1979 Ford F150 Custom with the 351

[Forddaily]

1979 Ford F-150 Custom with the 351 modified backed by a C6 transmission with a NP205 transfer case. Dana 44 high pinion front and ford 9” rear. No A/C. I purchased this truck when I was 15 out of southwest Virginia and brought it home to central Va. The truck had a two tone paint job blue on top and bottom and grey in the middle and had trim all the way around it. I was originally only going to fix what was broken and put wheels and tires on it and rock it but one thing led to another and before you knew it the whole body was off the frame and I was stripping it down to the ground. I went through every part and made sure everything was right while I put it back together. Cleaning all the rust off was probably the dirtiest and most time consuming task of the whole build. I was 16 at the time when I started doing the body work and welding in all the new metal to the body. Once I had the truck most the way back together except for the bed (which I built from scratch) I took

It to my grandfathers house where he had an enclosed garage where I was able to start prepping the truck for paint. Granted I was building this truck paycheck to paycheck in high school and only working at my grandads garage 1 day a week and once we got the cab and front end all prepped I painted the truck ford Oxford white, the color of all new fords. Once that was done we loaded the truck up and brought it back home where we could start to finish the truck and build the bed. I purchased a bed off an 87 f150 and cuffed the sides off and purchased longbed bedsides from lmc and cut them down to make shortbed sides. That was definitely a job of its own and took a lot of work. I eventually got it down to my grandads where I painted the bed and that was the final step in finishing the truck. It was the fall of 2019 (the start of my senior year of high school) I had gotten the truck all together and ready to hit the road. It took just around 2 1/2 years to completely restore the truck