This all sounds like excellent advise butand
Seems to me this advise would be for a guy who has a lot of time, money, and empty garage. Or a truck needing serious frame repair. I sure am glad I didn't start by taking everything apart.

My first objective has been to get my truck so I can drive it. Been at it for a little over a year and I am almost there. It was easy to remove the front clip as one piece. With that out of the way, I pulled the engine out and rebuilt it, cleaned up and painted the frame in front of the cab, rebuilt the front suspension, and front brakes. I wire brushed and painted the underside of the front fenders and put that one big piece back on. As soon as the weather warms up I'll do the rear brakes and I might be driving down the road in my dump truck.

Now my truck doesn't look much better than when I started but its not all over the garage, basement, and yard. And it runs. Sometime, sooner or later, I will pull off the cab and box , finish painting the frame, and properly do the body work. The truck may be out of service for a year or so while I'm doing that but I know its going to go a lot easier and faster than had I started by stripping it down to the frame. In the end (if there is an end ) I expect to have a truck every bit as nice as I could have achieved by doing a frame-off restoration.

 

I would suggest you read the tech article "Trials of a first time builder" by the Reverend Doctor Niolon, esq. located here on FTE. You can do it. Everybody started with a first truck. Even the professinals began with one vehicle. As John Niolon says, have a plan and stick to it in an orderly fashion. Brakes, engine, electrical. Get it running and driving. It's always more fun to drive than to sit and look at your "restored" truck. Look to the more knowledgeable members of this asylum and lean heavily on them. They won't steer you wrong. Oh, they might poke a little fun but other than that, you'll be welcomed into the fraternity.

Whatever your estimate is, double it, then triple that, then divide by.78 and carry the 3 (I'm ciphering now !!!) and that's what the truck will cost to get the first stage done. I say first stage because the truck will never be done until you sell it.


Have fun, write often, wear clean underwear and don't forget to floss !


Philosophizererer Bubba

 

As you can tell from the posts it won't be quick nor easy, but if you do a frame off and take everything apart, I think you'll not feel as overwhelmed when you get it apart. To me the F1 is so easy to work on. I have the body off right now, and in it's basic components, the way everything bolts together, the simple wiring, everything. It was definitely made when people worked on their own vehicles a lot. I've pretty much done my learning by doing, with the shop manual as the holy reference, but as far as what I think are good first projects, the old Effies are a great choice. Just hang in there.

 

Contrary to what 55Bubba told you, there are ways to keep the restoration/rodding budget under control...

1. Never count the cost of any tools you bought to use on the truck. They can be used on other vehicles or things someday, probably.....so they don't count.

2. Never count paint, wire brush wheels, grinding discs, oils, or any sundries like that, cause they're just sundries and everybody knows sundries don't count.

3. Never count the cost of fixing any mistakes or replacing things because you changed your mind, cause they don't stay on the truck, so they don't count.

4. If you had to build a garage to enable you to do the project, don't count the cost of the garage as someday the project might be finished and then you might allow some other vehicle to park in the garage, maybe.....So it wouldn't be fair to include it in the cost of your project.

Follow these guidelines closely and you'll likely save $2,000 to $3,000. off the cost of your project. It's working for me!

 

I don't know about you Mitch, but I know I'm beginning to feel better!