Hey everyone,
I've been a Ford fan for years after my stepfather's love for Ford trucks rubbed off on me. He has a '77 F250 that he's had since new. I've been looking for a truck to use as my Home Depot truck and for off roading and for trips into the mountains.

I found a 1977 Ford F150 flare side for sale right around the corner from me and it's only got 84k miles on it! The guy has owned it since new and it's in good shape with very little body rust other than the bed. It's got big aluminum wheels on it and a roll bar with off road lights. He was asking $1500 but I said I only wanted to spend $1000 and he said ok. That's a hell of a deal for this truck! It's pretty much a faded off white color but it was originally this color:


It basically looks like this one but with different wheels and a roll bar:


The truck gets picked up today on a tow truck and taken to a shop to get tuned up, oil changed, carburetor rebuilt, and in general I asked them to look it over and let me know the glaring problems that need to be fixed. I'm figuring on spending maybe 2-3k on mechanical stuff and then there's a body shop right next door that quoted $3-5k to paint it, not including any body work. That's stripped to bare metal. I'm leaning towards red so it'll end up looking kind of like this:


I don't know what size motor is in it, but I know it's a V8. I'm hoping for a 351 or 390. Either one would be great! It's an auto tranny and 4WD. It's the first auto tranny car I've ever bought actually. I'll always have a manual for my daily driver, but an auto is actually better off road anyway so I'm ok with this being an auto for that reason too.

Anyhow, I'm really excited and I can't wait to get her all fixed up!

 

Congrats teflon-jones, and welcome to the forum. Your 77 would have come with either a 302, 351M or a 400, but being a 30 year old truck, anything could have been swapped in. you can post your VIN/warranty plate # on here and someone will be able to decode and let you know what originally came on your truck. Again welcome to FTE.

 

That decodes to;
1977 model year
F150 4WD
V8 351 2 BBl carb 161-165HP
Built in San Jose, CA.

Warranty plate # will give much more info. Should be able to find that on driver's door.

There is a VIN# decoder under Articles?Specs at the top of this page. Have fun with your new truck. 77's are one of my favorite years.

 

Thanks, I'll have to get that when I go to the shop to talk to them about what work it needs.

I have a hard time believing a 351 V8 only puts out 161-165HP. I know they rated things pretty conservatively back then, but what is the real output of the engine? Will adding a high performance intake and exhaust make a difference?

 

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Timing and low compression was the word in the mid 70's. I had a bone stock 77 2wd 351m, that I put headers, an edelbrock performer intake, RV cam and Holley 600 cfm 4bbl on. Woke it up pretty good. The hot ticket with these now is to put the 400 crank and slugs into them (the bore is the same). Go under the search tab above and type 351m/400. There will be lots of info on this. Good luck.

 

sadly the engines back in the day are not like the engines now where they get 250+HP out of a V6 lol

I know my dads 323 in his chebby is rated for 300 hp

but those trucks weren't built for the performance they are now

 

About 100HP at this point

Unlikely, not for a bone stock 351M. You have alot of work ahead of you, and alot of money to spend to get good power out of that engine, probably 3 times what you paid for the truck. Leave the hood shut, opening it to only add water and oil as needed, you will be just fine.

 

I'm not really looking for a lot of power. I just want a reliable engine with enough power to do what I need (light hauling and off roading). That's all I need!

 

Welcome to FTE, and 1977 is my favorite year too! Let see some pictures when you get a chance! My 77 has a 300 I6, and has plenty of power to get that truck around. Listen to Masterbeavis, it will perform fine, change the oil, tune it up and concentrate on the rest of the truck and you will do fine, and have a great time with it.

Keep us posted as you get this going, and on the road, and remember there is a wealth of GOOD information on here, do a search and if you can't find it just ask. Everyone is more than happy to help get another dentside up and rolling again.

Congrats, and good luck!

 

welcome to FTE!

the first thing is Rockstone, where did you get that VIN from?

anyways, yes the old engines didn't put out a lot of HP, and then on top of it was the 70s when people wanted to conserve oil so Ford didn't make a really powerful engine. with some upgrades these engines can be beasts. throw an exhaust, headers, 4BBL carb and intake on it and you'll be doing a lot better.

390's and 302's NEVER came in a 4wd trucks.

post pics of your truck when you get them. we're all ready to see it. good luck with it!

 

He posted the VIN, Dirt. I don't know what happened to that post though. It was there, I swear.

 

Yeah, I couldn't see it earlier when I came back to the page, but then it showed up again later. Now it's gone again. I bet if I look tomorrow it'll be back!

The truck got towed to the shop this morning and I stopped by there to get a look at her and talk to the guy who I talked to on the phone. I also left him a list of the things that I was considering doing (it was a pretty long list )

I got my best look at the truck yet. The body is in great shape. The only holes that go through anything are inside the front of the rear fenders and right in front of the fender on the outside of the body where there's a seam between the bed and another piece. The frame is a bit rusty but in great condition too. Overall, nothing major really wrong. The paint shop next door is going to take a look at her on Monday and tell me how much it'll cost to paint her. Man I'm excited!

 

That's what I was considering doing. I'm very familiar with the reality that lowering the backpressure like that is going to cost me low end TQ. So for a truck that's going to be driving up in the mountains in thin air where TQ is king, would you really recommend those changes? Or would it be better to just stick with a 2.25" exhaust and glasspacks or similar mufflers? Or (god forbid) a mostly stock exhaust system, with at most just some performance mufflers but stock headers and midpipe(s)?

 

that or you have super powers!

 

teflon_jones, 2.25" is the best size of exhaust pipe for these trucks. glasspacks or perforance mufflers would be great actually. of course with some sort of muffler or glasspack there is gonna be better back pressure than straight piping it. and if in your state you can run without catalytic converters on your truck take those off. they're power stealers.