I’m not sure if people make these kinds of threads on this ford forum but they sure do on the corvette forum. Here’s a little bit to know about me since I’m new to the forum. I’m 16 years old, and I have loved classic cars my whole life. I love cars so much my parents potty trained me buy giving me a new hot wheels car every time I made it to the potty. Anyways, in 1996 my mom bought a 1976 Corvette L-82 4-speed and parked it in 2002 in our garage and never drove it again. This summer I pulled it out and got to work. I got it running, then did all new soft lines, calipers, MC, booster, power steering lines, control valve, steering ram, and a ton of other stuff including wiring which I wish I could forget. Then after 5 months of working on that she drove it on the road for the first time in 20 years. That is the largest satisfaction I’ve ever felt. I’m still working on her car. Still got a lot to do before it’s ready to drive on the road with traffic. But this isn’t a Corvette Forum, it’s a Ford Forum. Basically I have a bit of mechanical knowledge and experience.

So the story goes, last week a friend called me and she asked me and my brother if we wanted to help the lady that lived in The Goonies House move. Yes, the one from the Movie. So of course we wanted to. I made a joke to my mom saying, “The only reason I’m doing this is because I want a classic car and she may have one.” But that was just a joke. I wanted to see the inside of the house. So I get off work and head to the house and start unloading it. We get a full load and take it to her new home and a surprise was sitting on the neighbors field! A 68 Ranger 250 and a 69 Ranger Dully and a 67 F-100. Now the first two were owned by Mother Nature from sitting for so long but the 67, it didn’t look so bad. My brother went over and knocked on the persons door and asked about the trucks. She said that they were her brothers and he wasn’t selling them but he would probably take 1k for all 3. I called my Grandpa who’s was a mechanic and he took us over the next day too look at the trucks. And the mom of the lady that we spoke to the day before came out and talked with us for a while. She said that they were her husbands trucks and he died a few years ago suddenly from brain cancer. She had been trying to get here son to take them off the property for 10 years and he didn’t so she gave the 67 to us. We didn’t want the other 2 because we didn’t have the space, but she said we could pull whatever parts we wanted off them. We of course took her up on the deal. We got the truck loaded up and brought it to our house and we got to work. We put a new battery in it and twisted the key and it fired up immediately. It was too good to be true. And it was. I changed the Oil and added coolant. We ran it and it wan real good, 50 Psi Oil pressure, but as soon as the thermostat turned on we figured out why it was parked. It was leaking a bunch of coolant out of the block. Great. I’m hoping it’s just as easy as replacing the freeze plugs but I guess I’ll see tomorrow. Also the exhaust manifold has a exhaust leak. And the valve covers leak. Also I popped a brake line when I was loading it on the trailer. So I’m gonna put all new brake lines in it and hope I don’t have to replace the slaves because I don’t wanna pull the drums. Also gonna rebuild the carb, replace the valve cover gaskets, manifold gaskets, and try to get the after market pioneer boom booms working again.

So here are some of our before and after photos. I made some patina shine juice. It’s got a 352 4 in the floor. I’m gonna keep my eye out for a no engine or trans car with a good body to put this engine and trans in. If I don’t find one for a decent price by the Rod Run in Longview Washington. I’ll sell it at the car show for 1500 or something unless somebody has some ideas for how to fix the rust holes in the top of the cab. I may bring it to a local body guy I know. He might be able to do something for a decent price.

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It’s rotted like this on both sides. What are my options? Is this truck any good?

 

I think it looks pretty good cleaned up and defiantly worth saving. Does your budget support sourcing a new cab that doesn't have that kind of rot? The rest of it looks fixable if you know how to weld.

 

I am glad to see a young fellow involved in the hobby, and you submitted a nice wright up. A lot of success in life is common sense, ambition and determination, and you seem to have all of these, so I am sure you will find a way to utilize the parts as well as the old 67.

Its pretty rusty, but could be fixed, as the old saying goes, "if it will cast a shadow, it can be restored" All it takes is time and money.
As was said, a different cab would be the easiest way to improve your trucks status.
Kind of a bummer that its a 67, as they are kind of a one year only deal. I am not sure if a 68 - 72 cab would swap, or not? You would end up with a frankin- truck, but it would increase the odds of finding a doner cab.

You mentioned swapping the engine / trans into a car.
Ford as you may have already found out did not make swaps of this sort an easy deal. Unlike GM where things are easy to mix and match, with engine / trans from different years, makes, models, our friends at Ford make many different configurations, and many are unique to an engine family.

In case you do not know what mixes and what don't, here are a few examples.
352, 360- 390 - 410- 427 & 428, share a common bell housing bolt pattern, that is sort of a round shape.
1965 and up 289s, 302, 351 W, 351 C, share a common bell housing bolt pattern. Early 260's and 289's, until some time in early 65, used a unique 5 bolt pattern.
351M, 400, 429, and 460 use the same pattern.
Truck bell housings on manual transmission are about 1/2 inch shorter, or longer than a car bell housing, but I cant remember which way it goes. But they dont exchange.
Engine mounts also have some variations, in what will fit and bolt up, and what needs a little help with custom fab mounts.
For reference, on your intended engine to car swap, the last year Ford used the FE engine in a passenger car was 1970.
Any car that had an FE engine option, would accept your 352 engine, with factory mounts. The trans you have would require major mods, to fit in any car.
Best of luck to you and dont give up.

 

Good job on the patina shine. Makes me wonder if you mixed up the same "juice" that VGG does.
I'm assuming the cab front drip rail is just as bad. Are the roofs any better on the other two Bumpsides? Your body man friend may be able to transplant one of them.

 

Yes, it’s the VGG mix! No. Unfortunately the other two trucks roofs are not even on them anymore. They completely rotted out. I’m out of luck there. There’s one guy in Washington, I drive by his place every once and awhile and he has. Probably 30 or more Fords from this generation. I’ll try to buy one from him and see if I can’t get a roof or just do a complete body swap for pretty cheap.

 

My suggestion is to talk to that guy with all the trucks, if you can become friends he may be a great source of help and assistance!

 

Update: I ended up putting the truck up on marketplace for $1000. Reason being it has a smoked clutch. And it was so rusted. If I had a shop I probably woulda body swaped it. Put a 390 in it and called it a day. Ended up selling it for $500 + SBC parts.

I appreciate you guys a lot! I’ll probably end up with another one soon.