Intro and new rusty pickup project

[RustyCrankshaft]

Been hanging around here for a while but just registered. Thought I'd post a few pictures of my first FE project in about 15 years. I will say it was really nice finding this forum and being able to source parts from guys who still show an interest in supporting the FE. This sure isn't anything high dollar, but I couldn't bring myself to part out/scrap this thing.

So what I've got is a 73 F250 camper special that a mechanic that worked with me gave me after he couldn't get it running right and parked it in his yard for north of a decade. I originally thought it was going to be parts and scrap but once I saw the truck in person and started loading it on the trailer I realized it was actually pretty solid. Sort of an odd build too. It's got a lot of options, but didn't upgrade some of the obvious stuff. It's a Camper Special, has the narrow upper trim but with the lower trim. It's a factory AC truck, C6 but with a 360. Has around 73k miles on it.

The 360 was ring and bearing'd at about 70k miles. Some unknown (couldnt remember and he couldn't find a cam card) hyd flat tappet, S code iron intake, 1406 carb and a Unilite conversion in the stock distributor. I got it fired up and it sound ok. So I rebuilt the carb, swapped in a known good Pertronix billet distributor on my shelf that has been a test unit left over from another project, new fuel pump and cleaned the tanks and started driving it (slowly and not too far, bald, rotted bias plias and such). Turns out other than some worn king pins the thing drives like new. So I had to save it. The 360 does have some issues. I think they missed the cam gear by a tooth and I suspect it's just starting to loose a lobe on the cam. So I'm doing a low buck .060 over 390 with cleaned up C1AE heads (just ordered the cam from Brent) to throw in it and will probably swap the C6 for a 4R70W or 4R100 after its in and tuned.

20160710_180606 by Patrick Oilnut, on Flickr
Bringing it home after extracting it from the blackberries.

20160710_180540 by Patrick Oilnut, on Flickr
It was pretty crusty. It was free but I had to take the bed full of tires!

20161111_113125 by Patrick Oilnut, on Flickr
The 360 after tuneup and carb rebuild. Couldn't resist cleaning it up a little bit.

[AlexS]

That's a pretty clean looking truck,  I've always liked the camper special tool box on the side. I never understood why that didn't catch on more and become an option on the newer trucks.

[turbohunter]

Great truck.
I’m very partial to 73/74s. I’ve had a few 4x’s but never a 2 wheel. I should probably change that.
Congrats on decision to save it. Really cool.

[RustyCrankshaft]

Thanks.

After I pressure washed it the thing actually didn't look too bad. There's one dent in the bed I'm thinking about fixing but I'm leaning towards not painting it. Really thinking about having a friend of mine paint a logo on the doors to make it look like an old shop truck and leave it as is. I've already mostly gone thru the interior.

I also like the 73/74 the most. I still have my Dad's 74 hi boy he bought new. It's half way restored sitting in one of my garages waiting for some attention. I've owned very few 2wd's, and that's sort of another reason I decided to keep it and put it back on the road.

[KMcCullah]

Welcome RustyCrank. Neat ol truck you have there. Odd set of options indeed. Hopefully it came with the heater-A/C blower housing. That thing is a spendy item to replace.

Looking forward to seeing it come together.

[RustyCrankshaft]

Unfortunately I think he lost/wife thru out most of the heat/AC box part. I'm not sure and I saw him at work the other day and asked if he found any of the parts and he said he might have. At any rate, I have a parts truck with factory ac with all it's parts intact (expect for the dash panel as I stole that to put in the CrewCab since I didn't want to cut up a nice panel).

I made a patch panel to cover the hole in the firewall but I seam sealed and screwed it into place so if I, or the next owner, wants to go back to factory it's easily done and then installed an aftermarket heat/AC unit. Mostly because it just nice not having to work around the evap housing hanging over the head on the passenger side.

I just need to install cam bearings and polish the crank and then I'm ready to start assembly on the 390, but I probably won't be able to actually start on this for a month or 2 - got a few other projects to finish up first. 

[BattlestarGalactic]

Neat truck.  I like my '67-72 trucks, but those aren't hateful by any means.  The more I see new trucks, the more I like the older ones.

Speaking of bed tool boxes, heck many of the new trucks have full size boxes in the side.  Just lift the top side rail.  They are finally getting back around to factory stuff like that.

[RustyCrankshaft]

Yeah they really have some cool bed options on newer trucks. At work I was spec'ing a new shop truck and found a service body that looks a lot like the stock Ford bed, but silmilar what you saw, it has full removable sides that hinge up and has really nice pull out style tool box drawers. Some neat stuff. I've thought about cutting up a 73-79 bed that's rusty and putting a door on each side and building tools boxes in there. Have them open between the wheel well and front of the box, kinda like the super camper special spare tire door.

I've owned a number of 67-72's and had 2 66's. I still own my Dad's 74 hiboy he bought new, and found memories of that truck as a little kid probably make me lean toward the 73-79's a little more. But really this truck fell into my lap and was worth fixing.