Thanks, Shane. I'm very please with the look of the truck. It's slowly been coming together.

 

Love the back story on the truck, and I agree with Shane. Neat rig!


I have the same Ford Racing banner hanging alongside my highboy in the garage.

 

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. The truck has a lot of sentimental value. I've had several dentsides, but this is the first one that I've bought and has been in my family since new. It will never be sold or leave the family as long as I'm alive

I still have to hang my Ford Racing banner. I haven't gotten around to hanging it in the shop yet!

 

Small update here. I tore into the motor and got my new lifters and rockers installed. This was my first time in the motor since the rebuild last year and everything looked great! (as it should be)


The motor tore down with the intake, carb, valve covers, and stock rockers removed.


New Scorpion Rockers and Comp lifters installed. It's really a shame to cover up these things. They are such a pretty blue! Unfortunately they will never be seen. Maybe I should invest in clear valve covers??? (just kidding)

I ended up shimming most of the rockers to .040" (a few to .020") to acheive the proper lifter preload.


The truck is now back on DD duty and I'm loving it!

 

Really haven't done much to the truck lately. I actually did my first road trip in the old girl since I've had it. I decided to drive the truck almost 400 miles each way to visit some family in the North West Suburbs of Chicago. Before doing the trip I though it would be a good idea to finally install the mechanical gauges I've had sitting around for about a year.



I really couldn't find a good place to mount them. I didn't like having them on top of the dash, and I couldn't mount them on the bottom center of the dash because of the ash tray and having a 4spd. I would have had clearance issues when using granny low 1st gear.

Ultimately the only good place I found to mount the gauges was on the bottom left side of the dash right next to the parking brake release lever. They have great visibility, but it is not the cleanest looking install. Maybe one day I will make my own gauge pod that I can graph into the dash. This will work for now.

They are just a cheap set of Equus gauges from O'Rielly's, but they look pretty good, are full sweep (minus voltage), work well, and have a nice glow with the green bulb covers.



Not a great picture, but you get the idea. They look slightly better in person.

 

I have the same gauges in mine. I couldn't find a good spot to mount them either. I bent up a few little brackets that are screwed to the dash in behind the dash bezel so the screws are covered and it looks like a clean install

 

How did the road trip go? How was it cruising that far/long in the dentside?

 

That's funny you should post that. That was actually my second choice for a mounting location. I was really torn between the two spots and ultimately went with the lower location. Looks good though!

 

The truck actually did very well. It really sucked the fuel at about 11.5mpg. Other than that it drove very smooth, had PLENTY of passing power, and ran a little under 2,500 rpm at 70 mph with the 4spd. My biggest complaints: no cruise control, a LOT of wind noise, and my fuel gauge was acting up.

My fuel gauge had been working perfectly right up to the point that I left for my trip. Just my luck. As a result I stopped more than necessary for fuel since I didn't trust the gauge and also brought a full 6 gallon fuel canister with me. Just in case.

The wind noise is mostly a result of worn out (or missing) weather stripping. Once I do body work I will replace all the weather stripping, I'm sure it will get much quieter. I also plan to add insulation wherever possible.

 

Your complaining about getting 11.5 mpg with a '79 F-250 4x4 ? Damn, I find it hard to believe it even gets that much on the highway dude ! Consider yourself lucky.

 

I'm not complaining about the 11.5. I estimated that I would get between 10 and 12 mpg. It's lifted on 35" tires and has the aerodynamics of a brick house. I knew fuel economy would be bad. I'm happy with anything over 10! If you re-read my post you will see that fuel economy was not one of my listed complaints. I was happy with the truck. It did great.

 

Poor me, I'm in the 6 to 7 range. Don't know about the highway though, I never go out on the 4 lanes.

 

Wow, that's rough. On my return trip I had a stiff head wind (probably about 30mph) and cruised 75mph straight into it. Fuel economy dropped to about 9.5mpg and the wind noise got even worse. The truck still drove great.

 

Well, it's been a while once I posted anything in relation to my 1979 F-250. The truck has been my DD for the past year, so I haven't really taken the chance to do any work to it other than regular maintenance. I've been really busy with school and work, so not much progress has been made on it. For those of you that don't know, I purchased a 78 F-250 about a month ago and have been tinkering with that over the past few months (thread is in my sig). Luckily I just finished my Masters degree in Quality Engineering so I finally have some free time to work on the 79 and put the 78 on the back burner for a while

The 1978 F-250 4x4 I purchased:

Note: I'm actually thinking about swapping this bumper onto my 79. Let me know what you think!


Anyway, onto the meat and potatoes of the post. As some of you may know, I gave my 79 a Rustoleum spray bomb paint job about 4 years ago. The paint-job that was on the truck when I bought it was terrible. It was peeling off and looked like crap. I opted to spray paint the truck so it would appear marginally better, but mainly to inhibit any further rust growth. I originally intended the spray bomb paint-job to last about 4 years (which is exactly how long it lasted). I was hoping that by this point I would have tracked down a decent bed and would have acquired the means to give the truck a professional grade paint job. Grad school (among other things) got in the way of this plan, so it's time to replace the Rustoleum paint-job! This time the truck will be painted with much better materials than Rustoleum spray paint. I am using an acrylic tractor/implement paint that should hold up fairly well and not fade out near as bad as the Rustoleum did. By the way, it will be International Harvester Red (even though we are generally an Aliis Chalmers or J.I. Case family)

First step was to take a picture of all my Fords together before the 79 went back under the knife (78, 79, and 97).


Since I wanted this paint job to be superior to the last one, I decided to pull the grill and bumper off:


After pulling the grille and bumper off I began the long long road of sanding and stripping the old paint. My buddy and I spent many hours with a DA sanding this thing down. I knew there had been several patch panels welded into the bed at some point, but I didn't realize how much Bondo was in the bed until I began stripping it. This only reinforces my decision to replace the bed.



I bought a really straight and clean tailgate off of craigslist a couple years ago and decided now would be a good time to put it on the truck, so I began to sand it down and smooth out the minor imperfections. For those of you wondering, it's sitting on the back of my 1985 Honda Big Red ATC 250 3 wheeler.


I also pulled off the running boards and intend to keep them off. The truck looks so much better without them! Although, I'll definitely have to add grab handles. Getting in and out is much more difficult.


Eventually I got the truck sanded and wiped down. It was then time for me to apply some Bondo to try and smooth out the previous body work as best as I could. I hate using the stuff, but I still plan to replace the bed eventually, so filling it with Bondo for the time being doesn't bother me too much.


After Bondo, the truck got wiped down and primered.


After primer the truck got spot puddy to smooth out any further imperfections.


And then sanded down again.


After about 6 days of sanding, bondo, leveling, block sanding, and priming the truck is ready for another coat of primer and then it will be time to shoot some color. This is going to be a temporary paint-job, but so far I'm pleased with the results. I'm eager to see what the final product will look like. Ultimately this will be a $200 paint-job.

Now I want your input on a few things. First, I have a set of NOS running boards that are identical to the ones I pulled of the truck. Should I throw them on or keep the clean look of no running boards. Second, I'm debating on whether or not I want to take the front bumper off the 78 I own and swap it with the bumper on the 79. Let me know your opinions! more to come soon.

 

Great Progress! Looking forward to seeing it with a new coat of paint.

My $0.02 on your questions below:

I'd leave off the full length running boards and put on a single hoop style like the "Bully" steps or something along those lines. I always thought those looked sharp. Less "grandpa" and still functional for you and passengers.

I'd throw the bumper from the '78 on there as well if it's in good shape. But that's just me, I'm a fan of bumper guards.