Your favorite vehicles of yesteryear.

[cleatus12r]

I have always had in my posession a 73-76 Ford pickup of one sort or another.

My family has never owned anything other than Ford trucks and I was raised "right" I guess you would say. The first one (and two, and three) trucks I bought made one good one. I bought my first in Dec. of '93 (at the ripe old age of 14) for $400. It was a 74 1/2 ton shortbox that was in awful shape. But it ran and was fun to beat on. It eventually took on a transformation with 2 other trucks and became a 74/76/79 F-200. I called it my 5/8ths ton because it was a coil-sprung shortbox with 3/4 ton axles (spindles-out on the front). That truck went to Louisiana with me for 18 months worth of Army duty and I sold it in '03 to pay off a motorcycle purchase. It left me with 9 inches of lift and a perfect body with original paint.

The current project is a 73 2wd longbox that I bought in '94 for $200. It hadn't been licensed in 15 years and served fuel-hauling duty on a ranch. I aquired a 76 3/4 ton 2wd about 3 years later and swapped the cab (the original had no floorboards and about 7 lbs. of Bondo in the body from my first bodywork attempt). It's been a work in progress since '94 and it just lost its 3rd engine/transmission (donated it to the Youth Center's 16 passenger bus). This truck was meant to be beat on. I ran 200 HP worth of nitrous oxide for about a year (countless 10 lb. bottle refills) and put a spool in the rear. It ran really well with Holley Pro-jection for nearly 10 years and had an absolutely FLAT torque "line" of 353 ft. lbs. from 1800 to 3200. I built a 3-link airbag setup for the rear suspension and upgraded over the years from a 302 to 390 to the most recent 460. Yes, the transmission swaps are always fun...THANKS FOR THE DIFFERENT ENGINE FAMILIES, FORD!!

Anyway, here is a picture of the truck in its current state. Right now it is engine-less but I have a 91 F.I. 460 and E40D that are going into it so I have the port fuel injection and wiring harness ready for a twin-turbo setup. I'll probably megasquirt it...... The body isn't great, but it's all original and there is no rust. I'd rank it a 7 out of 10 as it sits. One day it will be a 700 HP rocket....but it takes time and money.