Recently bought a 1966 F-100 with a 352 V8. I have been a welder/fabricator for a couple years and wanted to get a project for outside of work and fell in love with this truck. This is my first restoration project and I am overwhelmed with where to start but so thankful for this forum!




The truck is a custom cab, 2WD with a 4 speed manual transmission. It has 81,500 miles on it and runs pretty well. The body is fairly straight but definitely needs a lot of work still. (Notice the '67 Corvair and '68 Bronco)

My goal is to make it mechanically sound before touching anything else. But goal finish is something like this:





Completely clueless but willing to put in the time, work and money. Thanks in advance for any helpful tips, advice and patience!

 

There is a wealth of information here and lots of helpful and knowledgeable folks. Take the time to use the "Search this forum" button and type in whatever subject you want to learn about. Read some of the incredible build threads.

Nice truck, and again, welcome to the slick forum.

 

Hi Anna, Welcome to and the Slicks Forum.

May I suggest that you don't do anything to the truck for at least 6 months but drive it, freshen the fluids, and maybe make minor adjustments. After 6 months you will feel a little different about the truck than just now. This will give you some time to think long term, about running gear, 73-76 power disc brake-power steering upgrade, things like that. These older vehicles had odometers that start over at 999999.9 so after 50 years your truck is very likely on it's 2nd or 3rd trip. Take your numbers shown and divide by 50 (years), then 12 (months per year), then 4(weeks per month), you will have to think no way.

Number Dummy is very good with decoding. I think the DSO means it was a special, order, and the cowl numbers are interesting.

Hope to see ya around.


John

 

Good luck with your build !

 

Thanks, everyone!

jowilker, definitely looking into all of those things. Number Dummy helped out with decoding which was great. And the truck was purchased in Salt Lake City and owned by the same farmer (until now) in a VERY small town. The guy had other vehicles and just used this as a work truck to drive around the farm and sometimes into town. The body is beat up, but l do believe the mileage is correct to the odometer.

 

Anna, Not to argue about the odometer, but consider this 81,500 divided by 50 years is 1630 miles per year, divided by 12 months is 136 miles per month, divided by 4 weeks 34 miles a week divided by 7 days is less than 5 miles per day average. My 06 F150 has 125,000 on it, 97 Taurus 165,000.

It is very likely on it's 2nd or 3rd trip around.


John

 

If the truck lived on a farm it likely did not go far. I knew a guy with a 74 Dodge bought new and in 1993 it had a hair under 24000 miles on it. The catch is it was driven every day but only a 1/4 mile on the farm running hay and stuff. Now if there was an hour meter on the truck it would have rolled over many times because while he was doing chores he never shut off the engine.