The wife's build
 

Well the time has come to start on the wife's truck. We spent the morning getting the truck in position for an engine swap. My nephew is going to do all the body and paint for free as a school project so gonna save some nice cash there.

The 1976 F100

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...a47c26fc98.jpg

Getting the truck positioned for the swap.

The college requires all vehicles to be running and driving to start a project. My wifes father had a truck he no longer used and enough spare parts we can make it fit so we are going to cannibalize his truck to make hers run.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...7c26d1374e.jpg

Hood removed prepping for removing the front clip.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...eb95590d8c.jpg

Hood sitting on top of the donor truck.

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Front clip removed and engine waiting to be plucked.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...ebb454da62.jpg

Engine separated from tranny and transfer case.

Right now there isn't too much our plan is to be pretty much a resto with some light mods. The truck has a lot of sentimental value to my wife as it was her dad's first truck. Our plans are pretty simple we are going to leave the truck 4WD. Of course, we have to go back to black there is no other way. I plan on doing some suspension work and lowering the truck a few inches. Not to the point of being a street dragger but enough to be noticeably different around town. Some larger alloy rims in a color palette to match. With the interior done around the same scheme. The original dash pad is far to cracked to even think of saving but I have a donor one that is a lot nicer With the black paint we were thinking of doing a gun metal grey for the wheel with matching inserts on the upholstery and white or grey stitching. A darker colored carpet most likely in the grey the darker the better. All in all, I want to make a really nice little street truck.

Power wise the engine that we pulled today is a built 390 bored 40 over with some really nice components. The engine has been sitting for the better portion of nearly 10 years so I am going to break it down replace all the seals and re-blueprint everything make sure it is balanced and ready to run. when it was running the engine had enough power to take the front tires off the ground and it will be able to do even more with a nice shiny new supercharger under the hood. Most likely going to stick with the 4spd that was in the truck when we started but I think I am going to rebuild it with a different gear ratio to help meet the new power output. All in all, should be a great project and a lot of fun.

awesome... def following. good luck with the project!!

Sounds like a killer project. Can't wait to see this one come together!

Been looking for a pair of those valve covers. If you wanna part with em', pm me.

Thanks guys I am really looking forward to it. and GM I know how hard they are to find and thats why I am keeping them lol.

good to see another one rescued :-jammin
them family heirlooms sure make it worth it
I too am subscribing to this thread,
can't wait to see how it progresses
be sure to post like a oh say ......gazillion pics.....:-X04:-X04

Before the weather decided to make us chickens run back inside to get warm we got some more work done today didn't feel like much progress however we did get the motor completely off the truck and the tranny and transfer case out of the tunnel.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...9f29b4b51d.jpg


Tired of trying to use the cherry picker in the dirt time for the big boy toys.

My father-in-law had this nice little winch trailer to use and after an hour of fighting in the dirt trying to move the old big block we gave up and moved things around for the trailer to pick the engine and tranny with. BEST DECISION EVER. Has a nice extendable boom and the winch gearing you can't even feel the weight, plus the boom swivels so it will make picking the engine and tranny from the donor to the '76 a lot easier.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...e4c4da80f2.jpg


My nephew and father-in-law prepping the donor truck.

Before the weather shut us down for the day we did start on getting things removed from the donor truck so we can just pick and drop the other engine in place once we switch motor towers.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...b75b32acd8.jpg


Donor engine, Ford 300 inline 6 and granny 4spd she ain't pretty but it runs and drives.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...584ccd3c2c.jpg


Nice big hole ready for the next piece.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...d498cb1eb8.jpg


390 in the back of my truck ready to head back to the house to be tripped before going to the machine shop.

Loaded the old engine in my truck and took it home till I can start work on it.

Decided since I had a bit of daylight and my house hadn't started snowing yet I would switch out the emblem to the cool area code emblem made by a friend of mine. I had read a lot of posts about how hard those are to take off. Yea one of the easiest things I have ever removed two little lock nuts knock the pins off and the darn thing falls off.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...5a08d4f22d.jpg


A little side project going to replace the front emblem.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...3d9f9962b9.jpg


Looks nice and shiny.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...b4006dad62.jpg


Close up of the new emblem.

Man cool truck! Im in the middle of a build for my wifes truck too. The things we do for our women!

Seems like opening the wallet is the easy part sometimes.

Got a little bit further with the donor truck luckily the weather has cooperated and the snow didn't stick and the temp came back up.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...19ef6f677b.jpg

Front clip off ad motor disconnected from the cab


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Cap unbolted and rolled out of the way


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Cab sitting in the bed of the truck.