Little about me... 30 years old and an aircraft mechanic by trade. I can do pretty much anything that needs to be done mechanically on a vehicle, but I'm not much of a body man. Can't weld, but I know people that can and I intend to learn it myself someday. I'm a Ford guy at heart, grew up around lots of them, but have only ever owned Rangers. My first was an '84 2wd. I'm building an '86 into what I hope will be a nice V8 street truck. My current go-to truck is a '99 Ranger 4wd that I've had since 2006 and has been my hunting truck and back-up DD for the last 6 years. The '99 has been a good truck, but it's coming time to replace it with something larger.
Growing up my dad drove a 68/70 F-100 4wd. He had several other trucks, but this one was always there. It was his "big truck" until he bought a 2000 F-250 around 8-10 years ago. Growing up I drove that truck as often as he would let me, which wasn't much because he never trusted the brakes in it. Well the truck has been parked in his back yard since he bought the F-250, and I want to build it to replace the 99 Ranger (or I might keep both?). He's already said that when/if I get ready to do something with it, it's mine to build.
From what I've been told it is a '68 F-100 4x4 chassis with a 390 FE, a 4 speed manual transmission (granny first), and a 2 speed transfer case. Currently has a 1" suspension lift, 2" body lift and 32" tires. Dad also said something about having installed heads and intake from a Thunderbird for more power? The current body is a 70 or 71 long bed that was a former farm truck when he bought it. It was used to haul fertilizer for years and the bed is rotted out, but it was better than the body on the truck when he bought it.
Current plans are to:
- Replace bed (or body if price is right)
- Remove body lift
- Relocate gas tank
- Install Disk Brakes
- Install EFI
- Install OD (gear splitter, gear vender, or 5/6 speed swap)
- EDIT: Add A/C
I'll be reading and asking questions over the next year to two trying to get a plan of attack and figure out what parts I'll be needing to get this truck fixed up. As soon as I have the current project running reliably I plan to start on this one.
I didn't have a plan when I started on the '86 Ranger and I tackled a lot more than I should have at once. As such I lost interest and motivation in building it and the project has been stalled for a few years. That's something that I think wouldn't have happened if I had done a little along and been able to drive it while building it. As such I want to start on this project with clear plan of what I intend to build and how I plan to do it, and to keep it a usable truck while I build it. I know that unexpected issues will arise when working on a 45 year old truck, and I'll face those when they happen.
from Massachusetts.
