I recently purchased a 1979 F-150 4x4. I had a 78 years ago that I absolutely loved but when the kids were born the wife made me sell it because she thought an old truck would leave us stranded somewhere... I was young and dumb and sold it. Regretted it every day since then. I'm finally in a place where I can get another one and I was shocked at how expensive these suckers had gotten. I found one for a sweetheart deal, body was straight motor seemed to run fairly strong but was really dirty and crudded up. I'm hoping to use this truck as a pretty regular driver so I am redoing everything. I've got it in a million pieces right now and it's torn down to the frame. I've got all new rotors, calipers, pads, lines, seals, bearings and bushings for the front end. Probably going to do the ford performance disc brake kit for the 9"rear. Probably going to switch to a hydroboost for braking if I can find a decent walk through on this board somewhere. I've got to remove some more glass and a few more trim pieces and then getting the body media blasted and off to the body shop to fix the rust around the door and some dents and dings. I think I need to find a new driver door as the outer metal is a bit weak from the mirror, and I see there is some bondo on it, plus that door didn't really line up with the fender, and Im thinking they didn't get the body line right in the repair. I'll need to get new cab bushings and radiator support bushings as well. Also saw some holes in my floor boards. Minor, but still there so I will get the replacement pans and see if I can figure out a clean way to put those in. Probably could weld them right over the top and just seal the heck out of the bottom side or it would rot out both the pans. Just dont want the ugly cut out seen below either. Not that it's a show truck, but it would bother my OCD. I've rebuilt the T-case and the kit was missing a few parts so I have to source those. I'm about to start on the C-6 rebuild. Got the badshoe video as well as the work bench book on the C-6 so just need to tear down the trans and see what hard parts I need before I order my kit. Also got the motor out and at the machine shop. Same shop that did the machine work on my 78 and that was a torque beast. I know a lot more now than I did then, that one had had stock pistons, edelbrock intake, holley 600 and an RV cam and headers. This one will have T-Meyer's pistons, a roller cam, same intake and carb along with me doing some grinding to the heads like the thermactor humps and smoothing some orifices. Also plan to do the ratio rockers, balance the rotating assembly, the Oil pressure mod, an HEI distributor and 2G alternator. Fortunately this motor did have the 400 crank in it. Engine had been rebuilt at some point. It was already .030 over but almost no wear. Going to go .040 over crank is standard right now so it will get minimum grind. Going to check the line bore on it as well. Just waiting on Tim right now, he's a hard man to get a hold of. Talked to him once and he's really friendly, just super busy. I know he's got the piston's I need in stock it's just a matter of being able to order them now. I've still got some time as I have plenty else to do, but I don't want my machine shop back burnering my block. I have about a 3 month window I'd like to have everything done in and have this one the road. Seems reasonable once the bodywork is done which I'm thinking will take the longest amount of time. Hoping to use that time to get all the running gear and drivetrain in order. Like I said still need to redo the tranny and I have no idea what condition it really is in. I mean I drove the truck a little when I first got it, but it leaked fluid like a sieve. Need to decide on the torque converter as well. It's got 3:55 gears with an open diff. Going to change to Limited slip. It's got 31" tires currently, so I imagine that's not a bad ratio for a motor that should put out around 325HP/450 torque. Thinking the convertor should be a HD stock or just slight stall. Anywho, I'll upload pics as soon as I figure out how to do it since photobucket doesn't work anymore.

 

Ok, I figured out how to upload photos. I wish I had taken more of the drivetrain on this truck. I've never seen so much grease and dirt that just didn't want to come off. The zero point on the pressure washer wouldn't even cut through some of it.

 

Just got the rebuild kit ordered from Tim. Fortunately, my block needed .040 over so he has those pistons in stock. Super guy to deal with. Picked up some other parts I needed from him as well because I just know those are gonna work well together with my build. Went by the machine shop today to talk to my machinist and line him out on the Oil flow mod that Tim recommends and to get him going on the heads. He's going to grind out the thermactor humps for me and do a bowl blend as well as bevel the intake ports, not going to port match, as I read that is not something to do for these as a truck motor. I got the T-case all rebuilt now..... Just need some expansion plugs since the kit didn't have them in it and I lost 1 since I expected new ones to be in the kit. I'm about to start tearing down that transmission, just been putting it off till I clean up my workspace. Don't want to lose any parts. Few more things to strip off the cab and it's ready to call the sand blaster in. Still working on what body shop will do the work. Probably the hardest part of this process.

 

Yea, you sure want to be real sure when it comes to body shops. A lot make promises and as soon as a late model collision insurance job comes in you get shoved off in the corner when all the while they were just intending to use your job for when it's slow to keep thier employees employed.

 

Well, a little change of plans. I bought a "parts truck" that is an F250 2wd but is extremely clean. I did some soul searching and decided in the last 30 years of owning 4wd trucks, I can count on maybe 2 hands the number of times I've used 4wd and since this is going to be a daily driver (sort of) I'd rather have the 2 miles per gallon. So, I'm going to build that one instead. It has a 460 in it that is OK, so my plan is to focus on the 2wd and then I will put the 4wd back together and sell it to recover some costs. It will get some mild refreshing. Now, on to motor stuff. I got an email from Tim that my pistons came in, and he will be shipping them and the rest of my goodies out today. YEA! Got a call from my machinist who told me that he found a really tight crack in one of my heads that hadn't shown up with the magna flux. He's recommending a larger intake valve to remove some of the step in there, some bowl blending and removing the thermactor humps. He did the line bore and my block was pretty out of square, so getting that all fixed up. Doing Tim's oil mod with the grooved cam bearings. Should be about a week and a half to get my motor back. Getting excited. I've also decided to put a 4R70W behind this motor for economy, the wide ratio and longevity.