[Buzz268]

A couple months back when I scrapped my parts car, I went down into the field where it was sitting and started looking at some of the other vehicles down there. Not a lot of anything special, a 86 jeep, 02 grand am with a blown engine, 79 chevy luv that was rusted in half, my parts car, and then something that caught my eye. My dad's old 63 Ford F260 (Yes I said the F word, and yes its a F260 not a F250). Now normally I don't bother with fords much. But, when I got to looking at it memories of him driving it around with me as a child came back. Memories of burning a lot of rubber also came back. When I looked under the hood that was broken by the wind and bent so bad it was sticking straight up, I saw why it burned so much rubber. There, staring up at me was a genuine 460 4 valve with what appeared to be a lot of 70's and 80's street mods. I forced the hood closed and put some heavy stuff on top of it to keep the rain from hurting it any more than it already had and continued on with my work. That night I asked my dad about it. I could see a lot of memories come back to him as he told all about how the 460 was from a 71 town car and all the mods on it and when he and his brothers used to race it and the exhaust made from oilfield pipeing he put on it. I asked why it was in the field and he said it had transmission issues.

Fast forward about 6 months. My brother now owned the shop near the field where the cars were. The camino is scrapped, the grand am is sold, the jeep is moved, and all that remain are the luv and this beast. The luv isnt worth doing anything with because its so rotted into the ground. Not wanting my brother to destroy the Ford like the other cars, I take it upon myself to get this truck out of there. With some help of my dad, we get it pulled home to the farm and park it behind a shed. He then leaves it to die there. Over the next week or so, I started to clean it up slowly. At this point, I've cleaned the interior and exterior and rolled the engine over manually to make sure its not seized. My question to you guys is, should I start putting money into this thing to try to bring it back to life? My dad is a Ford guy, so we have all kinds of body parts for it including a bed, hood, doors, everything. The only real problems would be finding a trans and getting it running. I don't really want to scrap it because of the history it has and the fact that it is an extremely rare f260 model (used by state departments for snow plowing). So what do you guys think? Scrap, fix it up, or let it sit?

 

[69 SS396]

I'd be willing to bet the answer you're looking for is yes.

So, YES restore it. With that much family history it would be a shame to let it rot to nothing.

Enjoy your off brand project.:beer:

 

[rnhart3]

shouldn't scrap anything that can be restored. Its gotta be worth something to someone...

 

[78 Elk]

Restore it! Those memories are worth it.

 

[Buzz268]

An update on this project. I did some more investigating and I think the trans issue lies in the u-joints. All of them are shot. While I was under there I also discovered the floor pans are rusted through, as well as nearly everything else. My plan is to put the rust free bed on, a new hood, replace the u-joints, replace all fluids and see if it runs. Of course, before any of that I should probably find the keys. If it runs well and seems to move good enough, I'll put some better tires on it and use it as a farm truck. Don't think it'll be worth it to try to fully restore the thing. Needs way to much time and money put into it. Unfortunately, I also discovered that the 4 wheel drive will not work unless I find a new front end. The rear is from a 73 ford and has different gears then the front. So, not wanting to hurt the transfer case, my dad disconnected the front drive shaft years ago. So I need to find a front end that matches the gears in the rear if I want 4 wheel drive. I also took some pictures so when those upload I'll post them here for you guys to see.