Hello all,
Well, its time for me to start building a truck for myself now that my wife has her truck. This one may not be as interesting as it will have a plane old blue engine and no pink wires. I have learned so much fro building her truck and Im very excited to start my own build.

The truck: 1977 F150 Long bed Custom 4x4, 400ci, C6 automatic, Air conditioning. This is essentially a long bed version of the wifes truck which is why I got it - lots of extra parts.
This truck was a 1 owner bought in Oklahoma in '77 and used on a farm as a cattle feeder truck. It had a propane kit installed and ran on that since day 1 (according to the seller). It had a cattle feed spreader in the bed and after feeding it was but back in the barn. Well, over the years of feed sitting in the bed it completely rusted out the bed - the floor is completely gone but the frame under it look fine. However, the rest of the truck is seriously 100% rust free as it was parked under cover for its entire life. The doors, bumpers, fenders are banged up as you would expect from the farm but no rust. The truck starts up and runs great but I dont think its ever had new ball joints, tie-rodsor bushings.

My plans: I found a parts truck with a nice relatively rust free bed and fenders and the complete race track trim. I plan on removing the propane kit as I dont believe the take meets current standard and I would need to buy a new one. I am thinking of just pulling the engine and replacing the gaskets and seals, painting and re-installing as it runs great. Ill probably rebuild the trans as it would be a real pain to pull it later. I think Im going to keep it White and red but doing a two-tone with the racetrack trim. We will see how my plans change over this build as it did with my wifes...

Thanks for following along!










Cut out the front to use sections to fix wifes short bed.





Parts bed

 

Looks like a good start!!

 

That looks great. It's getting real hard to find trucks like that. Hopefully it works out for you.

 

Looking forward to your progress. Subscribed!

 

So glad I came across this thread early on. I think it's a prefect project starter. And I'll be here to help out when and where I can. Also keep in mind that 1977 was a major change over year for these trucks. Some considered it to be a bas**** year. Although most parts are the same throughout the 73-79 run. Many were different. And 77 used parts that were common with the 73-76 trucks as well as many things updated and shared with the 78/9 trucks. Plus some minor things specific to the 77MY. So you will definitely have your work and learning cut out for you on this build. No worries though, it's nothing you can't handle. Nor is it anything we can't help with. Looking forward to this build.

 

Great start. Red and white would look great. I bet your engine will have very little wear with propane burning so clean.

 

Thanks everybody for the support, Im very excited about this build.

Had a good start today.
Started off going to the junk yard to find a radio **** for my Jeep and happen to find 2 near mint Mark Viii fans, 2 Volvo fan relays, and a nice 130 amp 3G alt. Now I have a fan for my build and a spare in case my wifes breaks.

When I got home I rigged up some fittings I bought on eBay a while back to connect the truck to a disposable propane bottle so I could remove the big 108 gallon tank that is 3/4 full and still pull it in and out of the shop. Let me tell you, hoisting up that tank had a major pucker factor associated with it. Got the tank removed and Im going to use the rest of the propane to heat the shop this winter.

Got the rear bumper cleaned off so I could read the dealers name. "Ron Johnson Ford Carnegie Okla". The dealer has been gone many years and is in the town next to where I bought it. I think Ill go back with a painted bumper and stencil it back with the dealer.

Tomorrow Ill grind off the bed bolts and remove whats left of the bed.

Thank for following.



My junk yard score


My new fuel system!



Please dont fall!



RUST FREE!!! (So far!)





Whats left of old Ron Johnson Ford.




Look at that wear mark on the door. Imagine how many years it took feeding the cows to wear the paint like that. Very cool..... In my opinion.


Dash pad doesnt have a single crack and is still playable. My wifes was like peanut brittle!


Hard to believe this white truck is in far better condition than the POS we started with on her build. Shes been driving the wheel off of it, I had to snap a picture when she came back from shopping.

 

 

If this truck turns out half as nice as your wife's truck turned out, it's going to be one sweet truck. FWIW the current rear bumper on this truck is an aftermarket rear step bumper. IIRC it was made by FEY WEST co.. And they can be found on Craigslist and E bay. That is if you want to stay with that style. An good idea of using the disposable propane bottle to be able to move the truck around with.

 

Thanks PA! Ill check eBay tonight.

 

Got the bed cut off. The floor was so bad I was able to bend and break most of it off by hand. Surprisingly, the frame and everything underneathe looks just fine and not comprised at all.




Someone laid down 1/4 sheet steel. What a pain to get out.





thinking about making shelf ends with these. Who knows.

 

Subscribed, excited to see where this goes

 

Looks like an awesome project I'm not sure how uncommon of an option it was, but the OEM hat holder is very cool in my opinion

 

Great to see a new build comming along. Please tell me you are leaving the cowboy hat holder in the build.

 

Is that the thing coming off of the visor retainers? Looks like an old UHF TV antenna...