1980 F100 Flareside arrives Downunder

Time to fill in the hole...

Well done!  Love the progress as well as the updates  Please keep them coming.  

May I suggest the correct bumper for the rear and some "F" "O" "R" "D" lettering for the tailgate?
Will really make it standout...
I have the name of a vendor with the correct rear bumper, and I know someone that makes diamondplate bed-rail and tailgate protectors.......

Thanks Guys the plan at the moment is to just get it road worthy and add some safety features to it.  I plan to get the rear bumper and would be grateful if you could me the info on the supplier. Do you know where I can get the rear bumper brackets from? Also, is the F O R D lettering on your truck painted on or is it a sticker kit? My plans for the truck once it's road worthy is to put a white stripe down the side and possibly paint the F O R D on the tailgate white.

The tailgate on my '84 has decals, which I had assumed were original since they're weather cracked from age, etc. I'm sure Reamer can confirm one way or another.

I see they are available on Ebay...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TR102-1980-86-FORD-STEPSIDE-FLAIRSIDE-TAILGATE-LETTERS-F100-F150-F250/291414322034?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=590516188716&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Great progress on the truck by the way. I'm more or less in the same boat with my '84 Flareside. I'm working on getting the thing more road worthy and reliable before I get into the bodywork it requires. It is my plan to rebuild the bed next year (I guess "next year" is next week, isn't it?...LOL).

Please keep posting up pictures of your progress. Love to see it.

Nice work Darin. I see you butt welded the patch so you cant tell it was patched. I was lazy and over lapped the patch.

What, do safety and road worthy work before body work! That is crazy talk LOL

Build a bed? Wood or metal floor flare side bed

Yes please keep us posted with pictures on your work
Dave ----

Yes, the Lettering are decals. A member on FTE made them for me, he's "F100Trucker" his company is "Gator Graphics, 5630 Terry Rd, Byram, MS 39272.

For the correct rear bumper, "A2Z Vehicle Parts" 9330 LBJ Freeway, Suite 900, Dallas TX 75243.
Part Number FDTK - ABR000 73C- FAPQUSA 1987 Ford Truck Flareside.

Well it's been a long time between drinks. My wife has been pushing me to finish her 1968 Mustang so the F100 has been put on the back burner. Happy to report the 1968 is now finished (photos to follow), I have been made redundant from my employer after almost 30 years of service and lets not forget our incredible 7 week vacation to the US where we were fortunate enough to meet up with some fellow members.

A little late but thanks to Dave, Vinnie, Simon, Chris, Ken (from NZ) and special thanks to Gary and Janey for welcoming us into their home. We've been back for 4 weeks already, have found a new job and have settled back into normality and am just starting to getting back into working on the F100 and waiting for my parts to be shipped from California to Sydney, Australia.

Here's why the roofs of these trucks rust out from the inside - due to lack of any form of coating.

Glad to hear that you are getting back to normalcy and it was good meeting you and your lovely wife! The Mustang is a beauty!

Glad you are home, safely.  As David said, it was really good to meet the two of you.

Boy, that Mustang looks great!  I'll bet Anita loves it.  

And, glad you found another job.  That had to be worrying on that long holiday here.

As for the roof, that's ugly looking inside!  I didn't look truly inside the one we cut - did you?

Nice Mustang, good job!

Thanks Guys it was great to catch with all of you at the show in Skiatook. Gary the piece that you gave me is like new and will clean up great once it's cut to size and welded in. Yes the Mustang did turned out pretty good compared to how it was when we brought it home. Attached is a couple of photo's of what it used to look like.

I've finally had some time to get back to working on the F100. One side of the roof is all cleaned up and tacked back in. Now that my parts have finally turned up from our US trip, the engine has arrived and it's time to pull out the six and put in the V8.

It was just going to be an engine transplant but as usual I couldn't help myself once I pulled the engine out. I'm going to clean up the whole engine bay and front suspension before dropping the V8 in.

Here's the crate engine in the back of the Econo ready to have the rear sump, pick up and harmonic balancer put on before being dropped into the truck.

That’s really a shame about the roof surgery... wasn’t it a rust free California truck? You are doing nice work though 🙂

Taking the 6 out and preparing the engine bay for V8 to go in. I noticed these numbers on the firewall. Can anyone tell me what each of them stand for? I think the 7M is the colour of the truck but don't know what the others are. One was behind the heater box and the other is up next to the passenger side hood hinge.

Prepping the engine bay for a coat of paint.  Was supposed to be just a quick clean up for the new engine - now it's going to be full front end rebuild.

It was a little bit bubbly when we bought it - I've got some good roof sections off Gary when we were there last year but the truck was bought out of San Diego but it was ordered and lived in Florida for the first part of its life. If I had have known it was going to have two sections of the roof like this, I would have possibly put a full roof on it or changed the cab over.

Oz Econoline/F100 wrote

Taking the 6 out and preparing the engine bay for V8 to go in. I noticed these numbers on the firewall. Can anyone tell me what each of them stand for? I think the 7M is the colour of the truck but don't know what the others are. One was behind the heater box and the other is up next to the passenger side hood hinge.

Yup, the "7M" is Dark Pine Metallic for 80/81. Can't help on the other number. My Canadian built 84 had the two digit paint code written in the firewall behind the heater box.

Truck is looking great so far!