I have a 79 F-600 crewcab, and a 76 F-150 that I converted, and I sold a 76 Ranger XLT with deluxe interior crewcab this past year. mine were all rust-free california trucks, but now that they are here in the midwest, I'm anxious to protect them from roof rust. I sprayed inside the seams and hidden spaces before I moved here, with undercoating and/or paint. I replaced the headliners in my F-600 with shiney white board stuff for bathrooms using the remains of the old ones for templates. it is a hair thicker, but the center strip still works. the XLT padded headliners in my F-150 are in bad shape, so I would like to find good ones, or convince someone making repros to make a rear one (its just a different cut of the same stuff).
my 76 F-250 had front shoulder belts, but the cab I used on my stretched F-150 is a 75 cab, so it didnt have anything. I welded in the retractors from the old cab into the rear of the new crewcab, it was pretty easy, and the spotwelds were all in the same spots, even though one cab was a San Jose 76 cab, and one was michigan truck/canada without shoulder belts. that was the back seats, for the front, I found that 78-82 Fairmont WITHOUT the deluxe interior had a self-contained front seat belt that had its own plastic cover that bolted to the flat panel down low, and I made a secure anchor with 3/8 steel plate up where the shoulder anchor goes up top. so I have shoulder belts front and back on that one. I decided to forgo shoulder belts on the F-600 due to slightly rougher ride. the F-500-up trucks had lap belts identical to the 67-72 F-series pickups to match the 68-72 dashboard. on the F-600 I wanted carpet, so I took a pickup floor without the bolt in tranny hump, and made a cover to go over the lower F-600 hump, so I can use pickup carpet. I also converted to the factory green tinted windows from the clear windows it came with. I got deluxe locking vent windows from a 79 F-150, and converted the rear windows from front windows (changed tracks) I have a stock slider, but I kinda like the plain window since I cant reach the window from the drivers seat. I would like to see someone make the padded insets for the rear door panels, as well as the front (as well as the whole panels for the rear) I liked the inserts in my XLT crewcab with cloth seats, and want them for both my remaining crews. I eventually intend to get two camper special beds, and a regular long bed, and make a 12 foot bed using the spare tire doors to make a pass-through section in the first 4 ft behind the cab. and use 56-76 stepside fenders to make dually fenders, and several sets of F-600 steps, and longbed stepside steps to make factory looking running boards behind the step tanks. I thought about using a cab roof to make a sleeper type of filler over the 4 ft section, and then use a factory bed cap as well. I also would like dennis carpenter to make the crewcab specific rear door and center post trim, I had to make rear door strips from old bed strips, but I left one end open out of laziness.

 

I would damn near trade my Marauder for that one, very nice, reasonable price too it seems

 

Mine is a '76 F250 4X4 Crew. 360, 4-speed. In the middle of an integral power steering swap right now. Next will be a Powerstroke conversion. Oh yeah, and that rust thing you were talking about on the drip rails. Mine is relatively rust free except for that area and a very small area on the lower part of the cab in between the passenger doors. It clears 35's easily with 3-inch Rancho springs up front. Could easily run 36's.

 

Glad to see this thread going strong. I've got a place to post my pics... As soon as I can get started on the dang thing...!

 

Hi,
This is my first post to this thread, and obviously the first to the board. I just picked up a 77 F250 Crewcab. I've spent alot of time (according to the wife) reading all the various posts. My first question is how do you seal the drip rail to prevent rust? The previous owner had the truck painted about 5 years ago, is that good enough or should I try to seal the drip rail.



1977 F250 4X4

 

That is an interesting question. I own two, both from out of state, (one from Utah) and both ran hard and put away wet. Neither truck shows any sign of rusting out at the drip rails after 29 years of abuse and salt roads(for the Utah truck.) The utah truck has a rusty frame, and a bad cab corner, but no rust in the drip rails. If you had access to a flexible shaft bore scope, and were willing to take out your headliner, you could take a peek on the inside to see whats going on. Welcome by the way.

 

That's weird. Almost EVERY crew I have EVER seen had rust in the roof line somewhere. Most have it about midway back on the cab just about the drip rails, and a lot have it in the front, upper corners above the windshield. The 77 I had was BAAAAAD, but it had those stupid cab marker, trucker type lights that lead to having 5-6 "skylights" in the front of the roof as well as the normal drip rail rust.

 

to seal driprails: first get on a stool and look down into the channel (on the exterior). this is where the roof panel is spot welded to the drip rail; therefore, there is a seam. the factory used sealer in this spot but after 30 years, it is usually cracked and/or flaked off. if you dont see a crack or seam then you are good for now. mine was flaking off, so i used a wire brush attachment on an angle grinder to clean to bare metal (being careful not to damage the metal). then i degreased the area and ran a bead of seam sealer on the joint, smoothing the bead with a finger. it then needs to be painted. if the joint is a bit rusty, then that needs to be treated first with rust converter. paint wont seal seams.

 

78_f800 thanks for the insight on how to repair the seam sealer. However, my 78 crew's seam sealer was in excellent shape in the drip rail, no cracks, etc and mine was still rusted out mid way back (directly between the doors) on the roof panel that comes down to the drip rail. No way road salt was the issue, must be condensation then. Anyway, i ended up cutting out a section about 1" tall and 10" long of that roof panel and replaced with new metal.

 

johaner - your experience is the common one from what I've seen. My sealer still looks good, but I've got rust issues. I'm gonna do the cut and re-weld soon...

 

be very careful with welding on the roof-very easy to break the surface tension, and warp the roof. (dont heat up the panel too much) not that you guys didnt already know.
has anyone mentioned how cool these trucks look?
i didnt mean to rust out this thread

 

when I weld I will be doing it with Silicone bronze rod and a TIG welder. Tack a ltitle bit, hit it with the blower on the air compressor to cool it off, then tack further down and repeat.

Tack welding rather than a continuous bead keeps heat out of the panel, as does the silicone bronze rod. Moving the tacks around also keeps heat buildup from taking place. The air hose trick is something new a buddy told me about that I haven't tried before but it makes sense.

The other benefit of the silicon bronze rod is it is easy to sand - keeping heat from building up in the panel ones again. Plus it doesn't rust!

If I wasn't cheap I'd get some silicon bronze wire for my MIG and put even less heat in the panel by MIG welding. I think my TIG method will suffice though.

 

i finished modifying the electriclife power window kit to work in the rear doors. i dont have it all together working yet but i will post pics of the mods in my gallery soon.

 

i also purchased the polished billet 4 door A1 Electric switch kit to make it all work. also, has anyone used the window weatherstrip from jeffs bronco graveyard? does it fit good and allow the window to travel freely?

 

hey, my bro just picked up a 74 cc f350 4x4....its a closed knuckle front, but is it a 60 or 70? or should I crawl under it and look(im at work now). how hard is it to swap disc brakes? can I swap off of a newer 50/60/70? also the bed is shot and the rest of the body is rough....but my brother has the intentions of transforming it into a centurion with the help of a 78-79 bronco....but that is just speculation..