Ol' Bessie
 

Well, here's the reason for my muddying up your perfectly good forum.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=177183&.jpg

She's sporting an endless list of "aftermarket enhancements", which can better be described as "home remedies." My favorites are the brick-red rattlecan job on the edges of the white roof, the manual backup light toggle under the dash, presumably from the floor shift conversion, and the dash-mounted horn button, because when you're trying to evade that errant pedestrian, you have all the time in the world to reach under the dash to hit the horn. Bed's rotted, but the cab corners and mounts look good. Haven't had the chance (or nerve) to look under the carpeting yet, but the corners and rockers are a good sign. I'll start going through it when I get it home next weekend.

I like her. She's sexy

Those are some thick goggles, man. Careful you don't fall off your bar stool!

Pending some unseen disaster (quite possible, I realize), she should clean up pretty nice. Fix the rust, repaint it the original color with the white roof, clean up the trim, and put a set of wheels on it, I think it'd look pretty good. I'll post more pics, probably this weekend.

Welcome c4!

Bessie looks great.
Where exactly are you looking to go w/ her?
Restore, restomod, DD???

Thanks guys. It doesn't need to be a DD since I usually ride the bus to the cubicle farm, but I'll want to use it as a truck. Not a ArdWrknTrk, just a WrknTrk. :) Ideally, clean it up & repaint, Windsor motor with a 4 or 5 speed with some upgrades to the steering/suspension depending upon what's out there. Going tan on the interior based on a really nice setup one guy posted over in the 73-79 threads. Then put some kind of bedliner and a Tonneau on it. The cool thing is it's driveable now (knock on wood), so I can take my time, especially since I don't depend on it. Although it's already working its powers; I'm sure I'll be convinced soon that life can't go on without it.

You're here now....the rest is osmosis!

nice truck man! my next door neighbor had the same truck,but a shortbed.it was in showroom condition. i might age myself,but how many guys remember how to drive a 3spd on the colum?

I had a '64 Dart slant six w/ a three on the tree.
That was in High School in the 70's
Just an H pattern sideways

Yeah, I was looking for a shortbed, but $$$$$$. So I'll have to do with this - I think I'll manage! Going down to pick it up tonight in DE. It was far from home, and I ran into weather with some pretty bald tires on the first attempt to get it back, but that's a long story you can get listening to pretty much any CW McCall song. And he's much more entertaining tellin' it. Who the hell is C.W. McCall?

shortend long-bed
 

Does anyone watch the auto shows on Spike network. On the show "Trucks, " they did an indepth on how to shorten a longbed to the short bed size. Its definitely top draw fabrication but its an interesting concept. Something to think about maybe.

Ha! That damn show was what got me into this mess to begin with! I got so frustrated sitting and watching that + Muscle Car without actually doing anything. I did see that truck they shortened - that's a great idea. As you might have seen from another thread, I'm still looking for a place to work on it, let alone take it down to the frame rails. Definitely keeping that in mind, tho.

Over 'n' out, boys. Gotta go catch a train to DE. Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the info. The to-do list is still pretty long and intimidating even with that scratched off it.

I'll say this about the truck - it's a lot more reliable than Amtrak! It's home, dripping comfortably in the driveway (though not much).

Good to hear that.
Nothing like an old Ford dripping in the driveway. All mine did that. Even the '83 with the newly built motor in it. Don't ask!

Here are some pics I took last weekend just to document things as they are. They will look much nicer next to some "after" shots that are hopefully down the road. Nothing too exciting, but BIGKEN said pics, so here you go.