Can't deny that, I just wish somebody would have warned me and my bank account!

 

I bought my 73 F100 for 500 bucks...which was a great deal....shortly after that I had over 3,000 in it....lol. I have been through all the important stuff...now have to get on to a paint job...already got the paint setting here waiting on me.

There is no better feeling than driving a truck you have been through and know what has been done to it.

 

There is a slightly better feeling. Driving a truck that you have known since the day it rolled off the dealers lot, and know everything that has ever been done to it, and who did it.

 

Well yeah theres that..lol...I'm the second owner of my F100....owner put 52,000 miles on it then sat in barn 25 years. So I know just about everything thats been done to it to.

 

I agree. I know things add up quick and I'm sure I'll have a fair amount into it, but the good thing is with this project vs my 77 F250 4x4, is that this truck is complete and my other one I had to start from scratch and had to find so many parts or buy new ones. If I don't keep track of what I have into it, I can always trick myself into believing I'm right on budget.

 

that truck looks like it is a good one to start off with. not too far gone to fix, body is pretty good, and supercabs are really cool!!! have fun with the build,and keep us informed on the progress.

 

Hey, I have a set of pads that go along the left and right side of the "super part" of the cab...2 sets... tan and red in color. I also think I have set of racetrack molding for the back half of the cab.

If you ever need them they would be awfully cheap.

Grin

 

Budget?What is this......... budget?

 

Progress Report:

I finally got my truck up here in Minnesota. It made an 8 hour trip from Nebraska without any trouble. Ran great and drove just fine. Had to get 2 new tires for the front before the trip, but other than that nothing really apart from changing oil and making sure all fluids were topped off and brakes worked.

The truck just barely fits in my small 2 car garage. It's tight, but it will work. I have started to work on the bed first. After taking some lower trim off, I have found rust issues that I never knew, so that just means more work, but oh well. Could be much worse. The drivers side rear wheel arch was a little worse. For my first try on the drivers wheel arch I tried using a flange tool, but I wasn't impressed with how the patch panel fit, so I then just used some 20 gauge sheet metal and used it as a backer to butt the patch and original metal together for easier welding. It does mean I need to seal the inside around the backer sheet metal, but it should work. I do like using metal for a backer at the weld seam because it makes the repair stronger. Any way, I cut the inner rear arch out, but was able to save a little bit of it that was still attached to the outer arch down by the corners, so I still have some structure. I think I'm just going to leave the inner arch as it is and not replace it. I may weld a support brace in there somehow, but I will look at that later. Here are some pics of the project so far.






The passenger side I decided to do things a bit different. It took more time to fit the panel, but I really didn't want to cut out anymore original metal than I needed too. And I can't find the before pic with the rust hole, but you can tell from the first post the extent.

This is what the backer method I used looks like after I cut out the rust







A small rust hole when I pulled the trim off the rear of the bed so I cut out a little section and going to patch that.




It takes some patience to weld so not to warp things and careful grinding. Hopefully my amateur job will work out.

 

if your not gonna use the mudflaps id buy them from ya

 

I will keep that in mind. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use them or not.

 

Your patches look good, no reason to feel bad about them. Keep up the progress and work on it. Good luck and thanks for the new pics and update.

 

More progress on the rear arches.




Started on the cab corners. Cut and test fit the drivers.

 

I can relate:


I recommend ya reinstall the wheel well liner to restore strength to the bed side. I reinstalled the wheel well liner but modified it a bit to avoid future rust-through.

See, the Ford engineers designed drain holes that were simply too small. Second, the space between the liner and the wheel rub are really easy to pack with mud and pebbles. Even if you blast it out with water, it never dries out cuz of the pebbles wedged in there and it leads to the dreaded wheel arch rust....My solution was to I cut out large relief holes and large sections along the outboard side as to create "fingers" that reach out to the wheel arch. It's really easy now to blast out whatever accumulates.

 

Looks good. Ya, I probably need to do something with the inner wheel liner. I didn't completely take it out. It still is spot welded to the very edges of the wheel arch that I didn't cut out. I just cut the inner in the center. I will probably weld some supports from the wheel arch to the inner at some point.