JaredTanner

Good day everyone,
I guess you could say this build started in 1977, when my dad bought his first new truck. It lived a hard life, commuting back and forth. Then the new job for Nevada Department of Wildlife came in northern Nevada, only problem was my mom still worked in Las Vegas. So for 7 years it made its way back and forth from Ruby Valley, NV to Las Vegas. Then a Southern Nevada job was acquired, so the mileage got shorter. In the long 37 years, it had accumulated quite a few miles, close to 1, wait for it, million. Ok, so i may have miss spoken in a previous thread, it is actually around 800,000. It was worked hard as well. loaded with cord after cord of fire wood. One year it was loaded with so much wood that the passenger rear frame snapped. Back then that didn't mean a totaled vehicle though. My dad simply welded it back together with some plating, but there is a noticeable sag in the rear end now. In that time it has seen only 4 engines, never a transmission change. It is equipped with the 300 I6 and a 4 speed manual. It still looks like the day my dad first drove it off the lot, with a few minor things added.
But this past April the truck officially became mine. My mom had been driving it on an off, but her and my dad have recently both gotten new vehicles, my dad a 2013 F150 and my mom a 2013 Camry. Now it is my turn to make this truck mine.
Already done but no updated pictures: removed front push bar. Also the truck was originally in Nevada with the old style blue plates, but my parent retired to Southern Utah so they lost the plates. But lucky for me, noone had taken the plate number when I returned it to Nevada so I got the original plate number and blue style.
I plan on replacing the front clip in the near future as it is the original and as such has quite a few dings. also going to add the billet grilles, HID projector headlights, front bumper with round fog lights, and rear bumper. not may scrap yards where I live but want to watch out for a donor F150 truck for the new frame and 4wd. the engine was recently replaced so i will run it until it is toast then at that point decide where i want to go with the power. I have attached some pictures of how it looks now.
Keep in mind that this will be a slow build. I am currently 26, married and getting ready for kids, just bought a house, and have a very small student loan, so money will be given to the truck according to priority.

JaredTanner

Question, Where are some good places to look at complete engine/transmission combos? Want to start looking into costs.

nfldfordman

sub'd!!

yoda13

I am looking forward to this thread!!!

FordMoore

Nice truck should be a cool one to watch.

JaredTanner

EDIT: Guess I should clarify as I updated my FTE build but not this one. I am looking at doing a crown vic swap instead of the 4x4. I will end up with a hunting truck so I'm going to make this one a better traveling vehicle and put it in shows. so with that i am looking to swap the crown vic front and rear ends as well as the engine/transmission/wiring.
well i have a little update. been looking at crown vics and found a few that would suit me. just waiting for the funds now. I did do a little work on the rear end. started hearing some squeaking and figured it was an axle bearing on the rear passenger side. dropped the fluid and pulled the tires. when i rotated by hand the catch that was causing the squeak was still there. pulled the brake drum and it was gone. so i readjusted my brakes and refilled the diff. while it was off i also cleaned up the diff cover and repainted it. tried to insert images but this was the only one that would load.

JaredTanner

Well my passenger side headlight is starting to give up on me. It was flickering on the way to work today. Ordered some replacement 7" round housings and bulbs off amazon today to replace the old sealed beams. They aren't what I want for it in the end, but I'm trying to save some $$$ for the crown vic. These will work great for the time being though. They are described as being glass and bakelite so they should hold up well.
heres what they look like

JaredTanner

Ok, got a few pictures, but sorry not everything. I wanted to save the final pics for when I can get the new heads put in. I ended up helping the wife paint some rooms in the house over then weekend, so I didn't get a chance to get pictures of the frame. Also, the heads should finally make it to my house today and I will hopefully get them installed after work, but we shall see.

Before with the inserts taken out




Before




Sanded and ready for paint




Painted. Leading edge is silver, then taped off and painted the rest black.


Still not sold on the look, but these things are the originals so about 40 years old. I will be replacing them when I pull the truck apart for the swap.

JaredTanner

Pasted from another forum.
Well,
I got my headlights yesterday. When I got home I unpacked them. They were packaged really well, but after opening the box it was apparent they had been used before. They looked really good on the truck, but one of the lights would not light up. pulled the light back off and found that one of the screws on the retaining clip that holds the bulb in the housing was stripped so the bulb wasn't making proper contact. Even with that the light output from one of these headlights was as bright as both of my sealed beams. Debated trying to see if there was a way to fix it, but I'm not paying for a used set that needs to be fixed so I contacted the seller to figure out returning them. We will see what they come back with.

I just got it all straightened out. They are sending me a new set. we will see how those ones look hopefully by the weekend.

JaredTanner

Wow how the years fly by. I've really wanted to start this project but the motor that is in it is still ticking along. It will happen, at least eventually. I ended up taking a new job in Utah, have a kid with another on the way and am getting ready to buy a house, so it may be a good thing that the truck is still ticking. Good thing is, where I moved there are a lot of junk yards and I have a lineup of crown vic's to choose from when the time comes.

Told you it'd be a slow build... but even I didn't expect it to be this slow. Green still looking good. I get asked at least once a week about selling it. And I explain that it will never happen...