Hello everyone! Amazing forum! Have learned so much and had so much help since joining!!! I have had a bunch of Ford trucks, mostly 1/2 ton. I want to get a bigger boat soon but need more than a 1/2 ton truck. I didn't want to spend 50-60K for a new 3/4 or 1 ton truck or 30K for a used 3/4 or 1 ton truck. So last fall I started looking for a older truck to restore and I finally found one on 04/19/2014. So here it is!! 1990 F250 Super Cab XLT Lariat 2wd 460/auto Red-n-Camp Conversion truck with 69K original miles!!! Here are the pics of how I got it!

 

So here are some more pics of it as I am working on it.

 

And some more!

 

And some more.

 

And New paint, wheels, tires, lights, grill, and emblems cleaned. More pics to follow tomorrow! Been busting my butt the last 2 months getting this truck fixed up! It's a labor of love!

 

Talk about transformation your truck looks good.

 

That's an impressive before and after collection. Is the tailgate an aftermarket replacement or from a junk yard? Mine's in bad shape and I am planning on having mine repainted eventually. I didn't know if it'd be cheaper to repair the old one or get an aftermarket replacement.

Did you paint it yourself? What did you do with the white in the door jams and inside the engine compartment?

 

That truck looks awesome, Glad to see its making progress on the body situation.

 

Thanks for the all the compliments guys!! Rachet, the tailgate is repro from LMC Truck it was $138.00 shipped to my door. At that price it was better than trying to hunt the junk yards for one.

 

Rachet, I painted the door jambs, tailgate jamb, inside gas doors myself. I did not do under the hood or the bed. The bed I'm just going to do a spray in liner. I don't have access to a spray booth so I had the local maaco paint the truck for $600.00, but I masked the jambs myself and disassembled the truck in their parking lot (lights, mirrors, trim, etc) so the paint job came out good.

 

Very nice looking transformation.
Trav

 

Okay, I want to ask more about the paint process that you went through. I'm pretty much a rookie but I want to do basically what you've done, prep my truck and get a low cost paint job. So if you don't mind, here are my questions.

1. How far did you go in terms of sanding? I see that you sanded alot where what I think were decals were. Were you trying to go to bare metal or just trying to get it rough enough to stick?

2. I'm assuming that you removed all the trim, bumpers, lights, etc. Is that right?

3. How much did you tape, did you cover the windows completely? Did you remove the trim around the windows?

4. Was this all hand sanded or did you use a machine?

 

1. After I removed the decals with a pin stripe eraser wheel you could still feel where the stripes where. This was due to the paint under the stripes being new and the rest of the paint had worn down over the years. So I had to sand everywhere the stripes where with my DA sander. I hit bare metal in some spots. Then I sprayed high build filling primer over all those areas to ensure it would be smooth after final sanding. 2. I removed everything but the bumpers and 1/4 window trim and back window (Maaco just taped that off) 3. I only tapped off the inside jambs of the doors, tailgate, fuel doors that I painted. Maaco will either charge you for that or not do it at all. They do tape all windows, bumpers, any trim not removed, etc. 4. Combination of both. 90* die grinder with 40 grit disk to grind down to bare metal on the rust and dings. Then DA sander to feather out paint in those areas (and stripe area) and the filler for some areas of repairs with anywhere from 80-320 grit. Some areas of repair I hand block sanded the filler. Then another coat of high build primer over all repairs and then I guide coated and hand block wet sanded the whole truck with 500 and 600 grit. Black is the worst color to paint anything it shows every imperfection so this was a huge process. Black is my favorite color on cars and trucks so got to do what you like. I found a few more small dings while I was doing my final sanding but just left them because I was sick of sanding for weeks in 90* heat and sun. It still came out good and I'm happy with it. Drove it to work the other day and the guys at work didn't notice the things I didn't fix until I pointed them out. I went to tech school after high school and was a mechanic/autobody tech for a few years. Then I joined the military 13 years ago so my skills are rusty but I got my tools!

 

Cleaned up the interior today looks good for 24 years old.

 

Also got the spray on liner done on the tailgate.