So, I've been meaning to create a project thread for a while to document my Crew Cab restoration project so figured I should just get to it!

It all started when I purchased my first truck, a 1975 Ford F250 4x4.



I have always been a Ford owner, and in the past had several classic Mustangs, a couple of newer ones, wife drives a Flex, you get the picture.

Have been hinting to the wife for a couple years that I wanted to get a dent, but the only examples she had seen were 2wd landscaper's that were all beat to hell. Once I found some nice examples of highboys she changed her tune and agreed to it. I found this gem about 2 hours away on CL and it fit the bill perfectly.

Immediate use was for lumber store runs for remodelling the house and lots of trips to the landfill. Also had plans of getting a boat or trailer and using it for camping fishing.

After adding to the child count though realized it was never going to work with 2 kids, wife, and the dog. Started talking again with the wife, and decided we'd just sell it and get a crew cab. Sounds easy, right? Well, 6 months later and nothing I finally found a crew cab of the right year (wanted '75 or older to avoid smog testing). Only problem it was quite a project. Believe it or not my wife actually encouraged me to still buy it even though it was going to be a huge undertaking. She actually prefers older vehicles over newer models so we were good to go.

Here is the new project as it came off the delivery truck:




Notice the awesome color scheme

 

 

This will be fun to watch. Love them crew cabs.

 

I want a crew so bad!! Looks like this'll be a great build.

 

Almost immediately ran into my first hurdle. The previous owner modified the power steering box to use a 79 4x4 box. Great, I wanted to do this mod anyway. Unfortunately the pitman arm hits the leaf springs




Figured it would be an easy fix though to swap the drop pitman arm for a stock Ford one for the 79. Luckily found a guy on CL that wanted the reverse so we met and swapped.

Got it back home, and more problems. When the PO aligned the mounting plate to the inside of the frame, he used the drop pitman arm for reference. The stock one actually rubs and catches on the bottom of the frame. At least it clears the leaf springs though. Started trying to figure out how to rectify this situation and since I have zero welding skills wasn't sure how to proceed.

Now for the reason this all started in 2006 and it is now 2013 and the truck is still in pieces. This is more of a personal note, if you are just interested in the project itself you can skip the rest of this reply and go to the next where we will get happier

Basically life threw me a triple whammy. This all happened back in 2006. First, my son encountered some health issues. During this process, probably due to all the stress, my wife started to have health issues of her own. The cost of all of this caused us to have issues with paying the mortgage so we spent a year under threat of foreclosure while trying to get through the financial burned.

We managed to keep our house which most in our situation would have lost so we are thankful for that. Most importantly for this thread, losing the house would have meant losing the garage and Crew Cab would have been sold.

So that is why a project started in 2006 is just now really getting progress. Finances recovered a bit, but still very tight. But at the point now I need to finish before the kids grow up too much and invalidate my reason for the Crew Cab in the first place LOL.

Enough of my sob story, from here on out all progress reports

 

Now that things have settled for me personally, back to work.

Decided the easiest way to fix would be to oval out three of the mounting holes as I really only needed a slight tweak to make everything clear. Once that was done, Cut out a piece of steel same thickness as the frame to keep the bolt tight in place and welded it in place.

This in itself was quite a challenge for me as I had never welded. My Father-In-Law had access to a nice welder and gave me a quick 1/2 hour crash course on welding, and then sent me home with his welder an a nice $400 Speedglas auto-darkening helmet. Struggled quite a bit getting it right on scrap metal until it seemed I had the hang of it and proceeded to weld up the slack in the holes. Also, PO had just left the cross-member which had to be cut open and ugly. I spent quite a bit of time forming a piece of steel to fit in place and welded it up, painted, and called it a day. I think it came out pretty good for an amateur job. What I lack in experience I make up for in persistence

 

X2! Sorry you've had to go through so much but these trucks can be great therapy, at least that's how I justify the expense.

 

Now that the steering box is mounted, I decided I needed to start on paint/body work. Once again, I have zero experience in this department. Luckily I have a secret weapon : my Father-In-Law. He's been in the auto paint industry for 45 years. Started in a body shop, then moved into auto-body supply business.

He's been managing a paint store locally for most of his career and really know his stuff.

He managed to get two gallons of basecoat, clearcoat, and a gallon of primer at cost for me, huge savings. He then started teaching me all the in's and out's of how to go about doing the body work, paint prep, primer, base, clear, etc. A lot of information to take in but I took lots of notes, messed up a lot, learned from mistakes, and I think it's starting to come together. I doubt I'll be up to professional quality standards, but it will be good enough for me.

I decided I'm going to have to do most of the painting piecemeal as I don't have the time, or experience to pull off a full truck painting in one-shot.


Started with the firewall as I wanted it done so I could start going over the engine.

 

Thanks! Now that I'm back on track it will be that much sweeter once it's all done. I figure, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

 

Forgot to note, I ended up choosing a Jeep Green Metallic paint.

Looks awesome in person. Can't wait to see it in the sunlight but for now truck is immobile in the garage.

Going to have to take some current pictures tomorrow to show the current state of the truck.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, gonna be a sweet truck. Subscribed

 

Looks great. I hope you plan to keep your other truck too; that's a beautiful color scheme.

 

Nice project....great color choice as well.

 

Looks like an awesome project! Keep your head up and the hammer down brother. Subscribed

 

When I first got the truck, I was a little iffy on the color scheme. But since then I've grown used to it I really like it as well.

I definitely would like to keep it, it is actually a much more original truck than the CC I'm building. Not sure if I have the space or money to though but I'll try. Fairly close to being considered a survivor. All of the modifications were done right after the truck was bought in '75 for use with a cab-over camper. Primarily the roof visor, bumper and winch, saddle tank, and some lights. Spent its whole life as a recreation vehicle camping and fishing. I'm the second owner, original owner passed away and his daughter inherited and sold to me. She said it was his pride and joy, he washed and waxed every weekend and kept really good care of it.

It's starting to show its age though, the brown paint is oxidizing and I'm starting to get surface rust in a few locations. Drive train is all original, never rebuilt and still running strong (lots of leaks though).