Hello from Alaska

[RustedHistory]

Hello everyone, my name is Austin. I am a 17 year old gearhead in Alaska, I own two 1971 Ford F250 Highboys. I've been using this website since 2015 when I bought my first '71. I bought the red Ford from a junkyard in 2015. It originally came off of a farm owned by a guy that abused everything he owned. It had been sitting since 1984. Originally a 300 inline six truck, but someone put a 360 in it somewhere along the line. I was pretty clueless about mechanics then, but I was up for the challenge. I worked on the truck all summer, going by this website, manuals, etc.. for help along the way. The truck needed a lot, I replaced the common parts such as points, rotor, cap, plug wires, etc. I ended up putting a whole new wiring harness in it out of a parts truck from the junkyard as the original was messed with and had wires twisted together with a piece of tape over it.. After a year of adding new and original parts to the truck, I got it running for the first time in over 30 years in 2016. The 360 purred, no issues at all with it. I got the original brakes pumped up again, put driveshafts in it, and drove it that whole summer around the gravel roads. That winter, I parked it for the winter and lost my input shaft seal. The spring of 2017 I pulled the transmission on my own, leaving the stick in it (I hate those NP435 spring loaded retainers.) I cleaned the transmission all up, replaced all gaskets and seals, and repainted it. The truck is close to being road ready now, I just did front wheel bearings last week on it, one drum was about to fall off because the spindle nuts came loose. Now, onto the green '71 F250. I traded a 1992 Dodge Dakota for the Ford in the summer of 2017. The truck was wrecked in 1991, and then was used to run a sawmill, the frame was shortened, and a long two piece driveshaft came off the transfer case to run the sawmill. It had a trailer axle on the back, they were driving it around on the front axle. I got the truck home, had it running the next day after some basic wiring to the ignition. It also has a strong 360 and an NP435 4-Speed. I cut a 4.10 geared limited slip rear axle out of an F100 at the junkyard and put it under my green Ford. I was lucky enough to find the highboy lift blocks, and I had to make my own U-Bolts out of several short ones. I then build a 10 ft. boom on the back of it with a chainhoist for a yard truck. I use it constantly, it's super handy. Check out some pictures below of both my trucks. Thanks for reading, I'm glad I finally got around to making an account on here.

Together.jpg

Red Ford.jpg

Green truck with trailer.jpg

[basketcase0302]

Very impressive young man!
Especially creative on the green one.
Did either or both of them have PS or PB, (being 71' gave them both a better chance of doing so)?

[1970FordTK]

Way to go, nice 4x4s and welcome from North Carolina.

[RustedHistory]

Thank you! Both are manual steering. The green one has boosted brakes, but I only got the fronts working since it's just a yard truck .

[lennyp]

from Massachusetts.

[popeyes71]

from California! Glad to hear the website was so useful to you and its great to see your to Highboys! Hope to see more of them.

[crazyhorse]

Mr Austin, to the best site period.

Hope you like it here.

Pull up a chair and stay awhile.

Congratulations, you have accomplished quite a lot.

[hdman90]

from Pennsylvania! Very impressive work, and hope to do some similar things here in the near future!

[RustedHistory]

Thank you! I'll get some more pictures together and post them here.

[Fordzert]

Nice trucks you have there