Ok everyone, I am graduation high school this week and i want to spend this summer restoring my '78 F-150 to like new condition. The only real work has to be done on the body (a few dents and a decent ammount of rust and needs a paint job) and the interior (no carpet, dash is worn out and faded and I need new weather stripping and there is some rust in the cab)I was wondering if everyone could give me and tips, helpful hints, or whatever you could provide me with because I have never tried to restore a truck before and im pretty nervous about starting. Thanks everyone!

Joe

 

Let me say this. I started with a semi clean 77, and have somehow managed to dump over $10 grand into it. This is with taking every cheapskate shortcut to replacing/rebuilding everything in the truck. I figure I have about another $7K to finish it. (look in my gallery) How far do you want to go with restoring it? If you want to make it look new, you had better get a really good job because your truck will never get finished, and you will always be broke.

The first thing I would do is to find another form of transportation, so you dont have to rely on your truck to get you places. Then I would do the inside of the cab first. I would first take the seat, anything plasitc, or anything you dont want to get paint on or messed up out of the truck. I would Then fix the rust holes (by welding new metal in place) Rough up the old paint with some 80 grit sandpaper and shoot some filler type primer on the inside of the cab. Sand the filler primer down to get out any imperfections(400 grit), and shoot the cab with the paint of your choice. Dont use anything from a rattle can, chances are good that it wont stay looking nice for very long. Buy yourself some 2 stage paint, it will hold up pretty decent, even the cheap stuff. Shoot some black on the window track where the vent is too. When that is done, put in your sound deadner (carpet padding, dynamat, rubberized undercoating, whatever) and carpet. Install the chrome and plastic pieces (replace what looks trashed). Buy a dash cap, silicone it ontop of your old one. Install the new weather striping and window felts. Install the door door panels, and handles, throw on a seat cover and stuff it back into your truck. Keep in mind taht doing all of this will cost you a minimum of $500 if you buy good paint, and replace the worn stuff like the dash and door panels. Restoring an old truck isnt cheap, and you wont get anything close to what you put into it when you sell it

After this is all said and done, get yourself some nice rims and put them on teh truck so that it will look nicer without alot of work.

If all of this sounds like too much work, put a seat cover on the seat, and paint everything flat black so nobody will notice how bad the truck is. Putting on nice shiney rims add to the effect of restoration in progress.

Local junkyards might be able to help with finding good parts to replace what needs to be replaced


Tony

'77 F250, 4X4 460 transplantee, "Flamer"
'74 F250. 460, "beater" now "1 dead ford"
'73 F250, "midnight auto" now a trailer for the flamer

 

First plan your project. Make a list of the things you would like to replace. Get some catalogs from vendors so you can comparison shop. When your all done planning if you decide to buy a lot of new components save up and then contact the vendor of your choice. If you are going to make a large purchase you might be able to get wholesale rates.

Shop on e-bay. A good source for hard to find parts. However know what you are bidding on and don't get caught up in a bidding war. You are trying to get parts cheap not win some ego contest.

 

All I can say is just take it one fender at a time or you won't be satsfied with you results.Make sure you get rid of the rust & replace it with new metal or it will keep coming back.


Eric


'78 302 soon to be 351w 30 over