Here is my 1985 Ford F100 short wheel base with a camed 351 Clevland 4 spd manual in it. I bought this car off our mechanic mid this year, he owned the car for about 2 years, when he bought the car it wasnt evan runing on all cyliners, so he did what he does best and cleaned the engine completey up. he then thought it was time to upgrade to a newer F250, I then took the project off his hands and decided to restore the truck completley inside and out.

I work as a fully qaulified spray painter in a automotive restoration place here in Adelaide, were we work on mainly old school american cars/hotrod/bikes really anything.

So here is how i bought the truck















So at this point i ripped up the floor lining to have a look further at the floor, which we all no were this is going. The floor was so badley teard up u could see the road and chasis through it. You can only see a little bit of the damage here, i will get better photos when its all apart. there is barley any floor left under driver seat.



so i figured instead of buying 2 new complete floor pans and then fixing that and running into more rust, id rather buy a complete second hand cabin in better condition.







this is all getting sand and soda blasted this week along with the tub, to begin the reparing.

being in a crash shop its easy to locate new parts so instead of mucking around with fixing the bonnet all over i bought new bonnet and guards to make things easier



Im really into the Military/Army and i love nothing more then the style and colour of their cars, so i have chosen to go a Army based olive colour to there car, but in a gloss not matte finish. I test sprayed the colour on the old guard just to get a idea of how it will look.


im still undicied on stripes and letter and stuff on the side of the truck, but i will be doing some sort of satin black decals along with the 351 on the guard and f100 on the rear. Feel free to give me some ideas.

so this is how the car sits right now out the front.


as of Tuesday 10th December the process will with the sandblasting guys, then ill take over from there. i will be doing a full resto inside and out including the underneath of the truck to all rubbers and all the interior aswell so keep tuned.

Truck should have colour on it before new years, and i will be updating with pics on the way through the build. would love to hear the feedback

 

Got some work ahead there! Good luck.
Your engine in my ute would be a nice combo.

Bloody Olive Drab paint at least you are going with a gloss version. If you are going "army" you will have to black out all the chrome, you could also go with an "Auscam" pattern tonneau cover or seat covers.

 

i dont want to run a cover at all coz ive got dirt bikes in the back of this thing evry other weekend, i will be going black inside the tub tho.

yeah i didnt want to go matte, i think u need a newer style shaped truck/car to pull off matte without it looking to cheap.

as for the seat covers good thinking but this is what ive already got for it already, for when its finished.

 

That is quite a project. I know because I'm in the middle of something quite similar, although mine is a reformation or restification more than a true restoration.

It is interesting to note some of the differences from here to there. For instance, the firewall is very different - not just a mirror image but totally different. I see no heater nor A/C box on the passenger's side. And where are the heater hoses going - into the fender? Oops, guard? (That confuses me as I expected "wing" to be the term.)

Anyway, I'm subscribed and want to see the results, which are surely going to happen much more quickly than mine.

 

Cool, are you going to paint the interior trim in "sand" beige to complete the theme? Throw a couple of olive jerry cans in the back for the bikes as well?

 

I agree with Brad's suggestion of blacking it out. Or at least the grill, headlight doors, and windscreen trim.

 

guess some of the differences coming form it being a right hand drive to? the car has no ac or evan heating really as far as im aware. i dont use either anyway. i havnt ventured much into the engine bay seeings as it all runs sweet and i only no the basics of mechanics, so i will just try tidy it up a little more during the process and then more engine mods to come later on.

im thinking of just going nuteral witht he colour and go just black, i think the sand/beige that it already is may look a little odd with the olive? so black s just safer and i always liked a plane basic black interior. deff will have some olive jerry cans in the back!

and yeah will be going black with mirrors/grille and see what other bit and pieces along the way.

 

Yes, the beige might look odd with the olive. Black would be better, but the seat covers you have planned will break that up nicely. Are you going to replace the door panels to get rid of the ..... "unusual" placement of the speaker?

As for the firewall, at least a heater was included here. So I've never seen a firewall w/o at least the base heater box. That would explain the difference there. Another difference is the steering wheel - that one looks like it might be from a later model. Is that wheel stock there?

 

yeah will be getting new door trims for it. nah this is not the stock steering wheels here, im pretty sure this is off a old Ford Falcon here as far as im aware. the interior in not set on anything yet asfar as steering wheel and that goes. that will all be looked at after the body is 100 percent complete

 

From what I've noticed, the early versions like my 81 used the American steering wheel, but later utes (i think when the grille changed) were factory fitted with the standard wheel Ford used in our local built cars (xd falcon).

I thought the beige interior as there is no air con, I'd like to ditch my tan trim for dark grey & black but I don't have a/c and so she'd be a bit hot in summer. I also have just the heater and my coolant hoses go through the firewall to the internal assembly.

The hoses going to the inner guard are for the gas system(LPG/propane) converter as judging by the air cleaner mixer assembly, it has the Sprint Gas New Generation system fitted. But no tank in the tray, is it running straight gas with a tank in place of the standard fuel tank?

 

yeah thats its a XD sterring wheel.

its on duel fuel with the gas tank located under the back of the tub, and them lines are actualy not running into the guard they stop just before it and then run back into the firewire

 

Off to the westcoast...... i mean sandblasting/sodablasting. truck inside a truck.

 

Interesting. I would never have thought the cab would fit in the bed. Or, that the cabin would fit in the tub.

 

Yeah slips rite in. Perfect fit

 

This is an interesting thread. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Regards