Hi All,

Just found this forum & am so grateful to be able to join.

Current ride: 1996 F-150, inline 6, 125k miles with manual transmission

Future ride: 1955 F100, it's been in the garage for 7 or 8 years awaiting restoration. Kids are out, 10 more payments on the house & then I get to work on my truck.

Goal: mild HP with an old school rumble, and a good looking truck. I want to be able to take the upgrades in stages to be able drive it in between the larger work projects.

Just started the planning (it's all in flux at this point), figuring safety first, eh!

The previous owner installed a 302, I'm looking to freshen it up: heads, intake, distributor, etc., efi & associated parts - new gas tank.

Disk brakes front end, power brake conversion, power steering & new column.

Rewire truck?

Best Regards To All,
Jon

 

welcome Jon... glad you found it. Sounds like a plan is coming together. Safety first then power then bling. You will need time, MONEY, energy and enthusiasm. Not necessarily in that order. Post some pictures of your truck and let us enjoy it too. I'll link a couple of articles that might put things into perspective and give you ideas

https://jniolon.classicpickup.com/articles/Trialsofafirsttimebuilder.html
https://www.fordtruckzone.com/threads/what-to-look-for-in-a-classic-ford-truck-part-i.654895/

gud luck
John

 

another welcome, 55 f 100 fun truck

 

Hi jniolon,
Thank you for the warm welcome. John, one of your articles got me to this site. I was on the other Ford forum & was chasing down some dead links, when voila I'm here. Totally awesome, eh! Thanks for the links, I studied them both, sage advice there. I am currently in the "Item Number One - Plan" stage, the last time I attempted something this big 30 years ago, I gave up after getting my 1948 Ford P/U running.......I ran out of ambition & sold it. This time I'm starting with a nicer truck & am going to update it.

Hi captchas,
Thank you for the warm welcome, eh!

Hi FTZ HAIC,
Thanks for the warm welcome! I've been looking at going EFI and see that Edelbrock has a kit available for the 302; I'm leaning in that direction to keep the frustration level down. My initial thinking is EFI, which will be a pretty good project....New heads, Edelbrock kit, gas tank & all of the associated parts to go with all of that. I see that John Niolon has a great article about a rear gas tank install in his '53.

So far the planning process with all subject to change of course, why else do they call it a plan:
1. Disk brakes in front, new master cylinder with vacuum assist - keeping the underfloor location.
2. Power steering, Toyota - keeping the original steering column at first, new column later.
a. The front end has been lowered with a drop axle and some different leaf springs; there is too little clearance, I need to scope out getting some rise into it.
3. Rewiring/EFI/heads/cam upgrade.

Thanks Again & Best Regards,
Jon

 

Heya John & Ken,
I have a data center job - 99% boredom & 1% total nuts. If you guys can think of something that needs to be done on the admin side, I'd like to volunteer. I work the night shift 7 PM to 7 AM & am up every night whether I'm working or not. Keep me in mind if you think of something.
Best Regards,
Jon

 

JOn
the new efi kits work great, when i built my F5 cobra at first the crate 425 hp 347 sb had a msd unit on it. made it a very sweet running motor ,2 years latter i gave kass both of my low hanging for a big inch FE which is simply to much motor

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Jon
that's the reason I started writing my stuff. I began my truck in 1995 and there was little info to be found. Back then there were a couple of magazines that did some decent tech pieces. Now, it's down to one and it's basically a ad rag for it's vendors with little verbiage and small pictures. I dropped my subscription this year after over 20 years. So, as I did (and redid) things on my truck I'd document it for other rookies like myself. Ken has always been gracious enough to let me use his forums as a host.

Sounds like a solid plan for your truck and with your experience it should turn out great.. gud luck

john