Frankentruck and its various happenings

[03ishfrankentruck]

Hey, this isn't quite a build thread, kind of just a way to document what I do to this thing, not anywhere close to being a restoration, but still getting it to a much better condition. I'm new to the forum thing, but I think this is the best spot to post this? Most of the things I've done are to keep it inspectable/ safe to drive, but I am still having fun working on it.
I guess I'll go chronologically.
First I bought it last year early summer late spring. It had a hole in the floor and a bed that was about ready to fall off of its floor and become airborne or something. Also a rotten cab corner So I pulled the old bed and used that as practice for welding, replacing the floor in the drivers side of the cab.
It ain't pretty...

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

After that I welded the cab corner. that looked better. Thank God for bondo. I don't have any pics of that, however, I would like to know if there was any reason for the foam in the cab corners or if it is a perverse joke by the ford engineers...

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

I then proceeded to find the best bed I could in New Hampshire, thank you salt, everything that you even think of driving outside in the winter gets rusty. but that was white, so since the truck was at that point red with a white bed and black cab corner, oh yeah and black fenders, those had to get swapped out too. dude who owned it before me put ZERO effort into keeping things in good shape. Thankfully he only had it two years. So it looked like this till the end of July...

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

I also picked up a bed cap in February. Some guy a couple year older than me posted it for $150 down in mass, and its in great condition, so I pounced on it. clear coat on the top needs some love but otherwise its great.

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

When I got it inspected it turns out that my tie-rods were going, and then after replacing those I took it to get it aligned and they gave me a list of all the other pieces I needed to fix before they could align it. soooooooo.
new upper control arms and some other stuff ive forgotten, also pointed out all the other problems with it... ohh well blessing and a curse.

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

Then July my family went camping in ny, and it was ten minutes from my grandfathers shop. So I started the trip sleeping in the back of the truck, then I ended up taking advantage of the week without work or school to sand it and paint it.
Tractor supply tractor enamel, hardener, and a spray gun.

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

It turned out okay, It is the first time iv'e done something like this, and we had a little trouble getting the settings dialed in on the sprayer, so its got a couple runs, a couple light spots, and a bit of orange peel, needs a sanding and a second coat still. Haven't had the time to do that yet though.

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

I'm sorry it's upside down.... computers hate me. how did it do that?

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

I was also given an old Land Rover disco brush guard, working on/trying to figure out how to modify that to work for the frankentruck.

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

And it got a 2 inch lift. this is why im writing this up, cause I can't keep track of all the random stupid stuff I've done...

 

[03ishfrankentruck]

Also it's an '03 4.0 SOHC 4x4, xlt, crank windows, no power options on the doors except speakers, and an auto tranny.

 

[pjtoledo]

foam in the cab corners is noise reduction, it's supposed to be there on some models.

rest of it looks good.