Had been driving 94 350 4x4 IDI Turbo until Sept 13 2014 when a caddy decided to play chicken & make a left turn in front of me. Don't know if I've ever been that po'ed in my life. This was my work truck, service body, double overload leaf, up-sized to 265/75 tire for a little bigger footprint w/ same rollout as stock 235/85, compressor, welder & more tools than most people have in their shop, scaled in at 13000 to 15000 depending on parts & supplies onboard, even hook a trailer w/ skidsteer behind it some days. Had been shopping, but not real serious, for crewcab-kids go w/ me sometimes (single dad & they love grease, 11 yr old daughter knows where more zerts are than the operators do). Knew pump 1 1/2 yrs ago, ford HD reman trans last Jan, at 6:30 am I decided finally for sure to go ahead & do bodywork this winter & drive her another 270000. At 10:30 am my mind got changed as I was driving over the hood of forementioned caddy. Twisted frame pretty good, opened rear eye on left frt spring, pushed diff up & back into oil filter & crossover pipe, cracked transfer & trans case. Had kids w/ me, thank God they didn't get a scratch. When I got home I put a new filter on it addes the 1/2 gal it had dumped out & ran it, engine all good. Here's the dilemma, bought a 77 350 2wd w/ dump bed, 61000 miles. After a little research I found this truck is original 1 owner (company) a neighbor worked for this company & remembers when they bought it, I'm assuming it's #'s matching, needs some sheet metal, but pretty solid, thought about putting 7.3 in it but not sure now that I know it's history, anybody got an opinion on this

 

The rear sump oil pan wants to be in the same place as the steering on a 79 and older 2wd, I had to mount my engine higher than I wanted and it still is closer than I'd like.
Numbers matching doesn't mean anything on Fords, that is a GM term involving a car serial number on the engine. Ford didn't do that, so while it may be all original it's not numbers matching.
I was the second or third owner of my truck, which started as a 69 F250 Camper Special with a six cylinder, automatic, manual drum brakes and manual steering. It was delivered as a cab and chassis but at some point got a bed put on that was painted to match. It now has power disc brakes, power steering, a 7.3 and a ZF five speed, along with heavier rear springs and a gooseneck hitch. Building an old truck is about making it yours, unless you want to do a concours build.

 

So basically what your saying is it really has no collector value, even though it's OEM & I should just use for the work truck that I bought it for.

 

Little hard to follow, don't know what body the 94 is, nor the 77 though assuming not crew cab. So it sounds to me like you need to find a good brick or obs crew cab and fix it up using the parts from your wrecked truck.

 

If you plan on flipping it, look at value of the specific truck in your area (i.e craigslist, e-bay, autotrader). If you can do most of the work you might make a profit if you sell it, of course that will depend on finding the right buyer. Usually project vehicles (even completed) will not recoup the investment, again depending on the quality of work, and if the truck has been build to please the general public eyes, and not just custom to what you specifically want. In a nutshell do not look at it as an investment.

Even custom shops don't usually buy then build vehicles to sell, most of their work is owners wanting to get stuff done to their cars, unless is a specific car they know for sure it will sell. Good luck!

 

An old dentside doesnt have any "collector" value. Unless it was a twister, or snow fighter or something cool like that. SWB half ton 4x4 are worth good money, as is a highboy in good working shape.

Imo i would find a 79 F350 4x4, convert to dually and add 7.3 / ZF (hey its what i did, minus the dually) Cheers.

 

Thanks for the input, as i was working in the shop at the farm today & wondering how i was going get all the projects done that are already in front of me i decided to leave it OEM, just for the simple fact i'd like to put some miles on it before i'm in the ground, if i change my mind later we've got 2 more IDI engines or maybe i'll get real crazy some day & stick a 414 or something like that in it, so anyway everything from 94 is available, i will stand behind the frt axle as far as it having any damage from the wreck, does not appear to, i think the fact that the spring bushing were so wore it popped the rear eye open pretty easily & that absorbed most of the impact, i have ran the engine since and it is OK

 

yeah, i can tend to ramble sometimes, like your Sam Adams quote