1977 1 ton daully dump Restore Or Not To restore?
 

I'm new guy on block here.

I picked up a 1977 ford one ton daully dump truck with only 126,000 miles on, I bought it out of need to grade off my property due to flood, I'm in NY. Here is kicker next to no rot on truck touch here and there. It has a 351M/400 Engine in it.

Frame has weld line on both sides title states stake body killed at motor Vechile( DMV) Happy to pay the extra on weight.

Here is questions?
1. Some info on 351M/400 enigne?
2.Any good place to find a couple good doors right on the very cornors of both doors is slight rust problem.?
3. Floor Pans? One side has slight holes figure just replace both sides.
4.I told my wife:-blah I was going to frame off and put headers on it and still use it for landscape. So my Question? Restore it or not?:-X16 I'm ( do not tell any body I'm a chevy fan) Its just this Ford truck has that cool factor?:-jammin

My vote is restore!!:-drink Welcome to the Ford world, oh ye of new faith!:-wink

defintely re-store....
I have 351m/400's in all my trucks w/ no problems...loaded the dump truck may lug a little bit but overall you should be happy w/ it
nos/oem parts are available but can be costly, aftermarket and used are an option
as far as the headers go, had them on my plow truck, they rust out and can be a problem replacing, can overheat the starter if not wrapped or heat shield in place...I ran true duals from manifolds back, no loss of performance, in fact I felt it performed better w/ the low end torque

good luck and welcome to FTE

I'm right there with ya brother.....my old '79 F250 wood hauler has just about given up the ghost. I've been looking for a one ton dump..... I found this F350 dump to replace it. PO was laid off from work and needed money for Christmas. He had just rebuilt he motor (400M).

Now it needs some work(and money) to restore it completely so I'm up in the air as to how far I want to go.

1. Frame up resto....including upgrade to 4wd(have all the parts)...(leaning this way...just bought a 9000# 2 post lift)
2. Decent paint and body repair, up grade dump bed?
3. Use it like it is?

Anyway, here's the "before" picture......
http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/t...IMG_0371-1.jpg

There's several places to find resto parts....Tabco, Dennis Carpenter, LMC Trucks, National Parts Depot...just to name a few.
Good luck and post some pics....:-X22


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Welcome to the site. Feel free to join the NY Chapter. Sounds like you're around the Binghamton area. I'm N of Ithaca when I'm not in VA. Every once in a while Horseheads pic-a-part has some good stuff for the dents. I'm looking around down here for some doors for my 79.

Thanks Guys. I'll be getting a new camera and upload photos. And yes I'm just east of Binghamton . Vestal.Looking forward to this project:D Good to here good news on motor. When I get some time I'll get back on line this weekend and would like very much to join a club.:-X22

I'd say restore it. It don't have to be a high budget frame off restore. You can get many aftermarket parts that are pretty cheap, but do the job. Those dump trucks are cool.

I would restore it too. From what you wrote... there ain't much work to be done on it.