My F-100 Restore

I bought my '71 ford pickup back in 1997. I never put that much mileage on the truck so I did not worry about the work I knew I'd have to eventually do to get it in a sound mechanical condition. The previous owner did a horrendous job with repairs to the body, particularly the cab. The body was in such bad shape that the cab was not supported at all by the cab or radiator supports. Every time I went over a bump the cab would creek from metal to metal contact between the front bumper and the stone deflector under the grill. The cowl also leaked water into the cab at a pretty good rate, which accelerated the corrosion process in the floorboards or what was left of the floorboards. The door hinge pillar was a total mess. It was repaired with fiberglass and when that failed there was nothing holding the door up when it was opened. Consequently, I had to hold the door up when it was closed shut.

A broken windshield is what prompted this project. Most of my friends recommended scraping the truck but I had other plans. I wanted to use this truck as a learning platform for future car projects. I wanted to know what fabrication and design techniques were good and which would fail. Most importantly, I wanted to do "all" the work myself.

This page will be finished soon.