Ditto on the great wife and the fine truck. You are going to have fun. I think Delaware as kidding about the welding! You are already way ahead of guys like me. The good folks here tolerate me pretty well and all I've managed to do is replace my widow makers on my 1951 F3!
I'd also recommend just driving it. Any time you change something it leads to more changes and that's not a good thing for someone trying to outlive his money. From one old man to another, there are a lot of hot rod gurus out there that will help you spend money changing your truck the way they think it should be changed- but it's your truck! Save your money and drive your truck- it will let you know if it needs something.
Just my 2c, and welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome to FTE! You will find that there is a core group of guys here that will help you through everything . If it is changing a spark plug or changing the hole motor! There is a wealth of talent and knowledge here for the helping. I too checked in to Welding classes and was set back a little about the cost. I have taught my self over the past 10-12 years but there is a welding how to thread here that will get you going and welding in no time. I will look it up and post it here in a minute.


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-practice.html










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Welcome to FTE from The Great White North. You'll get a lot of help from the guy's here. Good luck.

 

X2 On driving her. King pins ans tie rod ends and spring bushings are
a lot easier than an IFS swap I think. King pins are still used today in big rigs and equipment.
They have worked fine since way back. If the steering is sloppy than just fix what is worn.
While there ad a duel reservoir brake master. Drum brakes are just fine also.
Ya just have to manually adjust them from time to time.

Welcome and give us lots of pic's. But mostly just drive her.

 

Don't worry about the welding. I had never, ever, welded anything when I got here. I bought a 110Volt Lincoln MIG welder, tank, an auto darkening helmet gloves Etc.< and with a little practice I was able to patch fenders and do all my the light welding, twice I used a professional welder to do a couple critical welds, for safety's sake. I believe it is Ax that has an excellent, welding tutorial that is available to you as a member. For the price of the class you mentioned, you could buy a machine that would handle the majority of the welding needed on this project, and hire someone for the specialized stuff. As stated b4, there is so much knowledge here on this site , and as long as you make an effort to research some stuff on your own, you will find that folks will go way out of there way to assist you. The skills will come, the knowledge is here, the people are great, and the site is the best.!!!!!!!!

 

Here's the tutorial on welding from AXracer.

Probably all you'll ever need to know.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-practice.html

 

Welcome F-1

As stated by others I agree that you should drive your truck for a while and make a list. You should prioritize the list based upon your skill and of course your wallet.

Consider carefully what you want to do with your truck. A daily driver in Alaska will need more work than one used in suburban areas. Keep reading here and you will learn a lot. Keep your list in pencil as it may change a lot.

IFS is a big job even for a skilled, experienced welder. You can see what I mean if you search this forum on "IFS" where you will find lots of good posts on the subject with lots of pictures and well documented jobs. As an alternative you might want to consider just replacing the springs and shocks with more modern types. They will improve your ride significantly.

Above all remember that we really like big pictures. The more information and details that you can provide about a problem then the better level of help you will get.

Good luck and we look forward to seeing more posts from you.

 

Hey F-1, glad to see you're getting a lot more help here.

But you don't rev the engine after letting out the clutch in neutral on upshifts. You are trying to slow the trans input shaft down to get the trans input and output to match speeds on upshifts, so you want the slowed down engine to help slow down the trans. You rev the engine when double clutching on downshifts (which are defintely more difficult to do quietly).

 

Speaking as a fellow retiree, it will not take long to run out of money or at reduce it more than you thought. Take the ideas in the thread about a list of things you really need to do and a list of wants. It helped me with short finances. My wife has been understanding so far when I come up with another spending flurry - sounds like yours will be as well. My truck is just a stock driver and will not do Interstate speeds unless I change a lot of things. After a 12 v conversion and cosmetic issues, the next significant thing I did was new bed wood and strips. I have left brakes, suspension, etc to do as needed. Sounds and looks like you have a good truck. Welcome.

Bruce

 

Thanks for your input Bruce.
I'm curious about your 12 V conversion..just how involved was that?

 

hey jim..thanks for your input.
I got to thinking about my upcoming plans for my truck.
I took some additional photos today of some extra parts thrown
in with my recent truck deal.
Problem is..while these extra parts appear to be clean and "newer" than the existing
equipment on my truck now..they don't appear to be an "upgrade" to what I have now. I'm not sure I want to go through the work to replace what I already have? After a good cleaning and inspection..I may just put my spares in a safe place for the time being.
Again, I have taken some new pics of my existing equipment and perhaps you or some other member can point out what may not pass the smell test.
Separately, after an earlier member's observation that my truck is equipped with a'51-'53
dash board, I spent some time searching for vin info since the inside door of the glove box may not (probably isn't) accurate. In fact tag says tranny 4 and I have a 3 speed.
I continued to search for more info and found a tag on the engine firewall. After my aggressive attempts to clean the tag so I can read it..well I erased the entire plate..dumb move. So I spent the next 45 minutes crawling underneath my truck searching for ID info on the frame. No luck with that one.

And btw..yes some of us still don't have the luxury of a lift and lying on your back is still the only alternative.
Actually, it was a nice day here in south Florida today and the time spent on my back looking up at my truck's underbody and marvelling at early automotive engineering design
was enjoyable and peaceful. Almost fell asleep..lol
Ok..enough of that..let me get started trying to get these new pics uploaded.
You all have been great..thank you so much for your ideas and input!!

 

Your frame stamp should be on the top right side just ahead of the motor mount. You will probably have to remove layers of grime to read it.

Here's a pic of mine if this helps.

 

dash may have been replaced so glove box tag probably not accurate.
Firewall plate unreadable after aggressive cleaning by me,,,opps!
Unable to find tag on frame too much rust

 

I couldn't find mine at first either. It took a lot of scrubbing to get any part of it to show...

Good luck!

 

you'll learn to equate retirement with the truck so take it easy, no deadlines any more ! I've never been busier than since I retired and love every minute....cuz....I don't HAVE to do it!

this is a great place to visit and relax

looking forward to more from you

qman