Dads 85 F250...Rebuilding an old friend

I'm sure most of you guys have seen this truck posted around, be it here or on the FTE forum where the main build thread is. I figured I'd share a few pictures here, do a quick run down of what we did, and what we will be doing as the future continues. I'll post the link for the FTE thread so if you get bored and want to get really into the nitty gritty, you can check that out here. Any questions feel free to ask.

Basically, this truck was scrap material. It ran, it moved (barely) but anyone with a right mind would have said yeah, parts truck at best. Not us. Never let a Ford truck die! This truck was purchased by my dad when it was 2 years or so old, and has remained in the family ever since.

Over the course of a couple years, a day or so here and there, couple hours then and now, we managed to piece back a hunk of rotten sheet metal back to a pretty decent looking truck, like in its hey day. The old girl had seen a previous restoration once before in 1993, but plowing snow and driving it in the salt belt took its toll. However, it didn't really start getting bad until we parked it in my driveway, in late 2007. It sat for 10 years, being fired up and moved around once in a while, sometimes once a year.

In 2015 the itch to put it back on the road took off. As the popularity of these trucks has seemingly skyrocketed the last few years especially with the introduction of Facebook groups, finding parts that were once considered impossible to find have become pretty easy to get ahold of.

So here is a few quick pictures of the second resto. We did this completely outside. I'll try and give a small caption for each photo.

This is the oldest known photo I have of this thing. 1988? I think.




Here is the truck circa 1990 or 1991.





Couple quick pics of the first restoration in 1993. Sorry they aren't the best quality. Never had a chance to scan them.





This is how it sat just before him and I fixed it again. By this point, its on its 3rd engine (300, and two 351s) and second transmission and transfer case.



And just some randoms from the surgery.




So those last few are where we are currently, talking paint for the whole truck soon and the possiblity of a crate motor. He has been looking at S374 Windsor engines from Ford, but I'm thinking this years project for 2020 is converting it over to fuel injection, be it Holley Sniper or Fitech, those are the 2 we have been researching the most.

So like I said that's a quick run down of the rebuild, if you check out the FTE link in the beginning of the post there is a lot more breakdown and a crapload more pictures to indulge in if you really want to see just how far into we got. This post doesn't even break the ice!

Thanks for reading.

Great story and photos. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing! I followed your thread on the other forum a couple years back and I consider it one of the most inspirational build threads I’ve seen. I especially enjoy the positive attitude and determination.

Where in NY are you from?

Yes, thanks for sharing!  I hope you'll document it here so we can follow along.

And I love the father/son projects.  LOVE IT!

Thank you guys, I think the main thing I want people to take away from fixing this thing up is that no matter how big of a task it seems, at the end of the day, these trucks are all metal, and metal can be repaired. There will come a day that no more clean this or that will really be available to just straight swap. Fix what you can! Dedicate an hour or two here and there. While there was days we would work on it most of the day, it was few and far between. Long nights never really existed, we would be in the house by 10pm, go to work, go tinker with it, cook dinner, tinker with it and then repeat, maybe a few times a week.

It might take longer, but if you exhaust yourself, you'll lose interest. Keeping this mindset makes me hate myself less for smashing up my pickup, and getting my 79 back on the road.

I am from the Buffalo area, smack between Buffalo and Rochester.

Gary, from this point on I will be updating here as well as FTE as usual. Winter months are usually slow, so there probably won't be much going on until it warms up.

Also, 90% of the accesories you see installed on it (ie. Roll bar, push bar, CB, mud flaps, wagon wheels etc) are untouched from those original photos. The thing is a time capsule from that time period.

Wow, she's a beaut. You did a heck of a job restoring, especially dealing with all that rust and working outdoors. Ive always preffered working out in the sun but it can really slow a project down having to negotiate the elements.
Great job.

Thanks man! When it did rain or snow, we just kind of waited it out and worked on it some other time.

There was no real rush to work on it, it was more of a "whenever I feel like it" kind of thing.


Here's a good one...anyone know where in the heck I can get a set of those grab handles for the cab again? We've talked about it and if they were available we might consider putting them back on...I never saw the truck with them on it as they were taken off before I was born, but if my memory serves right from what I was told, they did NOT bolt through the cab, they were just glued on with doubled sided 3M tape and were fairly large. They had a whole back side to them and weren't just the handle.

I've never seen another set like them.

These below are NOT them, but this might give you an idea kind of what I'm looking for.

Wow such incredible documentation. I am blow away by the amount of rust? What part of the country was this truck in. I am out in the Pac NW and these trucks are all over and seldom rusty.  We use no road salt here in winter.

You should check out the FTE post, it gets even more detailed in there. This post was a quick overview.

I am near Buffalo, NY. This truck was a daily driver until 2007 and plowed snow commercially for the better part of 20 years.


Keep in mind these were repaired many times before these pictures were taken. The last straw was busting a U joint and the driveshaft came through the floor. This is not the original rocker panel, or cab corner and the floor pan had I thin I counted 5 layers, of repairs. The passenger side was almost as bad as the driver side.

The cab was so bad I could physically rock it side to side on the frame.

Flow through ventilation?

That picture of the rear floor & wall is why I still have the parts truck cab.
It would be just my luck I would scrap the cab and then buy a truck needing that part
Even the front cab side mounts are in good shape. The floors & rockers are ok but if I was going to mess with either I wanted to go with new panels and did.

I would have been running away (vary fast) from that truck if it were mine.
You did a great job bringing it back from the dead LOL
Dave ----

I'm so used to all that rust here with living in New York that that floor is nothing more than a shoulder shrug to me, how sad

Angelo Voltura wrote

I'm so used to all that rust here with living in New York that that floor is nothing more than a shoulder shrug to me, how sad

Don't let the NC in my sig fool you I am from CT up till 2015 and did body work so I know rust.
Maybe that is why I bought this down here LOL

The other side was the same

4 years later and a lot of work

Dave ----

So "purdy"!

Damn Dave, that turned out awesome. I love the paint! Hoping some good paint will be laid in the future. It's been a while since this truck had a true 2 stage paint job.

I'm super proud of this thing, even when I was kid I loved showing it off saying hey theres my dad! Everyone local knows this truck, it's a bit of a legend around here. Makes me smile when someone asks me a out it and I go "yeah he still has it!".

I remember one time as a kid this one guy I knew asked me if it was a monster truck :)

Thanks guys

That is the factory colors on the truck and AFAIK the way it left the factory.

It is also single stage just like the factory did back in the day.
It was hard enough to find the time to put the 1 stage paint of for each color.
White let dry tape up and paint the red then did the same on the bed.
So that is 4 different times for painting and if I did a clear over that add 2 more times (1 for cab & 1 for bed) for painting and that was never going to happen!

Then you have the $$ for clear, just the red for inside, under hood and outside was $1000 with hardener & thinner. Then add $$ for the white with hardener & thinner and that is for paint only.
You still have primer & thinner and all the body filler and supplies to sand it down just to get it to the paint stage.
Body work supplies are not cheap and if you have a shop do the work add labor on top.
Dave ----

The last time this truck got painted I'm pretty sure it was a wedding gift because my parents were on their honeymoon when it got done.

It looks excellent, single stage can look good when it is taken care of. Any reason for the painted bumper over chrome?

Angelo Voltura wrote

The last time this truck got painted I'm pretty sure it was a wedding gift because my parents were on their honeymoon when it got done.

It looks excellent, single stage can look good when it is taken care of. Any reason for the painted bumper over chrome?

Yes on the bumper(s).
Take a closer look at it besides the paint, it is custom in 2 ways.
See the fog / driving lights built into the bumper? You cant buy them this way.
Also see any bumper bolts? Nope the other custom touch.
The rear bumper also dose not have bumper bolts.

There was no way I could swing the $$ for re-chroming.
I looked in to getting them wrapped in chrome but of 3 shops only 1 would even think of wrapping and the was in brushed SS as they were afraid of scratching the film when getting the air out from under it.
They did give me someone else but you had to make an apt. for him to even look at it and with work hours I did not even try to call.

That 1 shop said they start at $200 and up depending on the time it took to wrap.
Paint was maybe $50 for the silver & clear pre-mix so just add to paint gun and spray.
IIRC I used a Preval sprayer


If you look closely at the left rear fender you will see a rear fuel filler door for a rear tank.
Not an option on a flare side and with the stock front tank I now have duel tanks using the factory dash switch so it looks factory stock.
The other is I replaced the wood floor with a style side metal ribbed one.

Dave ----

I see now. That looks absolutely fantastic!