Hello,
My Name is Stacey and I have just purchased my first and long awaited Ford Truck. It's an oldie but a goody. I paid 2000 bucks for her and she's in darn good shape for a 1981 F100. She's not a pretty color but she has sooo little rust that I'm going to make sure she stays cancer free. There is some cancer forming though as she was quite the little worker in her days. Well, she's gonna retire with me and live a life of new parts, a new paint job, some body work new chrome and cruise'n to new county tunes and lakeside sunset parking.

The reason I have sought out a truck forum, better yet a FORD forum is to perhaps find some new freinds, and get some tips and ideas on how I can give my old gal a face lift and bring her back to life again. She needs a lot of cosmetic work but she runs like a dream.! She may need a new exaust and over time I'm going to have some work done on the engine. technically she's a classic and i would like to keep her and make her turn heads one day.

In case you thought Stacey was a unisex name and I am a male, I'll tell you now that I am a woman. I was "daddy's little boy" til I was 16 or so and know quite a bit about vehicles. I have always longed for a truck fo many reasons but the main reason is centamental. (sp)
I plan to do a lot of the work on my new truck myself, hence the reason i may need a bit of help or ideas. I havn't a clue about body work and would hope that someone could give me some ideas once I explain what she needs.

thanks and i look foward to posting here!
Oh, one other thing, I post on forums all the time, in fact I have my own with Network 54 on Dobermann's where I have visitors from all over that own Dobermann's, but those forums are laid out much much differently than this one and i'm kind of lost on this one. So if someone responds to my post and you dont see a response back within a day or so it's probably because I can't find my way back to this post. I'll figure it all out I'm sure, but perhaps someone could send me an email with a link posted to this if you dont see me back in a while. I'll get this forum figured out, but until then, I dont want to miss anyone's replys.
Thanks so much!

Stacey

 

Hi Stacey and welcome to the forum

There are a few forums on here that you'll probably find interesting such as the Bodywork and 80-86 F series forums. Feel free to ask or answer any questions that pop up.
You can go into your User CP at the top of the page and set it up so anytime someone replies to a post of yours you'll get an email saying so.

 

Welcome to FTE!

That setting to email a user is ON by default unless the user turns it off.

 

I appreciate the great welcome. I don't have time to sit and learn how to navigate my way to the forum you mentioned about Bodywork and 80-86 F series tonight as I have a friend popping by with her new dog. But I will be coming back often to check it out. I have a lot of questions actually LOL. Today was my first day driving my new truck to work , or at all I should say and wow! I felt ontop of the world! You guys have no idea how badly I have wanted a truck all my life. I grew up on Ford so naturally it was my choice for a truck. I can't afford a bran new truck for my first one, but this will do just fine!
I figure since it's technically a classic I am going to deck her all out and make her look real nice! New rims, new rubber, new paint, new exhaust, re dipped chrome bumpers, fix up her interior, and get a kick *** sound system in it to crank my country tunes! Allan Jackson will have nothing on me! LOL
I know I'm a bit goofy but hey, could be worse. LOL

Right off the top of my head, can you tell me where I might find automotive carpeting?? The floor of my truck is a mess because she was a work truck for an old italian construction worker so while he took great care of the truck mechanically, she's a wee bit dirty and tattered on the inside. I just covered the seat for now but plan to check out my local scrap yards for a newer or better one. The floor is kinda nasty and I'd like to carpet all of it and then get some nice mats. I need a new dash pad too, it's old, dry and cracked. Same with the door panels on the inside, think I'll paint those if I cant find decent ones from a scraper.

thanks bye for now!

 

I have found that installing my own carpeting is easier and cheaper than buying one to fit. Make it a first project! There are a ton of truck parts sales catalogs that have all kinds of about anything you can dream of...and some you haven't dreamed of. Do a search through Motorhaven (one of our sponsors) or a Google search...type in truck parts, custom truck accessories...or something like that. You'll get more pages of places to spend your money than you need.

 

I found a mechanic that will do work for me cheaper than most places because he is not licenced but he has been a mechanic for 13 years. He said he does things on the side and has been doing business for so long here and there that he can get cheaper parts for me as well. He popped by and had a look at my moter and said the straight 6 has to go!! LOL He said that my truck deserves a 302 at best. He said to keep my eyes open in the papers for a motor and he will rebuild it for me. He is going to do my exhuast next week to get that out of the way and then it will be a hunt for a bigger motor from here on out. He said there's way too much unused space under my hood LOL He's a good guy, family man, met his wife and kids. Just looking for side work at a very discounted price so I'm going to give him a chance to help me make my Ford a beaut!
I can't wait, I figure it's going to take about a year to get my truck the way I want it. Lots to do tho. Oh!..and he is a bit of a body man to said he could fix my box no problem that the rust on the underside isn't that bad. He also knows a good paint guy that will help me out when the time comes to give her a nicer color. It's brown now and I want it black.

Cheers gota run!
Stacey