1968 F-250 Camper Special - 2 years work

[Gregtx]

So I'm finally getting around to putting together a build thread for my F-250 that I bought a couple years ago. The history of this truck is that it came from California at some point, then spent a while out on the West Texas oil fields. I bought it for $2500 from an old roughneck. The only reason I paid as much as I did was because it had a hidden jewel in it, a Gear Vendors Over/Under. Had to have it towed home on account of a blown head gasket, but two years later and I couldn't be happier with how she's turned out.

First, the final product.
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But this is how she started...
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The motor was shot, the paint was... well it wasn't even automotive paint. The seals were all either missing or dry, cracked and leaking. None of the body lines matched up, there was no carpet, the dash didn't work, the brakes were shot, the over/under wasn't functional and on and on...

First things first, pull the motor and tear it down.
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Even though the previous owner swore it was a 390, the fact that the piston was .150 under deck at TDC told me it was a 360. Pulling the crank confirmed it. After yanking the pistons, I discovered they were essentially melted. I made the decision then to stoke it to a 390 and zero deck the motor. So... a few parts later

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I went with Keith Black forged pistons, a roller rocker valve train, Lunati Voodoo cam, springs and lifters kit, dual plane intake, MSD 6a and disty, Long tube headers, flowmaster 3" exhaust with h-pipe, 20% larger valves, ported and polished head, and lots of other goodies. Getting the geometry right on the valve train and intake faces was probably the trickiest part outside of dialing in the cam.

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I did end up replacing the carb with a QFT Brawler 650 later. The tunability of the brawler is almost unmatched.

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I also pulled the trans at the same time to go through its outer seals. With the Gear Vendors on there, this thing is a real monster!

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The end result of all the mechanical work is this:

Turn your speakers on!

[Gregtx]

The body work probably took the longest to complete. Body work and paint is a real art and there is a fairly significant tooling investment required to get going. If you've got the inclination to learn, I would recommend it. It's an intensely satisfying thing and the results can be stunning. The cost is definitely less than a high quality body work and paint job, even with the tool investment.

I started with a concept drawing that I worked up in paint.net.

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Then the real work began and I started stripping off all the old paint.

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This was a 50 year old truck that has spent a good part of its useful life working in the West Texas oil fields. It had some rough spots that needed work. So I got out my mig and stud welder and pulled or replaced much of the metal that was beat up or rotting. I got it as close as I could using old hammer and dolly work and then lightly skimmed the repairs with filler. I did end up having to skim most of the truck anyways when I got to blocking because you just don't see the smallest imperfections until you get the primer on and get a marking coat down.

Eventually (and after MANY months of blocking) I finally got a sealer coat laid down.

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Then I decided I needed a booth... so I built one.

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I designed it to be a positive pressure booth pushing 4000 CFM. It worked great and got the job done nicely! Then it was on to reassembly.

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Overall I was really pleased with the end result.

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I also took the opportunity to refurbish the gauge cluster since I was going to focus on the interior next.

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[Gregtx]

The interior started with the gauge cluster and just removing EVERYTHING and getting it cleaned up.

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The truck didn't have any carpet when I bought it, but the floor pans were in really great shape. I just had to clean them up with some acetone, grind away a bit of surface rust then reprime the bare metal areas.

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I then added some sound insulation before fitting the new carpet.

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The carpet sat out for a few hours before getting fitted to the truck to allow it to relax.

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Once it was it, it went down really nicely.

[Bullitt74]

Nice job! A very cool ride in the end!

[popeyes71]

Nice build! Looks like the truck turned out beautiful, enjoy!