I have been chomping at the bit to start this build thread for the restoration/modification of my Grandpa's 1977 4x4 F150 shortbed Ranger. I was hoping to get some early photos of it when he had it, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any. Anyway, on to the story of this rig:

Growing up, I used to spend a week or two at a time in the summers up at my Grandpa's place up in Northern Colorado. He had a cabin that he built himself sitting on about 35 acres out in the middle of nowhere. I used to love that place, and I especially loved his 1977 Ford truck. I remember lugging around in that thing with him exploring and finding new fishing spots.

Both sides of my family were Ford people, and there were F series everywhere. My first truck in high school was a 1976 F150 4X4 longbed. I have a particular soft spot for the dentsides. They made great trucks growing up in the mountains of Colorado. I drove my '76 through college and ended up selling it when I graduated and took a job out in Illinois. I almost immediately regretted selling my '76, as well as taking a job out in the flatlands. I stuck it out in Illinois for about 3 years while saving money. I purchased an old, beat up 1979 F150 shortbed prior to returning to Colorado to attend graduate school at CSU.

One of the nice things about going to school at CSU was that I was fairly close to Grandpa. I would frequently visit him and Grandma while attending school. He liked my '79 and often told me to let him know if I ever sold it so he could use it as a parts truck to freshen up his '77. When I graduated from CSU, I purchased a new Ram 2500 and subsequently gave my '79 to my Grandpa to use as he pleased. After graduate school, I took a job in Northern New Mexico and have been down here ever since. I kept in pretty good contact with Grandpa. He did use my '79 to start refreshing his truck (pretty much took the front clip off of the '79 and put it on his '77).

In the meantime, I purchased a 1969 Bronco and started a frame-up restoration on it. Fairly early in the build, Grandpa told me that he was moving back to town to be closer to medical facilities. His and my Grandma's health had been deteriorating over the years, and it was just too risky for them to stay up there by themselves. He asked if wanted his '77, and I immediately said yes.

I decided to pull the engine from Grandpa's '77 (a 351M) and use it as the base for my '69 Bronco project. It eventually became a fuel-injected 406 with Aussie 302 heads:






(Pulling the engine from the '77)



(The final product in my '69 Bronco)

Shortly after giving me the '77, Grandpa passed away. I was really sad, and I really wanted to get working on Grandpa's truck and make it nice again. The '69 project took nearly 8 years to complete. At the time, I was the only income for the family, and I refuse to go into debt because of a project. Day after day, I would see that '77 sitting on the side of the house rotting away and it would make me sad. I had a friend that is a big ford guy (he owns like 8 different F series) that would frequently ask me to sell it to him. Eventually, I broke down and sold it to him. I wanted to see the truck get built and used, and at the time, there wasn't a way for me to do that.

The new owner is the type that has many projects going on all at once. However, he did immediately start doing some work on the '77. He put a dana 60 with a limited slip and 4.10s in the rear. He also did an 8-lug knuckle conversion for the dana 44 in the front. However, over time, life also happened for him, and the truck just started sitting outside of his place. It was infested with rodents and was rotting at a higher rate up here in the mountains. So, he shipped it to a friends place down in Southern New Mexico. It sat down there for several years:



Over time, things changed for me. The kids were growing, and my wife decided to start working again after they were all in school. Finances eased and I was able to start "projecting" again. I purchased an old '96 Land Cruiser and turned it into my camping rig. I have had a lot of fun building it and exploring the mountains of NM and CO in it. But, I started wanting to get an old dentside again. I started looking here and there, but really wished that I could get Grandpa's truck. Out of the blue a few months ago, my buddy asked if I wanted to buy it back from him. Of course, I said yes, and we immediately went down to get it:



Over the last week or so, we started tearing into it.









(we found plenty of rats nests - and a dead mouse)



My plans aren't completely solidified yet, but I am excited to get into this thing. More to come.

 

I'm glad to read you got it back. Good luck with the build.

 

What a great back story. Can't wait to read more.

 

Great story and very happy for you that you got it back. That thing had quite the journey, and so did the rats apparently. So odd that they chose to get behind the instrument cluster. Best of luck and keep us updated!

 

Got a little more done with the help of my son.

Years of sun can be a little harsh on a dash pad. The vinyl had all come off of the headliner, also:





I found some "interesting" repair work done by my grandpa on the rear quarters. He didn't own a welder, so he used some sheet metal screws and applied bondo over them. This is done on both sides. HA!



I also found some rot on the passenger side floorboard, as well as the cab corner on the driver side:

 

Very cool story. Happy to see you got it back. Trucks are apart of family too. I don't think I could ever bare to sell my dent. I tell everybody that my casket will me in the bed on my way to the cemetery. After that, I'm sure my wife will sell it. Can't wait to see more progress.

 

Disassembly continues. Also, my friend who owned the truck for the past decade or so, dropped by with a load of parts. I was mistaken in thinking that the Dana 60 with the limited slip was already under the truck - that was a different 60 he had to get it rolling. So, he dropped off the correct 60 for me, as well as a bunch of other parts.



Badges:



NP435 and NP205:



Bagging and tagging:



Rear bumper gone:




Cab is gutted. There are 4 holes in the floor where bolts wore through. The cab mounts must have degraded and sunk, or perhaps these bolts were all installed upside down?

 

I've been sneaking out here and there working on the truck. I got all of the glass removed. It turns out that one side of the rear glass was actually plexiglass. The rear window frame was slighlty bent on one side. Grandpa must have put the plexi in as a stop-gap.





I decided to keep the passenger side rear glass, as it has this "cabin country" sticker on it. As I mentioned, Grandpa built his own cabin that he lived in for nearly 3 decades. He had a bunch of cabin magazines strewn around the place.





I am working on removing the bed bolts. I have all but one out. I had to get a little creative on a couple of them.



I received my first batch of new parts. I ordered new cab corners, as well as patches for both rear quarters.


I also got the truck up on some new auto dollies that I received for my birthday. They are pretty slick!

 

Been getting out and working here and there. I got the front clip and bed removed.





The core support mounts were rusted together, short work for the sawzall:



Both cab corners are in need of work. I have new pieces for the outer skins. I'll have to fab up some patches for the inner skins. The passenger side already had some "repair" work done that will need to be replaced.






While under the truck, I noticed some odd application for seam sealer under the cab. It is like this on both sides of the truck - misses the seam.

 

Next up was removing the fuel tank. I've been wanting to do this for a while, as the varnish smell was annoying in the garage. Luckily, there was only about 3 gallons of old fuel that needed to be drained, which fit in a single fuel can. Overall, the tank looks to be in fairly good shape. Although, the skin is pretty thin underneath where it contacts the support rails. I'll look at it closer a bit later to determine if I will keep it and refurbish, or just get a new one.







Then I started tackling the cab corners. I didn't get too far this weekend. The passenger side had a repair patch that was screwed in place.







Driver's side:

 

Very cool build thread and truck. Especially the fact that it was your grandpa's truck. I like the 8 lug conversion. Gonna be one nice truck when you are done.

I can only wish my garage was as neat and organized as yours. I'm nursing a broken collar bone after crashing my motorcycle two weeks ago. I need get out and get my garage cleaned up and organized as I can't do much else for a few weeks till things heal up.

Anyway, It looks like you've go some metal work ahead of you but overall, your truck looks pretty straight and dry. Keep the pics and updates coming!

 

Been a bit since working on the truck - we took a family vacation out on the east coast. I got to get out for some work the last couple of nights. The first "new" part is officially tacked on to the truck. I fabbed up a new piece for the inner skin on the back side of the driver's cab corner using some of the leftover replacement skin that I had for the outer cab corner. Turned out pretty well, and was good practice for the parts you'll actually be able to see later on. I've read that the replacement panels are not as thick as OEM - and that is a fact.

 

I need to get busy doing these corners on my truck. Good job so far.

 

Been working a bit on the truck when I can. I did take a weekend off to work on my other project, "Kronk":



The passenger side cab corner is significantly worse than the driver's side. I still have some more smoothing/finishing work to do, but I have most of the sheet metal in this area patched up. I do still have some more patch work to do on the underside of his corner, but I think I am going to wait until I have the cab off and tipped back so I don't have to weld and grind upside down.

 

I prepped the area and applied POR-15 on the inside of the cab corners. I then started tacking the corners in place. I got a little too ambitious on the driver's side before stopping to take a measurement. Turns out it was off, so I had to remove it again. Not sure where I went wrong, but I had to order another one. The lines just didn't match up to the door nor the bed. The passenger side looks good from an alignment standpoint, though.

One thing that was slightly frustrating is that on both sides, the replacement pieces were too deep - they don't match up with the inside edge of the cab. I tried and tried manipulating them with no success. In the end, I just tacked them in place, since that spot is going to be hiding behind the bed. But still...