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I bought this truck on my 16th birthday in 1983. I drove her for 7 years through HS and college every day. I did a daily driver restoration the best I could as a kid. Rewired her; stripped, sanded and primed her (with Krylon red oxide primer in a can); and I painted her with Ford Mustang Grabber Blue acrylic enamel. I had never painted anything before. I even drove her from Memphis and was at the F100 Super Nationals in Gatlinburg in 1985 and in 1987. This picture was taken around 1989.
In 1992 I started a frame up restoration. I stripped her all the way to the frame. I sand blasted it and painted it with Eastwood black frame paint. I had new springs made and all the shackles, pins, and bushings were replaced. Same for the front and rear axle hardware. I had all that going back together when I started dating a girl that I eventually got married to, but that marriage killed the truck project for me with other family priorities. The truck got covered up in plastic in my grandmother's house in McNairy County, TN and she sat patiently and waited on me.
I ended up in Chattanooga and divorced in summer 2012. I started looking for a shop or garage space I could rent. I had a place a year ago, but that fell through. Finally, late this fall a friend bought a 60x60 building with a wall down the middle and two roll up doors, one for either side, with 3 phase power. He only needed half and rented me the other half.
The week between Christmas and New Years after lurking on here for a year and reading all the work y'all have been doing with great envy, I rented a truck and trailer and brought her out of the garage for the first time in 20 years. I loaded everything and brought her back to Chatt Town.
I've spent most of my time actually putting my shop together, since it is an old building with fresh paint. I even had to build a workbench. That will be a work that never stops!
Here are my plans.
I'm going to keep the body as original as I possible.
The running gear will be original as well as far as the axles and suspension. I'm considering keeping drum breaks on the rear, but I may convert the front breaks to disk. Back in the day when everyone had drums well all stopped together. However since cars today stop in half the distance that a heavy F1 with four wheel drums stops, I think disks would be better for the front. I'm at still thinking about that
I'm keeping my Flathead V8 and 3 speed on the tree transmission. I'm gonna build a mild street Flathead. 4" stroke with a 60 or 125 overbore. I have a twin 2 barrel aluminum Edelbrock intake my brother gave me for my 21st birthday. I'm also putting on a set of Offenhauser finned heads. I will convert it to 12volt, negative ground. I drove it with the 6v, pos G system all those years ago.
My dad had set the bed and cab back on a number of years ago just to keep it from taking up space. Those had to come back off. I have to thank Mike's build thread on "Belle". I blatantly stole the idea of using an engine hoist and making a dolly with castor wheels for getting the cab off and setting it on to roll around.
It was almost a one person job, my son did drop by and thankfully he helped me steady it as we rolled back off the frame. Yes, that is me. My son said we had to have a picture.
A friend came over and helped me lift and set the bed off onto the floor.
So I'm off and running. The powertrain (engine and transmission) will be next in what I plan to build and install.
I will try to post often if I have something to show.
That's such a great history you have with your truck! I'm glad you kept her through all of those years.
I've been procrastinating about removing my cab. It looks like most people remove the doors, but that can open a can of worms that I don't need.
I see in your picture that you left your doors on during the process. Were there any problems because of that?
How hard was it to balance the cab when you moved it? I guess it would be pretty top heavy, right?
I think I'm going to copy your procedure. Thanks for the ideas!
It is very top heavy. You are lifting from the floor board and the CG is about at the dash. Anyone who does rigging seriously knows that is not the way to lift. The doors do add a lot of weight to the cab, but I wasn't ready to drive out the pins and deal with the doors separately. I got two, one foot long chains and in the back I bolted them down with heavy washers in the existing bolts for the seat. I took out the gas tank. In the front, the strap hooks just went through those triangle cutouts between the door jamb and the firewall.
As you lift, the cab will try to lift in the back and tip forward. I kept setting back down and adjusting the rear straps longer and front straps shorter to get it level. My 25 year old son was with me. After we got it almost level, I only jacked it 4 or 5 inches above the frame and I held it steady on the drivers side while he pulled and rolled the engine hoist from the passenger's side. I made sure the dolly wheels and frame would clear over the engine hoist legs when I built it. I also made sure the dolly would fit the front and back widths of the cab so there wouldn't be any adjustments to make when I set it down. As I said, I blatantly stole this whole lifting and rigging scheme and the dolly with castor idea from Mike's "Belle" thread.
I'm gonna paint the cab off the truck. When I go back together I'll probably build a wooden A frame or rent one and use a Kevlar sling to lift and set it back on. That way I won't have to worry about scratching everything after its painted.
John, great story! Glad you kept the truck all these years. Looks to be in very good condition, sure makes the build much easier. I will be following the progress and thanks for sharing with us.
Great story, Keith. Glad you are back wrenching on a very solid looking truck. So, what does the current you think of the younger you's workmanship and abilities. It would strike me as a sort of time capsule taking one back to the moments when decisions were being made back in the day. Hope the trip down memory lane is all good and you get back on the road in this beauty soon.
Hey Keith,
Welcome Aboard! A very nice looking truck. Are you staying with the same blue color? You will love having Disc Front Brakes. That's one of the first mods we did to our truck & it makes a lot of difference. (Be sure to include a dual chamber master cylinder in your plans to ensure you don't lose all your brakes at once in case of a leak).
Look forward to following your progress - Keep up the momentum!
02-07-2015, 03:36 PM
