Hey everyone, I have been lurking here on this forum for a while and never really introduced myself, or my truck. I am a 21 year old college student majoring in Industrial technology, and have always had a passion for these old dentsides, especially the 78 and 79s. I have always loved how tough they look (and how tough they were built). My uncle had a 1979 F-250 4x4 that I admired my entire life and I always wanted him to sell it to me. He always drove compact pickups (for gas mileage) and kept his 79 F-250 for heavier jobs, but he got a sweet deal on this 1976 F-250 Camper Special with a 460 and C6 (46,000 original miles)

Once he got this truck he finally agreed to sell me his 79. It was a 1979 F-250 custom with a 400 and a NP 435 and 205 t-case. The truck was worked hard (It was never driven empty and spent most of it's time pulling around a Case 580 CK backhoe for his backhoe business) and had about 104,000 miles on it's un-touched 400.
So it was pretty worn out, but it had very little rust. He was a master mechanic so the truck was always well maintained.

This is what it looked like right after I got it. It was repainted in the late 80s, but the clear coat was starting to peel off, and the bezels and trim were all very faded. So one of the first things I did was paint the bezels with a matte black paint, and it really made the truck look a little less tired.

The next thing I did was address a "clunking" the truck made when in 4x4. Turns out it was a cv centering yoke that was totally shot, so I decided to rebuild the front driveshaft with new u-joints and a new centering yoke. Problem solved.
The tailgate I got with the truck was not original to it, in fact it was black and looked ridiculous on there. (I wish I had taken a picture to show you guys) so the next thing I did was pull the black tailgate and paint it up. I painted it white then taped off the FORD letters, then shot the red, removed the tape, shot a couple coats of clear, and painted on a bedliner to the reverse side. I also painted the bumper silver for S***ts and giggles.

For several months the truck stayed in this state.

 

After a while I noticed that more and more of the clear coat was peeling off, so I decided to re-paint the truck to protect the body. The first thing I did was tape everything off, and remove the mirrors and emblems, then I would sand and sand and sand to take off the old clear coat and give the primer a good base to stick to.



I know some people on here are going to get pissed at me, but I rattle canned the truck when I painted it. (after shooting a primer first) The reason I did this was because I am a poor college student and I am going to destroy the paint when I get the funds to finish up some body work, but I wanted to re-paint it to at least protect the body till I get it professionally painted. Plus it looks better then peeling clear coat.
and after the paint it looked like this:

I was pretty pleased with the results, even though it was just spray bombed.

 

The truck was doing pretty well at that point except for still having a slight idle problem and then this happened:

For thanksgiving I had my shotguns out and the whole family was having fun shoot clays. My 72 year old grandpa wanted to shoot, and that's when this happened. The tab the holds the clay on the launcher got out of adjustment and threw the clay behind the shed, past HIS 2 trailers and landed in front of the truck sitting on the other side of his trailers, and then BOOM!

 

I like it, future plans?

btw, I'm about 4 hours away from you, if you need any parts let me know, we could always meet up. and sometimes I have classes down in Springfield

 

Yeah, I'm planning on doing a resto-mod. I want to keep it mostly original, but I plan on beefing up the 400 and doing a mild lift (probably 4 inches on 35s) the rest of the truck I want to get back to looking original. I will probably upgrade a few little things (like add carpet) but for the most part I want to keep it original.

 

depending on what I do with my extra Hi Boy, I might have some front springs for cheap for you. that would give you 4" of lift. Or I have some stock SD ones.

 

Well after the face of my 79 got shot by a 12 gauge, I decided it would be a good time to do some maintenance to it. The radiator was leaking in about 6 different places, so I took to a guy I know and he was able to patch it up like new for $65. Sure beats buying a new one!

While the truck was down, I decided that it would be a good time to rebuild the motocraft 2150 carb that was on it. So I pulled it off, and rebuilt it. I was a little nervous about it at first, but it really wasn't that bad, especially since I had my uncle right next to me to make sure I didn't screw anything up. So I got the repaired radiator in and rebuilt carb on. Unfortunately right after I got the truck together I had to leave for a few weeks to see family over the holidays. I still have to adjust the carb, since it wont idle correctly and seems to choke out very easy. I was able to run the truck just enough to park it before I left. Anyone got any carb tuning tricks?

 

I have been debating on buying a lift kit, or trying to tackle the SD spring conversion. I still haven't totally made up my mind. Lucky for me I have a truck salvage yard right here in Tamaroa, so any superduty springs I might need should be there, depending on what route I go. Thanks for the offer though!

 

get a vacuum gauge, that the best way to set a carb

 

Truck looks nice. Had not seen the thread till just now. Ill make sure to keep an eye out for updates. If ya wanna run to the JY together to browse, lets do it. I am always happy to go browsing. Maybe when the 460 is going, we can meet at the JY.

 

Thanks man. Progress is slow. Funny how money can slow down a project. Next time you want to hit up a local JY let me know. My uncles have about 4 or 5 old dents laying around so we might have certain parts.

 

For sure. I will hit you up when I get my truck running. 2 for 1 trip! Don't need anything in particular, always willing to snag useful parts though.

 

Well, I haven't posted on here in a while. I was hoping to get my engine rebuilt this fall, but life got in the way and the money I had set aside for the rebuild got used in different ways. In the mean time i have been collecting a few parts here and there. I scored a pretty straight tailgate off craigslist for $25 and I will hopefully be looking at a decent running 400 that I can throw in the truck while I rebuild the original 400. If it has good compression I will probably pick it up.

 

I like what you have done so far, I'm a college student too and I can appreciate a good rattle can paint job. Looking forward to the rest of your build! Good luck and God Bless!

 

Thanks for the kind words. Being a poor college student definitely has it's drawbacks. I really wish I had more time and money to play with it, but it serves as great motivation to finish my degree so I can get a decent job to fund my addiction.