New here and I already posted over on introduction forum. But I wanted to come over here where it seems there is more circulation. My dad passed on a 81 F100 that had belonged to his dad and then him, now me. I am 18 and want to restore it back classic. I have no idea where to start, where to find things I need at a fair price and even the order of matters I need to tackle. I am on a limited budget.

Ok here is my plan
I live 23 miles northeast of Nashville in Hendersonville, 20 minutes west of Gallatin and 45 minutes from the KY line. I need someone to put in order of work, another words what do I do first.

It's running well, may need a tune up. It's a straight 6. Dad says it just needs to be driven, since it hasn't been much in the last 5 years. The A/C even works. Now it is red and faded like crap, no sheen, my grandpa put a macco paint job on it years ago and it may have a few liquor dents from his ownership. They aren't serious at all tho. Really wanting to spend around $1500 on the paint job. Anyone got suggestions for that? Gonna name it Big Red.

I know I want nice chrome bumpers front and back. Is it wise to get ones with the black rubber bumper guards or no? Would you buy them separately? I want nice chrome side mirrors. Right now it has those ugly steel ones with the wide arms on it. I don't know the technical names for this stuff so excuse my ignorance. I don't know what this is called but I would love those bed rails that go on the top sides of the bed, yeah chrome.

The dash is all breaking down. I did some searching on the internet but I really don't know what I am suppose to get. I'm not in a financial situation where I can get the dash where you have to buy new gages and stuff. I know I want to put in one of those really sweet sound systems so do I need to think about that before purchasing the dash or what? The seat has only on tear in the seam over on the driver side, the rest of it is in good shape. Does that warrant a new seat? I think I would like to stay with the original bench seat. The steering wheel column is scratched up from keys, don't know really what to do about that.

Of course new rims, chrome, yeah of course. I messed up once and got rims this guy said would go on it but it won't. It has a weird lug design to it. Dad put new tires on it not long ago, 15 inch.

So yeah that is what I have on my mind right now and have in my wallet too. So what are your suggestions where to look for this stuff, and what order do I purchase it? I'm as green as a gourd with this but I'm willing to learn.

Thanks yall,
Aaron

 

try LMC

 

lmc has good stuff for the older trucks, and for the other stuff, just try to clean it up the best you can with some metal polish, and some wax/clay bar.

for parts, you can try junkyards they might have some stuff you want.

and for some of the paint stuff, the detail freaks around here should be able to help you with that.