**Fair warning, this will be a bit of a book, but I felt some of you might enjoy reading the story that goes with the truck, how I came to own it, and my plans for it in.*

Hey, I'm William and I have a 1978 Ford F-250 Custom 2WD with a 400/C6. It was definitely used as a work truck for remodeling homes, but is unbelievably straight for a 36 year old unrestored truck. It also has only 20k on a new engine and less on the transmission.

The truck was owned by my great uncle Willard as long as I remember (I'm 24) and he never would part with it for a new one. He loved his truck. I rarely got to see him (maybe once every few years), but we could easily spend a couple of hours BSing on the phone about articles in Hot Rod, projects we were both doing, aircraft, or whatever else. Unfortunately, he suddenly passed last December and never did finish his will. His wife/my aunt Cathy called me Christmas morning and said she felt he would want the truck to go to me, and that I was the only person she could think of that would love/care for it the way he did, so if I wanted it I could come pick it up when the weather cleared. I'm not afraid to admit I cried as soon as she told me. I'm sure many of you here would do the same. That truck was more than a truck for him and she knew it.

In his younger years, he built many a hot rod and served as a gunner on a B-29 bomber crew in Korea. He never talked about it much, but from the little bit he ever told me, it sounds like he was in the initial raids under heavy fire. From what I know of those raids I never did blame him for not wanting to say much about it. I know he was very proud of it though, and it was definitely part of who he was. When I went to pick up the truck, his desk was absolutely surrounded by a collage of newspaper articles, pictures, and so on of various aircraft, but mostly related to the B-29s like he flew on.

In light of his love for aviation, hot rods, and his pride to have served, it hit me like a brick wall what to do with the truck. I plan to restomod it into a hot rod truck themed after a B-29 bomber, inside and out. Big, way faster than it should be for it's size, and supercharged to high hell Strange choice for a 250, I know, but I feel like it fits. Both with his habit of making whatever he had work, and the B-29's absurd size and weight for it's speed.

This will unfortunately have to be a VERY long term project because at the moment, I don't have nearly the resources (cash) to even get it started and have a Camaro Z28 in a million pieces that I need back together first. Also, he had been subscribed to Hot Rod magazine since he was young (I believe he lived to 84), so one of my end goals is to take it on the Power Tour and get his truck featured in his favorite magazine. I'll try to get some pics up of what I'm starting with soon.

 

Welcome to the forum.