My Perpetual project

[Whiteferd]

I figured that I should start a build thread for my truck to stay motivated (and maybe take me take more pictures) after lurking for a few years. To start there is about 6ish years to catch up on so we are going to go back in time a little bit to the beginning. I was a 16 yr old kid that had just gotten his first fill time job and a newly minted drivers license, so I did what every 16 yr kid did, spend an ungodly amount of time on craigslist looking for a sick set of wheels. And what I settled on was this beautiful 1979 f150 that had been in a few wrecks and had overall just had a hard life. but 400 bucks later a frozen steering joint and brakes that barely did anything and all 7 cylinders hammering away, I was driving my pos home..

 

[Whiteferd]

After getting it home to the dismay of my parents, I started ripping it apart. First order of business was to replace all the damaged sheet metal so a few trips to the u pick yard and some parts off craigslist I found all the pieces parts to fix it. Including a complete cab and grill for the low price of digging it out of a farmers field. This was my first attempt at replacing rusted out wheel wells so I decided to cut the old ones out and make tabs to glue the new ones on (looking back it was a dumb idea but I didn't know what I was doing), I also taught myself how to spray paint (harder then it looks) that I got from the the local tractor supply, the guy said that is was more durable and was about 200 bucks cheaper that real automotive paint so win win I was sold. So after doing my best to smooth all of the hundreds of dents out it became white and turned out pretty good for doing it in a dirt driveway.

 

[Whiteferd]

After it was painted, it was time to make it actually drive and work so I fixed all the engine problems and ripped apart both axles and all of the suspension and rebuilt all of it with new seals and bushings, because everything leaked and was worn out. It got nicknamed the Exon Valdes because of the puddles it left everywhere it went. So after a few months it was ready for its first voyage. Where I found out the rotors and drums were warped and it shook like crazy when stopping so back apart it all came. Also I found some 35s about really cheap so those went on. It didn't want to move but it looked cool so I didn't care. I also found some bumpers and a tool box from a guy parting out his old tuck to replace my attempt at one from a old fence post.

 

[Whiteferd]

Then once it got to this point not much major changed other then replacing things that broke and changing the tires sets a few times. Up until I was carousing the local u pick like I usually did on the weekends looking for parts I could get and sell to fund my growing addiction for truck parts. Where I found a zf5 5 speed manual, which had a low first gear something the 3 speed automatic did not have, so after wrestling it out ( would not recommend I almost dropped it on my head) I drug my prize home for 50 bucks on half price day. A few days later I found out that it didn't want to shift into 5th pretty common problem when they get worn-out. O boy I get to learn how to rebuild a trans now. I also found out that the engine that the truck had wouldn't really work with my new trans it needed spacers to make it fit (Of course it does nothing can be easy). Undeterred I pulled apart that trans and put all new bearing seals and shift collars in it, but to rebuild it you need a special tool to hold all the gears in place to put it back in the case, I didn't have one and they are like 500 bucks if you can find one. So I did it with a ratchet strap and pieces of a 2x4 instead, it worked . So now to the problem of the trans not fitting onto the engine and the clutch not fitting. I ended up designing a spacer that went behind the fly wheel hold the input shaft from flopping around and line everything up ( it helps when you dad is a machinist). At this point my rust repair was rusting out again due to the spotty repair I did with the glue to I decided to fix it and make it two tone in the dirt with tractor paint again (common theme here is being as cheap as possible building a truck is expensive). Also I found a new engine that had a bigger cam and had been rebuild it came in a package deal and when I sold all the stuff I didn't need I ended up making money on it so out came the old and in came the new. And other then having to make the clutch peddle work with a hydraulic clutch it went pretty smooth.

 

[buellconvert]

Those old Ford's are some sexy old trucks! Glad to see you're keeping this one going!

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