For your amusement, my 1970 F250

[crewdcab]

Well, looks alot better already. I don't know if I've ever seen one that beat and still moving.

[thrush544]

WOW!!! That's some heavy heavy restoration work you're doing. Lookin great

[averagef250]

Thanks for sharing that.

That truck deserves to be fixed up and kept on the road.

[northerndave]

I've spent some time working on mechanicals recently, mostly service stuff. gear oil, greasing etc, u-joint, starter, water pump... just stuff that wears out.

It has occured to me that these things aren't far off from a farm tractor !

My uncle says the truck has over 500k on it. Hard miles too if you couldn't tell.

Mechanically she's a brute, nothing modded out really, the 360 has what I'm guessing is an "RV cam" and it sports an edelbrock 4V intake & a holley 4V with elect choke but everything else is stock.

The leaf springs are saging so bad that the fronts are actually reverse arched and the axle to frame bumpers basically ride on the frame all the time.

I hung all this blue tin on the truck which isn't the best but way better than what I had, I cut patches for where I needed out of the old yellow panels so there was plenty of skin grafting going on even with the "new" blue body panels. I guess that's fine but i'm becoming more interested in doing things a little better with this truck.


I have to be careful to not get carried away though because it is and will remain a work/hunting truck.

This truck and the work i've done so far is so crude that we joke about it around home.

I can do good work guys, honestly! Lol!

Here, a 65 mustang coupe I did for my daughter last spring:

















See

I'm not a complete caveman !

But as you can see, it's easy for me to get carried away. I don't want to just scab some junk together and cover it up with a quick coat of paint.... But I don't want to end up with something i'm afraid to haul wood with either.

It's not likely the body will be done with the same finesse as the 65 mustang with it's tedious metal work, poliester hi build primer, hundreds of hours of block sanding, wet sanding, buffing etc...

But it's still got to look "nice"

If I was picking a bumpside to start from scratch with, i would not pick this truck, no way in hell... but the sentimental thing.... along with the obvious challenge makes it kind of fun.

[71highboy]

you do some good work.

[northerndave]

Thanks, but "good work" is damn hard work !!

That's why i'm having so much fun with the old trucks.

I don't set the bar quite as high because I know I'm going to run through the mud with it, push snow with a plow, haul wood , run down dirt roads with the tires flinging rocks etc.

So the work, well it becomes more fun for me, a nice break from the classic car scene. I love doing old cars all nice I shiny, don't get me wrong. But it sure is a welcome change to work on my junked out old pickup because it's so bad that no mater what i do to it i can only improve it !!

[averagef250]

I know where you're coming from with that truck. If I had it I wouldn't do a bit of bodywork to it, leave it as you have it there, just buy some quality epoxy new CAT yellow equipment enamel and spray it. It won't be as shiny as the yellow in that old picture, but it'll hide every imperfection in the body. Some simple, but very substantial front and rear bumpers with pullpoints, possibly a PTO winch in the bed or rear bumper? Would really finish it off and make it even more useful for firewood/hunting.

A friend has a growing "fleet" of 70's Fords we've done this way. I gave him a pallet of gallon cans of CAT yellow purchased at auction for $25. The CAT yellow makes a beat old truck body look pretty darn good and equipment enamel doesn't come off too easily when you brush up against trees, rocks, roll it on it's side, etc.

[northerndave]

! that's hillarious!!

on another forum a while back I posted this:



that's highway cat yellow with oxford white

"great minds"

ha!

[averagef250]

Same exact color!

[northerndave]

Wow that's awesome! Thanks for the informative reply.

[1972hiboy]

Thats a great looking truck. what size are those tires and what make are they??? really looking forward to seeing more pictures!

[northerndave]

Those tires have got to be 20 yrs old. (the ones in the curent photos) They are radials I remember that much but i run tubes mostly in case I break a beed. 16" rims... Dunlops but I'm sure the model is obsolete by now.

size is 235/80R16

I'm sure the ones in the vintage photo are probably 700-16 co-op grip spurs or something similar.

truck is out of service currently as I broke something in the front axle housing last weekedn plowing snow out at my deer camp in the forest.

not sure if i broke an axle or spiders or?

[1972hiboy]

Hmm. Id start taking the front cover off. Take a good flashlight and visually inspected the innards. If they look good ( spinning the front driveline and looking all the way aorund the gears) then work your way out. you could have just simply broke a u-joint in the axles. yeah those tires in the earlyier pictures look really great. I have a set of goodyear duratrak 235/85r16s on my pickup but those older tires have that great vintage look. If you get a chance grab the dunlop model name just out of curiosity. Lets us know how your front end repair ends up or if you have questions. Again great looking truck that color is fantastic! the yellow.

[1972hiboy]

Looking at the tread design they look like they might be Dunlop Radial Rover A/T's Thats a pretty good all terrain. its a tire that really lasts a long time. They still make them. in fact I put those on my super duty last year.

[northerndave]

I took a look at the tires just now as I was walking past the truck outside.

They say radial rover R/T

No idea what R/T stands for but I googled it and the current rover R/T (as decent as they look) aren't the same, must have changed the tread design in the past 20-25 yrs