Ok, to start, I've been a huge Ford fan since I was a little kid, I'm now 18 and own two trucks. My first truck was my 01 f-150 Lariat Supercrew 4x4 which I've modded heavily on my own wallet since owning it, and it's a great DD. For a while now I've wanted to bust into a classic truck project just to expand my skills and just because I enjoy working and building. About a month ago I bought a 75 F-250 Ranger 4x4. It's been messed with in a previous life, some things good some things bad

Good-

• Had a 460 dropped in
• fuel filler shaved and gas tank relocated under the bed
• set of eagle alloy wheels and 33" mud tires thrown on

Bad-

• repainted a hideous red
• had the radio ripped out
• 78 front clip conversion
• had the A/C compressor removed
• a really jank gooseneck hitch and corresponding plug hacked in

Since I've had it I've replaced the front drive shaft U-joints, new wix air filter, back window latch, antenna, new Ipod stereo with 4 6x9's, replaced all the interior bulbs with LED's, painted the headlight buckets black, painted black bezels on the tail lights, and cleaned her way up inside and out, as well as cleaning up some wiring.



I plan to build the truck up as my dream Highboy. I will keep the old school looks and bring in a lot of new school technology and tweak a few design cues. I really want to go back to the 75 grille, and build a custom bumper. The truck is going to be repainted a dark blue, similar to the factory color, and a tan interior with accents to match. I'm going to replace the mirrors with OBS Powerstroke mirrors, black plastic painted to match the truck and the chrome caps left un touched.

 

Here's some pics, in no particular order. The white one is my 01.







the worst rust on the whole truck

 

Good Luck! I have a pioneer stereo I am currently going to start attempting to put in my truck (73 with the same problem), and if you need help with that just check out my thread or send me a PM and i can help you with that one!

 

I got it done pretty easily, wired a relay to kick it on with the ignition, and from there I just followed the diagram in my radio instructions. Since the harness for the original stereo was completely gone I went from scratch

 

Oh you listed it in the "bad" section so I wasn't sure about that one. Looks good.

 

Do you have a divorced transfer case? Does not look like the highboy front spring mount/ crossmember is there.

Do those pistons clang while going down the road?

looks like the first thing I would be doing is replace the front tie rod, looks pretty bent to me.

I am not trying to put your truck down, but I don't think you have a highboy there. Has a high pinion, disc brake dana 44 in the front, not stock for a 75 highboy.

Your whole body is 78 going by the front bumper, grill, placement of the emblems on the cowl, the bed has a gas door.

Do you have a vin, the guys on here will decode that and let you know what it should be.

Again sorry for putting down your truck, buy I want you to truly know what you have there. It looks like a decent starting point no matter what it is.

 

And here's a few more...


My led swap

Concept for the front end

And both my rides together

 

OH and welcome to the forum, you will learn a lot quickly. A lot of good guys here.

 

No offense taken, I greatly appreciate the input, that's why I joined. I was skeptical when I bought it, but the vin confirms that it is a highboy. And yes I do need to replace the tie rod, somebody said it was supposed to be like that but I figured that was wrong. And yeah it's had all the 78 badging put on, but the dash still says ranger, there's a filler plate visible from the inside of the pillar for the filler neck(checked when I installed the speakers), and the bed is different as well, I'm pretty sure it was orange. There's no blocks on the suspension and the frame was notched to fit the 460, I'm not sure about the transfer case but the parts I had to get to refurb the front driveshaft were all correct for the 75, they said 77.5 up had different parts.

And no, lol I haven't heard the pistons clank yet, but with all the motor noise from a 460 with straight pipes I could be wrong haha

 

Also a 78 should have the FORD letters on the hood. And the location of the latch is still in the 75 location, I have to pull out on the grille insert to even get the hood to pop. But as I said it's been messed with, it's been quite a process decoding and researching to clarify things.

 

Truck looks to be in decent shape. Better looking than mine was. Looks like yours runs too. I've been enjoying building my first F150 but it looks like the 4WD bug is crawling in my skin. Gona try to find one like yours in good shape and get started on it this fall. Good luck and take tons of pics.





Your lower door area looks like mine did. Rotten and fixed in true redneck style. Mine was fixed with a shop rag and caulk apperantly.



Had to patch a lot of stuff up on my cab.

 

But the steering box is on top of the frame rail? Not outboard

 

Thanks lol I'm going to body school this fall and I hope to work on it there. That's the only spot rusted through completely, back corners seem solid but I'm sure I'll find a few surprises under the multiple layers of paint.

 

I don't see the power assist cylinder on the front axle so you either have manual highboy steering or converted to 78/79 power steering. Thats if its not a whole 78 frame.

Its really hard to tell from your pics what exactly is going on drivetrain wise.

The easiest thing to tell if its a highboy or not is, do you have a driveshaft from your transmission to transfer case. Highboys have three driveshafts. If you rebuilt your front shaft you should recall if you have a short shaft from tranny to to transfer case.

Here is my guess, someone put a highboy cab on a lowboy frame. Filled the hole and just used the title and vin plate from the highboy cab to register the truck. I might be wrong but have a feeling I am not. Like I said easiest way to tell is count how many drive shafts you have.

 

I'm pretty sure it had the shaft between the case and tranny. It doesn't have blocks on the axles either so I'm sure it's not lifted, it sits higher than the later model 4x4's I've had it next to, and higher than the 79 Chevy K20 with a 4in lift that I parked next to as well.