I put this thread on the other ford forums site but i know there are people here on this site that don't go over there so thought i would also post here for them to see the progress as it happens

So i thought i would start the ball rolling on a rebuild thread for my truck, if for nothing else just to keep me motivated and keep track of everything

First truck i bought was a 81 F350 LWB rolling shell, she is in need of complete respray inside out, interior needs cleaning, painting and some retrim to bring back to former glory and missing some of the front pieces like headlight surrounds, headlights, blinkers, bumper etc etc
There is very minimal rust in the old girl though, 2 lil bits in the fire wall around size of 50c piece, couple holes in drivers floor and small hole in bonnet around size of 5c piece

The truck is an original 1 owner job too I kid you not this guy bought it from Border Ford way back in 81 with owners manual signed and dated to prove

The truck has a steel tray with wooden floor on it at the moment but my goal for the future is maybe have a Alloy tilt/slide tray fitted if i can get it passed through Qld transport (need to correspond with some engineers here and see what we come up with)
Hopefully will look something along the lines of this only wth single axle and 96 series front (will update front at same time as tray if the tilt/slide can be done legally in Qld)


Unfortunately i have to say that the old girl is not pretty even know she's a 1 owner, she's had hard life but i think i will be able to turn the old girls luck around and make her look all pretty again like she deserves

I already have place lined up to do the respray on cab, i will be doing a dark blue top with silver bottom 2 tone, this will tie in nicely with factory blue interior

I don't have an pics of this one yet but will get some up here in the next couple days

Now to the Bronco

I just bought this car today from fleabay, still need to go pay for it and pick up but will be doing this on Sunday

There's lot of rust in this one but that doesn't worry me as i bought it for the parts i need to finish the F350
She has a cleveland (not sure if 302 or 351 yet), 4 spd manual, air cond (i think) and the main bit POWER STEERING!!!! all for a cost of just over 1k GOTTA be happy with that

She also has all the front end pieces i need and the drivers door is in better nick than one on the F350 also so these will make there way onto it

Here's some pics of the Bronco







The RUST!!!!




Bodgy repair will get replaced with proper repro panels



I will be looking closely to see if the rust has penetrated anywhere structurally important cause if it's not too bad then i will be sourcing some new panels from states to fix all the rust and grafting 96 front and rear side panels onto it as a project to have looking something like this

But this is LONG way down the track as i want the F350 all done and on road before i start this one

So there you guys have it, this is where i'm at the moment and will keep you all posted as things happen

Paint the bronco white and have a low speed police chase through peak hour traffic.

Seriously though F350 sounds tough, are you going to stroke the cleveland?

Now thats a project Brett!

I get why you got the bronco but with the rust in the floor is it worth getting it going after you get your effie on the road?

I will be keeping an eye on this thred out of interest.

I spose there wont be many updates on your fairlane thread for a while?

Cheers

Josh

ALways been a fan of the broncos. will be good to see another one survive the scrap heap

Yeah Josh - the fairlanes mods take a backseat for lil while, need to get these all sorted out first

As long as the Bronco's chassis isn't rusted out then i'll probably rebuild it - good challenge for me

Yeah i like the Bronco's as well but if this one survives she'll be the only 5.4 modular motor powered one in Australia

Finally got over to get some pics of the actual F350 today, very sad looking at the moment but i guess if it was prestine then it wouldn't be a project would it

Anyway here's some pics i took today of the beast











As you can see there's a LOT of work to do but will hopefully have front pulled off and get soda blasters around to blast the firewall and front panels by next weekend so can fix the rust in firewall and get engine bay all painted back up
Then i will be pulling the drivetrain out of Bronco donor car and giving quick rebuild and lick of paint before assembling into truck to get running again
So hoping to have engine bay done in around 2-3 weeks then will start with getting the drivetrain transferred across

Last edited by TickXR on Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

thats alooooooota work!!!!!! good luck on both projects!.... love the bronco's.. have been for a ride in a bronco with a 351... felt like "the king of the road"... F350 are cool!...

Haha looks worse than what it is though, think about it if you were going to respray truck you'd have to pull it down to bits anyway so really i just bought it lil advanced in pull down department lol
Plus having all parts i need on Bronco helps

The rear tray is going to be scrapped so really it's just the cab that's important but yeah she is going to be big job but well worth it in end

I may have to fit normal tow truck wheel lift back on this yet as i heard today that longest tray i can put on it is 14ft and that's no where near long enough for a tilt unless i go through engineers and have chassis extended etc
I can see that as being expensive exercise as driveshaft would be all custom as well as the costs of strengthening the whole chassis once extended - if it was a newer truck then i could accept these costs but at end of day it's only an 81 model but will wait till i hear from engineers, i may be suprised to find it's not too expensive a job to do

If all else fails i'll either source a dually styleside back or custom build a tray similar to Itchy's

F**k!!! you do have a lot of work in that one, but i can piture it all painted up.

Cant wait to see what you do with this beast