Bringing Back The Past

Where to begin...

I love trucks. I have owned, and currently own many trucks. Swimming around in my head nearly 24/7 are ideas of what I want to do with '67-79 Ford's and exhausting all of the possibilities of what I can do to the ones I own.

One in particular has been going on 9 years now. My '76 F-250 4x4 is what I (and other enthusiasts who really know their business) consider the quintessential Ford truck to own. It's was we call a "Highboy".

A little background: The late ’75 to early 77 Ford ¾ ton 4x4’s were a very unique animal in that they were the combination of the best of the old, and the niceties of the new. They came with the 360 “FE” series engines with electronic ignition, had divorced New Process 205 transfer cases for that 3 piece hanging low driveshaft look, had disc brake, open knuckle, low pinion front axle assemblies, and of course, the 67-72 style 4wd ¾ ton frame that is virtually impossible to find a 73-79 body to bolt onto it.

“Jack” as I call my ’76, is one of my earlier members of my truck family. I bought it off of the next-door-neighbor to the owners of my ’70 F-100 4x4 sight-unseen in May of 1999 from Belgrade, Montana. I paid $1400 for it and never saw so much as a picture.

After Jack arrived some 5 weeks later, the motor was cooked, the transfer case was shot, and the body although fairly clean, had fertilizer stacked in the bed and it rotted out the whole tailgate area. The frame was impeccable still and with the help of a good friend Stu, another truck was sourced with a 390 FE engine as a donor. A few months later with a rebuilt transfer case, a newly sealed up engine, Jack was on the street.

Not much changed from that over the past 9 years. The first winter I had it, I had to drive through the salt and grime of Ohio which basically took a harsh toll on the body immediately, but didn’t hurt the rest.

About 2 years ago after a LONG time of searching, I even stumbled across a Dana-60 front axle from a ’75 F-250 4x4 Crew-Cab. These Ultra-RARE axles are direct bolt-ins for the regular cab models and gives you that big, beefy, envious look from those who can recognize it when they look under your truck. The axle required quite a bit of work actually as it was pretty beat. New knuckles from a ’92, new carrier and positraction (trak-lok) front differential re-geared to 3.55’s, new axle shaft U-joints, and even had to seam weld and set the tubes in the housing straight again. It’s a monster for sure.

That left me with an incredible running gear, and a bad body for the past couple of years… With ’73-77.5 narrow frame cab and beds nearly impossible to find as I mentioned earlier, I started thinking about the ’67-72 style bodies that bolt right onto the frames with no work required. Having my ’70 F-100 4x4 in a million pieces, I started thinking how I should just combine the two trucks.

It would make for a really cool project. Take the frame of Jack and cut 18 inches out of it and re-weld it, then take the ’70 body and put it on the chassis and have a neat little short-bed, ¾ ton 4x4 and kill two restoration project with one stone. I had everything to do it, it wouldn't cost me hardly any money whatsoever, and it would free up a ton of garage space at the same time.

I kept this in my mind over the past year and still wasn’t able to figure out what I wanted to do. Scouring eBay as I do on a regular basis, I came across a listing for a ’78 F-100 shortbed 2wd drive in Hickory North Carolina.

I had always wanted a little two wheel drive that got great gas mileage, could throw my bike into the back, and really was missing the performance of my Mustang in a weird way since I had traded it in on my third F-350 4x4 in 6 years. Poof- the light went on to grab this truck, do a quick clean up on it, and have a really nice daily driver for summer. $5000 dollars later and a 17 hour drive straight to NC and back, and Minty was sitting in my driveway.

The term original doesn't do this truck justice.. However, “Quick Cleanup” turned out to be a whole different story… I’ll share that at a later date...


After Minty was done, and I was officially beyond broke and I thought I’d be content for a while. And I was really…

Then I spent a week out of my summer going to Arkansas to work on some REALLY clean steel - Ashlie’s ’70 F-250 “Maggie” out of California. She rates about an 8 on the "Cleanest old trucks I've ever seen".

And Stu’s ’76 F-250 4x4 “Sunshine” from Washinton. Sunshine is also a Highboy. I feel content knowing Sunshine is now a member of the family and will be used, but pampered, like all old Fords should!

I came back home, took one look at Jack and was totally disgusted at what I had let the truck become. I was resentful I dumped so much money into Minty, and I even got to the point I tried to sell Jack to a couple friends. I don’t know if they thought I was asking too much, or they knew I wouldn't be happy I sold it, but none of them took me up on my offer.

So I kept thinking of ideas, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and how cheap I could do it. I once again scoured over eBay and Craig’s list, and stumbled across a completed auction that just “grabbed me”. A ’77, dark blue, long bed F-150 in Lafayette, Oregon.

There’s not much of my childhood I can remember. Hell, there’s not much I really care to remember. But one thing that has stuck with me over the years is a truck my parent’s owned. A ’73 F-250 two wheel drive in Ford Midnight Metallic Dark Blue. It just doesn’t get any more FORD than that. It was a beast- 360 engine, blue interior, and best of all- A stick shift. :-)

The New Process 435 four speed has that ultra-low creeper gear and I can still remember sitting in the middle of the bench seat shifting it when I was probably only 7 or 8 years old. I can also remember going down Martin Hill on one of the back roads near my parent’s house and being amazed at how you didn’t even have to hit the brakes the whole way down and could just let the back compression of the motor hold you from going any faster. I was fascinated.

So that was it. The decision was already made in my mind. I HAD TO HAVE this truck for Jack and turn it into the '73 I remember. I’m young, I’m single, and even if the truck didn’t turn out to be what I expected, I could accept the fact I took an $1875 dollar gamble, and I knew I could make most of my money back selling parts off it. Hey, you only live once, right?