Nice save there. I've got a Fargo that came from out your way, in Zelma, Sask. Sure nice to see this Ford get saved. Tom
getting an old truckster like that at Pick n pull is like rescuing a one eyed 3 legged 10 year old dog from the pound. your neighbors will think you are crazy, but all the cool kids will think of you as some kind of hero. at the "corporate" junk yards around here they put cars they may be able to sell as whole in a used car area up front.
Scrap is about $150 a ton.truck with motor and trans comes in at around 3000 lbs.so if you got it for $150 you did OK.
Good save, anything you do with it will be bringing it back to life, it's on its second life, barely escaped becoming lawn furniture, sbc-thats fine. Lot of good threads on here about budget trucks, pulling pieces from all model trucks and using them to make a great driver. Why not go thru the parts pile and use up some stuff you have on hand. Are you keeping the frame as is, or considering a front suspension, clip swap?
That's awesome! Not to be rude, but what did they charge for it? I'm just curious in a situation like that, and OK if you would rather not answer.
Small update on this one. I ended up getting swamped with projects this year and kind of lost interest in this one. I ended up putting it up for sale....i thought these trucks were somewhat desirable but after trying to sell it for several months all I got was a bunch of people telling me its too rough, or wanting to strip parts off it... I even tried giving it away for a couple hundred bucks and people still didnt want it. At the begining of september I decided to hell with everyone I am going to break out the cut off discs and have some fun with this stupid thing. After I pulled it in the garage I realized the roof skin was a lot rougher then I remembered. I had a lead on a good roof skin but I decided to just dive in and make this one work....I have a terrible habit of making more work for my self. Next thing I knew the roof was off and I was way in over my head.
So the general consensus seems to be that 1/4ing the roofs on these is the best approach. I hate the idea of adding strips all the way through the roof, and I wanted to avoid cutting the center out and making a new roof skin. The front inside header panel of my roof was completely rusted out, and I had an idea in my head of a different way to tackle the chop. Seeing as no one wanted this truck I decided to use it as a science experiment. I cut the roof into many pieces, and started tacking them back in place on the truck.
welded up the seam on the rear panel. And finishing out the welds, I do this all by hand with a vixen file which is very time consuming, expecially on this truck where every panel is full of dents..
Thanks, I use a Tig welder. I knock the weld down with a 3" 50 grit roloc disc. Then I smooth it out and planish with a hammer and dolly. I use a bullseye pick and vixen file to remove any small low spots, then I use a 7" grinder with a soft pad and 60-80 grit to remove the file marks, and finish everything with a quick pass of 120 grit on a sanding block.
I started welding the widening strips to the roof skin, Then I got the roof skin about 3/4 of the way welded back into the cab and got the welds hammered and dollied, but there is still a lot of finish work to do due to the previous damage to the roof skin. It was at this point I realized there was no chance of me getting this chop finished before the snow hit and i would prefer not to rush it so it got pushed off to the side until spring. I took on a couple side jobs for family and co workers this winter that unfortunately take priority over this truck. Not really too sure what direction this truck is headed yet, it was supposed to just be a quick hack chop but I got a little carried away. I absolutely have to get the chop done in the spring, then this thing will probably get primed and sit outside for a while.... I have a bunch of ideas for other body modifications as well but we will see where this thing goes...
No, I use the file to reveal high and low spots and smooth out minor highs. I dont have an air compressor so all grinding is done with low speed electric tools. I spend about 95 percent of the time filing by hand and 5 percent grinding if even that, and I only use grinding to remove the proud of the weld and minor scratches from filing. Im not an expert by any means, but I have had to fix a lot of panels that were thinned from improper grinding in the past so its kind of one of my pet peeves. For my own piece of mind I did several destructive tests with a file a few years back and there was no significant material loss even after filing for long periods of time . Sorry for the long winded reply but I just got done repairing a fender that someone attacked with a course grinding stone and nearly destroyed so the thinning metal discussion is kind of a touchy subject haha.
The Jalopy Journal
