In 1978 I moved my family from San Jose, California to Longmont Colorado. In July of that year we purchased a new 1978 Ford f250 4X4 fulfilling a lifelong dream. The truck was painted completely black and modified by the dealer with aftermarket wheels and large mud and snow tires, otherwise it was totally stock. It sported a large 400 cubic inch engine and a 4 speed transmission. My eight year old son (Erik) immediately named it the “black widow.” Our truck carried a camper and towed a boat and was used for hunting for many years. As the kids grew older and left home, the truck was relegated to hauling stuff for landscape and general truck use. It sat for a long time unused and gathered very few miles. My son has always been in love with the truck, and made me promise never to sell it and will it to him after I pass. In 2017 I decided that I wanted to restore the truck back to its original beauty. I wanted to create a father and sons project (I had remarried and gained another son). We began the de-construction on the July 4th weekend of 2017. We did a complete frame off restoration and bringing the truck back to the way it came off the assembly line in 1978. It became a great bonding project for me and my sons and we are all extremely proud of the final outcome, we completed the project in May of 2018. Fortunately, LMC truck carried just about every part I needed, which allowed us to rebuild the truck to a “better then new” condition. It is a 100% restored numbers matching original truck. I also would like to thank Brandon for his excellent paint work on the black widow, at various shows I have received many comments to the beauty of the paint job, black is very hard to paint but Brandon did an excellent job.