Good progress.…frames in good shape anyhow

 

Yeah has a good amount of surface rust and that god damn rubberized undercoating i put on it in high school lol, a wire brush and grinder should take care of that though!

 

To tell you the truth I think the frame on my 88 is in about the same shape (surface rust) so for your area that must be pristine.
Trav

 

It still has paint showing. That's damn good shape lol. Around me, not getting ready to crack in half is good shape lol

 

I would go crazy living in that type of area trying to break things loose and end up literally breaking them.
Trav

 

It's only a problem if you don't probverly care for the truck.....thing is most people don't

 

Yeah they break more than they come loose lol. The paint is actually undercoat but under that i believe is still some of the original paint so it is in decently good shape i guess lol.

 

Undercoat don't work well most times lol.....I had an undercoated truck crack from rust.....frame went in 3 pieces..…people rely on it too much too sometimes I think. My advice to anyone who wants to avoid rust.....fix what's there, if any, properly with regular OEM grade paint. Then just make sure it's washed often, avoid scrapes, kept a watch for chips. If none there, skip repair obviously.

To me that's the best way to go

 

This is the exact reason finding a straight truck around here is rare. I have been lucky to find my 88 and our 90 F150s plus the 02 F250 straight.
Trav

 

same thing really.....dents gotta be banged out or left, rust gotta be sanded and/or welded and painted. Both can be a pain depending where they are on the truck or hoiw bad they are.

Exactly, here you might get a couple dings or such but the big issue is a used truck more than a few years old rust free....rare. It's usually mostly underneath too, its not uncommon for cars and trucks to have the chassis break from rust but the body be mint or close to it. A lot of folks only look after what you see outside. I do see a number of badly dented ones including young trucks but not a lot for sale.....those are mostly people who just drive them into the ground I guess.

As a truck enthusiast, I sometimes think what it must be like to live somewhere it's really easy to keep a truck mint. It's kind of funny, you must look at the squarebody Ford's for example the way I see the '04 plus trucks....there's lots of them and lots in good shape overall.…. no really big deal if one got a few bangs or a lil rust....….and I look at the 96 and back, hell even to a point the 97-98s by now, the way people over your way probably react to a 1920s truck or such...head snaps around, reaching for camera if feasible, and swearing at the owner if the trucks not in good shape or obviously mid resto.

I wish there were more of those old trucks around me, but I don't care that much, I'm not goñna move just to see more old trucks. I actually care for mine properly, so once all the PO induced rust is fixed, I shouldn't have a problem. And I like fixing it, lol. There's something about saving a nice truck.

 

I found a 5 speed allison 1000 for $650 i am currently waiting on the seller to get back to me on mileage and if it checks out it seems like a good deal to me it is a 2wd tranny which means i can easily convert it to 4x4 buy getting the allison to ford tcase rear housing and tailshafts. The tranny also comes witha torque converter, what are your thoughts on an allison vs a built 4r100 behind the 12v? the allison can handle it stock vs needing a built 4r100 and the main cost will be getting the stand alone controller for it.

The nice thing about the allison is i can mate it to the cummins with no special adapters because ford used the allison and cummins in thier medium duy trucks. it cut out customs trans adapters and flex plates all together which saves $1500 off the conversion cost.

 

Usually I would say keep the 4r100 however just yesterday I drove a diesel 2011 Chevy pickup with the Allison and that transmission feels great. Personally after that experience I would go for the Allison.


Plus if/when you go to pick it up you can just say to your fiancé that you are going to pick up Allison and see her response. LOL
Trav

 

Lol that would make an interestjng ride for sure!

I was all for the 4r100 but the allison that cheap saved money if it is in the condition described. I am also foing 5 speed because there are no standalone kits for the 6 speed yet and recalibrating the 5 speed kit for 6 speeds is expensive and keads to issues sometimes. Once the sellet gets back to me i may have a whole drivetrain set up! Lol.

 

The other good thing is that the Alison transmission has 5 speeds vs 4 speeds.
One more good thing is you don't have to deal with a controller which would take out the possibility of it going bad causing trans to act up.
Trav

 

Yeah another good thing about the allison stand alone controller is you can hook up for diagnostics and custom set torque stall, shift points etc.