6-18-2011: Well here's a little update. I bought another donor truck!!! Back in April I decided to go back to a 300 inline 6. I sold my 351W shortly after. The 300 is one of my favorite engines and it will give me a little more driver side leg room.
I've been looking for a donor truck to get a good engine for it. I found a few and the deals fell thru. Yesterday I found one and today I went and checked it out. It looked good to me and I bought it and hauled it home.
I think I've got a damn good deal on this. It's a 1978 Ford F150 Ranger XLT Lariat 4x4. It has a 300, NP435 4spd, NP205 transfercase, 9" rear ( 3.50 gears ) and D44 front. It's got some rust, but the chassis is solid and it runs and drives. It does have some minor issues like a low brake pedal, clutch linkage needs adjusting, there are also plenty of oil leaks. It started right up and ran decent. Good power, no smoke or bad noises. But it does need a little carb work and could use a tune up.
The guy I bought it from and his son decided to scuff and black out all the trim.
I like the look but it ruined a lot of straight trim that I could have made some cash on selling.:-arrgh Now it's just more scrap. They also removed and tossed the lower body trim and used bedliner on the lower portion of the body.
Anyways here's my newest purchase. Oh yea, I paid $500 for it!
Since I've got my diesel for towing I'm seriously thinking about using the entire chassis from this truck for the 54. I'll slide the rear diff forward 23", have the rear driveshaft shortened and call it good.
This truck has everything I want and it's driveable. So instead of having to make a new transmission crossmember, make new rear frame crossmembers, mess with trying to work around the front leaf springs, I can just use this chassis. The coil spring front suspension will make fitting the front clip tons easier.
So I'm starting over again on the chassis! My plan on this one is to just leave it together, get plates and insurance on it. I'll drive it around and figure out any issues it might have and fix them as I can. Once I get the 54 cab and front clip buttoned up and done I will pull the body off the 78. Then I can move the rear diff/suspension forward, clean everything up and paint it all. I plan to replace the suspension bushings, shocks, brake pads and shoes and fix any leaks ( plenty of them ) .
Well that is this years plans. At least until I change my mind again.
