'm going to do this, I don't want to have to worry about the old heifer falling apart or breaking down on me. As far as the tools I bought, I have a lot of stuff those tools will be handy for in the future. I have a 1953 3100 deluxe cab truck that need rebuilt again and a 1977 Z28 camaro that needs several body panels replaced on it. The 3100 was my first vehicle and the Z28 I took on a trade in exchange for some work I did with a bulldozer about 15 years ago and never did much with it. I may get tired of farming someday and just start building hot rods and restoring classic cars, ya never know, lol.
I was just looking at a 3100 on Craigslist today. The guy modernized the whole thing and put air bags on it. But left the body rusty, so I guess it was a rat rod. Really cool looking and her wanted a pretty penny for it also! Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
I always loved the body style of those old trucks, when I got my DL that's all I wanted for a vehicle. Saw one sitting on a street in a local town so I stopped and went to the door and asked if it was for sale. The guy said sure I'd sell it for probably $500. I said I can do that! I'd saved up $1500 from two summers work, lol. Looked it over and it was a good solid truck he'd done a lot of work on. It had a 283 V8 and a 5 spd manual in it. I bought it on the spot and then had to learn to drive the 5 spd on the way home. For $500, I had the coolest ride in school. I sanded it all down and dad painted it for me. I bought new wheels and tires, 15's in the front and 16's in the back to give it that drag racer front rake. Turns out he'd also put a limited slip diff in the rear end. She turned out pretty good for a first car. Always swore I'd keep that truck and I have so far but it's sit out and degraded something terrible. I've got a 91 model EFI 302 with power steering and factory AC and a matching E40d automatic tranny with a 4x4 front axle and transfer case I want to put in that old gal someday. Not a big fan of hybrid ford/chevy mixes but that'd be a sweet truck and I have those on hand already.
Lol, this isn't exactly what I had pictured in my head. It looks kind of stoopid sitting so high up as a 4x4. I'd not situate one like that, lol.
Don't know what kind sort of bed panels you're wanting but was looking up some stuff for my truck and decided wth see if they have older stuff too. This site is showing the panels with the duel fuel tanks and might be cheaper than buyin a while other truck ha. https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1979/ford/f250/body_mechanical_-ar-_trim/pickup_bed_panel.html Are these the floor pans you need? https://www.carparts.com/details/Ford/F-250/Key_Parts/Floor_Pan/1979/FIT1980221L.html https://www.carparts.com/details/Ford/F-250/Key_Parts/Floor_Pan/1979/FIT1980222R.html Also might try jc whitney, if hasnt been mentioned. They used to sell different body parts. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Thanks for looking man, I appreciate it. Those are kind of the correct bed parts, yes. Except the right hand side bed panel was available from Ford with an integrated tool box in it. So far I've not found any repops with that tool box. I can live without the tool box feature at least until I find a used bed with it I can swipe the right hand side off of. The other patch panels I can't find are for the rear floor pan of the super cab. Both fronts are available but not the rear and my cab is rusted out all the way across the back where the floor and the back of the cab meet.
I gotcha, yea thats what happens when its winter, your laid off, and don't sleep very much at night. Ha. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Ha, yep. I must have been smoking weed in my sleep last night or something, I woke up about 3am with my stomach telling my brain it was starving to death. My brain was like, "Wha...it's 3am go back to *%*^$ sleep you ba#^!*>" my stomach was like, "Nah we didn't eat supper last night dumba**, get up and grab something and then you can go back to nappy nap." Combine that with my OCD and my recent truck project and there ya go....
Day 4 of 1,123,452,098 trying to restored this truck....Discovered the electric cooling fans weren't working that someone added to the truck. Checked those out, jerry rigged mess but should work in principle. Fans worked wired directly so assumed the thermostat was screwed. Went to town got a new electronic and adjustable thermostat, put it on and everything worked just peachy. Drove it a little bit up the road and it just drives like crap, I was getting some hop in the drive train from something. I'll have to track that down and see what's going on there. Bad bearing or something in the rear axle maybe, front end wasn't locked in. Or maybe it was and the different tires on the front had the gearing thrown out of whack...May have to put the old pair back on the front and drive it again.
Check your u joints on the drive shaft, kind of sounds like it might be the problem Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
I already checked them, someone replaced them not too long back from the looks of them. I couldn't find anything loose in the drive lines. It looks like the transfer case mount to the frame is missing but the tail shaft is bolted up okay. I wouldn't think it'd cause the issue.
My next guess would be the wheel bearings like you suggested. Another thing that it could be maybe since it has mud tires, maybe they had a flat and put fix a flat in a tire. Then it hardened up and now tire is out of balance. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Ha, no...I found it. (Well, it may also have all the bearings out too for all I know but) Not only is the bracket missing that bolts the transfer case to the frame (pretty sure there's supposed to be one there) but they didn't have any bolts in the tranny tail shaft bracket to the cross member below it that straddles the frame rails. I also found the front gas tank was loose, the exhaust and glass packs are held up with custom plumbers tape brackets and all four shocks are special custom ordered 7 axis shocks. The shocks are so loose you can grab'em and shake'em in 7 directions. Other than that, this b*tch is like brand new. Well, except all the leaks. I tightened up everything (with actual bots and nuts) and took it for another drive and it felt like a different truck. The parking pawl still wasn't quite right before but bolting the tranny down and in line fixed that so it actually hits park now like it should. SO I also found the source of the bent shifter bracket I straightened yesterday! Engine fans worked pretty good, tranny shifts pretty good, engine will blow your ears out from the glass packs but it'll burn the effin tires like no body's business! Spinning those big fat tires made my day. In spite of the poor old b*tch being rotten in the cab and it's problems from a gaggle of retarded mechanic wannabes trying to make a "cool" status symbol bog buggy mud machine out of her...I have to admit I kind of fell in love with her. When I parked it for the evening from taking it out, I had a smile on my face from ear to ear. I think she's going to be worth the effort. I'm concerned about the cab rot for sure though. Not only are the floor pans rotted out but several of the cab supports are also rotten. Not sure I can find replacements for all of them on a supercab.
Update on cab supports....I found replacements! So I've got some thinking to do about how I proceed now. I guess I'll go through the axles and redo the suspension first while I have the bed off and before I go any further. The diffs are leaking bad like everything else and I want to make sure those are reliable and sealed up. Then I have the cab rot issues and the drive train needs to come out and be rebuilt and resealed and the frame needs a body off restoration and coating. I'm thinking I'll sandblast all the frame, springs, etc and then prime them and then coat them with rhinoliner the underneath side of everything on the truck.
What the heck. As long as this is going to be "your baby," get that trashy body off from her and start blasting. Fix all of those leaky seals, tighten up or replace those bolts, fix the brakes and the exhaust and then put the rhino liner or whatever your going to hit the frame with. By then, I'm sure that you'll have the cab all restored so you can drop that on and then put the box on and go out and lay some serious rubber down. Then my friend, you can go to bed with a serious smile on your face!!!!!
I'm not going to have time right now to tear it completely down and restore it all in one go so I need to keep it so I can move it around from time to time. I've got some work to do to my planter before spring that'll take some time and money. I know better than to put that off too long in Feb. corn season is right around the corn-er. I think I'm going to go ahead and put in the new rocker panels and front floor pans and fab a new rear section and fix a couple of cab mounts and remove the bed (maybe even put the new bed on). So at least it doesn't look like a falling apart rusty POS until I get a chance to break it down completely and restore it from the ground up. Then it's at least a usable truck again in the meantime. SO I'm thinking it'll be in phases. Phase I: Now Fix the immediate problems with the cab so I don't fall through the floorboard and the cab doesn't fall off. Remove and replace new bed Rebuild the axles and suspension (brakes are new and work great but I'll recheck them as I go) Fix the wiring and gauge cluster and heat and AC (AC optional) Phase II: 2019/2020 fall/winter Remove glass, remove cab and bed, clean, rebuild where needed, prime, paint, undercoat. Remove engine and Trans. rebuild, reseal, paint, appearance and stage I performance upgrades. Clean frame, repair where needed, prime, paint, undercoat. Remount drive train on restored frame Remount cab Reinstall glass and all weather seals Paint front clip and bed and undercoat and reassemble Phase III. 2020/2021 fall/winter Stage II performance upgrades. My goal is minimum 600+ HP and 600+ Ft/lbs torque Interior upgrades Bed upgrades, integrated tool box, goose neck ball or fifth wheel. Suspension upgrades...air bags, sway bars, etc... Probably at least a two year project. I may have a new house and shop before I get it finished. I want to deck my new shop out with a lift and a car rotisserie and some dollies and do more of this stuff as I get older. I may cut back on cash crop and go more into livestock with some hands so I have more time to play with cars/trucks and do more hunting. I'd love to build/restore old vehicles and start a dealership for classic but reconditioned vehicles. I've always wanted a car and a tractor dealership. I have to check into it but I believe I could do that without being an "official" specific car brand company dealer. I don't think there are any special legal requirements to deal in used vehicles. I've always liked dealing in cars and equipment so I think it'd be a blast. I'd like to semi retire by 60 and have the business all on cruise control for my retirement, lol.
Update: Spent the day yesterday working on the old rust bucket. Installed new exhaust system, still needs some work but it sounds fantastic. Installed new pipe and proper mufflers to quiet down the beast 460. It sounds good to my ear...not a crackling, obscene eff you glasspack noise. It sounds like pure big block V8 potential power with a deep throaty growl now. It's just a purely aesthetic preference, that's what sounds good to my ear. Then I replaced all the shocks, I just used fair quality NAPA parts, nothing special but at least the ride is vastly improved and the shocks don't rattle because all the rubber mountings are gone and all the gas charge is dead, lol. I've never seen shocks so effed up. Today I'm going to remove the rear drive shaft and replace the rear carrier bearing. Someone couldn't get the old one off so they put a new cover over it and bolted it back up. Now the old one is in no threat of letting the driveshaft droop in the middle but it has about 3/4" of slap in it, lol. I have no idea what people are thinking when they do this stuff. Exhaust still needs a lot of work. I'm not happy with how it is routed or where the mufflers hang. I used as much of the old system as I could because of the added headers and the new pipe that was there. It needs a lot of things changed to get it tucked neatly up in the chassis frame out of the way and run the dual exhaust over the rear axle and all new hangers. I'm thinking I'm going to build a new set of crossovers with pie cut welds to get them routed over through the right hand side of the cross member rather than under it. I don't have a mandrel bender and no local muffler shops so it's probably going to be all elbow grease and mig wire. It should look cool when done though. I ground off the body filler on the cab the other day. It really wasn't as bad on the upper half of the cab as I feared. Looks like they had a few pin holes and pits they tried to fill. I'm amazed people have no idea how to actually use bondo....didn't "fix" the rust...just covered it over, globbed the crap on, didn't smooth it down and just spray canned over it. LOL, seriously...WTFudge people, don't ever do that crap.
Since I started this thread I guess I'll keep updating it for anyone following along. I finished the exhaust system, burnt my wrist chasing exhaust leaks with a wrench so I've been taking it easy the last week. Really happy with how the exhaust turned out and it sounds fantastic. Didn't get the pipes off the headers run quite the way I wanted but it's fine and all I could do given the cross member room. Dual 2-1/4" exhaust with decent mufflers both routed out the back passengers behind the wheel, unconventional routing for the second pipe but it's where I wanted it. New shocks all the way around are on. The nice new Eldebrock carb is tuned and the electric choke is now functional. She starts, runs and idles like a top. Still have a couple non-working gauges. I think that's the gauge set, thinking of upgrading from the original to a modern digital set with new harness and senders. I have the bed off and out of the way, the cab interior is stripped and floor pans exposed. Going to maybe get new parts next week for the body repair, new doors, hood and bed. I need to build a cart to remove the cab and suspend/rotate it to rebuild it completely after media blasting. While I have the cab off it'll be time to media blast the frame and suspension and I may go ahead and rebuild the motor and tranny and transfer case. Fairly locally there's a super cab 2wd for sale with a perfect body and the bed with integrated tool box for sale and they just dropped the price on it by $700. I'm seriously considering going and getting it and converting it to 4wd with my truck's 4wd components. I'd convert my current one back to 2wd and sell it as a running 2wd project truck. Not sure but I really really want a bed with that integrated tool box and this truck is in perfect condition with all trim in place and nice. It's reasonably priced too. It'll take about 2/3''rds of the price they are asking for that one just to put a new bed and floor pans in mine. #tempted
Sounds like good deal on other truck. If you've already pulled body or alot of it off one got would it be easier to just remove body from other truck and put it on you're chassis? Obviously have not seen either truck but if frame and all that was good would think swapping body would be eaiser route than swapping front end and transfer case. But like said having not seen either truck really it may not be. Either way good luck man. Remember when welding stuff gets hot lol Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Sounds like your moving along at a good pace! And yes keep with the updates, I can't wait to see what it turns into! Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
