ford141
got torque?
So I finally pulled my old '79 out of the shed and snapped a few pics of it, so I figured it was about time that I started a project thread about it. I bought this truck 3 years ago, original PA truck, BUT NO RUST!!! That statement may sound highly unlikely, but it will make a little more sense once I explain a little background on the truck.
Original specs: 79 F250 Ranger 2wd, 460/C6 auto, Camper Special package, AM/FM stereo, A/C, tilt wheel, cruise, delay wipers. From what I can gather, the camper special package adds rear overload springs, dual-piston front brake calipers, front and rear swaybars.
From what I can gather, I am the third owner of this truck. The original owner bought it new to pull a camper trailer. He had a 5th wheel and a CB radio installed, and pretty much only used it to pull his trailer. He kept it in the garage when it wasn't used, and only pulled his camper in the summer, therfore it never saw any salt. When the owner died (sometime around 2002??) the truck was sold to a collector a few miles away from me, who kept it along with a lot of other cars in a large barn, and only drove it occasionally on nice days. I purchased the truck off of this collector.
When I recieved the truck it had 42K original miles on it. I removed the 5th wheel hitch, running boards, mudflaps, and bed rails to clean up the appearance a little, then snapped a pic:
I do have a few pics that I recently found of the truck the day I brought it home, but I still have to scan them in.
Right from the start, my plan for this truck was to build a "muscletruck". Basically I planned to leave the exterior pretty close to original except for cleannig it up a little to maintain the classic good looks, but modify the suspension to allow it to handle and drive good, as well as adding a few well-placed performance mods. In all honesty, I should have started with a half-ton, but this truck was just too nice to pass up, and the deal was right too.
The first step towards this goal was suspension. Added 3" dropped I-beams to get the front down for a better stance, and flipped the axle on top of the springs in the rear to get the back down a total of 5". At this time I also swapped the front spindles to half-ton hardware (dropped beams wont fit on the original 3/4 ton spindles) which gave me a 5x5.5 bolt pattern, and installed a posi-9" rear with 3.55 gears to replace the open-diff D60. I also added dual exhaust, a welded-in roll pan, and a pre-72 timing chain in the 460 (advances camshaft) at the same time.
I don't have many in-progress pics, but here are a few while I was finishing the rear:
I C-notched the rear while I was back there. This wasn't exactly necessary for the flip kit, but it may come in handy later...
The roll-pan going in:
After completion:
Those pictures were taken summer 2006, more updates to follow.
Original specs: 79 F250 Ranger 2wd, 460/C6 auto, Camper Special package, AM/FM stereo, A/C, tilt wheel, cruise, delay wipers. From what I can gather, the camper special package adds rear overload springs, dual-piston front brake calipers, front and rear swaybars.
From what I can gather, I am the third owner of this truck. The original owner bought it new to pull a camper trailer. He had a 5th wheel and a CB radio installed, and pretty much only used it to pull his trailer. He kept it in the garage when it wasn't used, and only pulled his camper in the summer, therfore it never saw any salt. When the owner died (sometime around 2002??) the truck was sold to a collector a few miles away from me, who kept it along with a lot of other cars in a large barn, and only drove it occasionally on nice days. I purchased the truck off of this collector.
When I recieved the truck it had 42K original miles on it. I removed the 5th wheel hitch, running boards, mudflaps, and bed rails to clean up the appearance a little, then snapped a pic:
I do have a few pics that I recently found of the truck the day I brought it home, but I still have to scan them in.
Right from the start, my plan for this truck was to build a "muscletruck". Basically I planned to leave the exterior pretty close to original except for cleannig it up a little to maintain the classic good looks, but modify the suspension to allow it to handle and drive good, as well as adding a few well-placed performance mods. In all honesty, I should have started with a half-ton, but this truck was just too nice to pass up, and the deal was right too.
The first step towards this goal was suspension. Added 3" dropped I-beams to get the front down for a better stance, and flipped the axle on top of the springs in the rear to get the back down a total of 5". At this time I also swapped the front spindles to half-ton hardware (dropped beams wont fit on the original 3/4 ton spindles) which gave me a 5x5.5 bolt pattern, and installed a posi-9" rear with 3.55 gears to replace the open-diff D60. I also added dual exhaust, a welded-in roll pan, and a pre-72 timing chain in the 460 (advances camshaft) at the same time.
I don't have many in-progress pics, but here are a few while I was finishing the rear:
I C-notched the rear while I was back there. This wasn't exactly necessary for the flip kit, but it may come in handy later...
The roll-pan going in:
After completion:
Those pictures were taken summer 2006, more updates to follow.
