Endraven's 78 F100 Ranger

[Endraven]

Greetings to all dentside fans and general Ford enthusiasts! I recently became the owner of a low mile 1978 F100 Ranger. As I fix and restore I will post all of my stories here in this thread. I bought the truck in May and only recently started driving it and fixing the little nose bleeds that I discover. I gave $1700 for her. Good and bad this is what I have learned so far... The truck has 37000 original miles. Be it they came few and far between so she sat a lot while under the care of the original owner. The truck stayed parked under an awning by the store he ran in Mamou, LA. The paint and interior have survived in excellent condition thanks to that. The truck really is in good condition for her age. All of her problems and damage occurred under the second owner. A younger guy that just hopped in and hauled ass with little to no maintenance. He rubbed it against a few trees while stuck in the woods. He binged the front of the bed and back of the cab while loading a deerstand. Unfortunately he also ran her hot because the temp gauge did not work. The water pump crapped out and he didnt know it until it was too late. All because he was too ignorant or lazy to fix the tempurature sending unit. The truck has zero rot. The interior is clean and undamaged save for a few cracks in the rubber floor mat. it came with a vintage aftermarket CB radio with an awesome wood grain treatment. The original steelies and hubcaps are intact and in good shape. This truck was driven so little that I am finding the original ford paper tags attached to everything underneath her. On the springs and fuel lines and such. She still has her decals under the hood. The inspector's grease pencil number on the firewall still looks fresh. So now the journey begins. Many long hours and busted knuckles will mark these tales I am sure. What can I say? I am a sucker for vintage american iron!

[Endraven]

The first thing I noticed when driving the truck is that she idled too fast and when I turned the idle screw down to the proper RPM she would not idle while in gear. Also when at part throttle she had a bit of a stumble and just didnt feel smooth like the little small block should. I popped the hood and started checking vacuum lines. Sure enough I found the culprits. The rubber vacuum hose running from the pcv on the breather to the carb was hard as a rock! Also the breather cap had slack because the gasket had long vanished. I bought a foot of hose from the parts house and made a new gasket for the breather. I also gave the carb a rinse inside and out with chemtool. Now she runs out smooth and idles just right!

[smokeyb97]

That's a great deal on your truck, it's looks in fine shape. How about some under hood shots.

[JohnT]

Nice truck! I like that 2-tone combo, and the factory bed rails look good on it.

[Recoil]

Beautiful truck! Congratulations on the hell of a deal!

[Endraven]

Thanks guys! It's great to find a place full of folks who enjoy these trucks as much as I do.
I snapped a few more pics this evening after work.

This neglected 302 will live here for a while longer.



Check out the old school Citizen Band.


Running beagles in the Louisiana woods can take it's toll.

[Dads79]

Super nice find. I also dig the Tu-tone. I might be wrong ,but I think those hub caps are from a Dodge. Not pickin' just wanted you to know. Great start for a project.

[Endraven]

I've been driving the truck to work daily to get a feel for what she needs. I noticed an unsettling bouncing motion while cruising at 55-60 every time I hit a rough spot on our glorious Louisiana roads. I figured the suspension was pretty soft from age if nothing else. After work I crawled underneath to have a look. Sure enough the shocks were original and judging by their condition had given up the ghost many years ago. During my inspection I noticed old tattered paper tags on the upper most coil of the front springs. it appears to be the original part number tag form the factory. Little crap like that makes my day! Knowing that the springs will eventually be replaced I decided to go the cheap route just in case the shocks alone couldnt help the ride quality. I purchased two front el cheapos from O'reilly's. They didnt have the rears so I got them from Autozone. The shocks ran 16.99 each. Being in a hurry I failed to open the boxes and inspect the shocks. Once I got home I noticed that 3 out of 4 of the shocks were leaking their oil. So back to town I go. I decided to upgrade to the 22.99 Gabriel Pro Gaurds from Autozone for all four corners. The shocks looked a bit larger but of excellent quality. I got home crawled underneath and got to work on the rears. Some PB blaster and a few basic tools later and they were done. I compressed the old shocks just to see after I got them off. They had nothing left.

Here is one of the new Gabriel Pro Gaurds in it's new home.



Unfortunately these well made larger shocks would not fit on the front. the only thing that will is the skinny old school shocks.

Very tight fit.



So I get two front Gabriel Red Ryders on the way from another Autozone for the next day.
I swing by Autozone the next day after work and to little surprise my shocks werent there. The other store didnt have the shocks in stock like the CPU said and they didnt care enought to let anyone know. So I get two shocks on order from a different store. The next day I swing in to pick them up (checking them at the store this time) and they both are leaking oil as well. Finally the NEXT day they managed to find two shocks in working order for me.
After the whole mess was over I finally got four new shocks on the truck and man what a difference. The springs arent as bad off as I thought and with new shocks are working nicely. It rides and corners much much better than before. So far all this old truck needed was some attention and a few bucks thrown at it. I'm sure in the future I'll hit a few bumps in the road but for now it's smooth sailin'.

[dilbone56]

My story is much the same with my old truck (Bessie). I know the name's not original, but it really fits. Anyway a buddy I work with said he wanted to sell his grandpa's old truck and I thought I'd look at it. When he told me he wanted $1000 for this 1978 F150 with 16,000 original miles, I couldn't believe it. I went for it but unfortunately since mine sat for 20 years, all of the rubber and the fuel system had to be replaced. I've been working on it for almost 3 years now, and every week it's something new. The first picture has a hose laying there which is the fuel line to my gas can (just trying to get it running.

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She shines up pretty good.

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Good luck, and have fun.