A couple of weeks ago I sent my dad an email craigslist add for a 1986 F150 supercab shortbed. He drove 60 miles or so to look it over and bought it on the spot. The guy even delivered the truck for 50 bucks more.


It is an XLT Lariat with a 302 and AOD. It was originally E.F.I. but had been swapped to a Holley 2 barrel carburetor. Someone also installed a chevy style distributor in the truck. The fuel tanks have been modded to a selector switch in the cab floor and then ran to an aftermarket electric fuel pump.


The truck turned over but would not run.


I went up to visit my parents today and to take a look at the truck. It is in really good condition. A couple of small rust spots on the drip rail is about all the bad damage. It is missing the tailgate.


We dropped a battery in it, got it to fire, set the timing by ear, and tapped on the fuel bowl to free up the float. 45 minutes and she was up and running. She sounds pretty good, but needs a little work. Luckily I have my old 83 f150 for donor parts.


The interior is in fair condition. She needs new door panels and a dash pad. The only gauge that works is the oil pressure. All the fuses have power, but the power windows do not operate nor does the blower motor.


I have a set of grey door panels and a perfect dash pad. They will be painted with SEM in the near future.


The bed had a plastic bedliner that we removed to clean up underneath it. The inside of the bed has no dents or rot.


Overall, I think dad did great buying the truck. The whole thing cost 400 bucks plus the delivery fee.


I will get some pictures up soon.

 

 

Nice score.

 

Looks good, Kyle. I'm envious of that bed. I would have paid the $400 for the bed alone.

Is that your father in the first pic?

 

Thanks guys.

I do not think it would be hard to triple his money if he wanted, but i think it will become a keeper.

That is my dad in the picture. I watched him wash the truck today so i could take some pictures to post here.

It needs a good pressure wash under the hood and underneath. He wants to lose the cab lights and i think my mother wants it painted red.

We will see how it goes.

 

The guy that sold it, picks up junk cars and scraps them. He just wanted to see someone save it rather than scrap it.

He had it on craigslist for weeks and no one bit.

 

Power windows don't work, neither does the blower.
How are the wipers?
These should be the only high draw circuits in the cab.

No blown fuses.
Is there a good cab ground?

You say someone swapped to a carb and HEI.
The firewall grounded to the EFI manifold originally.
Maybe a ground strap from the cab mount to pinch weld, as well.

Excellent buy for scrap value!
$50 for a 120mi. round trip delivery would be unheard of here.

Removing the cab lights is going to involve gutting the interior and welding or bonding patches from the inside.
With epoxy, at least there's no hot slag to harm anything.

 

Hi jim.

The wipers work. There is a ground from the cab to the exhaust manifold. This truck was a running truck about a year ago. It had gas receipts up to 4/11/13.

I agree the cab light holes will be a bit of a job. The headliner has to come out to fix the rust spot in the drip rail area so we will tackle it then.

I have a friend thatdoes bodywork for a living and can knock that stuff out pretty quickly if i have it all prepped for him.

 

Just a WAG.
It would have been cheap and simple.

I imagine once you get into the interior and door panels it will be easy enough to find the fault.

I think your dad scored on this one.
Good looking out!

 

The windows are powered via a circuit breaker, not a fuse.

 

very nice find! its good to see the guy who sold it had the respect to save that beautiful truck,around here where im from,the scrap guys would have crushed that truck and thought nothing of it and wouldn't have sold it to anyone

 

Doesn't that one reset itself?

 

AFAIK yes, it does - assuming it's present and properly connected and working.

 

And the circuit breaker plugs into the fuse box similar to a fuse. So you can pull it and test it - right?

 

Hell, that would of brought 800 in scrap here