My Build Thread
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From: Burlington, WI
My Build Thread
Ok guys here we go with my first build thread. So I'm sure some of you have heard about my "new" 1978 F-250 SuperCab. Its a 2wd with a Ford 400 and a C6 in it. A little background on her: The guy I bought it from was the 3rd owner and he said the truck was from down south...hahaha I think the furthest south this truck has ever been in Chicago judging by its condition. The worst areas of rust are the driver side floor pan and some parts of the bed sides. It's currently got what appears to be only 29,000 miles on it. Its a strong runner and I have no plans to changing it. (At the moment 
)
On to the body... It is fairly solid and doesn't have a ton of issues. It is mostly straight and rust free but when I got it, it was literally 8 different colors and the bondo work was horrible. So in other words, it was time for the body work to start.
As for the interior, it's in decent shape but it's getting tired. The pictures you see of it are kinda how it looks today, minus the addition of a modern radio, a backup camera monitor on the driver's side visor, and a photostrip of me and my girlfriend at prom stuck in the side of the dash. As far as modifications go, I'm not really planning on doing too much work on it...I think it looks ok but it will look better once its cleaned.
Here's a link to the pictures of it right now: 1978 Ford F250 Camper Special Slideshow by _Dave145 | Photobucket
) On to the body... It is fairly solid and doesn't have a ton of issues. It is mostly straight and rust free but when I got it, it was literally 8 different colors and the bondo work was horrible. So in other words, it was time for the body work to start.
As for the interior, it's in decent shape but it's getting tired. The pictures you see of it are kinda how it looks today, minus the addition of a modern radio, a backup camera monitor on the driver's side visor, and a photostrip of me and my girlfriend at prom stuck in the side of the dash. As far as modifications go, I'm not really planning on doing too much work on it...I think it looks ok but it will look better once its cleaned.
Here's a link to the pictures of it right now: 1978 Ford F250 Camper Special Slideshow by _Dave145 | Photobucket
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Well today showed some more progress. I started in with the Bondo work, and almost have the left rear fender presentable. Since I'm not going for a full restore at the moment, I think as long as its straight and mostly flat I'll be fine with the body work. Tomorrow I hope to finish the left rear fender and move on to the left right fender...which looks worse than the left side did...
Anyway I posted some more pictures of my slow progress...considering I have never done body work of any sort before this is actually turning out pretty well.
I added the new pictures to the end of the slides how I posted in the first link...that's where I'm going to keep all the pictures for this thread
Anyway I posted some more pictures of my slow progress...considering I have never done body work of any sort before this is actually turning out pretty well.
I added the new pictures to the end of the slides how I posted in the first link...that's where I'm going to keep all the pictures for this thread
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Yeah it's got about three different greens on it, two different grays on it, the black roof, and now a black fender. And yes it is strangely clean for a Midwestern truck....I was pretty surprised to see that the frame wasn't all rotted out like most of my other trucks have been
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Update: I finally managed to get the drivers side rear fender presentable. I've decided to leave the truck in flat black primer as I paint it, because for some reason I think it looks kinda cool. Also cleaned out the interior today and I don't think it was ever vacuumed until now. I also installed my rear view mirror and my new compass as well. I also got a chance to finally test my backup camera, which I'm happy to say works perfectly
.
Tomorrows plans include mainly more work on the passenger side rear fender. The guy who welded in the patch panel there had no idea how to grind down his weld lines, so now I have to and also fix some small holes...oh well more bondo for me!
Also who thinks I should keep the red rims? The interior is green and the truck will be flat black so I'm kinda stuck on what color to make them...
And as usual, more pictures added to my photobucket slides how thingy above
. Tomorrows plans include mainly more work on the passenger side rear fender. The guy who welded in the patch panel there had no idea how to grind down his weld lines, so now I have to and also fix some small holes...oh well more bondo for me!
Also who thinks I should keep the red rims? The interior is green and the truck will be flat black so I'm kinda stuck on what color to make them...
And as usual, more pictures added to my photobucket slides how thingy above
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Yeah it's got about three different greens on it, two different grays on it, the black roof, and now a black fender. And yes it is strangely clean for a Midwestern truck....I was pretty surprised to see that the frame wasn't all rotted out like most of my other trucks have been
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That's right I read that thread a few minutes ago. Nice looking truck and it looks like it should be able to be saved pretty well. Compared to many other truck I've seen that one is still far from the worst in my opinion
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I hope so. I'm almost 30, and I wasn't walking when he bought it. I have another 79 2wd that is a MN truck. But it was stored winters and has 63k on it. I don't NEED another truck. But this was my dad's he sold it less then a year before he passed away. It's still in the same spot him and I dropped it off. I rode in the truck before i was a year old. It's nice to be able to get it back. The guy he sold it to gave my brother and I a good deal on it. As in free.
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Free is always a good deal in my book. Especially if you are getting back something sentimental like that. I guess you got lucky that no one had messed with it (as in tearing parts off of it). I remember the day when I sold my first ford...it was rusty and tired, but complete. I then saw it on Craigslist a few months ago only to see that someone tore off the bad and put on some plywood. Good luck on your restoration,
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Dude that's my old truck! I think the guy who I traded it to sold it and then you probably bought it from the guy he sold it to. I welded those patch panels, and yeah I didn't take the time to fully grind down the welds cause I was sick of the truck and ready for it to be gone. I didn't finish the bondo work. And yeah, this truck is NOT from down south (I saw the ad on CL)... I bought it from a guy in Pleasant Prairie. Then I found a guy who wanted to trade for a my current truck (79 F150 4x4 with 6.9 diesel swap in progress) and gave it to him pretty much as is. It was only 3 or 4 colors when it left my driveway. Still open y pipe the way I left it?
This is when I got it (sold the cap):
This is when I got it (sold the cap):
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Dude nice to see one of the owners on here! Right now its got a rotted exhaust pipe and sawed off muffler on it but none of the exhaust even makes it to the muffler...there is a serious exhaust leak under it and it think that's where the guy hose clamped some rotten pipe over the y pipe. Right now the truck is half black (I'm painting it that color until I get the $$$ to buy real paint), and its also another couple of greens on the front, some grey in the middle of the passenger door, and it also has the light grey running down the center of the truck where the light green used to be...ever so slowly its getting done but I did get the bed sides finished yesterday and they actually look pretty smooth and decent too.
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Dude nice to see one of the owners on here! Right now its got a rotted exhaust pipe and sawed off muffler on it but none of the exhaust even makes it to the muffler...there is a serious exhaust leak under it and it think that's where the guy hose clamped some rotten pipe over the y pipe. Right now the truck is half black (I'm painting it that color until I get the $$$ to buy real paint), and its also another couple of greens on the front, some grey in the middle of the passenger door, and it also has the light grey running down the center of the truck where the light green used to be...ever so slowly its getting done but I did get the bed sides finished yesterday and they actually look pretty smooth and decent too.
You still got it on a manual choke? And what about the siren horn? I put that on there cause it didn't have a horn and I had it sitting around lol. Anyway, it should run pretty good, I changed the plugs, wires and cap/rotor when I had it and we rebuilt the carb too with a nice kit. I also replaced the starter solenoid cause I thought the old one was going bad. It was a fun truck, I enjoyed it while I had it. And yes, the interior was dirty. I vacuumed it like 3 times, but couldn't get those white bristles from that brush off the carpet and didn't feel like picking them all up.
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That hitch is still in there all right. I was looking at it this morning and it looks like its really in there tight. It does still have the manual choke in it and its working great too. When I bought it, there was a random toggle switch by the steering wheel that we removed, because the guy before me sadly removed your siren horn. In fact I just put in a new electric horn yesterday. I did get the interior cleaned up well and most of the white things out. I just used a shop vac and sure enough all the stuff came right out. I also really had to vaccuum it thoroughly though, because the guy after you was a huge pothead and left lots of seeds all over the interior of it.
Do you know where the doors on it came from? The drivers door has a different vin tag on it, so I would assume they weren't original? I don't really know. Besides that, the guy I bought it from said he did everything you did to it. The truck runs great and fires up almost every time with no problems at all. And the bed is still amazingly solid compared to other old fords I've had.
Do you know where the doors on it came from? The drivers door has a different vin tag on it, so I would assume they weren't original? I don't really know. Besides that, the guy I bought it from said he did everything you did to it. The truck runs great and fires up almost every time with no problems at all. And the bed is still amazingly solid compared to other old fords I've had.
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That hitch is still in there all right. I was looking at it this morning and it looks like its really in there tight. It does still have the manual choke in it and its working great too. When I bought it, there was a random toggle switch by the steering wheel that we removed, because the guy before me sadly removed your siren horn. In fact I just put in a new electric horn yesterday. I did get the interior cleaned up well and most of the white things out. I just used a shop vac and sure enough all the stuff came right out. I also really had to vaccuum it thoroughly though, because the guy after you was a huge pothead and left lots of seeds all over the interior of it.
Do you know where the doors on it came from? The drivers door has a different vin tag on it, so I would assume they weren't original? I don't really know. Besides that, the guy I bought it from said he did everything you did to it. The truck runs great and fires up almost every time with no problems at all. And the bed is still amazingly solid compared to other old fords I've had.
Do you know where the doors on it came from? The drivers door has a different vin tag on it, so I would assume they weren't original? I don't really know. Besides that, the guy I bought it from said he did everything you did to it. The truck runs great and fires up almost every time with no problems at all. And the bed is still amazingly solid compared to other old fords I've had.
As for the doors, I'm not quite sure where they came from. I could tell they weren't original by the faded paint, but they're solid. And yeah, I don't know if he did anything to it, but when I had it I replaced all the stuff I said, and put a 14" chrome air filter on it. I've even got pictures haha. Oh well, people always take credit for other people's work. Was the bed lime green when you got it? Cause I remember seeing it on craigslist with the bed painted a really ugly green.
Anyway, yeah it would always start for me. A few mornings it was below freezing and I just gave it a few pumps, choked it and it started right up. And then let her warm up for a few and it would take right off. Sometimes it would bog a little bit, but it clears up pretty quick.
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Yep when I bought it it was that ugly green. Do you have any idea how much mileage was on it when you last had it? Right now it reads 29000 miles, but I can't tell if it has rolled over at all...