Well Hello!- This 250 was grabbed from the clutches of destruction

[Bulletproof250]

Hello all,

I was gifted this F-250 due to a family member wishing for it to be removed from their yard. I have been wanting a older  full-size truck for a long time to make a "Prerunner" style makeover. Although I live on the East Coast and Desert racing is, very far from My Backyard, It has always caught my eye. I guess it represents a toughness at speed more than some other forms of motor-racing.
Now I have gotten it running and I've confirmed it's in relative working order, enough to drive it back the 10-ish miles home. I anticipate that this year will be doing much of the necessary work just to get it smooth and clean mechanically. Next Year some mods, and those will be budget dependent. I can't wait to hear more from the group regarding other Prerunner-type, builds and 1980's vintage Mods that may not break the bank.

Glad to see there is some following for this vintage of F-Series trucks

[Gary Lewis]

Welcome!  Glad you found us!  

Where's home?  You said "East Coast", but that's a big area.  If you can nail that down to a town/city I can put you on the member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map).

Is your truck coil or leaf-sprung in the front?  I think all F250 4wd's were leaf-sprung, but I'm not sure.  If so, then you are in the same boat I'm in currently - precious little suspension movement, which will translate to poor traction off road.  You can follow along on what I'm doing, which is to put an F350's straight axle Dana 60 under the front with SuperDuty springs, which is supposed to give much better ride and suspension travel.  The how-I-got-there discussion is in the thread entitled Issues With Big Blue!?!?!   But I'm in the process of moving the discussion, or at least the day-by-day documentation, over to the thread entitled Big Blue's Transformation, which has the plans, to-do list, and progress.

Having said that, if you want serious articulation you may want to do a coil spring front suspension.  That would be an interesting project on an F250.

In either case, I hope you'll start a thread in the main section to show us your truck and the progress you make on it.  

[grumpin]

Welcome!

[Bulletproof250]

Hi Gary,
My truck is Leaf Sprung and Home is in New London County CT, which is the southeastern portion if Connecticut. I agree with you,  any amount of travel I'l be looking into Coil springs and more probably Coil Over suspension

[Gary Lewis]

You are now on the map.

As for the suspension, my F250 currently has ~3/4" of space between the spring and the bump stop.  Doing the math, that might translate to 1 1/2" of travel at the wheel before hitting the stop, which explains the harsh ride.

I'm going with an F350 Dana 60, SuperDuty springs, and a reverse shackle kit, and that combo is supposed to give significantly better ride and wheel travel.  We shall see.  But, it is an expensive approach.  

[1986F150Six]

Welcome!

[Bulletproof250]

Something like this....

[Gary Lewis]

I like it!  But man, that is a LOT of welding.  Beautiful welding, but a lot thereof.  Wow!

And are there coil springs above it?  Please tell me no leaf springs.

[Bulletproof250]

Not my Welding but beautiful still. Yes the coil Over shocks would go above. actually I think hat you can see the mounting point in the picture. A Man can dream, can't he