Well fellas, I finally found a good parts truck to restore mine. Only thing i'm missing now is a 8ft. dual tank box. But I got the most important for now, the cab. The truck I bought for 500$ is a 1990 Ford F150 shortbed special edition of some sort. No engine or transmission in it, originally had a 351 with a 5 speed. Has new doors, fenders, tailgate and hood. Only needs driver side rocker. (will replace both sides)

Major resto plans:
Strip everything from the frame.
Sand blast and re-paint the frame, and axles.
Swap the cab, body parts and floor hump.

I won't get into the details now, but I do have a few questions and I'd like to get some thaughts on them.

1st, frame will be sand blasted and re-painted black. But also I want to "truck bed coat" the whole frame so it never rusts again. Hows that sound to you guys??

2nd, I want to "truck bed coat" everywhere under the body, (under the cab, box, fuel tanks etc.) does that sound like a good idea?

3rd, now this may sound abit weird, but here goes. I know my 7.3 has over 568,000km (376,000 miles) but I don't want to touch it! I'll give it a full tune up (8 glow plugs, injectors, maybe IP etc.) but no rebuilt nothing of that. I do want to take out 2 pistons (#1 and #8) to look at them see what they look like, rings, bores, pistons and bearings. If all is good I'd like to leave it as it is, just change all gaskets and seals. Does that sound like a good plan, or should I look for something else or do something else?

The big challenge of this is i'm trying to keep the truck as original as I can!

Thanks for reading guys! apriciate it.

P.S
restoration will start anytime this winter only if we can find a shop to do it in, if not, we'll do it right in our driveway in spring. But i'm sure we'll find a shop.

 

you may also think about spraying your rockers themselves.i sprayed about the botton 10 inches on mine all the way down the truck.mine is 2-tone so i just masked off the bottom strip sanded re-masked the rough edges on the tape o tore up and sprayed.and when i say sanded i just scuffed it with 80 grit about two swipes on the same spot.i used toi spray liners and i figured out thats the best way to do it oh and wipe it down with denatured alcohol.the alcohol will soften the area your scuffed and help the liner bond.if you spray your frame and such make sure its primed well then scuffed.bedliner will not stick to bare metal as well as a primed or painted surface

 

get a flat bed

 

I second the flatbed. Thats my plan for mine. Gonna finish the repairs on the cab, replace both front fenders and through some stacks on her. Some fresh paint and ill have a decent lookin truck.
Take lots of pics.

 

if you never want her to rust again.spend the couple hundred for POR-15.
if you dont plan on keeping it until you die,just sand it,prime it,and paint it.this will last for a few yrs until you dont care,cus your moving on to a newer truck,or you think you can run it into the ground this time around before she can rot.

you dont need to sand nor prime to apply POR-15.
you do need to top coat it,wherever the uv rays will hit her.

 

how could he want any thing else epcape this old idi

 

lol yeah.
well because in a few more yrs the 7.3 PS trucks will be cheap enough for us guys to buy (hopefully by then,more reasonable replacement part prices) and should be affordable aftermarket parts for us to have fun with.

 

ps power chock lol there parts will never be as cheap as the idi and they have computer in them no terminator of me lol

 

I will be making a cheap wooden flat bed for now untill I can find a box for it, and since I'll have a flat bed, i'll put some Stacks for the time being. Their going to be straight stacks

 

I plan on dieying with this truck! Nothing will seperate me from it!! What's POR-15?

 

You may want to check out Rust Bullet as well.

They used to be FTE sponsors, but I can't get to the list right now to see if they still are.

That is the product I would like to use on mine.

Both Rust Bullet and POR 15 are good products, and both are expensive.
But my reading has me leaning toward Rust Bullet.

 

yeah,both seem to be pretty good.
John,just google "POR-15" and their home page comes right up.
up on the top of the page click on "what is POR-15"
the PO had already applied this to the truck.
it looks like the frame and undercarriage are sealed forever in a hard slightly rino bedliner type of stuff.-much different than just a coat of paint look.you can tell by looking at it.
its impressive looking stuff.im very happy its coated under there.
if you plan on the keeping the truck for good.this or rust bullet like Dave suggests,will do the trick,and stop the rust for good.but yeah! its gunna cost ya!

 

Oh ok i've heard of that stuff before POR-15. But like I was saying earlier, is it as good "truck bed coating" the frame with lets say the Rhino bed liner spray on stuff? Or is it a better invesment with POR-15/Rust-Bullet?

 

The problem with say Rinoliner going on the frame is the existing rust.

If you take the frame apart, sand blast everything and then paint it, you would be fine.

POR 15 or Rust Bullet will stop the rust without that much surface preperation.
So the cost is directly offset by the time and labor savings.

 

So using Rhinoliner is as good as POR-15 then? The frame will be sand blasted and re-painted either way.