America has a never-ending love relationship with Ford F-Series trucks. The first of these rolled out of the blue oval’s production plant in 1948. And as these trucks get older, it seems, the consumer’s love only gets stronger.
Fishing out a 53-year-old rusty truck out of a two-decade-long slumber is one thing. Getting it to run is a whole new ball game.
Dylan McCool recently stumbled upon a 1969 Ford F-250 long bed truck that had been abandoned for 21 years. His friend, Craig LoPresti, had just bought it, and together, the duo planned on getting it running in four days for the Holley Ford Fest that took place over the weekend.
“The only thing about me, I like my Ford trucks. That’s definitely my thing, and I saw this thing, and I fell in love with it instantly because I have a single cab short version of this basically,” Craig revealed.
Since he lives in Florida and the Truck was in Tennessee, Dylan was generous enough to offer him a spot on his property.
Like any other classic revival project, the first step was to check under the hood. Upon inspection, the duo discovered the carburetor had malfunctioned, and the rocker shaft was gummed up due to rust. Luckily, the engine manually spun over by hand and even gave the ‘hiss of life’ (compression), which was a good sign.
After replacing the carburetor, and valve covers, checking the spark plugs, flushing the old fuel, and cleaning the rocker shaft, the '69 F-250 truck was ready for a first start.
It ran and idled fine on the first run, but oil started gushing out of the filter. After getting that replaced, the old Truck fired up and revved right (but with an exhaust leak).
“I am feeling so much better. So much better. I was a little nervous because we had no clue, this thing could have been rod knocked, and that’s why it was parked,” Craig confessed.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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