Pat here in the cold state of MD. Last April an associate of mine asked if I knew of anybody who would tow away an old truck. His father passed away and left behind a '77 F150 Ranger 4x4. As I had been looking for a replacement for the family hauler, a '67 Chevy C10(which is becoming unsafe at any speed!), I allowed that I might be able to help him out. Truck was located in the depths of Baltimore, about 20 miles away. So- Dad and I hooked up his box trailer and went to see what was what. Well, the truck hadn't run in over a year, was full of trash, covered with an insane amount of bird crap, and had several almost flat tires. But- added some coolant and threw a battery in her and she started right up, though the radiator had a leak about midway up the core. Drove her into the trailer(I had to crawl out thru the window as the doors wouldn't open far enough inside the box.)
Anyway, since we got the truck home, we did the following to get it on the road- replaced radiator and heater hoses, rebuilt the carb(several times, see other thread), replaced wiper housings, repaired rear slider, dropped fuel tank and replaced fill and vent hoses, treated tank exterior with POR-15, replaced the starter and EGR valve, repaired the parking brakes(new cables at rear wheels, and all the pieces inside the drums had been discarded and had to be replaced), new plugs and wires, and a cheap seat cover. Also sprayed some blue spray bomb paint where the bed caught on fire some time in the past. Still need to make the dash lights work, been to cold to crawl under the dash, plus I've been using the truck as a daily driver since I wrecked my Nissan right before Xmas. Also wants the rear slip joint in the drive shaft replaced, but we've implemented a stop-gap band aid for that until funding becomes available. Patched a large hole in the bed and moved the spare to the bed.
All told, we've got about $700 in it at this point. Not bad for a freebie, no? My very first vehicle was a '54 F250 that I bought in high school back in '83. This Ranger is the only other Ford ever in the family, hopefully it will stick around for another 20 years under our care.
Here are shots of the truck as it came home, nothing done to it yet.





And, after a little cleaning up ...



This truck is too nice to use as a serious beater, so I'll slowly work on making it pretty again, but maintaining it as a working truck. It's a lot safer than the Chevy it's replacing!
I'll be around with Ford specific questions from time to time, and general mechanical stuff. My major focus is AMC/Nash, and I'm a bit of a specialist on auto a/c systems, so I'll look for other questions and help out where I can.
Stay warm, y'all ...

Pat D.

 

I love stories like this! GREAT find! Boy...when you love these trucks it makes you feel so good when a whole truck, or even just parts can be had for next to nothing. Makes me think that a lot of people are foolish to consider this stuff "junk".

 

Nice truck & Welcome to FTE.

 

I like it........

 

yes nice truck you dont well i dont see these around in my part of mass
shes a keeper
edit i can see the chev peekin out back
now i cant see the whole thing but someone else could get just excited about that in the same way

 

Real nice find for free!

 

that is a really clean truck for maryland, most of the ones I find around here are rusted to pieces, where at in md are you? I'm in cecil county

 

welcome to the site. great find! and good story.

 

HB, I'm right down I95 at exit 74 in Joppa. Got a few buddies who live across the river, Elkton and NE. 'Preciate the welcome, folks. Here's a pic of the tired ol' Chevy that the Ford replaces. Chevy done real good for us over the last 25 years, never failed to start no matter how cold, sometimes below 0. Though it did pull a rocker stud for no good reason once, and on another occasion wiped a cam lobe for no good reason. Musta been GM design flaws Note the many custom trick mods ... Also, cosmetically, it looks the same as it did 25 years ago.

 

shoot that chevy and put it out of its misery.......lol welcome and nice truck!(ford not chebbie)

 

That's too funny!

 

That is one sorry looking Chevrolet. I cant help but think of the Sanford and Son theme music.... nice score on the ford though.

 

I've played car tag in the woods with nicer trucks than that Chevy haha! Welcome. What kind of AMC's are you into? Any I might of seen around at car shows in md or pa?

 

if you need any parts I have about 14 of these trucks right now, some are for parts, some are for fixing. I'm in northeast

 

Possibly, Dad and I try try make the show in Macungie every August, and we have an AMC meet in Gettysburg every May, as well as an "All AMC Day" at Cecil County Dragway in July or August, the Mid-Atlantic AMX club rents the track for the day and we have a show and racing, lots of fun. I've got a '70 AMX and a '67 Rambler American, Dad has about a dozen AMC/Nash examples from 1965 back to 1923. We're really, really sick

HB, appreciate the info, I'll give you a shout if we run into something we can't lay hands on.
Pat D.