1970 Australian Short Bed Build!!

[Australian]

Hey guys! You can find my introduction in the welcome mat bit of this forum, I thought id start my own build/project thread.

Long story short, Im Jay, Im 25, Im from Brisbane, Australia, Im a fitter and turner by trade and I love classic cars and especially American pickups!!

This is my 1970 Canadian built Ford F100 short bed. 300CI I6, 4 Speed and a 9" diff. Im the third owner. Its pretty good rust wise, with omly a small amount of surface rust on the bonnet and roof. This shape is rare in Australia, especially with a short bed styleside, Im unsure why, just the later dentside trucks were sold in much larger volumes, anyway I paid $3000 for it, which I think was a steal.

My time spent on the truck so far has been more de-molestering it rather than improving it, as the previous owner was a builder, hence the racks and crap all over it, and it was simply a work truck to him, so when something broke, it was either tech screwed back on or taped.

First step was to remove the canopy, roof rack and bull bar. I was able to find a good front bar to throw on., Next I ditched the big ugly wheels in favour for some 16x6 steelies which I found on Gumtree ( our equivilant of Craigslist) which had some cool old school bias ply tyres on them, reall tall sidewall and real skinny and I think they look awesome, Id planned to replace them with some radials but after painting the rims putting some air in the tyres and throwing them on, I decided they had to stay!

Also found some original centrecaps, I think from a dentside model, but parts like centrecaps and the OG wheels are pretty hard to find over here, so I wasnt fussy. I repainted the caps in silver, and went over the "Ford Motor Company" lettering with some Tamiya hobby paint and a fine brush, it was a tedious task, but Im all about attention to detail.

Also ripped off the big semi style mirrors in favour for some nice little peep mirrors. Ive also ordered some new tail lights and side markers and front indicators. And was lucky enough to find a bloke wrecking a 71 F100 just a few suburbs away, I scored a mint grille, and a good windscreen (mines cracked) alomg with a few other odds and ends, including another chrome front bar, which I plan to fit to the rear once I fab some brackets up.

Have also placed a Summit Racing order (god bless this site) consisting of a few goodies which Ill post pics of once they arrive.

Plnas for the coming week or two include: a tidy up of the wiring inside the truck (its an abortion) fitting of a stereo, some guages, some new carpet and just a general tidy up of the interior, annnnd if I get enough time, I might fab up some brackets so I can do the diff flip!!

Anyway Ill stop my rant and post some pics, they are just the same ones posted in the welcome mat section, but Ill post them here anyway. Pics of the truck when I picked her up, and how she sists as of a few days ago!

Would love feedback both positive and negative! Enjoy!!

[Australian]

Turns out I can only do three pics at a time, so here are the current pics of it.

[Australian]

And another one.

[91Bear]

Look like the previous owner moved the steering wheel to the other side too!

"Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!"

[cole71]

Looks like a pretty solid truck. I'll keep an eye out on your build.

P.s if you have a photobucket account (if you don't it's free and easy to sign up) you can up load as many pictures as you want. Just copy and paste the img code from pb.

[Heirloom]

Congrats on a great purchase. Looking forward to seeing where it goes!

[mcheath]

Nice truck. I don't know how it would be in Australia, but here in the USA that tailgate would be off an earlier truck like a 64'-66'.

Like how you've moved it back to stock condition.

[Australian]

Yo guys, relized I havnt updated this for a couple of months!

Havnt done to much to the truck, cut the front springs a bit and removed a couple of leaves to drop it a bit, and done a lot of general tidying up.

Anyway, heres some pics.

[sargentrs]

Looking sharp!