Do you all know that one person who cant sit still, cant leave anything alone, and no matter how busy they are, think that they need one more thing to do?

That's me and my dad.

We currently have over a dozen project cars and trucks, most of which are Ford trucks that fall between the years of 1980 and 1995. We also always have a rotating stock of parts trucks coming and going, we pull the good stuff, we send the rusty carcasses down the road to the scrapper.

Sanford was born out of the necessity for us to get a 4x4 3/4 ton truck to pull rusty carcasses to the scrapper, the realization that we had to many "way too deep" projects, and my daily driver was on the verge of dying, and a breakfast conversation that involved me saying "we have enough spare parts for us to just build another truck."

And thus, Sanford was born.

Here is the 1985 F250 that we started with. We bought the truck for scrap price because it "had a blown up motor"

Attachment 287990
^ What a peach, am i right??

I was pleasantly surprised to find a 460/ 4 speed combo, and even more pleasantly surprised to see it fire up when i poured gas down the carb. We towed it home behind my Lincoln town car with a tow strap, before the guy changed his mind.

I got the truck running with this cobble job
Attachment 287991

And then i pulled the bed because it was so rusty it literally flapped in the wind at 30 mph. it was BAD.

Attachment 287992

When the bed was pulled, we noticed that the fuel pump wiring wasnt plugged in. i plugged it in, the truck ran fine!



I spent a few weeks cleaning up the rear half of the bare frame truck. i replaced the fuel pump and sending unit ( gauge wasnt reading), hung a new pair of rear shocks on it, replaced the U bolts, deleted the rear tank, and put a spare bumper and receiver hitch I had from a parts truck from a while back.

Attachment 287994

I also nabbed a set of 305/70R16's off a project that is waiting for a new engine, they will get me rolling for a few months.

Attachment 287995

Finally, today, I got the bed put on from another parts truck, got the tailgate working, and im wired up, ready to drive it to work tomorrow for it's first shakedown run!

 

before i show you the truck with the bed on it, I will say, we did use it for a bit of towing around the county.

we made Sanford haul his own bed away



And we retrieved a parts car for my 87 Tbird.



But here Sanford is, in all his assembled glory!





My intentions for Sanford is to make him a good, reliable work truck/beater truck/ fill in the blank truck. He needs to be reliable but yet if he gets a dent, i dont care.

My intention for this thread is to post all the builds and mods i do to help make this truck a great truck, and to share some of the crazy adventures i have with it.

 

Great job! you're like ford recyclers inc..

 

I'm subscribed! Good start!

 

Thanks for sharing your story! Enjoy your "new" ride!

 

Good to hear that more Fords are being saved !
Being forced to haul his own bed away...that had to hurt...poor Sanford.
It does look like he's well on his way to a new life though. Nice work.

 

this was a very enjoyable read! i look forward to more adventures of Sanford

 

Welcome to the forum Sanford

That Cougar looks like it's been living underwater.

 

For those wondering why the truck is named Sanford, it is because my father and I threw it together out of spare parts, which my sister, in a very snotty tone, said " looks like something that they would drive on Sanford and Son"

I'll remember that next time she needs brakes, lol.

Today was Sanford's first day on the highway. He took it in stride, belting out a note only a big block with a non overdrive trans would sing. the fact that there is no exhaust past the Y pipe isnt helping matters, either. Good thing I work at an exhaust shop.

Tonight's Sanford project was a simple one. There were broken cab mount lights, and thats a huge pet peeve of mine, \broken lenses and non functioning lights. I picked up this set of "factory replacements" off ebay for $28 shipped.



they were really nearly identical.



they did include new stainless screws to attach with, new pigtails, new foam bottoms, and....



LED BULBS!!!!

btw, pay no attention to the mounds of stuff in the garage. this is pop's side of the shop.

the finished product, running legal and safe now!



Also, got a new license plate lens assembly, and an LED bulb fitted in that as well.



Now Sanford is hooked up, ready to take another load of scrap down tomorrow!

 

What?? A little fiberglass work, a good buff job, it will be mint!

 

Tonight, i took a bit of time after work, with the bosses permission, and put a proper pipe on Sanford.



I went off the factory Y pipe ( which was solid) and built a single pipe that went into a 3" stainless muffler ( it's a Magnaflow knock off, sounds like a magnaflow, built like a magnaflow, just a lot cheaper) then i put a mandrel bent 3" tail pipe on it.





It was cheap, easy to do, and effective. the exhaust note is a bit quieter than i figured it would be, but still quite acceptable. at idle, you can hear the truck is running, but it is not at all loud or abrasive. you could sit on the tailgate at idle and carry a conversation at normal volumes with no issues.

at highway speeds, the note is there, but once again, not loud. i had a cell phone call on my ride home, no issues there. However, once you get past 1/2 throttle, you can really hear the exhaust start to sing.

but most of all, it gets the fumes back by the bumper where they belong, instead of climbing into the cab with me.

 

Great job! That's one of the things I want to do on Big Blue - ditch the cherry bombs for Magnaflows.

 

Nice! I can hear him now...

Lamont, you big dummy...look at my new tail pipe!

 

Tonight, working on Sanford, getting a few things done every night. I got my NOS passenger side mirror in from ebay, so i put that on tonight, and then I went to put my new cap and rotor on the old 460, hoping to get a bit better spark. I was surprised when i opened the box, and the cap and rotor sold to me is the same style at the 95 pickups, but the cap on the truck was the older, 70's style cap. I looked at the recpeit, ordered for an 85, i looked at the underhood sticker, it said meets 84 emissions.

odd.

I went to check the door jamb sticker, sure enough, built in 12/84. Late enough to be considered an 1985 model year, but still using some 1984 parts. So tomorrow, back off to NAPA to get the correct cap and rotor.

While looking at the door tag, i decided to decipher the axle code. Axle 73. while checking the chart, i was shocked to see they were 11,000 pound axles with 5.13 gearing! That definitely explains the 9 mpg...

 

I'm trying to picture what you have and what you got.
DSII cap and rotor are all the 'big' & 'tall' style.
Is there an adapter collar on your distributor?


Holy cow!
Sanford is one tough beast.
I had no idea you could get 5.13's in a 250.