Greetings HAMBers, Since my teenage years I remember this old hotrodded '65 Ford truck in my Grandpa's backyard. He has always had cool cars usually with a big block and straight pipes; his daily '86 RamCharger, the '70 Challenger with a 440, the list goes on, but many a family gathering I found myself back there staring at that '65 or if I was lucky enough my Grandpa'd be pointing out stuff under the hood as I stared at the big block in fascination and awe. The '65 was straight enough, a typical Cali mostly rust free body, but once you opened the hood... a 390FE, Edelbrock intake, Holley carb, long tube headers, mated to a C6 and 9" rear, the thing was a monster! After years of me trying to buy it he finally called me one day and matter of factly said he would just give it to me, I went absolutely deaf for a few seconds and the next few days happened in sort of a blur but as the adrenaline and ringing subside the picture became clear, I was blessed to be the caretaker of this truck till the next generation of my family takes it over. I always thought it was awesome seeing people with their old family member's rides, cannot believe I am lucky enough to also do it now. Plans are simple: get it safe and running ASAP, enjoy it, everything else is secondary. Will post progress pics soon. - Bravo
Day 1: made the 100 mile drive through the treacherous streets of LA to get the truck safely out of the city and back home in Santa Barbara.
in the garage, first thing I did was go over it and bag and tag anything that was loose, (fasteners, clips, screws, found script emblems in the glovebox along with some sweet shades) and brush and vacuum entire car interior and working areas.
Welcome el bravo. You definitely do have a keeper there. Looks like a solid project. Just get her running and work at it as you enjoy it. Don’t tear it apart. Small bites while your having fun. You’re pictures pretty much suck. [emoji3]
another sucky pic lol (been on a flip phone for the last 3 years or so hence the quality of pictures) This was day 2. Removed the hood and hardware, bagged and tagged it all, and started draining fluids and inspecting what I could. It was hard but this time around I was patient enough to pb blast fasteners the night before I worked on them and it has made a world of difference. My Grandpa bought the truck in '92, and it sat most of its life aside from occasional startups till we dragged it out his backyard, even the wheels were rusted stuck so you can imagine fasteners were in need of some convincing and the insides must also be pretty rough. The coolant was concerning enough to want to at least recondition radiator and remove & inspect water pump. After removing pump adding it to the list along with rebelwire harness seeing as this one has seen better days and has had a couple different generations of gearheads splicing into it.
Also I saw this emblem, I also noted the in-cab gas tank has the vinyl? cover, the dash is 2 tone green and white, and it has the extra holes in the floor of the cab but the seat is a bench seat, any other way I can check if this F100 came with Ranger package? Here's the body tag, Everything I've read on other forums leads me to think this might be an original Ranger-packaged F100 but the bench seats and body tag are making me second guess myself. Sorry for the shitty flip phone pics lol.
this was day 4, another round of brushing, vacuuming, and bagging any loose fasteners, and got started on engine. first thing I did was remove and stored the shiny 750cfm Holley carb . Plan was to remove valve covers and turn engine to see state of valvetrain. Upon removing valve covers noted lots of rust and corrosion on some of the pushrods and on the rocker arms. Wanted more room to work so removed the alternator, battery and tray, and already had seen severe enough dry rot on radiator hoses to warrant pulling the pump and checking rest of cooling system. Also removed the fuel pump to check on timing chain, which was loose. Starting at TDC gave it 4 turns, however only 2 rockers had smooth movement. At this point wanted to pull intake to check out lifters and cam also wanted to pull heads and see cylinder movement and wall condition.
day 7: intake and one head off (all fasteners, pushrods, rocker assemblies bagged and tagged). lots of coolant corrosion on water jackets of head and intake. lifters and camshaft lobes look good, cylinder walls on right side look good, no discernible grooves or abnormal wear, and smooth movement when turning crank.
day 10: second head off. cylinder walls and movement on left side ok. still want to pull oil pan to check condition of bottom end.
day 11: front clip off (all fasteners, hardware, and rubber bagged and tagged ). presoaking all fasteners with pb blaster the night before made it a lot easier. at this point I've gathered about 4-5 dustpans worth of 56 year old dirt lol. and now with the fenders off you can see the standard setting legendary twin I beam in all its glory.
day 14: wiring harness out, no wires were cut. speedo cable, throttle cable, and all accessories off. also removed heater assembly and cluster and all dash bezels and accessories from interior, all bagged and tagged.
day 19: cluster and dash accessories off, after removing fuel sending unit noted a ton of rust and corrosion in gas tank so its coming out. removed bench seat and gas tank (all fasteners bagged and tagged). all the tagged bags categorized and stored in drawers.
day 30: borrowed a hoist but had to wait to buy engine stand before i could pull engine, and $50 worth of grade 8 hardware later, it's out. probably should have drained fluids first but at least the trans fluid looks good. got the C6 sitting on a $10 harbor freight dolly, totally recommend that thing. engine on the harbor freight 2000lbs cap. engine stand, no flex, also recommend. while waiting for engine stand had the kids help me do a brake flush with one of the drums off, got the air out and a lot of junk fluid, but brakes seem to be in decent shape and the kids now know what master cylinder does lol. with engine on stand pulled oil pan, lots of sludge and gunk. oil pump also had sludge on it, pickup screen clogged with debris. will take both to work to get clean. rods and caps look good though, will inspect further to make sure. all in all a pretty fucking awesome day. I go to bed with my grandpa's hot rodded 390 big block on an engine stand in my garage, a cold california ipa in my belly, and dreams of open headers and burnt rubber in my head. truly blessed. goodnight y'all.