New guy with an '80 F100

[A-ko]

Hey all, just a quick intro. Got a 1980 F100 custom. Base model longbed, basically no options. Had cigarette lighter and right door light switch delete when i got it. 300 with a 3-speed that somebody converted to floor shift at some point in it's life. Manual brakes, manual steering. My friend bought it for $400 with no bed on it in late 2017, I went with him to check it out and was pretty jealous! I live in Iowa, where everything rusts out like crazy, but somehow this truck was pretty damn clean. Was apparently a summer camp truck in its previous life, which may explain it. Guessing it was parked for most of the winter and only saw summer driving. The guy he bought it from only got it for the bed, which was apparently super clean as well. Mileage wasnt bad, just about to turn over to 100k when he got it. Drove it home at night with no taillights, so I just tailed him in his car.

So, he had it for a while and did some stuff. Threw tires on it, replaced the master cylinder, replaced the carb because the accelerator pump wasnt working and he didn't wanna rebuild it. I helped him get all the emissions stuff off the truck, just stuff here and there. He'd drive it occasionally but it was mainly just something to tinker on. He did manage to find a pretty rust-free bed here in Iowa that he threw on, and we dragged a tailgate out of the local junkyard.

So fast-forward a couple months and he's about to inherit a 1979 F150 with a 351M from his wife's grandfather, but only has room for one truck at his new place. He offers it to me pretty cheap...and I think about it a bit, drive it home to see how I like it, and basically fall in love. It was too cool not to grab, and I wanted a bigger replacement for my '91 Ranger anyway, so i sold the Ranger and gave him some cash.

Since then, I've done plenty to the truck. It had a lot of random annoying issues that i've fixed, replaced all the steering components and tightened up the steering box. Did some light re-wiring and fixed all the lights and gauges that didn't work. Pulled out the floor mat to reveal a VERY nice floor (one very small rust hole on the drivers side but basically mint everywhere else) replaced the seat and some of the interior plastic as well as the dash pad with nice stuff from the scrapyard. Even grabbed the topper off his '79 for mine since he didnt want it, and I was looking specifically for a good period-correct topper to try to build a mini camping setup in.

Even this past couple weeks i've been at it. Converted the basic 14-wire 1980 idiot light dash to an 18-wire dash (with tach!) out of an '84 from the yard. This was actually how i found this site...I was mostly on my own for the conversion but some handy tips from here helped me make sure I wasn't crazy while wiring the turn signal lights. Last night I made the truck even more basic by installing a manual choke...and I must say I'm pretty confident the choke hadn't been fully opening EVER since I got it because man did it wake the thing up when i was able to push it open!

Anyway, it's been a super fun project so far and I've got plenty more to do, so finding this site was a great help. I'm sure I'll be on here from time to time when I get stumped but figured an introduction was in order...even if it didnt end up being as short as I planned.

Anyway, thanks! and a few glamour shots...

[grumpin]

Welcome!

[Frank Wyatt]

welcome and nice truck

[Gary Lewis]

Welcome!  Glad you found us and happy to meet you.  

That's a good story about the truck.  And it is coming along nicely.  I'm sure you are proud of it.  And the conversion to the later wiring will make things easier.

Congrat's!!!

[1986F150Six]

Welcome! The truck has character!

[A-ko]

thanks guys. I really want to convert it back to 3-on-the-tree, but have yet to find an appropriate donor truck at the yard (almost all autos or 4/5 speeds), seems the floor shift was a common conversion on the 3 speeds, were the linkages prone to wearing out prematurely or something?  

Really looking forward to getting this thing 100% ready to drive anywhere. Its very reliable currently but still needs a handful of things to be just right. And yeah I dig the patina, so it'll probably stay looking like it does while getting more and more mechanically sound.

[Rembrant]

A-ko wrote

I really want to convert it back to 3-on-the-tree, but have yet to find an appropriate donor truck at the yard (almost all autos or 4/5 speeds), seems the floor shift was a common conversion on the 3 speeds, were the linkages prone to wearing out prematurely or something?  

They were prone to wearing out, yes...but the linkages weren't really the main problem. It was the shift collar in the steering column, shift tube, and associated wear bushings a spring washer, etc. Those parts are long obsolete and I think unavailable going on 20 years or more now.

There was a guy on here not all that long ago that was parting out a three on the tree truck, and I suggested he hang on to the column for a guy just like you...lol. I must go see if I can find that thread now.

My '84 F150 was originally a three on the tree truck, but I converted it to a 5spd floor shift from a 1991. I actually still have my 3spd column, but gutted it and converted it to a basic manual column.

I hung onto all of those three speed parts for quite a while, and had them listed for sale with no takers. I posted them up on Facebook one day, and they sold within an hour and went off to a new home in New Jersey.

Great looking truck by the way. I like 'em bare bones like that.

Mine was similar. No AC, no radio, no cigarette lighter, no passenger door light switch, no headliner, nothing...just bare bones.

[Rembrant]

A-ko wrote

I really want to convert it back to 3-on-the-tree, but have yet to find an appropriate donor truck...

Check with the guy in this thread to see if he saved the column and associated parts...

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Scrapping-an-F100-tp17910.html

[A-ko]

Rembrant wrote

A-ko wrote

I really want to convert it back to 3-on-the-tree, but have yet to find an appropriate donor truck...

Check with the guy in this thread to see if he saved the column and associated parts...

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Scrapping-an-F100-tp17910.html

Hey thanks man! I'm broke at the moment but i'll contact him when i have some spare cash.

Love your truck to death, assuming the one in your pic is yours! And yeah, I wanted a base model with a 300 and a manual. Feels more like a truck to me...even if I grew up in automatic Squarebodies.

[Ferdinand]

Nice ride A-ko! Welcome!