Apparently we have a new "shop truck" here.  It's a 1977 F250 Custom with a 400c.i. engine, automatic transmission, and apparently has never seen a winters day.  112k miles on it, no rust worth mentioning!

It showed up here about a month ago as payment for something else.  The previous owner wanted something we had and this was the best deal we could come up with at the time.  So - here it is! 

One of the surprises here was the overall condition.  It looks like there used to be some "goodies" in it like a cb radio, now removed.  It look's like it's all 1977, no modern anything on it, and everything looks like it's only a year or two old, including the stock AM radio in the dash.  It rides like new, plenty of power, and is setup for towing with a receiver hitch and a hydraulic/electric brake controller.

We'll be "tweaking" this a bit from time to time, so if your into these trucks come back once in a while and look here to see any changes.  It's also for sale if you'd like to buy it.

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It's too noisy!  - Not really.  Compared to my diesel this is almost silent.  But I can hear road noise and I do see the potential for improvement.  My first solution for this is DynaMat or HushMat or any other brand sound deadener.  But - that stuff is super expensive!  To do what you see below would have been about $300 using dynamat.

So - we made a trip to the carpet store and got some synthetic carpet padding and a can of spray glue.  The padding was 8ft long and I think it was 6ft wide.  It cost $23.52.  The can of spray glue was $3.99.

On a warm sunny day, my three year daughter and I pulled out the seat and removed the carpeting from the truck.  We cut out the padding to fit the floor in sections, to get the most out of the material.  When we were done we had two pieces left over.  One was 8" x 11" and the other was 3" x 16".  It made a big difference.  If this was a modern truck with plastic everywhere we would have seen better results (from past experience) - but even with all the exposed metal in here the difference is very noticeable.  It was worth the effort.

FYI - I put a blow torch to this stuff to see what happens when it gets hot.  It shrinks up, then turns into a black puddle.  The puddle did produce a yellow flame, but when I removed the torch it went out (instantly) on it's own.  I consider it fire resistant and safe for car floors.
 

Looks good behind the seat

In front you'd never know it was there.

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This truck runs and drives like a brand new 77 Ford.  No squeeks, no rattles.

Here's what it looks like underneath: