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  • My Ford Truck

    So I have dreamed of having a truck like my dads for years as you can see below.


    His thing was to take muscle cars of the 60's-70's and make muscle trucks. This one imitates eleanor from the original gone in 60 seconds... but then I went to college and the idea of driving a huge 4x4 with a gas guzzling 400m made it seem out of reach. So we had to do some rethinking. I got lucky because my dad works for a garage and last summer we landed a 4.6 2v police interceptor. We also got the transmission, computer out of it. So we thought well maybe that would help us with mpg ordeal. Then after some computer research we found a few people putting the front suspension out of crown vic in the old ford trucks. So we went down to the junkyard and purchased the whole front end out of a 2009 crown vic with 30k miles on it. After alot of fab work we got the new suspension to fit. We also picked up a 8.8 with 3.27s and a locker out of a police car to help us melt the rears off. Well we are at the mock up stage now and are hopefully going to have it ready by the end of august. Here are some pictures of my progress so far.

    So this is what we started out with. We started out with a F250 highboy I bought for $20.00!!


    And we happend to have a wrecked f100 frame


    Here is a picture with the front suspension fabbed up. Thanks to my expert resident welder I got to do alot of fab myself and got to play with a plasma torch and both stick and mig welding.




    I haven't got picture of the rear end yet but we actually had to put the rear axle above the leaf spring instead of under to make the rake not as bad. The crown vic front suspension lowers the front 5 inches. So this helped us to get the car more level. A later picture will show the final stance.

    Here is a shot of the mod motor sitting in the frame.


    Here is the full mock up with the box on. The wheels are temps.


    Here's a video of my big truck before I pulled the cab off!


    I'll keep posting as often as I can. Thanks for viewing!!

    Check out my website in my signature to see my pictures!
    Last edited by imprtslyer; August 10, 2011, 02:13 PM.

  • #2
    Nice work! I've seen people using the CV front end on 60s trucks, but not the later stuff.


    cheers
    Ed N.
    Ed Nicholson - Caledon Ontario - a bit NW of Toronto
    07 Mustang GT with some stuff
    88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe 5-speed

    Comment


    • #3
      Wow, nice truck! Looks great at the new stance. You've really started off with a bang. I'm looking forward to following along. Hey, down the road you could put a 5.4 DOHC from a Navagator in down the road.
      Tom
      Overdrive is overrated


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      • #4
        nice

        the 03+ panther front end is really well desigened and with the aluminum crossmemeber they're also pretty light

        and x2 on DOHC 5.4 swap might beable to find a lightning engine pretty cheap
        Originally posted by Remy-Z;n1167534
        Congratulations, man. You've just inherited the "Patron Saint of Automotive Lost Causes" from me. No question.

        75Grand AM 455:Pissed off GrandMA, 68 Volkswagen Type1 "beetle":it will run some year

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        • #5
          Thanks Guys! I think the front end being aluminum is half the weight of the front suspension we pulled out of there lol. I would love to do a 5.4 but it might be just as worth it to supercharge the 4.6 with that money. It would be awesome to make it an "old" lightning tho!

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          • #6
            Wow, I'd never heard of that kind of swap, nor ever considered it. Thanks for sharing! Looks like a neat project.
            Escaped on a technicality.

            Comment


            • #7
              That's a good looking project you've got going on there. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

              Comment


              • #8
                Cool setup. I'm going to do the CV front suspension to my '79 someday. I've got the DJM 3" beams on it right now with a rear flip, but I'd like to go a little lower and improve the steering.

                Click image for larger version

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                When I first read this thread I was scratching my head trying to figure out why you cut up a Highboy to build a 2wd, but that's not a true highboy. The highboys were only produced until mid-77 and had narrower frames, divorced t-cases and low-pinion front axles. That looks like it started as a "lowboy" 78 F250 and was lifted and had 1/2-ton axles installed?
                Still plays with trucks....

                Comment


                • #9
                  Super cool project!
                  Life is short. Be a do'er and not a shoulda done'er.
                  1969 Galaxie 500 https://bangshift.com/forum/forum/ba...ild-it-s-alive
                  1998 Mustang GT https://bangshift.com/forum/forum/ba...60-and-a-turbo
                  1983 Mustang GT 545/552/302/Turbo302/552 http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...485-bbr-s-83gt
                  1973 F-250 BBF Turbo Truck http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...uck-conversion
                  1986 Ford Ranger EFI 545/C6 https://bangshift.com/forum/forum/ba...tooth-and-nail

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    @ford141 Your correct about the original truck not being an highboy. We added the 1/2 ton axles to it because they are much cheaper to maintain that the 3/4 ton when it comes to brakes etc. The original idea behind my truck was to make a highboy. I had a 360,c6, divorced transfer-case and all the high boy components to make it into one. However, because of gas prices I decided that a giant f250 has way more drag than a semi. So that idea was kinda scrapped. The orange truck above is a highboy with 1/2 ton axles. To make you feel better no ford trucks were hurt in the making of this f100. :D I just took the body off of it. Everything else is from the other frame or a crown vic. We actually are putting the f250 back together so we have a nice field truck.

                    Thats a very nice truck you have there! I wish my body was in half the shape yours is in, but that's hotrodding right? run first shine later If you can get your hands on a wrecked crownvic (which is pretty easy if you make a ton of calls) you would have the perfect truck for the swap. Its set up like a old truck, like if ford was to make our trucks today they would make it like this. I know a lot of people are against the 4.6 but it bolts right in and is so simple why not? Its lighter than the 400s and 390s, gets better gas mileage, better on the highway with the overdrive. Plus the power isn't that bad... My buddy has a 03 mustang gt with the same 4.6 besides his is supercharged and he can almost keep up with my GTO :-P So with the money I saved I might just mess with forced induction! My goal is to make the best sleeper to help fight all the rice rockets in my town :-P
                    Last edited by imprtslyer; August 10, 2011, 06:40 AM.

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                    • #11
                      for the forced induction, hit up your local or nearby big city Craigslist and try to find someone who has upgraded their GT500 to a Super Snake....I found a Blower and all the parts for 700 bucks in Phx recently. If I had the cash I would be all over that like stink on $h!t.

                      I was a bit tweeked that you hacked a high boy but am relived to hear it was not real. But in the end...it's your rig.

                      I like the 4.6, it gets good mileage and runs out real nice...should move that old truck around pretty darn good.
                      If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I see that the orange truck above is a highboy chassis, but it also has 1/2-ton axles. Nice truck though, and the photo is just killer. My green truck above also started as an F250, but it was 2wd. I swapped the 9" rear and 1/2-ton spindles to lighten the truck up and allow me to run 5-bolt wheels. It is all original otherwise, down to the paint. It is a rare find here in PA, since they are all rusted out from salt. It has a warmed-over 460, built C6, air, cruise, tilt column.

                        I have no problem with parting out trucks to build what you want. I have 4 parts trucks right now to supply parts for my fleet. These trucks are getting harder to find so every time I find one that is headed to the shredder I scoop it up and add it to my collection.

                        Keep up the good work, this is a cool build.
                        Still plays with trucks....

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Great work! You're lucky to have a family that's into this stuff and giving you a great education - this truck is very well thught out and should be a ton of fun!
                          There's always something new to learn.

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                          • #14
                            @JOES66FURY I'll keep my eye out for some cheap superchargers for sure! The only thing is my friend with the 03 mustang had his supercharger go and he had to spend $1700 to get it replaced. So that left me with little confidence in used superchargers. Money is tight now so my priority is to just get it on the road lol Donations are welcome! haha

                            @ford141 The orange truck is for sale! I think he's asking $17k its like a brand new old truck. We made the switch to 1/2 axles for the same reason. The wheel selection is much better at five lug! Thats why I chose the same bolt pattern as the mustangs lol I'm from NY so any truck like this that crosses my path has received a pounding from the salt and their former plowing owners. If you ever want to get rid of some parts let me know. I may be in the market for a new body.

                            @milner351 My family is great when it comes to car projects. We have a ton of them! Now I just need another family like the Gate's family to fund all of them. The experience is great though I would replace it for anything. I hope to land a part time job when I'm at college working on cars. So if anyone is in the Rochester area and owns a car shop let me know!

                            UPDATE: I don't have any pictures today I'll try to get some tomorrow. I finally got the rear end all cleaned up so we spent most of today getting that squared away. We had a rear sway bar off of another truck that we are going to try to fab up. The goal of a pro-touring truck might work out. We need to stiffen the rear up with some coil over shocks if we're going to have a chance at that. I get it to hit the bump stops just by jumping in the box :x We got the petal from the crown vic bolted in today and it looks bone stock! Hopefully tomorrow well get some brake lines ran and get a fuel tank in it.

                            Stay Tuned

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                            • #15
                              nice truck, I really like the concept of melding the old with the new.
                              Doing it all wrong since 1966

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