The first one I bought is on the left, '78 F-150 short box. The one on the right is dads. '78 F-250 Ranger bought in the early 80's. Been rolled once by dad, which means I am lucky to be here. Frame still has a bit of a twist. I learned to drive on ditchbanks around the farm in that one.

 

My grandpa taught me to drive in his '70 F-100 the 1.5 acre lot behind his house. While it was a bump as opposed to a dent, the paint job was like the photo, but never that clean. It was his work truck. 3 on the tree. It was 1975 and I was 8 yrs old. He taped 2x4 blocks on the pedals so I could reach them.

After my first lesson, he made me drive it into the garage. I did. And promptly hit the right front 1/4 panel on the door jam. He didn't care, but said, "you got in there, you get it out". So I did.

It didn't take me long to realize how much more fun it was to drive if the grass was wet. Thus, I learned the art of the drift. And I practiced and practiced. I miss him, even after 30 years. And I'd forgotten how much I liked that vintage truck, which was the catalyst for purchasing Frank in 2014.

 

My dad had several dents growing up. Unfortunately no pictures. Some were nice, some farm work trucks and at least one he painted. I fell in love with the body style along with the 92-96 body style. Dad bought a mocha brown super cab new in 1993 and lifted it...I was hooked on Fords from then on.



And this was my first dent:



purchased when I was 17 for $6k IIRC. Lifted, motor built (400) etc. still wore the original paint. Owned it for about 7 years, sold it to a nice guy who kept it in his shop, he then sold it to a kid who wrecked it and is still driving it with the door caved in last time I saw it. Guess when all your money goes to pot you don't have any left to fix the truck.

I did have 31x10.50s on it in this pic; previously had 33x10.50s which looked much better but I was broke and needed some tires. 4" skyjacker softride

 

Started out in 73 or 74 when my dad got a 73 2wd orange with white strips Explorer, we took that truck all over the east and southern coast for vacations, and rode in the slide in camper down the highway.

How about go fwd to 1979, and imagine being around 12 years old and getting a ride to the skating rink and then picked up later on (really increased my cool points) by your sister and her boyfriend, in his giant black 79 F250 with straight pipes and what I seem to remember were 17/40 Ground Hawg's.

When they climbed the riff raff wall at the dam further than any chebbie could, I was in the back holding on to the roll bar and having a blast. Mudding in the flats down by the river, again I was in the back and handing Miller ponies up front thru the slider...running down the creeks, blasting across the muddy fields racing chebbies and whippin ****, always in a Ford truck.

Learning how to drive by doing donuts around them and roosting them when they were stuck (often) and or broke down (very often), I can hear that 460 and straight pipes to this day screaming as we pulled them out of the mud.

Then throw in along the way, as the years go by getting to ride around in and work on all his follow on trucks. Big red F250 with 38's, a F150 short bed charcoal grey with 38's, then the orange one with again 36's or 38's.

Burned 73-79 Ford Trucks into my soul, I have never owned a chebbi and never will. I bought my 1st and only car at 14, 67 Mercury Cyclone with a 390... 1st truck at 15, primer grey 66 2wd with a swapped in 460 and Super Star N50's on the back. Go man go!

At 16 I got the maroon/white 73 grandpa truck 240 6 cly 3 on the tree, running boards off the second it hit the driveway. 31x10.50x15's on the rear, L60's on the front. NO p/s or p/b...Blew is up on a late night beer run during deer season, replcement 300 6 did not last much longer.

Then joined the Army and use to walk to work, till I was on leave and got the blue 79 F250 33x12.50x16.5. 351M 4 spd. Drove the hell outa it, rolled it, rolled it back over, put 3 qts of oil in it and drove it some more and then sold it and went to Germany for 3 years.

Red 92 Ford for a few years after I got back stateside, then a Dodge Dakota (square body) for MPG to come back to Missouri as often as possible. A couple of full size ext cab 4x4 Dodge's/Dodge diesel tow rig for rodeoing...way back in the day.

Retire, get the silver 77, work overseas for a while got the red 79 when I got back home. Craigslist surfing while working in Dubai, got the blue 78....life is good. And then has been a few strays that come and go along the way.

Chuck in a 71 and 73 bronco and call it a day. Long story, but I love to relive the years.

 

My dad bought a '77 brand new back in 1976 before he even met my mom. Green regular cab long bed, 300 with a 4-speed and 4WD. I think he said he paid $6500 for it. He couldn't quite swing the V8 with A/C so he bought what he could afford.

Over the years it was painted twice, lifted with a set of Westerns on it and a white cap. I spent a lot of time riding in middle seat of that truck. My knee was hit with the shifter when he went into reverse many times and there was a spot worn into the trim on the dash where the shifter would hit when he would use first gear, but most of time he pulled out in second. Eventually he took the wheels off and it went back to steelies with hubcaps and that's how it looked from the mid 80's on. The wheels were in storage in our garage and I sold them in the late 90's to a kid I was in high school with who was restoring a '79. My dad traded it at a dealership in 2000 and we never saw it again. I've always had a soft spot for dent sides. For years I've wanted to get one, and still haven't made it happen yet, but it's coming.

 

I don't have a dent yet but I will some time this year, but the first dent in my family was bought by my grampa in 80 it was a blue 78 f250 crew 4x4 with a 351m. Well my dad was driving it while grampa was working and blew up the engine that truck was mostly driven by granny because grampa was a supervisor in road construction and he always had a company truck he said back in the 70s and 80s he probably built most of the roads around Richmond at the time and since we live in bath county va he was gone a week and then home a week well in 88 he sold it to a construction company in Covington but about a year before sold it he repainted it, and redid the interior. it was around then that dad blew up the engine and it was replaced with a 400 grampa said that he would have kept it if my dad and uncles would leave it alone. He replaced it with a 88 f150 but sadly the crew was bought by a construction company and was apparently ugly as sin after about a year with them.
well then my uncle bought a yellow 78 f250 4x4 with a 300 and replaced that engine with a engine out of local pulling truck called raging bull, it was a 429 cobra jet rebuilt by the same guy that built engines for the Sunoco nascar well after the guy sold the engine out of the pulling truck my uncle managed to buy it that engine had 700 horsepower and would happily rev 9000 rpm and was occasionally touching 11000 rpm the first time he drove it his buddy told him come on see what she'll do so my uncle stomped the gas peddle and the truck took off and the axle started twisting the leaf springs and accelerated so hard my uncle was thrown up in the air and his foot came off the gas and it slowed down and his foot went back down on the gas and it started all over again and every time it went higher in the air and he couldn't come off the gas and he couldn't stay on until finally the drive shaft fell out on the ground and by that time it cracked the leaf springs and broke the u bolts and the swing shackle well they got it fixed and he drove daily for years that truck in 3rd gear wouldn't go 50 up warm springs mountain but it would go 85+ up the same mountain in the same gear when the engine dropped a valve he sold it and dropped in a 460 out of a 70 Lincoln and said it was much more pleasant to drive and the in 93 or 94 it was pushed off a hill by accident by some ******* and totaled he replaced it with a jeep truck.
Then in 95 my dad bought a Brown 79 f150 4x4 with a 351c with 4v heads out of a 70 mustang it had a carved piece of wood for a shifter and the gas peddle was a big old foot it had 4.10 gears and headers and straight pipes I was just 5 years old but I loved it in 98 he needed something with more passenger room and bought a 93 f150 and sold the 79 to one off to my uncles friend and he cut off th exhaust pipes off under the bed and put on turn downs and would terrorize the neighbors at night but he finally killed the truck pulling out of Ted's place he got on it hard hit 6000 rpm and just as he was going to catch third the rear diff exploded and left pieces of that Ford 9" all over the road he put it in 4x4 and drove home on the front axle and parked it.

 

My stepdad got a 78' shorted two wheel drive when we moved to Florida. When I was 12, I learned to drive in it. 302, 3 on the tree, no power steering, no power brakes. I was making dump runs in it by the time I turned 13. At 15, I let a buddy drive it and he wrapped it around a tree.

That truck inspired me to buy this one. I bought this 79' 4x4, 429 CJ in fall 04', dumped a Tom of money into it trying to restore it. I had it a few years, but began buying two wheel drives as parts trucks along the way. Someone made me an offer on it I couldn't refuse and I sold it. I have had a dozen of me since then.