When Tim and Patrick Joggerst purchased this 1979 Ford F-150 short-bed back in 1989, it had spent its entire life as a family farm truck. Jim and Patrick had something else in mind for it, and went to work to transform a hard-working and battered farm-truck into a Midwest mud marathon winner
After a lifetime of working on the farm, you can bet that the old F-150 was tired, and badly needed a facelift to bring some spark back into its life. So Tim and Patrick, of St. Genevieve, Missouri, took their Ford out back to the shop where they totally disassembled it, sandblasting parts as they went. They replaced all the sheetmetal, primed it, then completely repainted everything with a Dupont Chroma base in Victory Red, and then topped that with four coats of clear.
The result is what we'd call a real fine 79, and that fineness is a lot more than skin-deep. Check under the hood, for instance. What you find there is a Ford 460ci engine thats bored .30 inches over and has a compression ratio of 9.5:1. TRW flat-top pistons fill the cylinders and keep this engine purring evenly. Modified Ford heads cap the block and are loaded with Manley stainless-steel valves manipulated by a Comp cam (.530-inch intake/exhaust lift, .292-degree duration), Crane aluminum roller rockers and Competition Cam springs. A Melling oil pump and L&L 9-quart pan provide plenty of lubrication.
Air and fuel are fed into the 460 through a Holley 830cfm carb sitting atop a Weiand Stealth intake manifold. The combustibles are ignited by an MSD distributor, Blaster II coil and 6AL ignition system. MSD 8mm wires and Motorcraft spark plugs make the sparks fly. L&L Super Flow headers, 3-inch aluminized exhaust tubing, and Flowmaster 2-Stage mufflers channel the hot exhaust gases. So far, the truck hasnt visited a dynamometer, but Tim estimates the mill churns out 450 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque.
Power is distributed through a Ford C-6 automatic transmission bolted to a TCI Saturday Night Special torque converter with a 2,000 rpm stall speed. From there it goes to a NP205 transfer case where it splits to a Dana 44 with a Trac-Lok up front and a Ford 9-inch with a Detroit out back. Both melons are stuffed with 3.50:1 ring-and-pinion gears, which, yes, seem a bit high for a beast like this.
Suspension is handled by 6-inch coils in the front and a 4-inch spring kit in the rear, both by Trailmaster. The resulting clearance enables usage of 35-inch TSL Boggers on Eagle Alloy 589 Aluminum wheels. Six Rancho RS 5000 shocks control the ride. As a finishing touch, the tie rod, drag link, radius arms, transfer case, and skidplate all have a shiny chrome finish. Interestingly, the truck&s interior is mostly stock, except for custom bucket seats, window tinting and a Kenwood audio system.
All in all, its a pretty amazing transformation, one which turned a farm-weary workhorse into a play horse of a completely different color.