For the Old School hotrodders on NS...

potato_man

potato_man

Active member
...I have a 1976 f 150 with the FE 390 engine, and I have 500-700$ I can freely spend on it and I want to beef it up a little bit. First of all I have been working with cars my whole life, and I know what I'm looking at when it comes to modifying/upgrading carbed engines and any other performance work on carbed engines. I specifically am looking to having it done at a shop professionally because all my time is going into finishing my 58 MGA and I don't have time to work on the f 150 myself until the MGA is done. So for anyone else who is familiar with what I am talking about, should i put that money into it now, or leave it and wait to do it myself, or wait and spend more money on a bigger overhaul?

Footnotes: 500-700$ to spend in parts/professional labor, what should i get in terms of bolt on/component swap performance upgrades?

Here it is

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as far as I know, it's better to wait until you can do the majority of upgrades at once. That way you know you have parts that will all work well together instead of having a half stock/ half high performance engine while you wait for the funds to finish it. (as I've been told is not good for it)
 
beautiful truck. Pm charmander, he loves talking and whoring out pictures of his truck and knows whats going on.
 
Lol hes my bro we talk about this all the time we're basically truck buddies...btw the headers and pipes were replaced about 10 years ago and i put on new Cherry Bombs last year so the exhaust is where I want it to be so im looking at things particularly for the engine.
 
Personally I would replace the tires, it's smart to get some newer (not brand new, you will devalue the car) but newer tires just to increase the appearance. Next thing I would do is replace the bumper, it looks pretty beat up, other than that, you have an absolute GEM on your hands. It's really awesome!
 
i'd spend that money on preventative maintenance. like focus on the under carriage and get all the rust out. just getting it real clean so you have a good platform to start on when you're ready. unless its in good shape now already..
 
Just my opinion but i think you should take some of the stickers off, you should keep the Oakley though because it matches the color

 
yeah i only use orange/red or white stickers, and only die-cuts...I also carefully planned what goes where, and I have used up all the spots haha so no more for sure
 
I have been working on my 1974 Bronco for two years now and honestly, if your stock engine works well I would leave it alone. Good upgrades may be a new top end (intake manifold/carb/cam), I'm not sure if $500 bucks will get you new heads or roller rockers etc... But other things such as a pertronix distributor and ignitor coil are cheap and easy. For your beautiful truck you should look into suspension work (lift/new springs/front or rear end rebuild/urethane body mounts) or if the interior needs attention invest in that. That is really a nice looking truck, does it have a 351w?

Here's my Bronco for another old Ford fan and my ego.

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are there any old drop top pick ups like that bronco or the 87 tacomas that actually have a full bed in the back? seems both just have an extra row of seats.
 
Wait till you have the complete amount of funds so you can do it all yourself. You'll be more satisfied with yourslef when you've done it. :)

Also, am i right in saying that you want to turn it into a hotrod?
 
its got a 390 carbed with 126k original miles, i want to keep the original block and i might get it bored a long way down the road but for now I wanna keep it fairly simple. Im thinking about getting an edelbrock 4 barrel carburetor with round edelbrock air intake and a new matching intake manifold. Im just gonna see how much that costs and go for that when I feel like paying for it otherwise if I have the time I will get the parts myself and do it with my dad when I get the chance. What are all your thoughts on that? Anyone done anything similar?
 
I'd get a holley carb over an edelbrock, im not real happy with my edelbrock carb, but the edelbrock intakes are alright.

what'd be cool in my opinion is to lower it a little, get some wider wheels/tires in the back and put a big cam in there and rust repair

Any of these things would be worth doing^

 
I don't like trucks but OP yours really sick. Nice job on keeping it clean and looking fly as fuck. They don't make em like they used to haha. Just love the way your truck looks for some reason.
 
I'd save up till you got more money then pull the heads and re build them, get exhaust headers and port match and polish. there is tonnes of info online as far as porting and polishing goes and its fairly simple to do.
 
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