I'm a big fan of seeing progress threads on builds, and I know some others are as well, so I figured I'd get a thread out there for this ol' girl. Only owned the truck about a month now. Found her for sale in Texas, so my wife and I flew down to look at it one weekend, and we fell in love with it. I've always loved this era of Ford trucks and Bronco's. My parents had a reg cab long bed '78 F-150 Ranger for a few years when I was a kid, and then a '79 Bronco for many years after that. Always told myself I'd have one some day, and here I am.

Rather than lay it out here in the first post, I'll let this thread tell the story of this truck from here on out, not only in case plans shift here or there, but also to retain some anticipation for those who like to follow along. The truck is going to change a fair amount from it's current state, and I'm very excited to get started.

My wife, our 5 yr old son, and I are looking forward to putting some miles on the ol' girl here in a couple years, so I best get to work on it. We're huge National Park buffs, who love to camp and hike. So, we plan to use the truck to pull our pop-up camper each summer to new National Parks for our yearly vacations.

Truck is a 2WD and pretty darn clean. She's a 460 with the C6 Auto. Quite obvious she spent most of her life (if not all) in the southern region (or at least not driven in winter where copious amounts of salt and chemicals are used on the roads like here in the midwest), as the frame and body are darn near completely clear of rust. The paint looks pretty good in photos, but it's not perfect, and I didn't want it to be, as previously mentioned my family and I plan to enjoy driving this truck quite a bit. So no show queen here!

Here's a few photos to kick off the thread. I'll be posting plenty more as progress is made!

 

nice rig whats the s c p on the backrest of the front seat?

 

MAN...
That truck is beautiful...

What are you planning to do?
It looks great!

Back to original state?

 

Thanks! I couldn't really get much of any history on the truck from the previous owner. I was told it sat, undriven, for most of the last year before I purchased it, so guessing they didn't have much interest in it. I've been assuming the S C P is someone's initials, but I have no way to be certain as of right now. I would love to know more about the truck's history, and I plan to work on that in the future here.

Thank you! The blue really is quite eye catching. I've never really been one to seek out blue in vehicles, but this has really grown on me quickly. If I ever repaint the truck, I'm fairly certain I'll stick with this color. The trim is all there, and in pretty good condition (could be brought back to new almost, with some elbow grease). And the body is pretty darn straight. All in all she's a clean rig, no doubt. I'm very pleased to have taken ownership of it.

Regarding plans for it, definitely not back to original state. I actually think it's quite close to that right now, with the exception of the blue & white upholstery. It will be much further from original state when I am "done" with it, than it is right now, and that's all I'll say, haha.

 

Can't wait to see the changes.

 

My vote is for Super Cab Pickup. Great looking truck, may you all enjoy many happy miles in it.

 

I don't believe the 460 is original, others may chime in but I THINK they were only available in the F250's for 1979. I could be wrong. Very nice truck, those painted inner fenders look very nice. The PO did an awful lot of work on it inside and out and it looks amazing. Congrats on such a nice truck! I agree with 68flareside240 "Super Cab Pickup" embroidered on the seats.

 

You may be right, as I am not 100% sure myself. With a truck of this age, anything is possible. I suppose with some research on decoding the VIN I should be able to determine this.

Someone did a fair amount of work, for sure. However, from what I can tell, the truck has been cared for and kept from the elements quite well, as I don't believe it's been through any sort of "ground up restoration". Although, it has been repainted, of course.

SCB Super Cab Pickup, haha why didn't I think of that. Didn't even cross my mind, but I bet you guys are right! Good catch!

 

Actually my 78 F150 is factory 460 C6. That really is a nice truck.

 

After a little research the 2WD trucks were available with the 460. 4X4's not until 1979 in the F350's

 

Nothing big happening yet, but a few little changes to update here I suppose.

Original steering wheel was not my style, so I actually changed that out on day one, haha. I went with one from a company called Forever Sharp. Not a bad price, and acceptable quality, much better look for my taste. Also installed a couple AutoMeter gauges: oil pressure and tachometer. Was driving me nuts not knowing either while driving. Did some steering column work. The spring for holding the shift lever back was broken, and the indicator for knowing what gear you're in was completely missing. So with some NOS Parts LTD & Bronco Graveyard parts, I got the column back in working order, and also adjusted the linkage to the transmission so the indicator reads correctly regarding what gear you're in. Was a rather uneasy feeling putting the truck into park with the lever spring broken, as it just didn't feel like it had a solid hold and could possibly pop back into gear easily. Never happened, but I prefer things to be working correctly, as they should. With the replacement spring in and the linkage adjustment, everything feels as it should now when shifting through the gears.





Some of you may have already seen this in my headlight swap thread, where I was looking for parts, but I figured it should be in here as well. I've always been a big fan of the round headlights on these trucks. I know, they were far more common than the square, square was special, yeah yeah. But to each his own right? Round is where it's at for me. Plus I went with some nice 6000k Lumtronix LED versions to improve night time driving.




That is all for now. Will have some more changes to update in here in the coming weeks.

 

I really like that new wheel, that old one was "interesting"

 

Yeah interesting, for sure. Looked like it belonged on a boat, in my opinion, lol.

 

Thought it was interesting decoding my VIN and door tag. If I've read them and followed the decoder correctly, the paint code seems to imply the truck was originally two tone, blue & silver, which it no longer is, obviously. However, the trim code shows blue vinyl/cloth interior, so the current interior is close to original (minus the white accents of course). Also, as previously brought up in here by someone, it appears the 460 and C6 were this truck's original factory equipment as well (whether the actual units in the truck are the originals or not, I do not know yet). Nice to know what the rear axle gear ratio is as well (assuming no one has changed it at any point).


The following decoding results per: Decoding '73-'79 Ford Truck VIN Tags - FORDification.net

VIN = X15JKEG2182

X15 = Series Code '77-'79 2 wheel drive pickup (F150 Super Cab)

J = Engine Code '73-'79 8cyl 460ci 4-bbl 7.5L

K = Plant Code Kansas City

EG2182 = 1979 model year


Door Tag = 155 SO X153 QBM K 16J

155 = 155 inch wheelbase

SO = Color Code Dark Blue Metallic & Silver Metallic

X153 = Model Code '78-'79 F150 2WD Super Cab Pickup 6400 GVWR

QBM = Body Code F100/350 (81E) Regular & Super Cab, Trim Code Blue vinyl & cloth

K = Transmission Code '79 3spd Automatic Ford C6

16J = Rear Axle Code '75-'79 3.50 ratio Ford 9 inch


One curiosity I have is the "81E" designation used in the body code. Can anyone school me on what that means?

This is probably a boring update to the thread, but I thought it was cool to see the information lines up with what the truck is yet to this day, some 42 years later. I will have some more exciting updates in the coming week or so.

 

FYI, Ford never put a 460 in any of the 4x4 trucks in the 70's from the factory. First year was 1983 IIRC for a 460 with 4x4.