Thats the name of the truck "Side Bit$H".
Quick back story: Never was much of a performance Ford guy, Started reading Car Craft,Hot Rod etc at like 12 and memorized everything like it was the holy grail. I got a job as a dishwasher and saved all my money. On my 15th birthday I bought a 1970 Coronet SuperBee (fake clone) with a 383. I basically took a poor running car and destroyed it by working on it. But I got my feet wet and there is something about hard learning. Later I got a job in a body shop (got fired for being to slow and not having enough experience) I was 16.. Later I hooked up with a guy who owned a machine shop. No idea why but he took me under his wing and did his best to slow me down to think about what I was doing. I meet him 32 yrs ago and even though I've moved from NH to S.Florida I still keep in touch with that guy. Hes a typical New England rough sweat heart. If you ask him "whats that gonna cost me" his reply is always "as much as I can get out of ya". I know a lot of people wouldn't do business with someone like that but he really really knows his stuff and always comes through when you need help. I've been in his shop at 1 am in a snow storm just talking and a guy would pull up with a broken plow and he'd break out the welder or whatever and fix it. An hr later the guy would be back making money and Id notice my friend didn't even charge the guy.. Id say something and he'd say "he's been slow and I know moneys tight" and then follow up with "and I know he'll be helping me this summer at the house when he's back on his feet"...... Maybe you get the idea.
So, I ended up working there a little. NEVER allowed to do anything of value. He had two lifts and one always had a broke project taking up space and the other he'd do side work for friends. I'd R&R a bit but watch the magic he'd do on motors. When your a kid and you get all your info from a magazine the inside of a motor was a mystery. Id see him take a set of heads that had been sitting outside for years and make them look brand new.
Long story short I have a deep appreciation for high quality machine work and the guy who taught me the value of taking your time and doing it once.
Present day... I'm gonna be 50 this year and even though I've been into motors, cars,bikes you name it I've never built a real deal over the top piece. As a toy I was going to build a early 70's Ford truck and jack it way up and be a RedNeck.. I found a 1973 1 owner F250 2wd and the owner LOVED the truck. He explained that everyone who came to look at it wanted to jack it up and make a big mud truck out of it (exactly what I wanted to do). I could tell that was not the angle to use when buying his "baby". He sold me the truck, had it towed home and put a starter and some new fuel in it and the truck started and ran on its own. First time in 5-6 yrs. I knew nothing about fords and my buddy looked at the valve cover and said "I think thats a Ford Edsel".. So I started trying to learn about the truck. Sure enough after a few slow trips with no front breaks I started to fall for the little truck. It has a 3-on the tree (had no idea how to shift it) and a 360FE. Its been 3 years and I've done a simple resto-mod to it. By coming to this site I started to plan to build the motor. First thought was to get a 390 crank and pistons and go that route, then it was a thought to stroke it, then stroke it and buy aluminum heads.... it kept growing. In this time I'd search CL and found a 1968 F100 short bed with a 360 but an auto and 9".. In the past 3 years I've ended up buying everything to build a real nice rust free short bed. But everyday I drive the original F250 that started it all. I figured I'd buy the new 5.2 crate coyote motor and build it for twin's. That truck would be my present to myself and I'd send the motor back to MA to my old friend and maybe fly back to assemble it (more like watch him and get made fun of) with him when it was ready.
I did order a set of heads from Survival a couple weeks ago and figure I'd build the FE to be playful but realistic especially with the 3 speed. Anytime I talked with someone and want to go bigger or more (solid roller instead of hydro ) Id be brought back to reality. First, the F250 is so much fun to drive. It always starts and stops and does anything you could ask of it. I take it to car shows now and then when I want to look at other peoples cars and park way far away from everyone with the cool cars and usually a few come over and look it over and say "I remember"..
If your still reading.. why I'm sure this is boring as all hell? Anyway, I was at dinner last week with a buddy with a race car, a real race car and he says "Coyote will be cool but why not build the FE" we start talking and a few beers later we lays out a plan. Use the 1968 F100 truck I was saving for the coyote and just go radical with the FE. Hes a Turbo guy but his suggestion was a Procharger. My next post will be strictly about the build and enough memory lane crap.
1973 F250
