Hello everyone, I posted this in the welcome section but I think it will get more attention and fit better here.

A few years ago (5 maybe?) my grandfather bought a resto-modded red '56 F100. He has a propensity for old things and red things, and specifically old AND red things so I believe he was a bit smitten with this truck and the idealist nature of the purchase. He is an incredibly smart man and was absolutely well-intentioned but he is not mechanically apt and bought a project he was not prepared for. Not long after acquiring the truck it stopped running and subsequent attempts at driving it have resulted in plenty of highway rescues, tows, and trips to various local mechanics. 3 years ago he relented, admitted his mistake, and offered me the truck if I could get it from his cabin.

I made an attempt to get it from the cabin but it would not run at the time - if I jumped the starter solenoid it would turn over but would not fire. Given its remote location and difficulty of getting to it (only a flatbed could get to the house to tow it) it sat for the past 3 years. Recently he had someone come up and get it running, got it down from the house where it promptly stopped on the highway again. This time it was taken to the barn of someone who works at one of the small repair shops in town where it awaits my arrival. I am told it will run but not reliably, so now it's up to me to once again head down some dirt roads in the mountains to meet a guy who has my truck.

I plan to head out and get this thing in the next couple months (hopefully) and have started researching it, which led me here.

What I know:
it's a '56 that has had the body restored and painted. It's not perfect but there is no rust that I know of, everything is largely straight, the paint is in good shape, and only a few things need to be sorted out here.
The engine is a carb'd 302. This is, in my mind, a positive thing for the longevity and reliability of the truck once the electrics get sorted
The transmission is an automatic but I don't know which one. It has a floor shifter and standard P-R-N-D
It is very red

The rest I will have to learn. Unlike my grandfather I am mechanically inclined and have spent far too many hours swearing at that bolt that I can almost reach. Electrical is not my favorite of vehicular systems but this should be straight forward - no computers to deal with and no black magic making things work. Since this truck is far from stock I will have not problem modifying it to my liking but I plan to use it to do truck things and will not keep it pristine.

I haven't had a good project in a few years and am very much looking forward to this new challenge. I'm here to learn and interact, hopefully my questions will find some answers. There are no set plans for this truck outside of getting it running but I'm sure the ideas will come

 

Welcome to FTE!

There is no shortage of knowledge, ideas, and great support here.

Pictures! We love pictures!

 

Welcome to FTE, I'm a bit like your grand dad. I'm also fairly new around here, but these guys have been great in helping me with my 55 project so far.

 

Welcome to FTE!
We need pictures! It feeds our addiction.
I'm no expert, but these older engines are pretty straight forward. Fuel, spark and air and the main needs.
Do you know what the mechanics did to try to get it running? My first thought would be you are not getting fuel effectively.

Don't forget, pictures. We love pictures.
I'm confident our experts can quickly put you in the right direction.

 

I will absolutely post pictures once I have some - currently I have a shot of my grandfather sitting in the truck and a 3 year old picture of the wiring nest under the dash. I plan to take many of them once I have the truck.

I have may questions about the truck now, but nothing that I need to ask here yet - I need to know more about its condition and history but I feel that is a long shot.

As to the intermittent running my first guess is a bad ground. I know everything should be dead simple so ti's just going through it all.

I plan to clear our the whole fuel system, clean out the tank and lines, clean the carb, and pull the valve covers to check for caked oil. Since it runs I know there isn't anything too serious and I should be able to test my progress along the way

 

Let me add my welcome to FTE the best Ford truck Forum on the world wide web! You'll get plenty of help here. Along with the pictures, tell us what part of the country you are from.

 

Welcome!
I would make sure its in good hands, or go get it now! I like things close to home.
Looking forward too hearing about your project. Yea old and red, sounds like my kind of truck and a 56! Awesome!
Regards,
Chris

 

Sounds like you have a good plan.
The one thing that troubles me is that several mechanics have looked at it and couldn't get it straightened out. Maybe they didn't try very hard.
Since you are 12V, I didn't think much about grounds. For us 6V folk, that is always the first place to look. (I learned that the hard way, and didn't listen to the experts on here at first.)
I look forward to updates when you get it in your possession.

 

Again I unfortunately don't have the full history and don't personally know the mechanics involved but I don't know that they ever got as far as looking at the wiring. This past time it had been sitting so long getting the fuel cleared out and making sure all the parts would move would have been priority 1, and once it was running that was that. There is no harness of any kind on this truck just loose wires that run all over the place so diagnosing it is less than straight forward. But that's the challenge, and why I'm here!

 

I would go get it now but there's a few issues

1, it's at least a 5 hour drive away, longer coming back towing
2, I don't have a vehicle to tow with or a trailer
3, once it's home it will take up a garage space and I have a couple projects ahead of it (just bought a house) that need the room.

I can't say whether it's in good or bad hands right now but my grandfather trusts this person. My understanding is it's being stored in a barn our of the elements and I'm okay with that until I can get it.

But I'm getting more and more eager to start in on it so I may have to remedy my issues quickly.

 

We are eager for pictures, so how about you drop everything and go get it for us.

 

Here's a few from when he go it - today is is a good bit dirtier but is still in great shape. Also at the bottom is a pic of the wiring under the dash. I won't have any more until I can get out to it.

 

As I sit here today that's the first time I've ever noticed that switch under the dash. That may be part of the problem I had getting it to do anything 3 years ago

 

That looks like a very nice truck. I can see why your grandfather bought it. The wiring looks a mess but at least it is a new mess not like we see in some trucks, frayed bare wires with newly added but not color coded wires.

 

Looks like it is a fairly nicely put together truck. I see some wires are labeled like an aftermarket harness would be, and some that look like they were adapted out of a GM harness, and some original '56 dash lights dangling just for good measure. Between that, and the combo of scotch-locks, wire nuts and crimp connectors, I would just rip it all out and start over. I, myself, would recommend a Ron Francis harness, a little on the big $$ side, but will give you everything you need to make the gm column/ford motor/and 56 stuff to play nice together. Very clear and simple to install, and assuming your fuel system is up to par, will have you up and running reliably in a long afternoon. I'd probably also do an undercap HEI conversion if its still points, just to add to the reliability.