The Sooper Camper F350

[Sooper Camper]

Well, now is as good of a time as any to start a thread. I've been a lurker a while now here, had another screen name when I had a van (forgot that name lol) and the van went on to a better place. I'm a bit of a Ford guy, and always been a nut about the mid-70's trucks. One model in particular always stood out to me as being a little more special than the rest. The F350 "Super Camper Special":

What made this truck so cool was the odd wheelbase (140") for a single cab long bed, the idea behind pushing the axle back was better weight distribution when loaded down. It necessitated putting the tire in the secret compartment on the bed, since it wouldn't fit behind the rear axle anymore. They were made to haul monstrosities like that camper around, and be rode hard and put away wet. They only made the trucks in 2wd, but they came with the strongest of the strong parts back in the day; dual piston 13" discs and 12-13" drums in back, equal length 1" king pin forged I beams, 35 spline Dana 70 rear axles, and the same frame that was used on Cab and Chassis/flat bed models. The vertical cross section of the frame is about double what a F250 has. They also came spec'd for up to a 10,000 lb GVW...mind you empty the trucks weighed around 4-4500lbs. Serious payload capacity. I'd been looking off and on for one for about 6-7 years when I finally saw one pop up on craiglist for $750. I waited. $600...$400...then a few months later $300 and 30 miles closer to me. Couldn't resist at this point, so it followed me home in non-running condition:

As you can see, its definitely been a work truck and worked hard, but all the guts were in reasonable shape. The kid who had it had no idea what the words "ignition timing", "vacuum leak", "starting fluid", "coolant", and "spark plugs" apparently meant. Some one had rigged a Holley carb onto it, but neglected to use the proper spacer and there was a huge intake leak hiding underneath. It would eventually fire up, go right to redline and then sputter out. The oil reeked of fuel, plugs were choo choo train black, and the timing was way off; it needed a fluid change something awful and there were plenty of other random bits that were in bad shape too.

overall, the engine bay was pretty ugly too

 

[libarata]

Subscribed. I love older trucks. They have far more character than new ones do! I cant wait to see the build!

 

[Sooper Camper]

cleaned it up enough to pass smog. it's a 77 so its still needed in CA, but since the truck is a 9900lb GVW and was built on the easy coast...well it never really had any equipment. no cats, no EGR, no Air injection. i added a charcoal can for safety, the old fuel vent just went straight to the air cleaner base. you basically just set base timing, and hope the tech doesn't notice the Holley carb lol

I had a set of wheels from a van that i scrapped, as well as a tach and Grant steering wheel, so I got those put on. Then I went and found a bumper, tail gate and some mechanical gauges since the factory cluster doesn't really work, and they never really did from the people I've talked to.

 

[Sooper Camper]

next order of business was get some decent brakes going, and ditching the fairly un reliable factory prop valve:

the old transmission cooler was held on by 1 self tapper and a zip tie, then I saw this on the front of a stupor duty:

snagged the steering cooler as well

and added a deep sump aluminum pan to the trans

added some Hella 500 driving lights (4th vehicle i've owned that they've been mounted too...they are 13 years old now!)

rear amber/fog/backup light:

the old headlight wiring ran all the current though the headlight switch, they were pretty dim. Converted to bosch relay's for everything:

and continuing the slow process of cleaning up the engine bay

 

[libarata]

Such a tactful restore already!

 

[Sooper Camper]

the rear suspension was a bit "stiff". you could put 2 large men on the bumper, it'd squat maybe an inch. lots of leaves, and doesn't help when they are pretty much rusted together either.

its the little things, like flapper discing the edges smooth and spraying white lithium in there, that make stiff trucks not so stiff

i moved one leaf up to the top to make an anti-wrap leaf out of it, then took a couple more out. how the pack ended up:

then i welded in some more parts i had laying around from the van that died, and put a better looking diff cover on:

its fun to have a truck that can do things too:

heaviest load so far, tipped the scales at 9500lbs, its about 4200 with me in it empty. the weigh master told me i was about 1000lbs over what i should be and to take it easy next trip. i pointed to the door sticker and said, "actually i'm about 400 lbs under " he laughed and acknowledged they sure don't make them like they used to.

 

[chaos616]

Thats a super cool truck. Any big plans, maybe try to find an original camper for it? Looks good so far, keep up the good work.

Cheers,

 

[Sooper Camper]

since the rear suspension was working ok, decided to turn my attention to the front. 6" of buckboard travel was getting pretty old, so i bit the bullet big time:

i made sure it cleared the OE air cleaner assembly too

believe it or not, everything except the half moon gusset at the top of the hoop came off the shelves where I work. The hoops are a universal CJ/YJ/TJ kit, and then the shock brackets are universals ground to fit where i wanted them.

then i chopped and extended the factory radius arms with Currie forged Johnny Joints and some big freakin toob: 2.25" x .375" wall DOM

cycles a good bit more travel now, i strapped it to 13", but it'll go well into the 20's if you don't care about ride height, and steering geometry

hate on 2wd all you want...you'd be surprised where this truck has already been. its amazing what a big block in a relatively light weight truck with wheel travel and decent wheelbase can do. i was at KOH last year and staring up a sand hill at a 6x6 giving it hell and failing. walked right up it, even with an open diff. the company Ram 2500 on 37s even needed 4wd to get up the same hill, and it was a lot slower too.

 

[Sooper Camper]

Such a tactful restore already!

thanks! i like to think i saved one of the good ones, even though its rough looking at first glance. The Amsoil sticker is hiding a bunch of cab rot typical on these trucks.

Thats a super cool truck. Any big plans, maybe try to find an original camper for it? Looks good so far, keep up the good work.

Cheers,

plans? lots of plans, we'll see how it all plays out. not going to put a fullsize camper in it, they are heavier than i want to go. I'd like to keep it in the 5500 lb range ready to hit the backroads and camp for a week. I really wanted to do a 4WC, but when you look at my bed and how those campers are designed, i'd have to do some major hacking of the floor and frame to get it to fit in there. I'd hate to butcher up a decent 4WC, plus the neighbor hood is currently pretty against "RV's". I also still have a lot of house projects that require a full bed, and a decent slope to the driveway so storing one gets iffy.

i'll either keep it as is, and setup for pre-running/camping/road trips; or I will go full gonzo and do a Super Cab swap, chop down the bed to 6.5' and make it a really unique 4wd with a D50 TTB up front. I think in the long run I'll probably end up with 2 trucks, since these things can be found under a grand all day long and usually just need fluids and a tune up to be road worthy again. People just don't want loud, ugly, smelly old trucks. the more i work on "modern cars", the more I loathe them and all the "engineering" that goes on. I like simple bullet proof trucks that cost under $200 to insure and register per year, and can be rebuilt in a Napa parking lot. I'm one of those guys that really wouldn't mind having 2, as long as they are unique enough. I see them as cheap investments too, in 20 years these things are going to be worth a lot more than they are now...they are just starting to hit the age where they are either being scrapped, rusting out or falling into the hands of loving owners. 10 years ago, there were a dozen 60's-70's Fords in every pick n pull I went to, now you're lucky to find 2 or 3 and they are usually pretty well stripped clean.

My wife and I are still under 30, no kids and just 1 big dumb dog. This is big enough currently, but the local junkyard has a rust free super cab just waiting for a transplant, and they'd let it go for $350....I really need some property so that I can start hoarding parts!

 

[java]

That should be a fun truck. Knew a girl who drove one back in the day. Absolutely terrible gas mileage and rode like you would expect!

 

[Sooper Camper]

Turned my attention to the interior for a bit, i removed the heater and associated pile of ducting, the AC/heater combo box is massive. you can see it in one of the earlier pictures on the right side of the firewall, and it filled the entire area under the dash pretty well too. the cores were rusted out, full of leaves and the fan barely worked so i yanked it. this lead me to find an abortion of factory wiring going every which way under there, and with the other associated electrical gremlins I decided to bite the bullet and yank the whole cab harness, and redo pretty much everything.

added a "nut-chiller" vent from a non-AC truck

wiring harness i started with

OE 70amp alternator on the right, 3g 130 amp internally regulated alternator from a v6 90's mustang on the left (the OE ones are a known fire hazard and also very weak)

also took the opportunity to add a newer, simpler distributor. this bad boy packs a bunch of features into a tiny package, and simplified the wiring a LOT. the OE Duraspark had several resistance wires, a control box on the fender etc. This unit has 2 wires to the coil, and you just feed 12v to the coil. DONE! Also has the benefit of a built in rev-limiter, multiple spark discharge through the entire RPM range, and a smaller cap. now all I have to carry is a spare coil and spare ignition module, some plugs and a bosch relay. thats the ENTIRE ignition system

after many adult beverages and hours staring at wires in the garage while listening to banjo music, i got it thinned down to this:

the engine bay is infinitely more organized and safe now, the OE harness just had a fusible link for the cab harness...not a fan of electrical fire hazards. you can also see the aluminum block off panel i made to close off the hole from the old heater unit. I will put in a Vintage air unit eventually as budget allows.

BlueSea fuse panel, then a sub panel for the "always hot stuff" on the right. The relays are for ignition and back-up/rear amber light

if you've ever looked behind the gauges of a 70's truck thats been passed down through multiple tweakers, you will appreciate the beauty of this picture:

switches and stuff

Side benefit to rewiring, I eliminated all fusible links, and the glass fuses of various sizes, shapes and grades. Now it's all either ATC bladed, or Mega fuse (one for alt, one for cab harness), with a couple self resetting circuit breakers and Bosch relays where needed.

I also built a center console and door panels out of nice veneer plywood, the OE plastic panels were pretty much destroyed and very thin so they made it really noisy inside. I also cobbled together a stereo from old speakers I'd pulled out of various cars and a deck I traded for a tall boy of some micro-brew goodness.

these are 3" door speakers I pulled from my Mini Cooper, they fit perfectly as a center channel. I've spent a lot of time in some of the newer Dodge trucks, and the center channel really helps cut through their rackety school bus engines and improves the stereo imaging a LOT in a wide truck cab. the other speakers came out of my wife's Ford Edge, they are a 2 way component 6x8 in a sealed box, pretty trick if you're looking for a decent speaker for super cheap that has to live in a possibly wet environment!

and the 2 most important additions to any truck: fire extinguisher on a quick release, and a retractable under hood flash light from an early 90's GM

 

[Sooper Camper]

Last order of business for today, started to clean up the bed area. I got a universal rubber mat, then trimmed it to fit the odd bed shape. you can see the hump for the tire, would require a lot of surgery to put a 4WC in here:

here is how the spare tire mounts for anyone interested, it has a really beefy bracket bolted to the frame and it tucks up in there real nice. comes out in 30 seconds too, so much nicer than dropping it down from under the bed in the back or mounting it in the bed and losing all that space.

Found a decent set of used tires off CL, 285/75R16 BFG AT's for $400...not bad for 70% tread

next up is the other CL score, Snugtop Rebel in need of some TLC for $75. I'd gotten approval from the boss for a much more expensive shell, then this one popped up. So I put the money towards a nice tool box for the bed:

most of this used to be behind the seat, my buddy always said I was tempting fate and asking for a concussion.

the shell is in good shape, just needed the tweaker tint scraped off the windows and some new weather stripping and a few rivets here and there.

this bozo is happy he gets the bed all to himself now, he takes up a bunch of space in the cab

From here time to get dirty. The rear main leaks pretty bad, and a few of the freeze plugs look pretty weepy and gross. I flushed almost 15 gallons of water through the block and radiator before it came out non-dirt colored, someone definitely wasn't using distilled water or any kind of additives before I got it. It had also been off the road a good 4 or 5 years so who knows how long it sat with mud in the block. It runs really cool, and i put a new rad in it. Coolant looks great now. I keep telling myself if you're going to pull the engine (have to to do the rear main and oil pan properly), you may as well get the block tanked...so you may as well get the heads redone too...so you may as well do everything. I will probably be getting it rebuilt in the near future since I don't want to pull it again for a LONG time. I know a 460 properly maintained will do 250-300k easy when they're being treated like a $5 hooker, and with a proper rebuild and the few performance parts I've got kicking around, numbers like 375 hp and 450 lb/ft of torque spread over a range as flat as Kansas are entirely achievable. I just have to fight the urge to throw a 545" stroker kit in there :Wow1: I can also get 12mpg on the highway with a fresh tune up and keeping the speed down, so the mileage isn't nearly as bad as some would think for an old brick without overdrive. My father in laws 2014 Sierra 1500 gets 14 towing a small Casita trailer around, and my buddies Tundra gets 14 loaded to go camping. Considering I'm into this truck for much less than even half of a respectable down payment on a new truck, I'm pretty happy. I had an 04 F150 for a while and just wasn't in love with it...gutless, no personality, and really bloated and heavy. I traded that for the Mini Cooper and the money I've saved on fuel, registration and insurance alone has covered this truck easily. With all the hauling it pulled off during our emergency-remodel last summer, it's more than earned its keep.

Also going to build a simple rack for the shell, then mount an RTT and gear rack up there. Then its time to go campin! The wife and I are planning on taking a few weeks off in May to tour the southwest for our 5 year anniversary. I MTB, she rock climbs, and our poor old mutt has never been on a proper camping trip with us, so this should make a good base camp for that.

Also need to add the air bumps to the front, add a second fuel tank and get a working fuel gauge in there, and redo the rear shock mounts. And a GearVendor...and recover the seat...the list never really ends!

 

[amgvr4]

I love the truck! Thanks for all your help with mine. I love the attention to detail in all the aspects of your build. Having owned many cars from the '70s and older I know how much work it is just to undo 30 years of neglect and poor fixes especially in the electrical system.

 

[east_tn_81]

This truck is amazing. I really love the old iron. Keep up the great work.

 

[Bojak]

Really cool rig. I'm not a ford fan very often, but old iron is cool. I like the long wheelbase design. New tundras seem to have the rear wheels pushed farther back very similar. Keep up the good work.