Hey all. Don't get mad. I did use the search function, that's how I figured out some of the general things I need to do, but I need a little more specific help or suggestions. I've recently acquired a 1972 F100 2wd longbed. Body is in almost excellent condition. No rust just some whiskey dings and clear coat flaking. However, it's been sitting since 2012 and my son is selling his car and wants a daily driver classic truck. So this past weekend I gave a good look over. Changed the fluids, greased everything, bleed the brakes and started to put her through her paces to see what she needs. Truck starts right up. Sounds like it may have a bit of an exhaust leak, no biggie there. I've restored a few dentsides so I have a pretty good feel for these trucks, but the dent sides are even a bit modern compared to these. My first order of business is to upgrade the brakes. I've got a local salvage yard with a lot of dent sides. I'm going to go grab a good front end off of one of those. I looked at a number of conversion kits, but I like the off the shelf type conversions more than aftermarket only. Even if I went with these kits, it's really only the actual brakes and I still have to change bushings, and all the other wear item replacements, so I figure I'll just stay oem (but newer). Where I need some help, is since I need to upgrade the MC I'd like to get one that has the clear plastic reservoir. I've seen mention of using the MC from a 1979 F-350 but I'm still only seeing the metal ones. I saw a member post some pics of one they did and it was the plastic but no model numbers. Some help here would be greatly appreciated. The truck currently has power brakes. I have seen the MP kit that has a new brake booster that is much more streamlined, and I'd love to go that route if I can while I'm at it. So, Any suggestions, preferably with model numbers, for booster and MC are appreciated. Also, I'm looking at getting a bushing kit since all that is worn pretty well, and I'm already disassembling everything might as well replace that. I see prothane has a kit. I'm not entirely sure if it's all inclusive, I think I'm needing, axle bushings (for I-beams), Radius arm bushings, spring bushings (for shackles and leaf spring), I see body bushings (guessing thats the 4 cab bushings and maybe the radiator support but dunno). I know I need knew center link and tie rod with adjuster for the 73-79. Going to do king pins while I'm here also. And then to tighten up the rest of the steering I'm going to go with a red head steering box with the 13:1 ratio. All this including new rotors, calipers, bearings, lines and seals. Proportioning valve, I have a spare from my 79 but will also grab from the donor. The back brakes will stay drum, but I will completely rebuild including wheel cylinders and new drums. That takes care of the first step 2 steps of the build. Make it stop then make it steer. So I'm not familiar with FE motors at all. I've always had 335, and 385 series motors or SBF. Probably going to do a Coyote swap somewhere in the foreseeable future on this. That being said, it needs to get him back and forth while I source those parts. Motor sounds solid and starts right up. I need to do a compression test on it to be more certain, but I think it should do pretty well. With that in mind, I was thinking of picking up some longtube headers from summit and new exhaust. Hopefully no breaky the header bolts. The PO doesn't know if it's ever had a valve job and if it's got hardened seats or not. I figure since I plan to pull the front clip off while I do the front end upgrade I should be able to get decent access to the heads to oil them up with penetrating oil. Probably not a bad Idea to replace water pump, thermostat and timing chain while I'm doing this. I've also heard that pertronix in the dizzy is another really good reliability upgrade. The 2 barrel carb has recently been rebuilt and seems to be doing pretty nice. Since the plan is to engine swap I don't want to get too crazy on swapping intakes and getting a new carb, although I have a brand new holley 600 on the shelf I imagine this wants more like a 750. The pencil tube PS pump was making a little noise but it was low and the PS gear box leaks pretty good. I dont know if it's worth the trouble to change that out too. I do think I'd like to put a better alternator if it's not too hard to do a 3G swap or a 1 wire.

I know this is a lot, but I appreciate any advice you guys have along with your opinions why you think this or that is a good idea or not. Thank You!

 

I haven't been on this site all that long, but I have to ask; did you type all that in less than 5 min? I knew a guy who could do that, didn't ever look at the screen or keyboard and write code while talking to you. but the rest of us not so well. I am impressed with this much dialog. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

 

Search through Ultraranger's posts for brake conversion info. Might start here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ont-drums.html

 

UltraRanger was the one who posted a pic of the MC with the clear plastic reservoir, but that post was 2 years old. I didn't want to revive it. I'll check out his post.

 

Ok, I priced out replacement parts if I was able to source i-beams, radius arms and spindles from a 73-79. By the time I get new bearings, seals, rotors, calipers, lines, king pins along with labor to have the new bushings installed and reamed and I get the parts from a 73-79 I can just buy a conversion kit. So, I found this kit that includes all new oem parts, uses the existing ibeams and radius arms, and has dual piston calipers. So I ordered the kit along with a complete prothane bushing kit. I am going to order the Red Head steering box and source the Center link adjusting link and tie rod end locally. Here's the kit. https://www.ecklers.com/1965-1972-fo...-857619-1.html