Lifting yer truck...
 

I was wondering about these lift kits I hear about. If I do an 'At Home' lift can I get away without welding? How do these lift kits work?

Isn't yours a 2wd?
I think the lift kits for Ford are bolt-in, no welding to the truck. The kits are very simple really, the most basic ones have springs for front and rear, drop brackets for the center and radius arm pivots, and shocks. The more involved ones have new radius arms. At the time you do the lift, you will need new brake hoses. I would recommend braided stainless hoses, since they flex less and give better feel. Let me know if you want to do this, a shop down the road makes them and they are much cheaper than a catalog.

Shoot, that's right I forgot you did this. I actually inherited the same year make and model but a 4x4 with (hopefully... so he says, the manual tranny) It would be my project truck. I'm going to drop a 429 in it and lift it up. Have not decided rather to switch out the tires between the two or buy a bigger set.

JOHN, you can do a body lift on the 4X2 and see if you like the look. If you do then go for the gusto on the 4X4. the body lifts are usually a couple of houndred dollars and the gusto is usually 500 to a 1000 bucks an inch including labor

I would never, ever put a body lift on anything. There was a newer Toyota in the junkyard that had a body lift, apparently hit a tree or pole in the snowstorms this past winter with the passenger side door. Not a whole lot of damage to the truck, aside from the fact that the cab was laying on it's side next to the truck. The longer bolts of the body lift broke, allowing the cab to come loose from the frame.
Plus, you only gain visually, your approach and departure angles are the same, your ground clearance is the same, etc.
If you want to do it right, throw a straight axle under it. On that body style, it's pretty much 4" lift minimum, better with 6". Then you can run a 36" tire without any clearance issues, and have enough strength to beat on it all day long.

And I agree fully with that..Body lifts just seem to make everything weak, plus, then you have to worry about linkages and steering components not working together just right anymore (saw a guy with a 4" body lift have his steering shaft slip out of itself)

Yeah, simplest lifts are springs in the front, blocks in the rear.. Not the best, but that seems to be the way a lot of people go these days. If I can find a straight axle for mine, its going skyward this summer.

So I need to find this "straight axle".

You can thank my old landlord for not having an axle to give you-
An axle from a 78-79 F250 is ideal, but one from a 75+ F250 works, as long as you get a high pinion axle. You do need to make new perches and get new springs, the rear springs are the expensive ones, though. I went with Explorer Pro-Comp springs, and was able to get rid of the rear blocks so I didn't have any axle wrap issues. They were something like $350 or $400 for the pair, but well worth it.
I do have the steering linkage to throw a straight axle under your truck I'd be happy to give you, though.

I tend to disagree, I have a three inch body lift on my toyota, it does accomplish a neccesary evil, gaining TIRE clearance, so that you gain ground clearance through tire size. and pretty much any truck if you hit it hard enough will do something similar. the downside to this is that it raises your CG slightly(body weight is less than drivetrain) so you have a slightly more noticable body roll, and tendency towards top heavy, this can be overcome through wider stance, via wider tires, wider backspacing on your rims, and various other means.

approach and departure angles also gain slightly from the tire changes, that are now available to you due to the body lift... however, I would not recommend ANY body lift over 3INCHES

on the axle bit I DEFINITELY AGREE 100% do not skimp there, when lifting, do not use blocks between your leafs, and the axle housing, as they will cause added leverage on your leaf springs under load(throttle) and thus changing your pinion angle, which will grenade your diff, another bad side effect of this is that eventually the blocks will spit out and you toast shocks, and diff or worse

for more tech on four wheel drives, check out a local four wheeling bulletin board. www.nw-wheelers.com/forum will yield you a wealth of information