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So I was in the market for a good used 1 ton truck, I was leaning towards getting an 80's or 90's Ford F350 because I know Fords inside and out and I have tons of parts for them.

One day my dad calls me up and tells me he found me the ideal truck sitting in the back of a welding shops yard in an industrial park, "But" he warned me,

"it's missing a few parts"...

A day later he took me up to see it, and what I saw was not quite what I expected... the basic truck looked very straight and rust free, but it was missing the side windows, and most of the interior and the grill and front bumper, the frame was bare and it was extremly dirty...the whole truck was covered in a thick layer of dust and paint overspray, and there was petrified masking tape on the windshield and remaining trim. Apparently the truck had sat this way for at least 2 years, and after charging the battery up, it started and ran fairly well.

But my dad was still excited about this truck for some reason, so I asked why, he told me to open the hood, and low and behold there was a very clean 460 big block fuel injection! It also turned out to have a 5 speed manual and was a 4X4 with manula locking hubs (a style I prefer) So I asked the obvious question, just how many miles are on this thing? After cleaning off the gauges enough to see the odometer and charging the battery I was amazed to see that it had only 90 000 kilometers, that's 55 000 miles!

We talked the owner down to $500 for the truck (he wanted much more) and he offered to let me have the custom built deck and front bumper for an additional $500 installed! The deck and bumper were built for the truck during a slow period and never finished, they are rather extremly over-engineered... to say the least!

So the deals were made, and I took the truck home and started to get it back together, once I had windows and interior in it I came back and they put the deck on for me! The only problem was that the deck is set up for a big toolbox to go betwen it and the cab, and I did'nt want that box there, so I had a big open spot behind the cab for a few weeks. The long term plan is to find a rust free damage free extended cab to put on it, it will fill the gap perfectly!

I also wanted to make the truck look a little better while I was driving it till I can repaint the whole thing, so I gave it a rattle can black swoop on the doors and re-did the black panel on the front fenders as well, if you look closely you can see that the black I added is very shiney and smooth, not bad for a rattle can! I also touched up the deck and bumper and painted the wheels and the frame.

I also had to remove a lot of decal residue from the trucks previous life as an Aspluhnd truck.

In the meantime I started to use the truck...

 And have a lot of fun with the truck...              

like climbing this hill near home!

You can see the gap on the frame in these shots. 

Untill I can find a good extended cab for the truck, my dad whipped this mini-box together using the fronts of 2 rusted out boxes! And in this shot you can see the LED lights I added to the deck, there are 4 per side, and a lot across the back!

(Since this photo was taken I have replaced the headlights and parklights and the headlight doors and the grill!) 

I also installed LED tail lights, and LED clearance lights, they cost more, but they are so worth every penny for the output and the safety they provide.... plus they look cool!

 A photo op on the main street of my home town at 3am.

Photo's from my cell phone when I changed the lights and painted the grill and headlight doors.

So I decided that I finally wanted to have the windshield trim on my truck, but I did'nt want the scratched and beat-up aluminum that is stock for it, so I took the pieces and straightened them out and sanded them down, and I painted all the trim high gloss black!

(eventually I will also do this to the chrome door handles)

As far as it goes, when I was sanding it down, I experimented with the look of brushed stainless.... I liked it! But for this truck I had to paint it all!

Look at that shine, they turned out perfectly, no dust, sags, runs, or orange peel at all!

I still have to do my wiper arms because they look bad...

I also just added some rear facing lights in my headache rack, they take H3 bulbs and are only 4 inches across! So I have the option of putting in 100 watt ot 150 watt bulbs later!

I had my wire in the cab while I was making the harness, in the photo it looks as if I am running the wires through the window... I've seen people do that before...

I took the box off to run the wires easily, I though I'd take a shot of the back of the cab while it was off. The black thing is a vibration dampner, it makes the inside of the cab a lot quieter.

The lights worked out rather nice in my opinion!

It's so hard to keep clean in the winter, but I try!

It may not be as long as this Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmer, but at least it's taller!

There was a little snow storm the other night so I grabed these 2 shots! 

         Some natural situations look so nice that if you don't enjoy the split second they occupy, you may never get to see them again, all the colours were so nice this evening that I was glad I had my camera in my pocket!

Towing my buddies broken down Chevy...

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My faithfull 1982 Ford F150 Ranger XLT Lariat that this truck replaced, meanwhile the 82 will get rebuilt!

.......................................................(below: Fun with photoshop)..............................................

Crew cab visual aide, and version with 19.5 wheels and light covers and extra roof lights! (before mini-box was installed and wheels were painted)

I still need to upload photos of the tach dash assembly I re-built and installed recently, and take some rear-end shots of the deck.

Truck..........................................................................................................$500

Deck and bumper..........................................................................................$500

paint.............................................................................................................$50

Lights.........................................................................................................$200

Oil & filter, air filter, fuel filter, cap, rotor, plugs & wires....................................$150

Brakes front and rear...............................................................................$111.58

Parts(interior/exterior).................................................................................Free

Labour...................................................................................................Myself!

Parts trucks (x3).........................................................................................$150

Vent Shades™...............................................................................................$61

Reflex™ wiper blades................................................................................$38.50

Change found in parts trucks....................................................................+$13.50

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 Total so far.....................................................................................$1747.58

I was bored, so I made a flower! :p

I was bored in a line and I saw it on the CC TV, so I snapped a shot... that little guy behind me looks so confused! 

Winter sucks, but at least I am warm and secure in my big orange security blanket! :p

As winter is coming to an end we get a lot of melt water to play in...

I chickened out and stayed in the shallows, the stock air intake is too low for to much of this as it sucks in a lot of water...

I was seeing if liked the look of this bug deflector on it...

I'm not entirely sure, what do you think?

Interior and electrical.

( It's a what?)

As I find accessories I add them to it, here I am installing a tilt steering collum. 

I pulled everything apart to transfer the ignition and to make sure all of the plugs were the same and in good shape, once I had them both apart I noticed that even the non-tilt colum is actually a tilt with a bracket to keep it static! I am pointing at the position dogs on the left, and the static bracket on the right.

I also had to change out the horn/cruise rotating contact assembly from the air-bag type on the left, to the 1 ton and bigger non-air-bag style on the right.

I love the way Fords are wired, my truck never had cruise controll till I put it in, and it was all pre-wired for it, even the steering collum! All I had to do technically was put the horn button with the cruise switches on, and plug the control unit under the hood in and attach the drive cable!

My former non-tach dash.

After searching for quite some time I found a tach dash for the truck, but it was very very dirty...

I dissasembled the assembly for cleaning, I had already changed out the speedometer from a MPH one to a KPH one (the KPH ones actually go a lot higher, 110 miles instead of 85 or 180km instead of 140) and I decided to use the KPH speedo from the last assembly instead of this one because it was never this dirty and I figured it would last longer.

I had my fingers crossed that it would all still function correctly...

I can't figure out how it could get so bad in a sealed unit.

Notice the difference in the before and after on the left, I had to carefully clean the insides too so that it would illuminate properly.

Installed!

What I really like about this truck is that when I am cruising down the highway it is barely working a sweat, my last truck would be doing 3000 RPM at 110 kph (68 MPH) and this one is doing 3000 RPM at 140 KPH (88MPH)

Please take note that the mileage shown is very inaccurate due to the fact that I had to change the spedometer, and the one I used came out of  high mileage beater I have for a parts truck.

I was experimenting with my camera while driving, I do not reccomend this, I am proffesional camera-messer-arounder-while-driving-guy!

My Sony Explode has a colour changing face, I like that because I can change it like a mood ring!

 Yup!

The next step in upgrading was to replace the single poorly located switch, with two poorly located switches, but that's okay because they are really cool switches and look great! 

  I liked the look of these switches a lot, but the blue LED was blinding at night, and one of them fell apart, so I modified a set of Auxillary switches from a 2007 Ford F350 and removed the one missle switch, and put  heavy-duty switch in the other cover and now I have this:

(I will have to get a better quality photo later...)

When it come to photography, I like to play with perspectives a lot...

 In the spring of 2009 I changed my front seat to a split bench with velour instead of cracked vynil!

I was sure to clean all of the floor once the seat was out, I also took this oppertunity to remove my seatbelts and un-twist them as they were twisted badly when I got the truck and I have no idea why they were, now they are straight and work better hen ever!

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