The bed floor was rusting away on my 76 F250. We found a bed floor from a 1994 F 150 that was in cherry shape. We cut my old bed sides off and mounted them to the 94 bed. We decided to re-paint the truck with the Dupont Chromabase system 1980 Ford Candy Apple Red. (mistake, I got a bad mix, but Dupont is replacing it)

We left the 94 front and rear posts attatched to the floor of the bed and "upgraded" my old 76 tailgate with the 94 lift handle linkage and latches, You can open my tailgate with your pinky finger now. The flat bars that held the tailgate level when opened were replaced with cables, just like the 94 but they had to be a little shorter. It took some work, but was worth it, my daughter can open and close the tailgate now.

Here are some pic's with the bed removed and body work being performed on the cab. The cab and bed are off a 77 Ford and I didnt like the lower trim. We welded all the trim holes in the bed\cab and replaced the rusted bed inner and outer fender well's with replacement panels.

The truck is completley painted now, without the trim installed, waiting to be re-painted again due to the defective paint

I've used the draino method suggested on this site to remove the anodized coating on all but the bed trim so far, I then polished it, and It looks awsome

I posted a couple pic's on Photo bucket. Can anyone tell me how to post pic's here on ford -trucks? Here is the URL:
truck pictures by riderman357 - Photobucket

 

1980 wasn't a particularly good year for Ford...I think you should look for a Candy Apple Red from a different year.

Diablo Red Pearl is pretty damn sexy...

 

Like that!

Copy and paste the images' direct link into the Insert image popup. Or quote this reply and look at the code to see what it looks like.

 

Maybe not, but I painted that (1980 Candy) color urethane with clear, wet sanded and polished out the clear, and it was a head turner. I tried to use the same color in Chroma Base, for $800.00, the color is not even close to matching, and it didnt cover well at all. I color sanded and polished this ( chromabase) paint, it looks' like a show car paint job, but with the color\covering issues. With that being said, I looked up that Diablo Red Pearl. AWSOME! But Dupont is only gonna replace the same color I purchased.

Thank you for the picture post information. I'll see if I can make it work.

Riderman

PS: The pictures posted are the 80 Candy that I like, the new paint is just "RED". I'll post some of the "new" color later. Yes, that money was for 5 pint's of color, 3 qts of basemaker reducer, a gallon of clear with a qt of activator and sealer.

 

$800?!?!? Ouch!