Ford F-250 Restored with a Rattle Can and Elbow Grease
A 2001 Ford F-250 isn’t the type of truck that most people would restore, but one member has done so, and very impressively.
Our newest featured build project is the 2001 Ford F-250 owned by Ford Truck Enthusiasts forum member fordf2501. He started this thread back in April of 2016 and it was most recently updated last week. In that time, he has given this 16-year old Super Duty an extreme facelift – almost entirely with rattle cans and elbow grease.
The Introduction
When fordf2501 offered up the details on the life of this 2001 Ford F-250, he did so on the second page of the thread. He offered a brief rundown of his thread in the first post back in 2016 (as well as the first picture above), but it was almost a year before he went into detail on the history of his Super Duty.
“When I picked it up from my father-in-law, I wasn’t going to do much just some maintenance and that was going to be about it. As I was going along and cleaning under the truck with the pressure washer and started knocking off the clear coat that was already peeling off.
It started to consume me that I needed to bring the old truck back to the way it was before it went through its very rough life.
It started as a company truck in 2001 then went to Detroit Michigan. After several years it came back to the south and was given to my father-in-law as his work truck then he was able to buy it from the company. The windshield had been busted out and so he was able to buy the truck for 1,000 dollars from the company.
Then he gave it to his 17 year old step son who made it is personal trash truck. He beat the crap out of it. He would throw it in four-wheel-drive at 50mph because it would chirp tires and what not.
So after he was told to stop he lost the truck and my father-in-law sold it to a friend of his so he could use it for the same company as a work truck. He beat the crap out of the truck more than my brother-in-law did and the trans went out / was rebuilt.
After about 3 or 4 years it was offered back to my father-in-law and he bought it back. After about 2 or 3 years of it really just sitting around and people using it as a spare truck. It really was not driven that much, then my father-in-law gave it to me and my wife.
From that point on we have had the truck. I have been driving it daily and luckily have not had that really major problems with it. As it sits today it has 261,000 miles and has some slight blow-by but I check the oil every other day and the truck has treated me good so far.”
The Rattle Can Refresh
Over the following months, the OP slowly brought the exterior of his 2001 F-250 back to life. He started by fixing the bed mounts, removing the factory bedside graphics, sanding the bed and spraying it with white rattle can primer. The tailgate got the same sand-and-spray treatment as well.
Next, he turned his attention to the front fenders, cleaning, sanding and hitting them with the same white primer. The doors were next, at which point this F-250 was looking pretty sharp along the sides and rear. In addition to painting the body with white primer, he added POR-15 in those areas most prone to rust.
Once the sides of the 2001 F-250 were coated in white primer, he spent some time polishing up the stock wheels and the results are amazing. As you can see in the picture above, the polished wheels look like they are brand new, with a bright chrome shine.
The roof was next, getting a good sanding, a coat of POR-15 and a blast of the white primer in the spray cans. During the process of primering the body, the OP also painted the bumpers and the hood black.
An Arctic White Finish
The OP spent the first portion of his 2001 Ford F-250 restoration refinishing the body in white primer, but after finishing the hood, he hit the entire truck white Arctic White paint and 3 coats of clear. On top of that new paint, he added FX4 bedside graphics, the factory F-250 fender badges, a black locking fuel door and a pair of later-model headlights with the flush, plastic lens rather than the sunken-in glass lens.
The result is a 2001 Ford F-250 that is clean enough to be new, and the majority of the restoration work was done with spray cans.
Other Maintenance
In addition to making the exterior of his 2001 Ford F-250 look great, he has spent the last year performing some key routine maintenance on the Arctic White Super Duty. He had to replace the front hubs, the exhaust manifold bolts, the exhaust manifold gaskets and the tires. He also removed the failing catalytic convertor and stuck a straight-pipe in its place. That “custom exhaust” was finished off with a Flowmaster Super 44 muffler.
That is where the project is right now, but the OP has recently stated that he has acquired a 5.4L V8 from a junkyard, so in the next couple of months, this 2001 F-250 will be getting a rebuilt engine as well.
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