I just bought a 1977 F250 4x4 with the service body.



Its a late '77, with the 400 and C6 auto, and apparently sold as a 1978 xlt, judging by the square headlights. Drove it about 110 miles back to my house from where I bought it and it did well, aside from a belt squealing most the way home.

It's going to be my new work truck, replacing a ford ranger that is getting more and more overloaded with too many tools I do solar design and installations, of both electric and heating, and keeping a decent complement of both electrical and plumbing tools, plus hauling solar panels and racking around, was kind of pushing me towards either a full size truck, or a full size van, and I don't like the 4wd options on the vans (I live at 9,300 feet elevation, so wintertime is serious). My price range was limiting me to mid 1990's chevy's with the service bodies, and I don't really like chevy's (except for my 1956 two ton.... it's pretty awesome)

I'm not a stranger to the '70's fords... my dad had a 1973 F100 2wd with the 302 (later replaced with a 351 windsor) that he bought new, and kept as his daily driver till 2003. Same color green even.

List of stuff to do to it

General maintenance, etc, since I don't know a lot about the history. It was the backup plow truck for a snowplowing/landscaping company so stuff was fixed when it needed it but not used a lot so who knows how up to date stuff like oil changes, belts, etc was.

Repaint it so it's all new and shiny, and so the service body matches. I love that old color of green, and was quite happy to find one that color. Very little rust on it (drivers side fender is the only spot I could find). Add a bit of chrome to it.

Add step rails and grab handles to it... I'm 6'2" and it's tall enough that it's hard for me to get into it

New drivers side door.

Replace the '78+ grill with a '73-'76 grill, if that's possible. I like the look of the earlier ones and round headlights a lot more than the square headlights.

New radio, seat covers, etc.

Some aftermarket gauges... I don't trust the oil pressure or temp gauges, and the gas gauge doesn't work.

Ladder rack

AC power system (3.5kW inverter, solar panel, etc -- all left over from jobs that I've done for clients) to run the wirefeed welder, air compressor, recharge all the cordless tools, etc.

Eventually... swap out the 400 for a 4.7 liter Isuzu turbodiesel (from the NPR box trucks) and 5 speed manual transmission. That should boost the mileage from 9-10 mpg to around 17 to 20mpg, with a bit more torque too.

My other multitude of vehicles:
1948 F-6 flatbed (body and chassis only, drivetrain is out, more yard decoration than anything else)
1954 Ford 600 tractor with bucket and blade, primary snowplowing tool
1956 2 ton Chevy LCF 16' stakebed (firewood hauler -- will handle about 5 cords per load)
1967 Landrover 109 station wagon (in about a dozen pieces around the yard and the shop right now, slowly being reassembled, though it's been 4 years so far)
1972 Ford Courier
1974 Ford Courier (being converted to an electric truck)
1976 Ford Sasquatch
1976 Mercedes diesel sedan -- someone gave it to me for free, and it is only useful for 6 months of the year because it's rwd and won't start if the temp is below about 55F... but it's a cool car for summer drives.
1981 Subaru GL wagon (backup car for when the others are in the shop, or are stuck)
1981 Minibird short school bus converted to RV (parked, as "guest quarters" now.
1984 Mitsibishi turbodiesel pickup (kind of disassembled up front... need to put the grill and lights and bumper back on...)
1989 subaru GL (parts car now... was daily driver for years and finally wore it out)
1991 Subaru Justy + matching parts car (my primary car when I'm not working, if I get the CV's fixed -- gets 35+mpg and is 4wd which is not bad)
1999 Subaru Legacy wagon (the girlfriends car, really)

 

Looks like a pretty solid old workhorse ready for a second tour of duty, can't say the same for very many 70's era Chevy trucks.

 

Cool truck! I always thought a truck like that would make a sweet service truck for our farm if we could ever justify one. Let us know how the diesel swap goes when you get around to it. I'm curious if it's more feesable than the common cummins swap