Tom's F-100 Homepage

The 1966 Ford F-100 Styleside Longbed on this page was purchased late in 1966 by my father.  We were living in Salina, Kansas at the time. I was thirteen years old and can remember going with him to the Ford dealer to pick it up (he ordered it from the factory).  Of course at that time I was more interested in the 67 Mustangs that had just hit the showroom floor.  Since that day this old F-100 has been all over the U.S.  From Kansas it took us to Florida, and then to Washington State, then to New Mexico, Texas, back to Florida, New Jersey, and then to Alabama where it has been since 1974.  I learned to drive in this truck, it was my "wheels" in high school, took my date to the prom in it, went on my honeymoon in it, and eventually took my wife to the hospital to have our first baby.  It holds many fine memories.  Sometime in the late 80's the engine & transmission gave up on me and it sat in the backyard for a long time.  About 1996 I began a long restoration project on it.  Long because of limited funds and alot to be done.

As you can see, my '66 F-100 looks to be in pretty poor shape.  But looks can be deceiving!  I am actually on the final phase of the restoration, the body and interior. The mechanicals have been taken care of.  The original 352 has been rebuilt, bored 30 over, Competition cam, the old rockers replaced with adjustables, the automatic tranny has been reworked, new radiator with integrated transmission cooler, new brakes, etc.  The body work has been going fairly well.  With all the surface rust I am sand blasting and priming a section of the body at a time.  Since these pictures were taken I have completed the hood, both front fenders, the tailgate, passenger door, and about half the exterior of the bed.

The interior of the bed is badly rusted but I plan to patch as much as I can.  The exterior is mostly surface rust that blasts off easily and primes well.  The front fenders were a bit of a suprise when I blasted the old paint and rust off.  They both had a significant amount of bondo (my father had a fender bender in the early 70's).  I removed all the old bondo, worked the dents a bit and reapplied a new coat of bondo.  The recessed curved area around the wheel well did not come out as well as I want on one of them so I will redo it before completion.  Since winter is on the doorstep and I have to work outside, things will progress a little slowly.  But as things move along I will add pictures and commentary.

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