I recommend getting some 1" sq tubing or angle iron, and some 16 ga sheetmetal and build a welder cart to hold the welder and the shielding gas tank with a shelf for supplies and hangers for cables, and/or a welding table. I like a table between 36 -48" to the top surface with an approximately 24 x 36 x 1/4" or thicker steel top. Let one long side and both ends of the top overhang the legs by ~ 4 - 6" to give room to clamp the pieces to the top and to attach the ground clamp to. When using a welding table you attach the ground clamp to the top and lay or clamp the work to the top. That way the ground cable doesn't pull on the work to move it out of position. I use welding clamps (like giant vise grips available at Harbor freight or Northern tool or on ebay) and welders triangular magnets to hold the work in place. Get at least two of the magnets in med size ~ 3" per side and large ~ 6" per side. They are inexpensive and very handy since they are 90* on one corner and 45* on the other two they are self jigging. (Hint: they will attract and get covered in metal particles. To clean them use a cheap welders wire brush (like a giant tooth brush) to quickly brush the particles off one corner of the magnet, finish removing remainder with a shop rag or work gloves.) Make a metal rack to hang on the wall to stick the magnets to for storage away from other tools, don't stick them to your table for storage or anything you lay on the table will soon become magnetic, and your table will grow steel "hair".
You can get small amounts of angle, tubing, rod and sheet at your favorite DIY store, but it's a lot cheaper to buy in larger quantities from a metals supplier or leftover "drops" from a larger steel fabrication shop or recycle yard.
Here's my welding bench under construction:

 

If you don't want to build your own welding cart Harbor Freight has some, just get on their mailing list and wait till they send you a 25% off coupon!! If your lucky, and not in a hurry, you can catch them on sale and still use the 25% off coupon. Almost everything they have goes on sale at least once a year.

 

But that doesn't give any welding practice!

 

Touché

 

The body work is something I definitely want to learn myself for many reasons: I want to learn, I believe I will enjoy it, it will save $$, and the satisfaction of one day having a decent looking truck that I can say I did most of the work myself.

I will check out your tutorial AX - thanks for the advice. Some great looking trucks dmack and under! I hope mine looks half as good someday. I feel comfortable sanding and practicing with a hammer/dolly. Welding will be a challenge but I want to learn. I have read so many forum posts and watched youtube tutorials the last month that I had to get a pair of computer glasses cause my eyes were strained... I want to start doing some real repair but I think I need to come up with a solid plan before I start.

Again, very much appreciate all the feedback and advice! (I wish I would have taken a shop class back in HS)

 

This is a very friendly and helpful place. If you have a question, please ask, the only dumb question is the one you have and DON'T ask! But do yourself a favor and some of us a lot of retyping by first doing a search on here. You may have a question that has already been asked a lot, and has already had a lot of in depth discussion, and asking before searching may get you a less than complete answer since it has been answered so many times we sometimes get tired of answering it over and over. (try searching "frame swaps" sometime when you are really bored to see what I mean!)
The most useful and powerful search function, advanced search, is somewhat hidden away:
1. click on search v in the center of the dark blue band near the top of any page.
2. select advanced search at the bottom of the drop down menu.
3. an advanced search page will open.
4. put in your search term(s) the more generalized the terms the more hits you will receive. If you get too many hits, try being more specific: "motor" will return many thousands of hits, "Ford small block motor" (putting it in quotes will only hit that specific phrase) will give fewer responses about that motor, "install Ford 5.0 motor in 50 F3" will hit posts only about that particular install. Leaving off the quotes in that last term will hit on any post with any of those words in it, so look out!
5. add a user name if you only want only/all posts by that person. To see all my posts do not put in a search term and put in AXracer in the user name field. To see only my posts on a topic fill in both the terms and user name fields: i.e. term "body work"; user name AXracer will return all posts by me that include the term "body work".
6. you can fill the rest of the search parameters as needed or leave blank for more results.
7. Finally in the "search in forum(s)" box drill down to older classic and antique trucks and select 1948 -1956 F1, F100 etc. to see only posts from this forum.

 

I have been driving around town a bit the past few days and am really starting to like the idea of keeping the original engine while slowly working on the body. It is a great looking engine and runs pretty good. I am thinking about getting the engine rebuilt but wondered if it would be worth it if it runs and drives. Would doing so enhance reliability and performance and increase the life (assuming they found nothing major wrong with it)? Also thinking of different gearing but will have to read up on that.

 

My 2c, if it runs and drives good, as is, don't mess with it. If it smokes, uses oil, had bad compression, chugs and shudders or makes noises, leaks water into the crankcase, etc., that's a different matter. To rebuild an engine just as preventive maintenance is, imho, overkill. There's really nothing to be gained. It could run for another 10 years, and you'd have wasted time and money.

 

I agree with Wayne, drive it until it dies then decide what to do with it. Meanwhile it will give you time to make safety/necessary repairs/upgrades and make decisions about what to do next.

 

Points taken and thanks for the advice. I guess I am a bit overly eager to improve everything I can. I have read conflicting views about whether or not adding performance parts (Clifford and others) is worth it for a 223. It is a great looking and original engine, but there is only so much you can get out of it.

I started to clean up the frame with a wire brush and may use a wheel and grinder or look to have it sandblasted. Not sure about that yet. I still need to come up with an overall plan, but I am getting there!

 

Hey littlegram, AX's advice is always good! Listen to him. Like you I was (am) a total newbie to this stuff and the guys on this forum have been absolutely indispensable to our project (51 F-1). I wish I had learned to weld. It seemed like overkill three years ago, but I totally wish I had done it. It would have saved me a flippin fortune. Plus it's a skill you can use for lots of other projects too. Even if you don't do every bit of body work yourself, it will definitely save you easily half or better of the labor hours you'd pay somebody else to do at $75/hr. I paid for well over 100 hours of labor just on body work. Cutting that in half would've been nice! My advice in formulating a plan is to work backwards from what you want as your end result: A safe daily driver vs a safe, RELIABLE daily driver vs a safe, reliable, COMFORTABLE daily driver vs a safe, reliable, comfortable, GOOD LOOKING daily driver vs a show car vs a racing vehicle. Each leads you down a different path with a different starting point. (And each is more expensive than the last). Also, know yourself. Here's what I mean by that. All we (my teenaged son and I) wanted was a safe, reliable, good looking daily driver. We could have achieved that by getting the truck running and working on it incrementally. Then we could have enjoyed it along the way. Lots of guys on here have gone that route (Ben in Austin did that I think). Lots of guys advised me to do that. BUT I had to admit to myself that I have a tendency to get projects up to the "good enough" stage, then never truly finish them. I was afraid this truck was gonna be that type of project. So we decided to strip her down to the last bolt and do a frame off resto-mod. It's taken way longer than we would've liked (and been easily twice as expensive as I thought) BUT we are getting the truck we really want. So be honest with yourself about how you'll deal with it. If you can work on it and drive it along the way, go for it! Good luck!! Tyler

 

That was very well stated. Reps to you!

 

Thanks to all for the endorsements.
Here my take on developing a build plan I developed over 50 years experience. It's a little different than most: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...1955-f250.html

 

Tyler, I would have taught you to weld had you asked, it's not nearly as hard as flying a plane!