At any rate I just purchased a 1970 Ford F250 2WD Automatic Camper Explorer Special in Grabber Blue. (Best I can tell since the door jam sticker is impossible to read) It was equipped with everything from the factory except air conditioning, which is annoying because it has lived its entire life in the So Cali desert. It's a black plate two owner truck that (until I purchased it) was kept in the same family. At some point in its time here in the desert it was painted flat white - probably in a garage - though the interior was never touched and some areas outside still show signs of the original Grabber Blue. My wife and I were looking for a beater/project truck and this one just showed up on a rural street corner (at one of the three stoplights) in our small town one weekend. We saw it in the morning, met with the owner in the evening and took it home the next day. There is no doubt this is a project of paramount proportions, but the good news is that the engine and transmission were rebuilt around 2000 by extremely reputable specialty shops that have been around for almost as many years as the truck. (One of which shops will be featured on Street Outlaws later this season) Originally it came with the 360 engine according to the VIN, but when it was rebuilt it was converted to a 390 (best I can tell from a stroke measurement) and the stock manifold/carb were replaced with Edelbrock Performer 390 intake and Holly 4 barrel carburetor. So the engine and transmission are in good working condition, the damn thing starts first time every time and runs very clean. Our first order of business is to get the drum brakes off the front of the truck and upgrade everything to disc brakes from a donor '76 F250 that we already pulled from a junk yard F250. [SCORE!] Along with that we will replace the master cylinder and (if I can find one) replace the power brake booster with a Hydro boost. After that we will take care of the steering column and other odds and ends related to that. While we have no plans to do an OEM restoration I intend to use all new parts where necessary and OEM parts where practical. I'm already about 1/3 of the way done with the tear down of the '76 front assembly and will post a little most about that later.
I think that the best part about this truck is that while it was no doubt used and abused for an unknown number of miles (shows 60K on odo) it was always a desert truck and has no sign of serious rust. A thick coat of desert dirt no doubt protected the steel from any chance of rusting. In fact my inspection found that the only real 'ouch' was that the bed is a little worse for wear and could possibly even not be the original bed. The tool door has the original Blue paint inside, but the rest of the bed is white with no signs of the original blue. The actual 'ouch' is with the center bed runners and that they were welded to something at some point and then torch cut free. I may just pull the bed off some day and replace the rails, but I also may just spray liner the bed and let it be. So that's our new truck and we plan on DIY rebuild for everything except the most demanding machining tasks. Hopefully this group will continue to be a great wealth of information to us, as it already has been in our junkyard [SCORE!] and subsequent break/wheel rebuild project.
-Adam C
from Massachusetts.
