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I bought a 68 f100 earlier this year and haven't had a chance to start anything on it yet. I'm very new to these trucks along with being mechanical in general but I decided to just dive in and buy the truck anyways and have it be a learning process. I mean we all had to start somewhere I figured why not now! I'm not looking to complete any body work or paint anytime soon as for the old patina is what really made me buy this truck. I want to upgrade all the suspension, brakes, for a more modern ride and eventually get as much power as I can out of the old 390. Just looking for a good place to start upgrading my truck. Anyone in the Greensboro NC area that could show me a few things or any friendly advice?!
Hack patrol! Remove or repair all the questionable hacks from previous owners.
Verify all lights work.
What's your overall vision for it? That will lead to a build plan and identify the parts, money, and resources to reach that goal. It usually starts with brakes, steering, and suspension.... she's gotta start, stop, and steer.
I always start with a thorough cleaning... inside, outside, and underneath cuz it's no fun wrenching on a smelly, filthy truck.
Yeah it runs but needs to gaskets under exhaust manifold for sure. Gas gauge doesn't work could be a problem with these gas hogs haha. It seems to stall and die out when ever the choke is all the way in. Not sure if its sucking up bad gas from inside the tank and/or isn't getting enough to get her moving again from a stop. To be honest I've only driven her twice. Once on the test drive and once home about an hour and 20 away. When I got the the stop and go traffic of greensboro it stalled out at every light and when down shifting. Overall I want to stay with the old patina look and drive a powerful modern driving old school truck. Thinking about going the crown vic swap route for at least the suspension and brakes. Yeah an overall cleaning might do her some actual good she's a dirty one!
Have fun with it, that truck will be a good way to learn about mechanical repair. The stalling is probably from a carburetor that should be overhauled, and it may be in combination from needing a full tune up. My best suggestion is to get rid of the points style distributer. There are easy cheap conversion kits available and they deliver a much more stable spark timing.
I'd start with a good deep cleaning and a tune up to make sure everything is in good shape, and go from there once you have your solid build plan lined up.
If you're going to swap a 2003-2011 Crown Vic front suspension under it, you'll have to decide what you're going to do about the current rear end.
It's narrower than what the CV suspension will be and it has a 5-on-5.5" lug pattern compared to the CV's 5-on-4.5" lug pattern. Narrower is not so much of a problem as the wrong lug pattern.
The most common rear end swaps, when converting to a CV front end, is a T-Bird/Mk VIII 8.8" IRS, 1995-2001 Ford Explorer 8.8" rear end or, to use a 1980-1983 Ford F100 9-inch rear end with the 5-on-4.5" lug pattern.
Mister_King I definitely want to keep the patina on the truck only thing is there is those white primer patches where I believe some body work was done in the past before I got it. There is some rust spots in the bottom corners of the doors and in the floor pans. I think I want to eventually go back to the original color and with the front and rear end swap it will lower the ride height throw some white walls on it. Eventually get the engine rebuilt or replaced to get back some of power she has lost over the years. Not sure really of a build plan yet either hence the whole start of this thread.
ultraranger thanks for the information! I will definitely be using it when I get to this stage of the build. I know there is a thread somewhere on here that is probably pages full of information and setups people used for their trucks.
Going to start with getting it back on the road and all the fine tuning stuff done first!
Until if/when you change out suspensions, I would suggest going through the existing brakes that are on the truck.
These trucks have a nasty habit of the brakes going out soon after you start using them, after they have been sitting up for an extended period of time. The 2nd day of ownership of my '69 F100, the brakes failed on it as I was coming home from work. Making the truck go is great but not much fun if you can't stop it.
I have a 2003 (civilian) CV front suspension and a 1990 Thunderbird Super Coupe IRS rear suspension I bought not too long after I bought my truck in 2011.
As time has gone on, I just became more reluctant to install them on my '69 F100 Ranger. If the truck was just a base model, I might not be as apprehensive about making the conversion. Now, I don't really want to 'cut' the truck up.
A few months ago, I installed a disc brake front suspension from a '77 Ford F100 and converted the stock 9-inch 28-spline rear to 31-spline axles and an N-case 9-inch 3rd member with a 31-spline Traction-Lok differential.
If I lower the truck, I'll probably just put some drop beams and shackles under it (bolt-on stuff).
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