Face lift........

One of our most favorite places to go is Pull A Part. If you have never been there you really need to go. For all you junk yard goers this place is the bomb. check it out at www.pullapart.com. So Tom and I went to our local pull a part junk yard and got a great deal on some accessory items. We purchased, all used of course, a new seat, green carpet & kick panels, the green seat belts, black dash pad, chrome grill insert and matching headlight bezels. The donor truck we found was a 1979 Ranger XLT. We paid about $70 dollars for the whole lot of great stuff. We had painted the dash white to get rid of that horrible red. The door panels received a custom green and white paint job with some silver accent. The green carpet we brought home was to cover the old tattered rubber mat in the truck. The new seat we found looked great but it wore out fast. It was still a great deal. The dash pad was not in perfect shape as the last guy put a screw through the right side to hold it on. All in all the truck got a face life and it was a great improvement from its before condition.

Rubber Lift

Tom borrowed a set of 38 x 12.5 x 15 Super Swampers from a guy he worked with. You guessed it! Had to see them on the truck. Looks like a monster. It was so big I couldn't get in it without help. Looks good!!! During the frame swap, Tom had gotten a Ford 360 big block to install in his truck from another guy he was working with. We paid $200 for this engine and knew absolutely nothing about its history. It seemed to run just fine. This turned out to be a good investment because we soon after drove this 1979 Ford F-250 from near Birmingham, AL to Northern Michigan to pick up a 1971 slide in camper. We loaded up this antique, heavy camper and headed back to our new home near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The truck ran fine except for the 2 blown tires we were forced to deal with on this 700 mile journey back to the south. Some time after this road trip, Tom had to replace this 360 with a Ford 460 Big Block. The 360 was using excessive oil and had a burnt valve. This 1979 is what we are currently using to pull our service trailer for our new, very, small company. You can read our blog about Precision Truck Service at http://www.precisiontruckservice.blogspot.com/. Check it out!!  Thank you for reading our blog.

Upgrade number 1

On April 29, 2009 Tom purchased this frame. It is a 1974 Ford F-250 4wheel drive truck frame for $500. It came with both front (dana 44) and rear (dana 60) axles, exhaust, brakes, new brake lines, wheel bearings, new Warn lockouts,  NP-435 transmission, divorced transfer case, suspension, and a disassembled engine. It was a great price for everything that was included.  The problem discovered just after Tom purchased the frame was that the rear of the frame is 3" narrower on this frame than the 1979 frame which means the bed won't bold up. We'll make it work!

Admiring....

I just like this picture of the truck. I think it's just a nice looking truck. What do you think?

Camping?

We picked up this awesome camper shell from the landlord of our Alabama rental house. It didn't stay on the truck long but served its purpose while it was there.

Adjusting the Carb.....

Tom was adjusting the carburetor and I was watching with the video camera. He didn't know I was recording. This was just the beginning of the work to come for the next 8 months.

Moving On......

Well I guess it was time for change. Shortly after the we lost the truck to a possibly avoidable fire Tom and I packed up what we could fit in out small 6x12" trailer and donated the rest of it local charities. We quit our jobs and moved south. We ended up at Oak Mountain State Park Campground for about 6 months where I worked as a campground volunteer to pay for our campsite and Tom secured a job with Southland International Trucks. We both worked hard and bought this beautiful 1979 Ford F-150. We paid $900 for it from a drunk guy about an hour from the campground. We were able to negotiate the price down a little because of some of the things that needed to be put back on the truck like the bumpers. All in all it was a great buy for us. This is our new project truck. Too bad its red! Not a big fan of a red truck. Tom got in his new truck and I got in the Ford Ranger we owned and we headed toward home. We made it about 2 miles and had to stop and fix the truck. Tom had to get and install a new starter solenoid. After t driving to the nearest town, 20 miles away, and locating a parts store, purchasing the solenoid and driving back to the gas station where the new old truck was, Tom fixed the problem. It ran horribly all the was back. It was sucking air and wouldn't idle. We did make it back to our campsite with minimal problems and Tom then began repairs and fine tuning.

Bad Day!!!!

Tom and I took his daughter Dana out to some state land in northern Michigan for a picnic. The carburetor was not working properly and we had sent another one to be rebuilt. However, we decided to drive the truck anyway. What a bad idea that turned out to be! As you can see from the picture we had a very hot issue. We were in the truck after lunch and backed up to leave. The truck stalled and wouldn't restart. The fuel bowl stuck and poured fuel all over the intake and back of the engine. This was only discover as the problem after the ignition lit the gas. Tom tried his absolute best to extinguish the fire under the hood by throwing a blanket over the engine to smother it. He was patting out the fire and almost succeeded until the bolt for the air cleaner went up through the blanket and into his wrist. There was a steady stream of blood, as it seemed he punctured a vein. That was the end of firefighting that day for Tom. I wrapped a pillowcase around his arm and he them began throwing whatever he could from the truck. He managed to save the puppy from the bed of the truck and also all of our camping gear as well as the chainsaw and gas can. Dana and I stood clutched together on the side lines and watched in horror. It was truly awful to watch the truck my husband loved so much be destroyed in just a few minutes. It took a long time for the fire department to find us. We were pretty much in the middle of the forest. Luckily we were able to keep the grass around the truck from catching fire but the truck was a total loss. It was and still is very sad for us to look at these pictures. We strongly recommend keeping a fire extinguisher in your truck always. You never can be too sure.