Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 1970 F250 "ole yeller"

My old plow truck needs some TLC. Or some seem to think so anyways.



She aint no lightfoot sunday driving machine, she works hard, plays hard, always has.








The truck has over 300,000 miles on it. It's damn good mechanically but the shell needs some work.

body rot issues.



and other "hard use" issues.



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I've got a donor truck ready to give up it's body panels.





the parts on the donor truck arent perfect either but I plan to cut & graft patches from the old body panels to help complete the "better" body parts that I'll move from the blue truck to the yellow truck.

The yellow truck has sentimental value, it was my uncle's truck so I have a lot of childhood memories of the old yellow beast.

former glory:



It's a little cooler now in the evenings when I get home from work so I'm thinking it's time to get started.

My boys are home during the day so I told them (mostly the oldest) to feel free to start taking that old blue truck apart.

Going to paint it back to yellow I hope?

Nuther cool project Dave, may I suggest a "rainbow" color scheme?

you would suggest rainbow.

It's going back to yellow with a white cap.

Dude, but then old "Yella" will be Bluey !!

Paul.

Oh, you so hafta incorporate the bed tool box in the new one.

You must have looked after her Dave, as she's in about the same condition as my '92 Chevy plow truck !!



Paul.

oh yeah, the whole box off the blue one is being moved over to the yellow one. There are some camper dents in the tops of the box sides on the blue box but I can fix them.

The doors are moving over from the blue truck, hood, fenders, grill (even though it's not the right year it is a nice grill)

I will have to do some patching on the blue fenders and doors, I will use borrowed sheetmetal from the soon to be retired yellow parts.

Neat truck and worthy project.

It's probably the redneck in me, but I think it looked better w/ the chrome stacks in the old pic.

almost seems a shame to mess with something that has so much character and history, but this will prolong its life for you and hopefully your young ones as well. Like others here, I've seen your work. I'm sure it will be a beauty again when you're done.
Jim

Realize it's a working truck and you want to stay practical, but I bet your boys would dig something like this. You can never have too many hot rods in the family.

well the donor truck could go that way but ole yeller is going up instead of down. A friend of mine is donating a set of hiboy springs for the project.

I don't see the problem Dave. Yeller looks fine.

That's good to hear. That truck looks good in that scheme.

When I got home today there were 2 proud boys that had the blue truck to this point.



With a little help from dad it didn't take long & the fenders started coming off.







old fender patches will be replaced.



There's how she sits at the end of tonight's work.

Dave,

What a great father/sons project! This will be a memory that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. They don't realize that you get more out of it than they do.

By the way, those boys are quite handsome. And you can really see the innocence in their faces. They must have gotten your innocence since their mother kept all of her's.

Thanks, the boys are bigshots for sure.

No messin around eh? Heck, you're going to finish your before mine's done at this point.

Any of the mechanicals getting redone Dave?

It's actually really good that way. I guess I plan to replace the springs with a set of unsettled stock used 3/4 ton springs and I should do the clutch... but other than that I can't think of anything she needs mechanically.

The plow itself may need some work but the truck is tough as hell.

Well we've started tearing into the yellow truck now. We took the seat out so we could get a good look at the floor.



EEEEK!!

Looks like the aftermarket floor pans which were actually purchased for my 77 will fill most of the voids in the floor.




The mission is to save the cab. In my mind that makes it still the same truck, original cab on it's original chassis.

My inner fenders are poor, radiator support, inner rockers, cab corners.. All very common for these trucks in the north where salt is used on the roads









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does that make you southern boys feel a little better about the condition of your trucks?

Well I just have to keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be a work truck, I want it solid again but I can't let myself get carried away here... It's a plow truck, a hunting truck, firewood hauler etc. I'm not discouraged, we're going to tighten this thing up. I have a 13 year old boy fueling the project with enthusiasm, that helps tremendously!!

We also dropped the old meyers straight blade off the front for some evaluation. I had some trouble with the blade hyper extending backwards & getting stuck mack so it couldn't trip forwards.



A little look at the pivot joints explains everything. I'll have to cut this apart & weld new bushings in here, strengthen the whole thing.





I'm also rebuilding the mount point for the snowplow. I've been really tough on it out on the lake & out in the woods so it needs some attention. I'm going to look at bringing it up a little higher, it hangs down too low right now and causes some clearance issues for me.


We got one side of the bed loose from the frame last night. the bolts in the far back by the bumper are the worst. The won't break off, I cant fit a grinder up in from the bottom with a cut off wheel, I have no torch, and the bed floor is 2 ply heavy diamond plate steel over the original floor so all the bolt heads are hidden on the top side under heavy diamond plate. I spent an hour on one bolt last night. Actually some short work tonight and the box will be free, probably just 2 bolts.

I forgot to tell you that. My box for the floor pans said 63-79 or something like that. You got her figured out anyway it looks like.



My dad was reminding me "you're REPAIRING it, not RESTORING it." That was shortly after I was telling him what I wanted to fix and order for it.

This is great Dave. I'm excited that you started a thread of the resurrection of Ol'Yeller.

I also have many memories in the old truck. The trip to Yellowstone with the 4 of us scrunched in the cab. Going with logging up north, when I forgot my color crayons on the dash in the hot sun and they melted all over. Plus many more. It is a great truck. I was glad to hear at the auction that you bought it.

You didn't loose a watch in there didjya?

Oh so you're the one!!

I don't think it is my watch. Are there still signs of my crayons on the dash?

Yes! That damn crayon crap is all over the place! Ruined a perfectly good truck lol!!

I gotta run, bbq at neighbors place.

laterz!

I would definatly go back with the stacks!!

Well some of you know about my restoration of a 65 mustang that my daughter recently totaled. She is still with us and that truly is all I care about but she needed some wheels with her mustang.... on the shelf.

So, I paid some attention to the 77 F150 at home that she helped me do a bunch of mechanical work on last summer.

I decided to fix the floors in the old truck.

drivers side







passenger.







There were other tools involved such as grinder with cutting wheel and an air hammer/chissle.

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Lookin good dave. That is ssssoooooo much nicer than mine. Next one will not be so rough.

It wasn't such a bad job. I'm looking forward to giving the 1970 F250 the same treatment really soon.

I mean that whole truck. Mine was shot from door to door, including the tranny cowl. It was a mess.

Surprised me how much stronger the floor was from just tacking 1 pan in.

Fred damn Flintstone didn't need any damn floor pans! Buncha sissies you Northerners are! Hell, Fred didn't even need shoes!

Back in the late 80's to early 90's, I ran my 78 Ford with no floor pans to speak of for several years, and Fred came to mind many a time. The only thing that I had between me and the road was the jute backing and the carpet, and that stuff rotted away in pretty short order. I pickled the engine and parked the truck for nearly a decade; it was just to far gone to drive.

I don't have tzone or Dave's skills in welding, so for me it was new cab time. Of course not new, but a local guy came up with an Arizona donor truck for me for $1K, a complete truck with a hole in the block of its 460 and a tranny that was burned to a crisp. There was a lot of wrenching involved, but no welding.
The truck needs resto again badly- cab corners and box wheel arches starting to go. At least the floor pans are still OK, for now....

Keep up the pics guys, it's fun to watch these dentsides get new leases on life.

Oh, I promise you, you have my welding skills. Those pics you saw were the first crack at it, and it took a long, long time for me to get that far. It was slow going.



I just orderd the box wheel arches yesterday, along with the OE rubber floor mat for the cab. Pretty reasonable too.

Yah! another NorthernDave project!

Cool!

Well our little girl wrecks stuff faster than I can fix stuff but I'll catch back up on this project soon enough.

What the heck, is Brownie wrecked too?

no, the old brown hound is fine.. I'm just sayin the mustang crash put a strain on my efforts ya know?

It was honestly the nicest work I've ever turned out.

Yeah, that 'stang was a beauty. Glad Weezy's OK.

Thanks, that really is all that matters.

I believe it. It was beautiful.


I believe that should be the name. I like it!

Hey Tom, I found something really cool this week. You know that arch at the bottom of the door post where the door post meets the rocker?

Well I found a company that makes that piece! I was sort of dreading making that fart, now I don't have to make it.

Sherman autobody carries them.

at the back of the door? Cool.

I'll have to check it out.

Dang... price was reasonable too.

below the door hinges on the cab itself

Dave I am thinking real hard about bringing my pullin truck out of retirement! Yep, It's been sittin in the hardwoods for go on 4 years now and I figure to bring her back for haullin winter wood and snow plowin don't cha know.

It's a 78 3/4 ton Chevy (called "Bad Attitude")with 1 ton axles, gonna drop the 8 inch lift and slip a set of 31 inch tires on the ole 4 x 4. It's now running a 400 small block (big valves & forged pistons 10.5 to 1 compresson ratio) with highriser and 650 Edelbrock carb nowdays, hooker headers and 456 choppers in the rearend. I need to find me a drivers side door and a can of paint. It ought to still be able to push a bunch of those white flakes off the parking lots.

Well there ya go, gitty up!

Way back early this spring ole yeller gave up a few patches of sheet metal from his hood for the 65 mustang coupe we restored.

Well, the coupe is gone now, very sad.

But before the coupe left us, the coupe gave back to ole yeller.

A very nice holley 4 barrel carb, single pump, vac secondary with electric choke.

That old 360 runs amazing!

And after sitting for days you used to have to crank and crank and crank to get the carb full of fuel. Most times you were better off saving on the starter and pouring a shot of fuel into the carb so it would kick over and pump the fuel up faster.

Well now you just go out there, give it 2 pumps, hit the key and she's on her own. Smooth running, just awesome!!

Very cool.

Sweet.

Did you get to keep the wheels and tires off the stang?

kept em and already sold em.

Good deal.

there is one bolt holding the box on old yeller.


We've actually got a lot of grinder work to do from here out. If I had a torch, it would be torch work

I can't believe you don't have torches man. A guy that does the metal work you do?

Too damn expensive for what they are. If I saw a set at an auction I'd probably pick em up but then the tank lease is expensive too.

Any updates Dave?

My dad and I have been working on a 69 Ford Ranger project for him for over 10 years! Lets just say he doesn't like a good project to come to an end!

Specs:

1979 Ford F150 Rolling chassis
1969 Ford F100 Ranger Body
302 V8 - Slightly warmed up with a 270 deg cam, Edelbrock aluminum intake and 600 cfm carb; ported heads; Flowmaster exhaust
NP435 4 speed - replaced some syncronizers
NP 205 tcase - good to go
Dana 44 front - new 3.54 gears, joints, bearings, seals
9" rear end - new 3.50 gears with rebuilt traclok
2" leveling coils
New steering linkage, stabilizer and shocks
15x10 Outlaw 2 style wheels
33x12.50R15 All Terrains
Gas tank removed from behind seat
Every piece has been disassembled, cleaned, fixed, or replaced
all new u joints, ball joints rotors brake hardware, etc
1994 F150 seat
New chrome moldings
Truck was orange and white - changed to teal and white
each piece was taken apart and painted until only the exterior was left to paint

All in all, it was a lot of hours working on it... could be finished in a couple of days but the old man says "What is the rush?"

Biggest problems were:
1/ Bell housing to fit 302 block; originally had 351 M
2/ Chassis mounts for the cab were fine; bed mounts and rear of frame required some tweaking to work as did drivers side inner fender

sixpack....pics, man, pics

I've really been slacking on the ole yeller project. I have to moving on that before the snow flies!

If you pick up a set, buy the tanks so you "own the rights" to them, no lease/rental fees. Just refill when empty.

Gonna work on that tomorrow.

Good, I'd like to see pics too.

Patchwork, the upper patch is from a forward upper fender section from the original fender, the lower patch is from passenger side lower bedside (same profile)

It's pretty amazing actually when you get looking at 2 trucks worth of body parts... You pretty much have patches for everything you need if you use hood metal, box side stuff, corners, edges....

You can frankenstien stuff together if you need to.

Here's where that lower fender patch came from.



The "New to Yeller" used holley, really makes the old 360 run nice.



Where do you find a dished patch for a spot like this rotted rear corner door opening?



Might be right here...

Looks awesome Dave. Glad you are taking the time to bring Ol' Yeller to life again. Lots of good memories growing up with that truck.

Diggin' it.

Well I'm back at it today after breakfast.

Problem with "owned" gas bottles, is when ya finally take them back for refills and they go nutzo...because you've had them so long, the're waaaay past retest dates.

cutting patches (I have a replacement box)











This is a smash & grab "git r done" job. Just want to fix the holes & put the truck back into use for another decade before I tear into it again.



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Lookin good!

Quick work.

Northern Dave

I have a soft spot for the old Fords and when I had to sell mine a few months ago,it was like loosing a member of the family..Love the pic's...



Jayco

Thanks. She's coming along, It's funny because it's going to suddenly be almost entirely baby blue instead of yellow.

I'm thinking about limping it along through the winter with my shade tree patch work and Maybe I'll look at new inner fenders & a radiator support next summer.

Along with some things like cab corners & what ever else I can't get to this fall.

Ole Yeller has worked pretty hard all his life. If I'm thinking correctly Dave, there has not been much mechanical work done to it considering how many miles are on it. It has had many hours of plowing thats for sure.

So maybe I should change the oil?

My uncle who was notorious for not doing vehicle maintenacne, called my dad because his truck was leaking oil all over the driveway after he started it up right after he changed oil.

The truck had about 60K miles or so. We hauled over to his house and pa crawled under the truck to make sure the drain plug was in, it was. Told Stan to pour oil in, he did.

Pa yells out, "Stan, when was the last time you changed the filter?" stan...."I never have, why". "Filter's rusted throught".

She's alive!! I really jammed on the project last night. I finished patching the floor, good enough anyways until spring when I can put actual floor pans in. When I do that I'll rebuild the front cab supports, probably put new inner fenders and a radiator support in too.

Anyways, I finished the front for the most part by putting the hood latch in. I still need to pick up a headlight for the drivers side and put the marker light lense in that side. I'd like to build a bumper for the front too but ... in due time.

I put a seat in it, hung a pair of doors, put mirrors on it. then I drug the plow into the shop and repaired the trip pivot, mounted the plow blade on the truck, fired it up and plowed the driveway last night.

I still have plenty of work to do, like switching the boxes but she's functional again.

beauty eh?

Temps like this you'll have to hook it up to that ice house.

Beast.

Lookin good.

The blue box is on.





We must have put over 200 miles on the truck this last weekend, the old truck got to play out in the forest a little.







Some stuckage, fell through some ice. We were almost out of it in these pictures. When we fell through the rocker on the passenger side was touching the snow/ice.



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Looking really good Dave.The jack all has saved my azz once or twice too.grin

So its Old Blue now?

Yeah it's blue now. Skane did a quick photoshop in OD green shown above.

of course that's what it would look like with an old worn out OD green paint jub with dents & stained paint....

Looks tough with that green.Flat black would be sweet too.

I know I have posted a bit late in 2012 about recent work on this truck but I somehow missed this old thread. I will add updates here to this old thread so it has a happy ending.

Eventually we got the blue box on the truck and actually I think we used the truck for 2 winters like this.



In these past 3-4 weeks between hunting weekends we've been replacing cab corners, patching lower door areas & other minor patching that was needed to make the body solid again.

This was to be a "quick and dirty" job. A neat "20 footer"

The truck really does still get used hard, I didn't have a lot of spare time or money so we set the bar pretty low on this job lol!

I felt it was more important to get the truck done on time rather than done too late but done perfectly. I chose a yellow and white that looked right and decided to top coat with a matte clear to make the truck look like more of an aged survivor than a gleaming new paint job. I also felt it might be better for the snow bank scratches and brush scratches the truck would see in it's normal use. I had a deer camp logo stencil made so I could decorate both doors with a service truck type of logo that I knew my uncle would like. I lightly distressed the painted logos before clear coating to try to make them look a bit aged as well.








Finally we were ready for some paint prep.





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