let me start by introducing my self my name is Eric i live near jacksonville fl. My first truck was an 81 f100 that my aunt and uncle bought new in 81. It served them for many years as a farm truck work truck. They parked it for 3 years and gave it to me when I turned 16. Anyway drove and abused that truck till i was about 19 then traded it off and as the years have passed i started to miss it. In october I came accross a deal on craigslist couldnt pass up. Its a 1980 f-150 lariet mostly in tack. My plan was to drive it for a while then start the restoration but the engine blew a head gasket and after pulling it out i discovered that the 302 block is done. So I have decieded to do the body work first i plan to make this truck more of toy than a truck. My plans are to lower it(will be a while) build a 351w(gonna be a while too) shave all the handles and holes in the body, i also plan to make the entire dog house a flip nose. along the way i will post pictures and welcome anyones advise. [IMG][/IMG[IMG]<a href="http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm178/hobbystock98/?action=view&amp;current=truckwhenbought1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm178/hobbystock98/truckwhenbought1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>[/IMG]this was what i started tonite filling in the tie down holes in the bed[IMG]<a href="http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm178/hobbystock98/?action=view&amp;current=firstbodyplug-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm178/hobbystock98/firstbodyplug-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>[/IMG]

 

Welcome to the site! Your story sounds familiar, I picked my F100 up when I was 15 after it had been sittin for 3 years.

Got any pics of the Lariat? I'm kinda partial to them.

 

Thats one clean truck. Looks like alot of fun. Welcome

 

Good luck and welcome to the site.

 

Looks like a solid truck to start with. Good luck with it and enjoy it. Also welcome to a great site!!

 

Welcome, beautiful truck.

 

this week i striped what seemed like 3/8' of paint off the quarter pannel i knew there was one bad spot but discovered a second which was someone elses previous work gone bad. that spot is in the wheel arch so i will order a repacement wheel arch as they had rebuilt the whole body line with filler.i also ground off the trim studs from the left rear quarter along with welding up the holes where the bottom trim attached. i also removed the core support and fenders to prepare to fab up the flip nose here are some pictures.
[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

 

The flip nose is a really cool idea. You dont see many round with it.

 

ok so i havent posted any updates lately but i have removed the bed moved the rest of the truck to my parents place so i would have more room in the garage. i looked at the bed front and thought i would try to repair it but the more i dug in to it i decided to just order a new one from npd. so yesterday i drove down to ocala picked up the new bed front and 2 wheel archs and this is my progress thus far today
i cut that bad spot out and welded a new peice in the metal was cut from the old bed front

here is the new bed front tacked in to place