Hey all,

A few weeks ago I picked up a 78 camper special from a co-worker. I basically bought it sight unseen so I never got a good look at it before I went to pick it up. I have always liked the 70's body style and I have a '93 350 4x4 with a badly roached body so I picked this one up just for the cab.

So, pretty cool rig, interesting spare tire holder and all. I didn't think anything of the bed other than "Hey, neat" then I started to find out they are relatively rare and this truck could possibly come back to life. Well, still not for me, I need a new body on my '93 so here I go with a post. I didn't want to post in in the marketplace, and I can't yet because I don't have enough posts. I am not a "Ford guy" and my membership on this forum has mostly been to help chase down parts for our aging Fire Dept. Fleet of F600 and 700 4x4 trucks (Numberdummy is an AWESOME dude). Thinking back however, my favorite truck of all time was my Dads '72 F250 (which now resides as a fuel truck on my buddies farm) and I really really like my beater F350 but I caught a similar disease that most of you guys have, except my strain causes me to save old Dodge military iron that could barely be considered parts trucks.

So, here is my dilemma, separate up a decent survivor camper special that would need a whole lot of work, or do what I do with my military Iron, build what I need with the parts at hand, then use anything else useful to help someone, or many, do the same.

Here is what I need: A mechanical speedo transfer case that will bolt up to my '93 ZF or another 5 speed with transfer case that I can use behind the 7.3idi. I also need a set of front springs....currently mine are a hodge podge of original springs and some from the back of a chevy suburban that fit the bill when the originals started going AWOL half at a time.

Here is what I have:
78 F350 Camper special chassis and bed. The bed needs a new floor, and has some rust on the bottoms of the panels...most of them. Some PO had "sound deadening" applied to about 99.9% of the underside of this truck..everything but the gas tanks pretty much. Well y'all know what happens when that stuff cracks and fails...hence the rust issue. They then sniffed a bunch of glue...or silicone caulking...and proceeded to seal up every possible crack, which was good for awhile until the truck came to Kansas. I have the cover for the tire carrier as well. it has some rust along the bottom where the PO put the chrome strip like on the rest of the bed. The latch system is operational and other than the rust, the only thing is a shallow dent in one of the corners accompanied by what looks like tire tread marks...not creased and no damage on the back side. The carrier itself is a little bit rough but mostly cosmetic, the hinge is not frozen up and the screw down is there. The tailgate is probably the most perfect Ford tailgate I have ever seen. a couple of small dents in the trim but otherwise no rust and the latch operates properly.

I have the frame-complete- but the undercoat has worked the same magic that it did on the bed. Some may not be worried about the damage, but I will not use it for any kind of towing myself.

It still has the poly rear fuel tank sitting in the frame rails, I am not sure on the condition of the sending unit since a rodent kindly removed one of the wires flush with the rubber plug thingy.

Color is Ford white with what I call baby blue tu-tone. I have a rather complete history on the truck and a whole stack of maintenance records and IIRC, the original whndow sticker was in the pile.

400 motor is "soft locked" from what I can tell so far, guy I got it from was trying to get it running last summer (fuel pump issues) and had a brand new $100 battery sitting under the hood....a fair indication that it just sat too long and wasnt locked up when he started working on it. He said it would crank and crank but not fire unless you dropped some fuel down the carb. He also had a brand new Edelbrock carb sitting on top that had some indications that moisture had worked down through the intake by the time I drug the truck out. He isn't as mechanically inclined as some, but at least I know it turned over or he likely would not have dropped near $400 into a new carb, pump, battery, and FPR if it didn't turn over. I have a 7.3 IDI that runs sitting in my recipient so I don't care about the 400. Also has a nice Holley intake.

So, opinions? Do I pass this truck along to someone who would appreciate it and restore it? Or do I use it up and pass on the remains? Anyone interested in it or making some trades on parts? I would really like to work something out on bartering some parts and of course using the sweet Dana 70 in place of the Sterling under the 4x4.