Hello from Texas with my one-owner '86

Thank you all so much for your contributions to this site - what a treasure of information. I have taken on my dad’s truck - he bought it new in 1986 - this was our rodeo truck until it became our ranch truck, where it was most definitely rode hard and put up wet. I’ve hauled it to my place and hope to restore and preserve it as a driver.

It’s a F250 4x4, standard transmission, with a 6.9 IDI. All basically stock. It runs and shifts, the outer body is in decent shape, and that’s the end of the good news. Everything not painted is a rusted mess, and the cab interior looks like a cattle rancher used it for work.  I have little experience with diesels (or car projects for that matter). My only mechanical background is that I built and raced vintage dirt bikes. I have deduced that diesels are a far cry from two stroke engines. This weekend I started on the poor thing. My approach makes sense (to me) - get it down to frame (at least partially, starting with rear). Look for anything catastrophic, and go from there.

So, pulled the giant rear bumper, frame rails/headache, old school toolbox, and began bed removal. I found that the bed hitch was welded to the frame (thanks dad), cut that away, then found that 5 of the six bed mount bolts were wallered out and spinning. Much creativity and cussing, got those all removed. Now need to build a makeshift rolling stand to set the bed on for later. The bed floor is all rusted out (with the help of a spray-on bed liner X years ago - thanks again dad). Not sure how salvageable that will be, but the body panels all seem solid.

There’s an excellent body/paint shop down the road that I trust - they did lots of motorcycle work for me in the past. My plan is to have them handle paint and body (they have a long waitlist, so trying to get some stuff done in the meantime). He re-painted the truck maybe in the 90's and I like the black and gray better than the two-tone gray.

I am so grateful this forum exists - sure love the communities that crop up around brands and models. I’ll try not to ask any questions that have been asked before, and I recognize this will be a slow process. This is a very sentimental truck, and a budget I’m sure some people would call foolish. But, if there’s any way to get her solid and in nice shape, my time and money will follow.

Here’s a couple of then and now photos:

Welcome Bug Truck!
Glad you've found us

The truck looks fairly solid and at least you have a history.
We really appreciate projects like this here.  

Welcome!

Yes, welcome!  Glad you joined.

Thanks so much! I do know the history, it just may not be a great one. Really appreciate the add.

Well, at least your dad did his best to keep it up for ranch duty.
It's great that you can have it even for sentimental reasons.
When you get the bed off one thing always to check is the rear spring hangers and shock mounts. These are notorious for developing rot and not hard or expensive to change if the bed is off.
It's also wise to clean and inspect the tops of the fuel tanks.
At least diesel trucks don't seem to rot as bad as gas.

He did, mostly. Here's a pic of some of the underside ugly. I think most everything will need replacing, I'll try to salvage what I can if it's workable. Hope to get the bed off tomorrow - that will give me a better look at frame integrity. I'm guessing wire-wheel all the rust off and look for cracks or just outright cancer there first.
Thank you for the tip on the hangers and mounts - I've got a supplier list going based on forum comments.
Laurie