Here it is, a restoration thread of my pickup. When I was a kid (mid 1980's), I went to work with my dad on days off from school. Where might that have been?.....a Ford garage in Washington State, west of the mountains. I always hung out with the oil changing/service mechanic. The mechanic in the stall next to him had a late 70's model Ford pickup he drove to work and the first time I saw it, I vowed I would have one some day. Back in 2004, I got my hands on one and wanted to restore it. I never took any action on this dream of mine until a month ago when I thought, screw it, lets just put it on Craigslist and get rid of it. When someone came to look at it, I told my wife I could not sell it. Well here I am, do not know a ton about cars/trucks except what my father taught me as far as vehicle maintenace goes. He constantly told me not to get in the automotive business because there is no money in it and the tool expenses would kill me.

I am going to keep this thread on-going with information and links to Flikr for viewing pictures of the restoration process. Please view them, comment, give any direction I might need along the way, and most of all, ENJOY! I know I will.........

P.S.....I will have a lot of stupid questions so please be patient with me please!

 

No such thing as stupid questions if you are really interested in doing some thing, if so then i'v ask a lot of them in the last 65 plus years. Have fun. JIM__

 

It's always fun to dive into a project. My advice would just have fun with it, take your time and do a lot of research and price checking. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Chances are, if you don't know something there is someone else who doesn't know either so your question could help someone else too.

 

Let the festivities begin! Pics... we need pics!!!!

 

Got the bed and doors removed last weekend. This evening I dove into the interior and started stripping it down. Got the seat removed along with the seatbelts, cargo and dome lights, door strikes and the carpet keepers. This weekend I will get into the dash area and the fender/hood removal so I can start to take off the cab. Right approach?

taneum's photosets on Flickr

 

Someone else check out the pics and let me know if you can get into them and view them. I set them up in sets. I am not only new to vehicle restoration, I am new to Flickr...lol...

 

I could see them. As you take pix, remember to take lots for when you got to put it back together, esp routing of wire harnesses and duct work

 

Thanks Rockittsled, will do. As I take things apart I try to get a pic of it first. FOr the most part I have done this. I didn't post those particular ones as I figured most people here didn't care to see a picture of the visor clip...lol...

 

Truck looks really solid. I like the two tone color. The frame looks really clean also. Nice progress to far. As rockittsled stated, take a lot of pics and also get yourself some ziplock bags to organize all your bolts and small parts and a sharpie marker to label. Don't throw anything away. Even a bad part can be used for reference. Also save as many parts to reuse as you can. Some parts are hard to find and expensive. That was my mistake on my teardown. I didn't pay attention and just figured some parts were bad and I'd just replace new. If you don't have them already, get a Haynes or Chilton manual and for reference a master parts CD catalog from HIPO garage can come in handy. Otherwise just ask. A few people here are masters at reference and can give you some really good info.

 

Thanks bucks77ford. So this is what I am doing. I have my laptop open in the garage and everytime take a part off, I first photo it, then take it off and put it in a labeled bag with the mounting hardware and I date the bag. Then I go over to my laptop and in Microsoft Word, I have an outline setup with the date and I note what I have done. Then at the end of the day, the photos get taken off the camera and put in a dated folder on my thumb drive where the word document is at. Now I have a dated outline that matches dates of the parts I bagged and also match the dated folders where my pics are at. Now everything is referenced so down the road I can go back and see how it was. May be overboard but it should work for me.

 

Very NICE! I'm about to do the same thing on my 78 250 ranger. So I'll be watching you closely.
I'll post my progress as well, (when I get started), it's just too cold here to be working outside (I don't have a nice shop like yours (jealous)

One thing I 'immediately' noticed (when I got my truck 2 weeks ago) was the thin steering wheel (felt really strange after driving a 98 F150 and 2011 F150. )
Yours looked to have some type of cover? I want to put a 'good one' on the factory wheel and I don't want to use that wrap stuff.
Let me know if you like yours and take some pics.

cheers

 

So tomorrow I will have to address the steering wheel removal and at this time, don't have a puller. Is it necessary to have one in order to remove it? If so, are they found at most automotive stores?

 

Yeah, you'll need a puller. You can rent or buy one from any of the parts stores.

 

i think if i did another full "frame-off" i would start with the cab and get it and the frame finished first including doors, then bed, then engine then front end. i would take the front body end off in one whole peice and save it for last

 

Yeah, that's thorough. Trust me, however, you will thank yourself. Being that I have done work on these fords, it isn't so bad, but the dodge I am working on is a learning experience

When you get to electrical, take LOTS of pictures. Every connection, every wire, and hopefully you can see where it is connected. Nothing kills the joy in a project like bad wiring.

The truck looks to be in much better shape already than anything I drive