Kirk's 1972 Camper Special F-250 "uncle Jesse"

[kb1973]

So, it all started with a neigbor calling the city on me for an unattached trailer parking in the street. Pretty strange, huh? Well, I have a 20' enclosed trailer used to haul my drag car that doesn't quite fit in side of yard without overhanging sidewalk by a bit, so I store car and trailer down the road at a storage rental outfit. On thoses times I need to work on car, I just park trailer in street for a day or so until done and return to storage. Well, the city would come out and ticket me for it being parjed in street and told me there were complaints filed..I got 6 tickets in all. I reviewed the code in city, and it specified "unattached trailers" as the violation so I looked for a donor pickup pre-smog year, and cheap which I found in the California high desert.

My intentions were simple, keep it registered and keep it running..it worked, no more citations.

It wasn't until sometime later, that my wife and I saw this pickup as a means to work with my son to develop mechanical coordination. You see, my son, is mentally disabled and has been diagnosed with di George syndrome which means he was born missing certain chromosomes, so he is intellectually and mechanically slow in growth.

My son loves the old Dukes of Hazard shows and has all the seasons on DVD, so we started calling the truck "uncle Jesse". The moniker stuck, and everyone in our lives is now referring to the truck as uncle Jesse.

I wasn't thinking back then of taking too many photos, but I will follow up on what I have in the next post.

Thanks for viewing!

Kirk

[kb1973]

When I picked truck up, it had a poorly running 429 engine, a slipping C-6, and a dana 60 that was full of water. ..When we decided to start restoration process, we wire brushed frame and cross=members(took a few weekends to get it done).

We then stripped front end and pulled engine and trans. Keep in mind, I didn't do a good job of photo documenting from the beginning.

We pulled engine apart and I discovered engine had been severely overheated..took block and heads to pressure check which revealed several leaks and ultimately had to shake everything into trashcan saving the hardware, tc cover, and harmonic balancer spacer.

Trans was rebuilt using the short tail shaft version that came with truck. Continental built me an hd "diesel converter" for use in towing.

Rearend had open 3.54 carrier and was redone with used eaton posi and sierra 30 spline axles,

We rebuilt steering box, front brake calipers, rear 12" x 2.5" brake assemblies, and painted all parts.

I will follow up with more details within the next day or so.

Thanks for viewing

Kirk

[Mancar1]

Sounds like you r going to do things right. Look forward to following along.

[popeyes71]

Look forward to seeing the progress on "Uncle Jesse". Sounds like you are going to have a clean reliable truck when you are finished.

[kb1973]

Got Truck back from paint and returned home to coat frame in Eastwood rust encapsulater in matte finish and started assembling truck. I painted cross member a semi-gloss to aid in oil wipe off during servicing.

The Ford ps pump shown in pic was later replaced with Saginaw pump for obvious reasons...

[kb1973]

We installed rear end with new spring bushings and re-installed bed

For the interior, we laid down boom mat insulation, new carpet and cleaned trim. All weatherstripping was replace including vent window seals, dew wipes/anti rattlers, and channel run.

We installed seal kit into heater box and painted.

Sorry for lack of photos as I joined this forum at tail end of restore

[kb1973]

Now for the power plant.

The original 429 block and heads were pressure checked and there were several leaks in various water jackets and core plug locations, so much of the parts were shaken over a trash can.

I bought a good core block and had main bore line honed, cylinder bored and honed to 4.400", and purchased a 4.300" stroke Scat crank and 6.800" rods. The engine block was detailed by de-burring slag and sharp edges, and painted.

The rest of the build as follows

Edelbrock Perf RPM heads 95 cc set up for hyd roller cam
Perf RPM manifold
SRP dish pistons/ Calculated 8.3:1 compression
Melling pump
Comp Cams custom hyd roller 231 i /235 e @.050" 114 LS installed at 112
Kaase bronze cam thrust retainer
Crower SS rockers
Gaterman product retro lifters
Manley 3/8" 7.900 intake push rod length and 7.950 Exhaust push rod length
Ford timing gear set
ARP hardware
Pioneer Balancer
Ford fox mustang oil pan & pickup for 460 conversion.
Holley 770 cfm vac secondary 4150
MSD distributer and streetfire CDI
Champion Radiator 3-Row with 2-11" SPAL fans

[sargentrs]

That's some great work! Congratulations! Can't wait to see more.