I just posted photos of my truck in my gallery. It's finally finished to the point where I can drive it and be sure I'm going to get to where I want to go! This board has been a godsend. I bought an old 78 F100 shortbed, I-6, 3 on the tree, manual brakes and steering. It looked horrible. It ran worse. The original plan was to freshen up the motor, swap some panels, paint it and call it good. 3 months, tops.

1 1/2 year later, it's done. I went so overboard. My wife wanted to kill me. Auto parts stores in Colorado Springs had a 27% upsurge in business.

Here's what I did:
New (from a bone yard) doors, A/C cab (corners and firewall was shot on the old one and it had no A/C), short bed (it was expensive to find a good one)
Took the front clip apart and painted everything black so the engine bay would look decent
rebuilt 351W, 600 Edlbrk 4 BBL, dual exhaust (no pollution control)
Serpentine belt system, new water pump, radiator w/electric fan, alternator, distributor, starter, clutch, and fly wheel.
Power steering gearbox and 3 on the tree column: Tranny was good so I painted it and put it back in.
New bumpers, weatherstripping, VDO Tach, rug and 60/40/60 seats out of a 96 X-cab. Haven't got the Power drivers seat hooked up yet.
New shocks front springs, and factory front/rear sway bars.
10 Disk CD changer, new tires and rims.
Paint job, It looks good in my gallery but not so good up close. The guy who told me he would do a good job cheap did not do a good job - orange peel all over.

I still have to set up the A/C, get a bed liner and another paint job. I would like to add P/locks and windows.

Did I send too much money - yes. Did my wife want to kill me - yes. Was it worth it - 8 months ago I was ready to tow it to a wrecking yard but now that I can drive it, I love it.

Without the board this would have taken much more time and been alot more agravating and expensive. The help I got with some of the little things that were beyond me saved my bacon a number of times. As an example, I had no Idea 351M engine perches would work w/a 351W. So instead of spending $100 bucks on new 302 perches (I had looked in the boneyards for a week) I spent ten on 351M perches. ONe of the many, many little problems that this board helped me with.

I just wanted to say thank you to the members who helped and the folks who set this board up.

Jayson

 

I'm in a similiar situation with a 78 F150 4WD that I bought as a project for my youngest step-son. He is 14 and I figure it will be ready about the time he is old enough to drive it. He loves working on it which is good because the truck needs a lot of work. The engine is the only part that doesn't need rebuilding. The axles, transmission, and transfer case are going to need lots of attention.
The more we do, the more we find that needs attention.

We wanted this truck because we have another one (a 76) that is in good condition and my oldest step-son drives it.

Yes, this website is the best, I don't know what we Ford truck builders would do without it,

Thanks,
Phil

 

This is when my love began...

I bought a 79 f-150 w/ 300 I6 that had a knock to it but the body was in very good shape and the guy only wanted $75. So I pulled the motor planning on rebuilding. Then I found a 76 w/ a 390 in it and a the new engine had just been put in so I offered the guy $250 (he had it for sale for a while and was asking $800)and now I was the owner of two lovely fords. I thought I would just switch fenders and front end at first, maybe out of commission for a month. Now I am sitting, 5 months later, with the 79 cab and front end on it w/ a 3" body lift, black painted frame, soon to be MSD ignition, 33" tires on new chrome rims...and all the other goodies.


I think I will end up going a little overboard when all is said and done...but I think it will be worth it.

 

Wow man, that is a nice truck. I love the colors. Would you mind if I stole your idea with the charcoal grey? I want to create a custom dash with brushed aluminum and haven't been able to come up with a paint scheme that would work well with it. That charcoal grey would be awesome!

Check out my website and let me know if your truck looked anything like mine when you got it.

 

Very nice same boat here ton of money spent on truck and mostly all I did was take things off so far.

 

dont you love it when a plan comes together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the compliments. Like I said, I had a lot of help from the board. I will not stop posting either, there are always little things that I want to do or change and this is a great source of info. I'm also finding that I now know some of the questions that are being posted!
So I'm lucky, I have 2 vehicles that have boards dedicated to them, My 78 and a 93 Mustang GT. All I need to do is find a 96 Taurus Wagon Board and I'll be good to go!

Rocking M, the charcoal gray seems to suit the truck. If you go w/that color, put a light gray pinstripe around the indent that runs along the side, looks awsome. Unfortunately, as I said, my truck will need to be repainted so I'll pinstripe it after that. Your truck is in a hell of alot better condition than mine was. Your body looks fairly straight, doesn't look like you even have to replace any body panels. Yours should be alot easier than the nutroll I went through. It was fun but there were times when I had some serious thinking to do.

Jay,
78 F100

 

Great looking truck!

Before you have it repainted, you might want to look into wet sanding and buffing. I had a car that was painted by Earl Sheibs and it had a bunch of orange peel.

I started off with 1000 grit then 1500 grit on a 3M rubber sanding block. Once I got it flat, I used 3M rubbing compound and a professional buffer w/wool pad. then I went with a fine pad and 3M machine glaze.

Overall it took quite a bit of time, at least two weekends and it was a smaller car.

The results were amazing, it looked like a different car.

You might want to try it on a fender since you'll have to wet sand it anyways to the new paint job. You might be surprised, most paint jobs are fixable as long as you don't have adheision problems.

 

I thought about that and even aproached a professional painter to see if it could be done. Paint is too bad. It needs to be repainted. I plan on keeping the truck for a long time, I'm going to get a good paint job done, ie, stripped to bare metal.

Jayson

 

Cool truck oft gotta love those F100 shortbeds






Wiz

An Equal Opportunity Truck Lover!

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