Mirror build thread with working pics.
https://www.bangshift.com/forum/foru...le-over-5k-now


Take a trip in the way back machine with me to the year 1986. The epic year I finally got my driver's license. My dad bought this 1973 F-100 new and daily drove it for many years. I loved that truck and was beside myself with excitement that it was going to me mine. It was a dog. 2bbl 302/C4, PS and manual brakes. I drove it for a few years and decided it would be a good idea to get a Ranger to drive while in college. We sold it to my next door neighbor and he drove it for several years. He eventually sold it and the last time I saw it, it was in sad shape.





At Amarillo Dragway - ran solid 19's. lol





Fast forward to 2013!!

I have been wanting a pickup ever since I traded the Mazdog (99 4x4 B4000) in on Julie's Mountaineer. I really wanted an older one that I could easily work on, so I decided I wanted an old Ford or a Dodge. I decided I really wanted a 3/4 ton truck with a decent sized engine and automatic trans so I could use it to pull my big trailer and Mustang. I have been watching Craigslist, etc for several years now just waiting for the right deal to come my way.

Yesterday I ran across a 1973 2wd F-250 LWB. 460, C6 transmission and a Dana 60.... best part was the price.... $500. An added bonus is that it is at least partially the same color as my first truck. Man I would have loved to have had a 460 truck in high school!



This truck was last registered in 1994 and has been parked in a barn ever since. Although the big mirrors and emblems are gone, it is a "Camper Special", which really does not mean a whole lot as far as running gear goes.

Well it made it 7 miles to my house. It definitely needs work. Doors rattle, steering wheel is thrashed motor misses pretty bad, but does not smoke. There is a leak in the fuel lines (dual tanks) so we drove it using a 2 gallon gas can bungee'd to the inner fender. lol Motor ran cool in spite of stop and go traffic and the oil pressure looked great. Power steering works GREAT, brakes are awesome, trans shifts nice but the old bias ply tires are square as a rubik's cube. Interior is pretty dirty, speedo does not work, no keys (you start it with a screwdriver) but has a new battery.

There is one rust hole in the passenger fender and the spot above the driver's rear fender is just barely starting to rust. It looks pretty clean underneath so far. It had a camper on it for years so I am hoping the bed is in decent shape. It came with 4 chrome wagon wheels and 2 white wagon wheels and a bed load of crap that was in the camper. I rubbed a spot on the yellow and it shined right up so maybe there is hope for the paint.






The plan is to clean clean clean and get it running good and reliable. Then buff up the paint and replace some of the missing trim, etc. Then I can start diving into the engine for more power and efficiency (lol). I am thinking some aluminum or chrome wheels with some sort of A/T tire, buffed up paint, refurbished trim, aluminum diamond plate tool box and a decent hitch on the back.

The wheels on it are 16.5's. Phooey.

The junk in the bed is the remnants of a cab-over camper. It is still bolted to the bed floor.



Found some of the trim buried in the bed.


and some F-100 emblems, a replacement passenger mirror, the ashtray and a brand new distributor cap from who know's when. lol


Duraspark distributor....unexpected. Looks added on from the condition of the wiring. Duraspark box actually says "Made in USA" on it.


Motor



New master cylinder

 

Gigantic two piston brake calipers. I was really taken back when I looked under there and they were so huge.


It has the optional dual front shock setup.


Dana 60. The tag is still on the diff and it says it's a 3.54 ratio. I was SUPER happy to find that it was not 3.73 or 4.10's.


The bottom of the truck looks really clean. There is surface rust on the floor pan, but I did not see any rust through anywhere. The bottom of the motor and trans have the typical dry crust associated with something 40 years old. Body mount rubbers and radius arm bushings all look pretty decent. I did not notice it before, but it has a front sway bar tucked up in there too.

Bed is empty and in pretty good shape.


From what I have read, this little connector for camper running/interior lights is the only way to positively ID a camper special.


I looked all around but did not find a place that looked like it was leaking fuel. I will reconnect the fuel pump and put some gas in it and see if I can find the leak..... when it warms back up.

 

WOW! your Dads truck has had a colorful life. 19's very respectable for a truck fer sure.
Nice camper special you got there. Aren't barn finds great. I had a "farm and ranch special" while I was in high school (too many years ago to talk about). It was a barn find also. I had no idea what I had at the time, thrashed it to an early grave. Had a lot of fun doing it too. Wish I had it today though. They were built in limited numbers. No bagdes on fender, just a sticker printed with "farm and ranch special" on cowl above fender. That thing would out pull the heavy duties around my home town.
Hope you can keep us posted with your progress as you bring that beauty back to life.
Congats man.
PS. had a 66f-250 once with that indestructible twin I-beam front suspension like yours. My advice would be to grease king pins religiously because changing them is a bear.

 

I've been a member here at FTE for over 10 years, but mostly just been a lurker.

I'll try to keep this thread updated because this thing is gonna be fun to play with.

 

It looks like you've got a nice start there. Those big twin-piston brakes work really well. They look the same as on my Crew Cab. Be sure and do a FULL fluid change as soon as possible (antifreeze, engine oil, tranny fluid, rear axle). I'd pull the rotors and check/repack/replace the front wheel bearings, too. Sitting up that long the grease is liable to be hardened.

That trim might look trashed, but don't throw it away. Eastwood sells a tiny anvil and repouse hammer to repair trim. With a bit of patience you might be able to save all of it. If you can't, be sure and save the rubber strips. They can come in handy if you find a nice piece of trim but the rubber is missing.

I see you started out in Amarillo, but today's photos sure weren't taken there. There are still green trees. Where are you located now?

 

Ha, I'm still in Amarillo! The day I took most of the pics it was 16 degrees outside!

The guy I got it from had just flushed the brakes and put a new master cylinder on. He also flushed the cooling system. It needs an oil change and it probably could use some fresh ATF and filter.

It's supposed to be in the 50's this weekend, so I will have some time to change oil, put in some fresh plugs and wires and check the timing. I also want to get the pressure washer after it and get it at least semi-clean before I do much work on it. Working on clean stuff is so much better.

The stock carb is a leaker, so I might pop on a good 950hp Holley I have sitting around to get it running properly. I'll switch it for a vac sec carb later.

 

Cool truck nice find isn't that 950 gonna be a lil big

 

Maybe, although a 950hp is really just a glorified 750. I'll use it to just get the motor running right and then probably put a 3310 on it. The 950 was on my BB powered Mustang for several years, so I know it is good to go.

 

Picked up some parts on the way to lunch:

Autolite Plugs: 16.00
BWD Plug Wires: 26.00
BWD Ignition Switch: 13.00

Pulled a plug and it very old and black. Some of the plug wires could be the originals.

Plugged in the ignition switch, realized I needed to reroute the wire, pulled on the connector and the new switch disintegrated. Made in India..... nice.

Went back to Oreilly and got another one. Hopefully it won't explode.

*****************
Running total: $580.50

 

What is the measurement from the ground to the top of the fenders and what size tires were you running in the picture?
Thanks

 

I got home after dark, but I will try to measure the lips. The truck currently has super old Uniroyal 9.5 16.5's on it and these are right at 30" tall.

The plan is to put a 16" wheel with 265/75-16's.

Also the reason I have a running total is because I am also documenting this over on Bangshift.com in the $5000 build section. The premise of that section is to build a project car for under $5k. If I get anywhere near that number I will probably have a heart attack or die of wife inflicted blunt force trauma. Lol

 

Thank you and good luck

 

I totally forgot to measure.... Dang.

It was pretty chilly today but that did not stop me from jumping right in on this thing.

First up was installing the new door cylinders and ignition switch and key. Of course there were no instruction on how to install the key section into the new switch. After farting around with it for about 30 minutes, I finally realized the tiny hole in the front of the key part was to release a tiny pin in order for it to rotate and slip in right in. Once I did that, it went together perfectly.

I popped the door cylinders in without much trouble. So now I can actually start it with a key AND lock the truck! I removed the headliner and found a nice mouse nest. Lovely.

I pulled the plugs, wires, and cap and did a quick compression test. I did it cold so the numbers would probably be a little higher when warm, but all the ones I could get the tester on were all 105-110. Not really a surprise there. Retarded cam, low compression, this thing would probably run on kerosene.

I put the new plugs wires and cap all on and proceeded to try to wean it off the 2 gallon tank. While having a truck with 2 tanks is a cool idea, it presents an interesting problem when trying to figure out just which tank the selectors switch is selecting. After messing with the ambiguous switch and not getting any fuel up to the motor for quite a while, I finally bypassed the selector and connected the rear tank directly to the fuel line to the engine. That allowed the fuel pump to finally do it's job. Interestingly enough it lit off at almost the exact time the Roadkill Camaro did. Haha. Unfortunately, the truck still has a miss. It idles nice, but misses bad when you try to drive it. Is felt of the exhaust and one bank has hot exhaust and the other is cold. I am going to reserve judgment on what may be causing it until after I get a decent carb on it. That stock carb has to be the biggest pos carb I've ever seen. I think it may not be feeding the passenger bank of cylinders properly under a load. I can't wait to yank it off and slap my 950 on there!!!!

I pulled it out to the street and got the pressure washer going. Brrrrr. It was a little chilly. I hosed the engine bay down with some super purple cleaner and let it sit for a while. I washed the outside and tons and tons of dirt came out from behind the body trim. There was some weird stuff on the roof of the cab and after it was wet it was clear what it was. Moss. Strange. Anyway it cleaned off nicely and I think this thing may look pretty decent when the paint is buffed a bit. The motor is cleaner, but it is far from clean. I figure it will probably take several washings to get it looking decent.

Went to start it after the washing and it would not crank. I primed the carb and it fired right up. Seems the carb probably leaks down when it sits for a while and then it will not start.

Overall a great day playing with my new toy and I can't wait to junk that stock carb and get a Holley on there!!!

 

Don't cause yourself more problems by throwing a larger than needed carb on there. Hit the local yard or pick n pull and grab a 600 or 650 carb from them. Generally around $75 or so here where I'm at and I've heard of others grabbing them for less than $50. Either do that or snag a rebuild kit for the one that's on there. Drowning the cylinders with fuel will open up a whole slue of problems you'll never fix because the motor wasn't designed to use one that large.

Do as you wish as I'm not a professional nor do I claim to know squat about what your skills are but I'd defiantly fix all the small stuff and get the right compression across the board on the cylinders before I'd toss on a larger carb.

Other than that, carry on and post more picks, especially if the motor cleaned up pretty good. The truck has potential and looks way better than mine did when I drove it out of it's field.

 

It won't dump a whole bunch of fuel in there. With this small cam and relatively high vacuum, it would work fine. Throttle response would probably not be as crisp as a carb with a smaller primary, but for just base lining the truck, it would be fine.

However.

A buddy of mine has a spare Speed Demon 750 vac sec that he is going to let me have for a song. He is running the same carb on his 400 powered 72 Dodge long bed and he has been very happy with it. That truck has a very mild build and has run in the 12's on a small shot on n2o.

This ain't my first rodeo with big block fords. I also have an 83 Mustang with a 545" big block that I built and race. It runs mid 10's in the quarter. Not to bad for a street car.

Anyway, that stock carb is going the way of the dodo and I hopefully the carb swap will remedy the poor running. The cold exhaust is indicative of cylinders not getting enough fuel to light off so I bet that stock carb is just totally gunked up on the inside. It sure is gunked on the outside!

Can't wait for next weekend now!!