In my search to find a truck that is a) practical and b) not boring, I ended up looking at a '72 F100 short box this evening. What a cute little truck, although it ended up being a lot rustier than it appeared in the pics. Such is life. Fortunately, what it really needs is a front clip (mostly rad support and inner fenders, along with some patches on the rear of the outers) and door skins, and all of same seem readily available except for the hood. Box is solid but has some rust at the seam on the outer skin which could probably be blasted and repainted. It's a runner, too, and has current inspection (although I'm curious about whether it'll pass again with the sheetmetal so swiss cheezy... I'd call it solid, but barely.)
Questions.
1) The brakes were, quite frankly, pathetic. I'm used to driving my Studebakers which have pretty good 11/10 inch drums; this truck did not stop anywhere near as readily. Is this normal for non-power drums on this model truck, or does it need a brake job? (I'd prefer you told me the latter, because if this is normal, I'm gonna have to swap to power, discs, or both.)2) What in your opinion is a fair price for a presentable, running truck with some rust issues that will need to be addressed "sometime" - truck is mostly original but has been converted to a floor shift. Drivetrain is 302/3-speed/9 inch. Will probably need full lube service/repack bearings/etc. but otherwise ready to go, with the exception of brakes mentioned above. No options at all that I could see. I think the owner's asking price is a little high, but I don't want to say what it is so as not to prejudice responses.
As you can probably tell, I'm kind of taken with the little bugger and am considering going with "old and cool" over "new and boring yet practical." Could use some gentle advice though as Fords are not my area of expertise.
thanks,
nate