I thought I'd chime in with the solution to your back seat lift query. The company you're looking for is called LMI Welding, Inc. They're based out of Cut Bank, Montana, and the seat lift kit for our rigs was $125.00 (at least that's what it was when I bought mine....but that was a couple years ago). The part number for that kit is "LMI 7379". It's a 4 inch lift kit for the seat, which includes the lowered bracket so your original seat latch will still work.

Now, if you want to get a taller lift, you may want to talk to them about that. I don't know if they offer one, but you can always ask. Anyway, that should save you some snooping, and keep you from having to reinvent the wheel.

Good luck with your build.......it's a long road, but it's worth it!

 

That s awesome, that truck is great !! I like very much the 460 fuel inyected, it s gonna be a monster !! I ll suscribe

 

Tires were 38x13.5 on 16x10 wheels lift was a 6" skyjacker front and rear springs.

 

The sticker says Wallkill Auto Sales Corp, Wallkill, NY.

It really is a different color combo, I've yet to see one with the same combo. Once I get some more spare cash I'm going to get a Marti report that should tell me how many with that combo were made.

 

I knew I'd seen it somewhere here. I like the look of it, to bad you sold it.

For the fuel injection I can't find a fuel injected 460 truck in my area that has a good drivetrain and engine with lowering miles for under $3500-$4000, everyone thinks their trucks are made of gold here when they're all rusted out and high miles. If I bought one I'd end up rebuilding the engine anyways and be stuck with a rusty shell that would only bring a few hundred at the scrapyard I called the few scrapyards within 100 miles to and the only one that had one wanted $600 for just the engine and it was just sitting out in the open on a tire for who knows how long. I looked into it before I started this project but decided the cost/risk was to high to go that route vs rebuilding what I have and adding the MSD system. Call me a snob if you want but with the MSD system I also get the look of a carbed engine whereas the newer fuel injected 460's look like an average modern engine to me.

I had already posted a link to the LMI welding websites page on the lifts. Looks like it's the same price still. How do you like the lift? When I was sorting through your many pictures I saw you had one but never got around to asking about it I don't think. I've heard they get rid of a lot of head clearance once it's installed.




Anyways onto progress. Today I made the 90 mile round trip (sometimes it sucks to live way out in the sticks) to the welding supply store and picked up a bottle of argon/Co2 for the welder along with some cutoff wheels for my grinder. I got most of the floor cut out too. Once I pulled out the rubber mat I realized there were a lot of little pin holes through the floor and I was surprised I hadn't put my foot through the floor yet so I had to cut out more than I wanted but what do you do, I'm just glad the cab mounts are solid. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get the rest cut out of the floor and get the new floor pan marked out to be trimmed. For my first time cutting out sheet metal like this I think it went pretty well.



Passenger side is solid thankfully.

 

Kinda bummed myself out today. I got the replacement floor panel ready to be cut out last night and then threw my back out this morning. I tried cutting today but man it hurt to stand bent over that floor pan so now I'm just sitting and waiting for my back to stop hurting. I tried uploading pictures last night but they didn't work so I'll try again today.

 

So I got the floor all cut out and realized the LMC floor pan I bought doesn't have matching contours and curves all the way around so after thinking about it a while I decided to take a piece of cardboard and make a template of the hole. It's not perfect but I got the fit as good as possible then when I cut the LMC pan I left a little extra for trimming, hopefully it turns out alright. I'm planning on finishing cutting the LMC pan tomorrow and possibly start welding if I have time. The LMC panel is definitely a thinner or lesser quality steel than the original ford steel, it cuts like butter compared to the stock flooring. I don't have thickness differences but I'm going to measure it tomorrow and see how different they are. I knew it wasn't going to fit perfect but I was surprised at how off they were in fit and thickness. even the pressed indents in the floor don't like up with the original ford floor. I talked with a local the other day who has restored these trucks and he said every company is like that no matter who it is. Kind of disappointing if you ask me.





I got the shed wired up for 220 volt for my welder and realized the cord was too short to reach the outlet so I had to go in with the bobcat and pick the table up and move everything around while fighting off the mosquitos bombarding me, finally warms up above the 60's here and the mosquitos are everywhere. Fired the welder up for the first time since it was bought at an auction last summer and it fired right up and fed wire out so that was a good sign.

 

I finally got a chance to work on the 78 this last week and I got my Marti Report, turns out my truck did actually come from the factory with cruise control and it's "3 with these paint codes" and "1 with these paint/trim codes" which would explain why I've never seen one with the same paint job and no one I've ever talked to seems to have either.

I spent a few hours the other day under the truck looking for numbers and ID plates I wasn't sure on the year of my engine though, the casting number is D1VE-6015-a2b, from what I understand that makes it somewhere between 73-79. After cleaning the engine a bit I was able to read the emissions sticker on the valve cover and it says it meets 77 requirements so right now I'm assuming it's a 77 so if there's any way to know for sure I'd like to know.

While I was under the truck I decided to check out the rear wheel well rust some more and found bondo... It looks like some time early in the trucks life it was "fixed" and repainted so I cleaned out as much as I could for now.

The lower trim on the bed had only a couple nuts holding it on, the rest were push clips so I just used a flat head screwdriver and some cardboard and twisted it until it popped the trim out I had no marks left over and it seemed to work pretty good I thought.

 

Subscribed! I like your rig and the plans you have for it, especially the EFI. I also happen to like the color scheme you have.

Not that you need any inspiration or even want any but here is a nice Supercab you might like to look at. It was brought back from a pretty bad state. Finished product sure looks awesome.

 

Thanks,

I've watched all of that guys videos at least 15 times. He does some good work and I only hope mine comes out that clean.

 

It's been a last few weeks with work and everything else going on, sold my mustang then a few days later drove out to south Dakota to buy a 93 f250 with 100k miles and rust free g other than that it has mostly been just getting parts here and there. I posted in another thread I had started about a factory topper I picked up and I finally got back to fitting the floor pan after a LONG break from it so I'll be welding soon hopefully.

I helped a friend get a 78 F250 Supercab Explorer towed into town today with the deal that I got to take out any parts I wanted for free so I took out the rear seat trim panels and will be going back to get the polished door panel trim and the factory cruise control system to replace the one in my truck now. Not a bad deal for towing a truck less than 10 miles.

 

Spent some time the other day with the welder making some test welds and just getting used to a mig again. I was going to do the floor pan the other day but I figured I'd do some practice on some bale rings first so if I start blowing through left and right it'll at least not be on the truck.

What size wire do you guys use in your mig welders? I have .030" right now and I'm using an argon/co2 tank for a shielding gas. I've never done any real sheet metal welding before and I'm not sure if the .030" is to big of wire for the thin sheet metal.

Yesterday I took a road trip out to the west end of the state to pick up a rust free box with the factory tool box on the side. I decided if I could find a rust free box I'd jump on it so I figured I'd also try to find one with the toolbox and happened across one three hours away, paid $400 for it. The only other one I found was in Wisconsin and the guy wanted $1000 for it... I'll potentially be getting the race track trim as well for the passenger side but I need to work out a price with the guy first.






The tailgate has a small rust spot on it but I have two other tailgates that aren't rusted to choose from. Also is the fiberglass cover on there worth anything? The hinges and everything work great and it feels solid and all it needs is to be power washed. I've just never seen one and I don't know if there's a market for them.

 

Nice update. I guess your back must be doing better!

I've never seen that type of a hinging topper.

The bed looks pretty decent.

 

I was only out a few days because of my back my work schedule has been getting in the way and I haven't been finding time to work on it as much as I want.

The topper was new to me as well. I wish I'd have had more time to pull parts off the truck that bed was on though, it has a factory rear defrost window in it and the people who own it are going to crush when scrap goes back up...

 

Well I was going to have a bigger update with more pictures but my phone took a swim to the bottom of a lake last weekend and with it went all my pictures so I'll just have to go with what I took yesterday.

I took the toolbox door off and took out the plastic liners and found out that the hinge area was more rusted than I thought or could see when the door was on still so I spent yesterday grinding off the old hinges and prepping new ones. I also made a road trip a few weeks ago to a small scrap yard I found on craigslist and cut out a chunk of a box with a toolbox on it, that box was rusted beyond repair but the toolbox was decent so I've been patching my patch panel and getting ready to weld it in.





The wooden dowel is there to hold up the metal since it just bends under its own weight right now.




Still have a ways to go with it...