I posted a good while back (here) about my grandpa's old truck. My initial plan of driving a 51 year old truck that hadn't run in ~7 years 600 miles got derailed by the birth of my son, probably for the best. My dad (referenced here) wanted to meet the spawn so he offered to tow it down for me.








All in all it is in not too bad of shape considering it is old and survived myself and both younger brothers driving it from ages 16 to 18. Last time it ran was in 2013. Paint job was a cheap one my dad traded for some work so the plan is to go back sky view blue eventually. Seats and carpet are rough and a rat or two definitely were living in the drivers door panel. I pulled the gas tank and drained. Gasoline was roughly the color of orange "Tang" so definitely some rust to address there.


Some decent rust in the floor boards but not a ton on the body and none on the doors so that is good.

Currently have the hood and grill off. The radiator is leaking pretty good so that will come out next after I get the support and fenders off.



Looking forward to updating the progress here as time allows.

Current progress has stalled due to the "San Antonio Strikes Again" thread.


Such a joy taking the entire grill off to reconnect the horn.


Door was fun too. Used a 1 1/2" rubber washer and a 1 1/4" elevator bolt with a fender washer on the inside to plug the hold left by the SOB that torqued out the lock cylinder. $5 fix beats $150 for an OEM handle from the dealership and the good news is they will break the window next time they want in. Next step is a remote jump location in case my battery dies.

Holy crap, your truck is a higher optioned version of mine! Same color interior and original paint color + same year. Got any plans for A/C?

I wouldn't bother trying to mess with the gas tank, save yourself the headache and get a new one from LMC Truck. Whatever it was coated with is shot and you'll be fighting rust flakes clogging fuel filters and wrecking the fuel pump constantly until you do.

Curious to see where this goes because I plan on going frame off with mine next year.

When i started driving it the under dash AC was still on it. It never worked, and after my dad's "mechanic" worked on it, it was practically broken in half and epoxied back together, looked like crap. If you look at the front pic you can see the old AC condensing coil mounted in front still. I took out the compressor and the busted underdash unit some time around 2004. This was the style that was in it when I drove it in HS.


I am pretty sure its still sitting on a shelf in my dads shop so I might grab it and see if there is a good way to repair it. Failing that, I think the Vintage Air folks out of San Antonio look to sell a full kit that should be pretty trouble free to install.

Did some digging and I believe I have the Motorcraft version of the 2100, with the 1.21 venturi (351 CFM). Carb has some fancier(specialized term) parts than the Autolite. I know for a fact it isn't original to the truck because when I was driving the truck it had a manual choke. I assume this was installed when my youngest brother was driving the truck. I don't know much about the carb but that probably isn't a long term part of the truck so oh well!



I am about 90% sure the engine is a 360FE. That matches the vin and the other clues (valve covers bolt to intake on one side, 5 bolts in covers) checks out as well. I figure there is a a chance it has been 390'd at some point but wont know that until it starts coming apart.


Getting this gal undressed a little more at a time. Space is at a premium on the passenger side and to get to the final fender bolt, the passenger door had to come off...so I took both off so it would match. I have a new appreciation for aluminum body parts after trying to loosen the bolts with one hand and steady the door with the other. My new favorite tool is an electric ratchet. Thing is a life saver in tight spaces and avoids having to work a bolt loose 1/32 of a turn at a time! HD has a cobalt brand on sale for $60 and it seems to be a sturdy tool!

The fenders are off and I found a little more rust, to be expected though. Body mount has some. Hood hinge "support" is not looking particularly supportive lol. Radiator support and inner fenders are next. Gotta get some more ziploc bags for nuts and bolts before I get much further along though.

In for the updates, and awesome project. I would have to go with a maroon/white two-tone on that one though.

Edit: photo shamelessly stolen from the inter-web

Bumper, radiator support, radiator, and inner fenders off! 50 year old washers and bushings that held on the radiator support were corroded solid so they got the sawzall treatment. Pulled the plugs just for grins and tried to hand turn the crank. She spins well, no grinding sounds so that is a major plus. probably going to start taking parts and pieces off the engine next and start cleaning things up before working on rust and all that fun stuff.

Made a little progress. Power steering, alternator, and water pump are off. Also pulled the distributor and intake manifold to get to the heads. Put my critical thinking skills to work on the drivers side and took the head/exhaust manifold off in one piece. Way easier to unbolt the two bolts to connect to the tail pipes than all 8 exceedingly rusty manifold bolts that are in tight spaces.







Bore was clean, aside from all the crap that fell in after I pulled the heads. Apparently this truck had been leaking oil for a while because everything under the hood has a nice 1/4" coat of sludge on it. My dad's "mechanic" liberally used JBweld to try and stop several leaks. Shockingly it did not stop the leaks. Internals look fair, albeit well worn. Pistons were replaced with forged and indicate the block has been bored .030 at some point in the past. Kind of cool and I can only assume it was done at my grandpa's old machine shop in Friona. Planning on taking the heads to a shop to get them cleaned up and potentially hardened seats added. From the little research I have done it appears these heads are sturdy. Not sure what to make of the odd hole in the front of the top of the block. Can't say whether that happened before this was parked or a long time ago. I don't think that is an area that would have oil or coolant pressurized but tbd. Will take the block to a machine shop for diagnosis as well so fingers crossed that isn't the end of the motor.

Bump time! Nothing much exciting happening with the truck but I have a 17 month old son that sleeps great at night but when he's awake, he is a terrorist that never stops moving. Haven't made much progress with the truck but finally made some time to break the wrenches out and get some more parts pulled today. Harmonic balancer, timing chain cover, and chain all came off today. Baby boy #2 gets here in May so at this pace I will have the engine apart in 2034ish!

Oh hello old friends. I'm not dead, just a dad of an almost 2yo and 3.5 yo, and time has been a bit tighter than in the past. I am finally getting around to working on Opa's truck again lately. I've seen the other posts of the dude with a '68 here and remembered I needed to post updates also! Haven't done much with the drivetrain but have been working on ameliorating some of the rust issues. Stripped everything out of the cab to inspect the firewall which actually looks great. Slowly rebuilding and repairing all the little stuff I took off but the biggest project is going to be replacing the floor pans and cab mounts. Getting into the welding game and likely will be tossing the old inner fenders and gas tank so I have lost of practice metal to burn up before working on anything important. That plus lots(and lots and lots) of sanding will be in my future!


Firewall is clean and shouldn't need too much tlc.


Floor pans have been getting acquainted with a grinder to figure out what is worth saving and what needs to go...


..and with the cutting wheel. Been fun removing 50+ years of panhandle dirt and dust from the cracks and crevices. Will do some more cutting once the floor pans come in but some parts were obviously swiss cheese and needed to go.


Pulled the windshield as it has been cracked and a mess for a long time. Last inspection sticker was from 2013. Lots of sanding to remove minor rust and the crummy paint job that was applied in ~2002


https://imgur.com/jqfcvBv
Cab mounts will get replaced along with floors. I think gravity is the only thing keeping the cab in place at this point!