1978 Ford F150 – Larry W.

This 1978 F150 4×4 was purchased new by me in July of 1978 to be used as an everyday farm truck. It was the first 4×4 I had ever owned so I put it to the test pulling fertilizer buggies, trailers, hauling hay, livestock, and anything else that I needed. It was an XLT with nice interior, map pockets on the inside of the doors and equipped with A/C so I liked it better than any truck I had ever owned or have owned since. In the winter of 1980, we had a blowing snow storm. At about 2AM, I was driving to my confinement hog operation to make sure it still had current. The snow built up so deep under the truck, it stopped moving forward, so I backed up and gunned it to get through the pile of snow. I had to do this several times to get to the hog confinement office, so I decided to spend the rest of the night at the office. This truck surely was built FORD TOUGH.

After about 270,000 rough miles, the second engine stopped so I parked it. I purchased a 1977 F150 4×4 with only 75,000 miles from the heir of a friend and still drive it every day. It is on its second engine and transmission but that is another story.

My grandsons talked me into restoring the 1978 truck. I told them I would but only if they would help. They removed the engine and transmission. The engine had two bent pushrods, but the engine and transmission were both able to be rebuilt. Since the truck had been parked for a while, we had to replace the fuel tank and fuel tank sending unit, brake system, and many other items. One of the best things I did was adding a FiTech fuel injection system. It performs outstandingly. The original bed was rusted beyond repair. I found another bed with no outside dents and it had a camper shell on it, so needless to say I was elated. When my grandsons removed the camper shell and cleaned out the bed, they discovered a bag of fertilizer in the center of the bed floor. What a disappointment, but we were able to add a new floor and continue with the project.

The inside of my ’78 cab was stripped down and painted as well as the outside along with the bed by Eric Shivley who did an awesome paint job. Some course silver was added to the original color of dark jade green metallic to give it a little more sparkle. I like this color so much that I had Eric paint my 1940 Ford truck the same color. My youngest granddaughter chose to have her high school senior picture taken with this truck.

Kirk’s Upholstery was able to find some original type material for the seats. I had them embroider a FORD logo on the seat cover just to add a little flair on the inside and I was very pleased at the outcome.

Thanks to LMC Truck, I was able to replace door handles, grill, some trim, add power windows and replace many other parts too numerous to list. I found the parts to fit good and be of high quality. Many thanks to the people at LMC Truck for helping me locate the correct parts and helping me with my orders. They must take a patience pill every morning! Anyone that has ever restored a vehicle knows that it is easy to get discouraged. When I received the replacement parts, it would give me a second wind and enough encouragement to continue.