War Horse is a 131" (LWB) F253 (6100GVW) Conventional Cab with a her original 360, short tail C6, two-piece drive shaft and a 3.73 Limited Slip Dana 60.
I was in the Army a long time ago, and have more recently worked as a mechanic for the Army at Ft. Lewis (now JBLM) on everything from generators, to Hummers, to MTV's and HEMTT's. Now my tools are sitting outside getting as rusty as me and this old truck. SO.. time to get to work.
The current spray bomb paint scheme is inspired by old Army DOL equipment. DOL equipment is usually semi-retired equipment that is that DOL retains for it's own purposes rather than dispose of. The typical stuff you will find running around DOL these days would be the old K5 Blazer CUCV's and even some older Dodge 1 tons that were in active service in the 80's. These vehicles are still maintained, and usually end up with 'personalized' paint jobs with the current CARC paint colors in inventory. One of the more interesting one's I have seen was a K5 that still had the original cammo showing in the center area framed by olive drab on top and black on the bottom. War Horse is currently wearing Krylon Olive Satin on top and Rustoleum Flat Black on bottom with the bump painted in Desert Tan. The cab portion of the bump is further coated with Fleck Stone, to see whether or not we liked the effect. We do.
The main goal with this truck is to slowly get her into shape for the truck's 50th birthday which will shortly be followed my daughter's 16th, which is when it should be totally redone (probably a couple times with do overs and rethinks) so that she will have a safe, fun ride to express herself with. Right now she is all for big, ugly and dirty green, but I am betting that her idea for colors will change more than any other part of the configuration over the next 6 years.
The build basically starts now. With the new year. She and her neighborhood buddies spray bombed the truck last spring, and I beat the dents out of, and straightened the head light surrounds and grill. I have also added some new stuff here and there to make sure it would start and be safe. Basically I added a new battery, new horns, a new modulator, fluid changes for the engine and trans, re-worked an old carb (from our other '68), timed her and went through the brake system. The rear-end will be gone through soon. Other than these things, nothing else has been done yet.
She is running, licensed, insured and legal, and I plan to use her as my almost daily driver during most of the project. This should be a fun one.
Wish us luck.
