First off I've been lurking around for quite a while and this does seem to be the best site for Ford truck information and advise. You people seem to know what you're talking about.

Anyways onto the good stuff. 13 years ago I received a boat from my grandfather. As I had little use for a boat but was soon turning 16 I decided to trade the boat straight across for a 1977 F150 manual with a 302. Green..the ugly light green. Since I got a job working construction that truck was my daily driver. Over 500 miles a week usually and never once did it leave me stranded (except for the time I jumped a creek bed and bounced the battery into the fan), always started right up, and got decent mileage for a truck I thought.

In the early summer of 1998 after spending two summers cooking and sweating in the truck I thought it was time for comfort, a/c, and an automatic transmission. So I went off and bought a 1996 Pontiac Sunfire. Four months later I sold that green truck to the same guy I got it off of for $1200. He turned it into a basic farm truck, drove it two months out of the year since they lived in Alaska during the rest of the year. Over time I began to regret ever getting rid of my first vehicle. The hours and hours of driving around with friends in it...my very first welding job was on a clutch linkage...dropped the tranny on my chest replacing the clutch...twice...spewing battery acid all over the engine compartment jumping creeks...I wanted my truck back.

The good part: in February I found out the people who now owned my old truck were selling everything they had down here in Missouri and moving year round to Alaska. They were planning on auctioning everything they had down here off so I thought I may get lucky and see if they wanted to sell my old truck back to me before the auction. I figured maybe $500 or $600...it was worth a shot to get her back. When I offered that they stated if I would take it off their hands I could just straight up have it....free...zero dollars and zero cents. So come Saturday I have my old beat up puke green 77 F150 back...for free. I figure I'll be needing help from anyone and everyone here as I try and fix her back up. And that will be a job and a half...10 years "on the farm" don't treat a truck nicely. I'll post some pics Saturday night.

 

Great story, welcome aboard, looking forward to the pics.

 

That's a cool story. I'm sure there are lots of guys out there (me included) that wonder what ever happened to their first vehicle. I've owned lots of vehicles and I took great care of them all. I'd hate to think that one was rusting away in a junkyard somewhere or was crushed and has been remanufactured into some crap you can get at Wal-Mart. I think it's great you'll get a chance very few people have gotten. Good luck!!

 

Welcome to FTE! Ain't it funny how much you can become attached to an old beat up Ford pick up. You're preaching to the choir on this site. Congratulations on getting the old girl back. We look forward to seeing the pics.

 

Yeah my second car has ended up crushed in a junkyard. Saw it sitting by the side of the road last fall after someone ran it into a steel pipe fence. Sunfires just don't hold up well when you do that

Anyways it will be a pretty long build. The money is mighty tight right now so I think I'll be hunting scrap yards for bits here and there. My biggest hurdle will be deciding if I want to keep the awful green color or get it painted a more pleasing tone of green....but even that is a ways down the road. Gonna work the interior first and get it back to comfortable...and clean.

 

Sweet story, post PLENTY of pictures, and congrats!!

 

That's a great story. I had 2 vehicles in high school. a 1971 VW Superbeetle. I found a similar one and bought it almost 6 years ago. Still awaiting the same light blue paint like my original.
I also had an orange 73 F100 2wd 302 3 on the tree truck.
Last week I bought an orange 77 F100 2wd 302 3 on the tree.
I haven't finished the first project yet, but it's been fun working on this truck. All I have left is getting the last 2 lights working. Wireharness has been chopped up so it's a challenge to say the least.
Anyway good luck with your truck.
Shane