I'm sure some here have seen this on another forum, but for those who have not, here's my recent little quest with a 1993 XLT truck. I set out on a mission to find a 1992-1996 bodystyle short wheel base, regular cab truck. That was the easy part. The tougher part was finding it as an XLT with all the bells and whistles, including a V-8, windows, locks, cruise, etc. So I finally come up with this $900.00 truck at the auction. She's on a salvage title due to the accident and having 213K miles on the clock.
This is the truck the day I bought it from the auction:




So with a swift forklift maneuver and a used bumper on the rear from a local salvage yard, the truck is back on the road. It actually managed to look halfway decent. The horrible "south of the border" wheels are removed and stock XLT aluminum wheels are put on instead.

Then a nice storm passes through, and the truck was blessed with a pine tree falling across the bed. Back to the same salvage yard for a replacement bad, in dark blue. Once again, back on the streets. A/C dies from the Ford compressor "black death", so what the heck, change everything. The color scheme is getting to be too much to look at anymore. The truck needs cosmetic help, so......time for a change. here it is after being stripped down to nothing. Not a seal or trim piece is left. All glass is removed as well.





And some fresh color gets sprayed on. The paint was ordered from factory paint codes, white and green. A green pearl made by PPG was added to the clearcoat.



Continued below:

 

And now it's time to start putting the truck back together again.



After reassembly, a cold ride without a windshield to the glass place, and a trip to the spray-in bedliner place, here's the finished product:









What a cool little truck to scoot around in now.

 

nice!!

 

nice truck, did you do anything to the motor or interior???

I would have POr-15'd the entire frame while it was all apart

 

Engine / transmission are still original, as is the interior. Drivers side of the seat is showing signs of wear, but nothing torn or anything. I am looking though for an original seat cover from a truck with lower miles.

 

Awesome truck dude!

reminds me of my truck when i first bought it 2 years ago. wrecked in the front, rear 1/4 was pushed bout 6 inches, scratches and dents all over, but had 115k on it, and the a/c still blows ice cold! i'm now at 145k!

i think your truck would look awesome with 2" drop in the rear and the lightning front bumper plastic in the green 2-tone, i had it on mine but ended up getting torn off on a trail

 

Actually I'm not a big fan of the front air dam. As you can see in the pics, I removed the stock one and have no intentions of putting it back on. Removal of the air dam gives more of an illusion of height.

 

Awesome progress!

 

Sweet restore job that looks awesome! Cept fer that front plate...

Adrianspeeder

 

Be nice!!

 

Amazing restoration job!

 

Thanks. I love the old truck. I drive it on the weekends mostly. The rest of the week it sits in the air conditioned garage

 

Regarding POR-15, we dont tend to rust here. Northern areas that use salt etc. on the roads may have that concern, but we simply dont have rust buckets here, unless its an old chevrolet, which even POR-15 prolly cant help those poor creatures!

 

looks good. i hope to have mine "restored" by the end of the year. i would at least rattle can the frame and suspensuion black to give it a cleaner look.

 

Awesome restore there, Olds442. Couple of questions for you. I have a 95 XLT and I was wondering what headlight lens and such did you use to replace the originals, and were you able to use the original grill. Beautiful truck!!