I just bought a 1955 F100 and want to restore it on a budget. Any suggestions/advise on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Currently I have the truck taken apart down to the frame. I will be sandblasting the frame and painting it soon and will start the rebuild from there.

I have rebuilt a 351w bored .30 that I plan to drop in it but I have lots of work before I get to that point. I'm thinking I will start with suspension, steering brakes then move on from there.

Because of my pitiful budget I will not be doing tons of mods and would like to reuse what I can. I am entertaining the idea of converting the front brakes to Disc though.

What do you think?

Thanks
-Brian

 

Welcome Brian! Everyone has a budget - the challenge is to balance what is needed with what is wanted. What are your plans? Is this to be a daily driver, weekend cruiser, or a work truck? What kind of local roads: around town, freeway, challenging roads? Give us a bit more info - and pics - and the answers get more useful.

DW

 

Restoration & Budget are not compatible words.
LOL

 

Welcome to the madness. I almost painted my 54 SeaSprite, I love that color but that would draw too much attention to my body work. Mine is a low buck build so I painted it with a gallon of surplus paint from work. Assuming your truck is an eastern Colorado native you shouldn't have a lot of rust thru to deal with. You'll probably get more advice here than you can shake a stick at so Good luck and keep us posted on how it comes along.

 

I am looking to make it a daily driver. Keep in mind it's a small town daily driver not a city driver. I'm in Colorado but on the plains not the mountains and will probably not drive it in the snow. Will not need to be a show truck and won't be doing any heavy work but I will use it as a truck sometimes. When I say budget I'm not saying I can spend much money, I'm just saying I don't want to drop it, chop it, and do other unnecessary things to it. I would be happy just making it a fairly nice truck to putt around in. Not much rust through it just the drivers front cab corner.

This is my first major project and will be looking for advise on some parts of the project and what order I should prioritize the restore as to minimize unnecessary work. Looking to be done by summer of 2018

 

Hey Brian,
An easy on your budget upgrade is the rear end. We also have a 351W engine & we paired it up with a Ford Explorer 8.8 rear axle with 3.73 gears for easy cruising. The rear swap is pretty straight forward - a weekend or two. We bought the salvage Explorer axle for $125. If you pick the right year you get rear disc brakes & a non-slip differential (nice).

The front end upgrades are much more involved & expensive so if you can live with a refurbed stock front end your pocketbook will be happy.

Good luck over there in Colorado.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

For sure. Especially when it's already torn down to the bare bones.

Welcome to the forum! Plan A would be to decide what you want your truck to be when it grows up. To stay on budget, keep the major stuff as stock as possible. This part you already seem to have a handle on. For priority, tackle the stuff you need to put back together first. Replace the suspension parts that need replaced, ie; bushings, springs, king pins, steering wear items, etc. The disc brake swap is good since it will cost about as much to do that as it does to replace all the stock drum parts, and you'll have better braking when you're done. It also adds a measure of safety with the dual reservoir master cylinder. Next comes motor mounts and drivetrain parts. You'll want the cab and radiator in place to determine positioning. Once you get the chassis all buttoned up, it's on to bodywork and paint, and final assembly. Don't waste your time messing with the old box. Get a new replacement. Sure, it may sound like a bunch of money, up front, but when you consider how much nicer straight sheet metal looks when finished, and that for less than a couple grand half of your truck is done, it's a bargain. You can't invest 20 hours and have the old beat up and rusty bed turn out half as good as a new one, and that's about what the price turns into. If you get all that done in 4 years, you'll be on budget and on target. Good luck and have fun.

 

Could we see some pictures? Here is how.


But I got ta say becoming a supporter is the fastest and easiest way to post pics right from
your whatever pad/cell thing or home computer.
Few of us look in the users Gallery or album as you can see by your recent visitors.


Quote:
Originally Posted by 76f350spercamprspeal

Welcome to FTE, Best Damn Forum EVER!
------------------------
Here's How to Post Pictures:
1. Login to FTE.
2.Click User CP (In the Top Left Hand Corner)
3.(On the Left, There will be a list, The 5th Option Down, will say "Pictures & Albums) Click That.
4.Then, Click Add Album, Enter a title, and description, if ya want to.
5. Click Upload Pictures, Then click Browse, Locate the Files of your truck. (You can add 3 files at a time)
5. Click Upload.
6. Add a description to the individual pictures, then click save.
7. Add more files if ya want.
8. Click The Picture you want to post, it will give you two codes at the bottom, Right Click The Second one (It say's BB Code, Then Say's [IMG]http:blahblahblah...[/IMG])
Then, Once that is highlighted, Right Click, Then Copy, Then Paste it into your post.
You can add up to 30 Images in one FTE Post.
If, Ya need any help, Don't hesitate to ask.


Quote:
Originally Posted by old_dan

You can also go to the "Garage" tab and start an album right here on FTE. After you post pictures to an album, we can look in your album, but you'll also be able to "insert a picture" by pasting in a link to the picture in your album.

It seems awkward, but whenever you "insert a picture" to one of these threads, the forum is looking for the picture somewhere on the web (which is always available) rather than from somewhere on your hard drive (which isn't always available).

Quote:
Originally Posted By Jolly Roger Joe

Welcome to FTE!

Go to Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket and sign up for a free account. Then create an album for your truck. Upload any pics you want to post on FTE to that album. Have this album open on your computer when you want to post pics on FTE.

While you're making a post on FTE, select the pic you want to post from your Photobucket album. When the large version of the pic is open, right mouse click on it and select "View Image Info". The image info will be highlighted and will look something like this:
The best photos and videos | Photobucket

Copy that highlighted info (right click / copy).

When you have the spot in your post where you want the pic to be placed, select the "Insert Image" icon at the top of the post (looks like a mountain) and paste (right click / paste) the image info you copied in the highlighted box (just shows "http://" when it opens).

Your pic will be placed in the post.

Hope that helps.

Here's a tutorial Bob put together: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/67...-pictures.html Bob's link is not working. Can someone in the know tell me why?

How to upload pictures to the FTE Forums. - YouTube. Thanks Sam Rusty_Old_F250. Best we can find is that this video was done by Gundown64

 

you do not need disk brakes - especially if you are not doing any heavy work or mountain driving.

Drums are just fine - you may however want to upgrade to a power brake booster & you absolutely need a dual resuvior master cyl for safety.

Drum brakes however are good brakes - they just tend to fade & get hot easier. But you wont even notice if you are just cruising.

If you were towing a 6000lb trailer or riding down long steep hills all the time that is different.

1 less thing to replace.

 

I did a post on forming a building plan in this post: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...1955-f250.html It's is a little bit different than most and more budget friendly.

 

Doesn't sound like a restoration. He's planning on using a 351, disc brakes, etc. Not to be nit-picky.

 

Sure they are...

As long as you add the words patience and years in there somewhere.

 

Check out this FAQ I posted on my site. Has some good ideas on retrofitting various parts like seats, radiators etc.

FAQ

 

Hey Scott,
Nicely done on the FAQ's! Beautiful truck too!

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Ok I guess it's not a true restoration. Lol. How about gettin her back on the road project. I actually would have gone with a smaller engine if I didn't already have the 351 I built just sitting around.

Love your page 53olderthanme. I will definitely refer to it for ideas.

Thanks axracer that guy in the other forum sounds exactly like me. Lol. What do you think about the 8.8 explorer rear swap for the f100s? I'm figuring it would cost about as much to refurbish the original Dana 44 and drum brakes as it would to just get a explorer 8.8 with the disc brakes. Your opinions?

Giesterferher, years and patience I have plenty of. Lol. But with a couple of youngins (1 and 4 years old) money isn't as plentiful as it once was.