Well i picked up my new hotrod.
1977 f100 custom
std cab short stepside bed 2wd.
302, c4, dana44
came with edelbrock carb and headers with true dual exhaust dumping out from under the steps behind the cab.

replaced a rusted through rear shock bracket on the driver's side and replaced that shock, the other three were new, they just tied the old one up. bet that drove weird.

the truck has vintage alloy wagon wheels but there were miss matched mag nuts, only 16 of them, and about 10 washers. the passenger rotor had been replaced and the lug studs were so short only 2 threads were catching so i replaced all 5 and bought a new set of mag nuts with washers so it will actually roll around without the front wheel falling off.

all four tires were flat when i bought it, there is a pair of 9"x15" wheels and a pair of 7.5"x15". the 7.5's were on the back and there were 235/75r15 on all four wheels.
two of them were still good tires so i dismounted all four, wirewheeled then sanded the bead seats on all four wheels so they would actually seal to the tires then put two of the 235/75 back on the 9'wide wheels and put them on the back.
on the front i had a set of about bald 195/60r15 tires left over from my s10 and put them on the 7.5" wide wheels up front. should give it a decent rake.

arrival on the trailer pulled by the f350, beside the f150


pretty clean looking truck with some previous owner custom touches


steel over wood over steel bed floor will be redone


clean engine bay, manual brakes, power steering, factory AC


side shot


front 3/4


hover mode

 

Nice ride

randomstuffcauseoriginalreplywastooshort

 

Congrats Hairball11. That's a nice looking truck you have to start with and having a/c will make it even better cruising around this summer.

 

i think i did alright for eleven hundy.

i've had it running a couple of times off an electric fuel pump to a gas can and a shot of ether to get it started.

hopefully getting the electric choke wired up will get rid of the ether starting. i'm just going to wire the electric pump in to bypass the old mechanical pump and see how well/clean the draw from the tank is. otherwise it wil be bed off and tank cleaning time.

 

Nice truck and I love red...

 

$1100? FFS, that's a 5G truck around here.

 

That's a nice looking flareside. I've always liked the look of the shortbed and it ought to scoot with a 302. Not too many like that still around. Where are you located? DFW area?

 

St. Louis area. That's why finding one that wasn't a rusty sieve was a challenge. Even not fully running a good body with clean title was worth it to me

I've wanted a red step side since I was 8

 

Real nice truck ! congrats on the find ..

 

I thought I seen a Missouri tag on the F150...have you been by the FTE Missouri chapter?

Come on by, the link is way at the bottom in the forum list, so I posted it here for you and make sure and stop on by the monthly chat /bs thread and say hello.

Missouri Chapter - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...al-thread.html

 

Ah, I didn't look close enough. I thought that was Texas tag and inspection stickers on the windshield. Sorry 'bout that.

Good luck with it. It looks like a really nice rig.

 

new shock mount and shock


think i need about a 4" drop


i also need to find 4 3.5" diameter center caps


the tail gate had this weird smooth panel on the back complete with ford and GT emblems.
the top edge was cracked bondo, so today i worked my fingers into the crack and started pulling


the panel was just glued on with bondo


the tailgate was fairly complete, i just need to replace some sheet metal on the hinge edge.


now the panel i pulled off was rusty on one side and felt like fiberglass so i bent it in half to see what would happen. Holy Bondo batman, it was 1/2" thick in the center.


so naturally the thing to do was see how well the bondo was stuck to the sheet with some destructive testing courtesy of 44 magnum.




few 44 rounds and some 9mm later i delaminated the bondo from the panel.


happy 4th of july!

 

I love the pinstriping boxing the lettering on the tailgate.

 

well it's been a while but i got to working on the 77.
today i started in on the tailgate.
the bottom corner was all rotted out as was the entire hinge edge


i started in thinking i'd just replace the bad stuff, then figured it would be easier to start from scratch.

i used 3/4' angle, 1x3 box tubing and stainless 1" tubing for the upper and lower edges.

then i used the metal cutting saw to salvage the center section out of the original tailgate.


i laid the center section on the frame and centered it.


i am using strips of stainless to be the contoured edges top and bottom
here is the inside lower strip in place


got the outer lower strip and upper inner strip in place tonight before calling it quits.
outside


inside


should be finishing it up tomorrow.

 

Nice job on the tailgate.