Elrod's 96 F-150 Restoration

[ju015dd]

Wow, super badass bud. That thing has been resurrected for sure. Damn good job

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Wow, super badass bud. That thing has been resurrected for sure. Damn good job

Thanks man! It's the truck I wished I had in high school so I promised myself that one day I would find one and make it mine. First phase was just to get it back in original running/driving condition and enjoy it like that for a while. Down the road I plan on a gear change with a trac-lok rear dif and may build the 357w with a good top end one day too. I haven't decided what gears to go with yet. I don't plan on lifting it or running larger tires than what I have now. I may haul my 60 horse tractor with it in the future but that's about it.

 

[96blak54]

Here is my sones project. Son bought it a year ago from a brother in law that he was in the process of fixing up. Its a 89 F250 351 2wd camper special that cam with a 5th wheel hutch. Its in great shape besides some common rust spots.

I think its great you found a project to relive your child hood

 

[Paladin1001]

Super cool truck, my son is 16 and I found a 95 Eddie Bauer 5.0 F150 2WD reg cab long bed 5 speed for him, it runs but has a weak cyl. We are going to replace the engine and I am trying to decide if I want to find a 351W or just leave it stock as a 302. Since he is 16 I think the lesser power engine is safer. Later though we may wish we put the bigger one in. I really enjoyed reading your write up, that was quite a feat! Good job and thanks for posting!

 

[96blak54]

^ i agree 100%
Keep the progress coming! Im loving this thread! It kicks a$$!

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Super cool truck, my son is 16 and I found a 95 Eddie Bauer 5.0 F150 2WD reg cab long bed 5 speed for him, it runs but has a weak cyl. We are going to replace the engine and I am trying to decide if I want to find a 351W or just leave it stock as a 302. Since he is 16 I think the lesser power engine is safer. Later though we may wish we put the bigger one in. I really enjoyed reading your write up, that was quite a feat! Good job and thanks for posting!

I would say go ahead and find a 351w, in stock form mine is pretty tame...my 4.6 3v F-150 would outrun it and that thing is a pig lol. Down the road you already have a good platform to build up too. And thanks for the comment too!

^ i agree 100%
Keep the progress coming! Im loving this thread! It kicks a$$!

Thanks man, I'm gonna dig into it this week and see if I can get the exhaust leak fixed and do something about my power steering pump leak too.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Got my exhaust leak fixed today. I suspected at first that I had blown the manifold gasket due to the smaller amount of material on the gaskets that came with the headers vs oem exhaust manifold gaskets.



So I swapped gaskets, put everything back together, fired it up andddd..................still leaking..

So I stuck my hand behind the head and found that my thermactor plug had backed out and was missing -.-

A quick trip to town for some plugs and I'm back in business. Looking back I should have checked that before pulling the header but I forget that the van engine being a 95 has the smog ports in the head and the heads from 96 didn't have them. Oh well easy enough of a fix. I drove around about 10 miles after then parked it back home. I think I'm gonna call around this week and see about getting it into a shop soon to see about getting the transmission fixed.

 

[whiplash473]

Smart of you to check that. I drove many miles with that plug missing just thinking I had an exhaust leak.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Update time before I lose track of things. After the whole exhaust leak ordeal, I kept having a small power steering fluid leak so went ahead and got a new pump. Cleaned everything up while I had it out too. New pump is in now and so far so good!













And finally on March 22 I took the truck to have the transmission replaced. Hoping to have it back sometime within the month and really hoping that this is gonna be the last big hill to climb with this build before I can really start enjoying it. I also made a trip to the wrecking yard the other day to scope out some possible gear donors and have one prospect in mind. It’s the same truck that I got the transfer case from, a RCSB 4.9/5 speed H9 axle code which is 3.55 w/limited slip rear and open front. As soon as I hear back on a price for the gears I’ll decide if that’s what I’m gonna do or change direction. My current DD (08 F-150) has the same gear and did pretty decent even when I was running 35x12.50’s so if I can get this truck in that same ballpark I’ll be pretty satisfied. Either way the 3.08’s and open diff have got to go lol.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

Brought her back home yesterday evening with a fresh new transmission! So far so good, it shifts smooth as butter and finally just feels like a trustworthy truck. I'm gonna be driving it around as much as I can this weekend. Also spoke to my buddy that runs the wrecking yard, he'll let me get the front differential and the complete rear axle from that truck for $400, so as soon as funds allow I'm gonna head out there and snatch some parts and that will probably be the next thing the truck goes under the knife for. Besides that I still need to replace the clock spring, shifter arm boot, and get a replacement driver seat cushion foam and dig into my HVAC controls, the climate control knob is stuck on the warm side. Not sure if I'll be able to get it to free up or if I'll wind up replacing it but summer time will be here before ya know it and I'd love to have working A/C, even though the nostalgia of the vent windows feels pretty good too lol.