Until I joined this board I never realised that the bull bars were basically unknown in the States on F100s - they're a dime a dozen here (or were when there was lots of F100s on the road: there's not too many nowadays particularly in Sydney). I removed mine because I prefer the look and I am attempting the get the truck back to original condition, but I will install it if I go on any road trips due the good chance of cleaning up some wild life on region roads and highways.
Surely you guys could either import them or have them made? Here thet're about $250-$400 second hand (check out www.ebay.com.au) or buy new for $600 - $1000 in AUD although your freight cost would be high if not by sea mail.
Do you guys run your trucks on dual fuel (LPG/Petrol)? If so, where do you stick the LPG tank and how much does it take?

 

Well we do have bull bars, just nothing that big. Bull bars are usually small, and don't offer much protection. Then there are brush guards, that protect from about the bumper up.

As far as dual fuel, there are a few people who do, but most just run straight gasoline. I've seen lpg tanks put at the front of the bed by the cab. You might also be able to get a long narrow one that goes on the underside of the bed between the frame and the outside

 

This is the biggest bumper ive ever seen and I helped make this one!

 

Here's my homebuilt "Kia Killer" lol

 

As there was a level of interest in my right hand drive Australian built F100 I thought you may be interested in seeing the left and right dash faciers that I finally acquired after much searching. These are in excellent condition which is rare as they tend to crack very easily and hence are quite expensive.
I have also added a pic of the back wheel that required a littlee hub cap, nothing real interesting.
So, I now have a spare left and right dash facier without an ash tray (relatively easily found). These are in ok condition. They do have some cracks that I have super glued, but these could easily be restored by a plastics guy. If any of you Canadians or Americans are interested in obtaining these for your truck, please give me your best offer. Happy to provide pics, let me know.

 

Also scored a new roof liner. The old one was black **** pile carpet. Yuck!

 

In my efforts to restore the old girl I have been focussing on the original Australia 1977 XLT brochure as the bench-mark. I have uploaded it here again in slightly better quality for those who may be interested (you can get these on ebay.com.au for about $6):



So, I tracked down a good white tonneau cover. Its a bit dirty, but better than the black one. What do you reckon?










I prefer the white!

Here are some magazine artices from back in the day I am referencing, which I thought you blokes might find some interest in (particularly with the rare 1977 xlt swb 4x4):

 

Apologies for the quality of the scans. My scanner is rooted so I had to use my phone.

 

I'm jealous of you guys. My truck has a long way to go...

 

When I was truck shopping several years ago I came across some really nice units of which I kept photos of.
This beauty has bit of a history to it: its a 1977 F100 XLT. Back then, they were all straight 6s or 302 4.9l V8s. This one was the latter, and lived in Geelong, Victoria (incidentally, if you look carefully at the boat trailer in the advertisement I posted earlier in this thread, that too is from Geelong, and I've wondered if this might be the same truck. Unlikely, but a romantic F100 thought anyway).
Anyway, the guy who owned it replaced the cab due to rust, and at some point sold it. The second owner had it for a few years, then sold it to a guy who lived in metro Melbourne. He dropped a 351C in to it, and then added the 351 badges to the front fenders, and the V8 near the glove box (as seen on the 1979 models).


The colour is a British Racing Green with flecks - really nice. But what I found interesting were the door skins. They're soft vinyl/fake leather. I've only ever seen these one other time on a '79 XLT. I am guessing they're after market'. My understanding is that ALL Australian trucks had brown plastic door skins, and brown bench seats (some with hounds tooth cloth inserted either side of the centre seat area on the bench, and in the corresponding sections on the back rest). Anyway, just thought you might be interested, particularly all you non-Aussies. And if anyone has any info about the original specs for 1977 Australian Custom XLTs please don't hesitate to post it here.

BTW - here are those aforementioned doo skins:



And the story ends with the above truck being bought back by the original owner and now lives back in Geelong - after 25 years!

 

All F-Series trucks that were constructed in Australia (from American pressed panels and chassis) had ginger brown internal door panels, bench seats, and carpets ('79 model bench seats had the option of ginger & black hounds tooth pattern). I think all F100s were built in Bendigo, Victoria, then transported around the country to dealerships. Anyway, at the point of sale, some dealerships were offering black bench seats, black carpet, and black internal door panels which were simply the ginger brown ones sprayed black.
This was the case with my truck. Th "black" carpet was so obviously once ginger brown per the carpet found under my bench where the painter was too lazy and cheap to remove the carpet from the truck to pain in its entirety.
So I finally cracked the *****s and decided was going to start returning the old girl's interior back to the way it should be.
I located some ginger brown door panels in really goood condition, although there is a little damage, and whilst I am happy to use them until I locate mint panels, I am yet to install them as I am not yet confident in removing the old black ones (which are otherwise in great condition) as I don't want to crack them. Any suggestions on how to remove them safely would be appreciated.
I found myself a really nice brown bench seat out of a '74. Besides a small tear in the side, its in VG++ condition (for vinyl record collectors, you'll know that means very good to almost mint).
I found a place in Sydney that moulded the ginger brown carpet and shipped in within 30 minutes of receiving my order and I received it the same day. On top of that, they we the cheapest supplier I could find by $100. The carpet plus underlay, plus shipping totalled $200.

So here's how the interior looked before (I think there are better photos in earlier pages of this thread):


After removing the bench and back carpet, I found a load of red Outback dust, 10 bucks in change, a Medicare card, and some ballpoint pens:


The floor pans were stone cold mint:


Here's the 1/4 inch underlay (underlay underlay, yippa yippa, Speedy Gonzalez!)


I cut the carpet in half so I could anchor the rear cab section down properly with screws that were already in the floor:


Here's how she looks with the rest of the carpet and new bench seat:


So although I still have to install the brown internal door panels, the old girl is IMO looking better than before, and almost original.

And whilst I was at it, I took inspiration from the grille thread from a few weeks back and decided to paint and install new ones. Here's some images beginning with the old grilles and ending with the new ones:







I was surprised at how good the spray painting turned out. I painted just the black surrounds:



These are the newly inserts:





Over the weekend I'll get some decent photos with my camera rather than using my iPhone so you can get better sense of the outcome. Otherwise, it was a fun time well spent. This truck was always going to be a long term project for me, so its good to get another part of her fixed up.