solfly said:November of 2019 I decided to clean up rust and paint the back half of the frame. Dad suggested pulling everything off the frame to do it right. So who was I to protest. Took it right down to the frame rails.
First step was to pull the bed off, used a come along into the garage overhang rafters.
solfly said:Drill, cut, grind and chisel out about 100 rivets and here we are. Everything was pretty solid, just rusty.
solfly said:Grind for 10 years then hit with etching primer. Wooden suspension did not offer much compliance.
solfly said:Make it all black. ORD shackle flip, replacing the 4" lift blocks, shown in this sequence of pictures.
solfly said:Reassembly begins. ORD shackle flip, ORD UBolt flip and Dorman stainless brake lines among the additions.
you can see the ubolt flip here, done for clearance and to get rid of the rust holders that used to be on the bottom of the axle.
solfly said:Mostly finished going back together.
Back outside for the first time. During this process I also installed a 1.5" body lift that I put together with Zone 3" pucks I cut in half and a sourced longer grade 12.9 bolts. The bolts were all OE GM/Chrysler bolts that were the sizes needed. I wanted to use those to be sure of quality and to get the build in washers that the original bolts had.
solfly said:Front end up on the wheel lifts to get some scraping, grinding and painting done on the front half of the frame.
Nice!
How were the Dorman SS brake lines, decent fitment? No leaks?
solfly said:Bed next. Ended up having my buddy who does some body work put a wheel tub in it and patch a spot on the floor. Underside was decent. Scraped, ground and painted.
solfly said:Mostly back in one piece and outside!
solfly said:Little before and after with the pics from Craigslist and where it's at now. (12/2019)
solfly said:I wanted to get a locker in the rear of the truck but I didn't want to spend much on the 10 Bolt that I was/am replacing. Went with a Spartan, under $300 on Amazon. Easy install, took a few hours.
solfly said:Just showing our set up for working under this rig.
solfly said:Sold my EP3 and put the Kenwood in the truck, replacing the junk Blaupunkt I had in there. Kenwood is an older unit but was high end at the time, great for a vehicle I don't drive all the time.
solfly said:At this point I had been building the truck in my head for several years and always intended to swap to a solid front axle with leaf springs. The first piece of the puzzle popped up on craigslist. A 77-79 F250 Dana 44.
The use of a Ford axle has the following benefits:
Differential on the left, allowing the use of the stock axle
High pinion
The Chevy outers all swap over allowing you to put together a hybrid axle that gives you left side drop, high pinion and Chevy 6 lug. That's the plan.
solfly said:Next piece of the puzzle was coming up with a Chevy Dana 44 so I could harvest the outers the Ford axle to 6 lug and also getting a flat top right side knuckle that can be machined and tapped to accept a high steer/crossover steering arm.
All the trucks from the 70s and 80s had the u shaped steering arm on the left knuckle and used the front to back steering. This not only sucks but it won't work with he steering box in the truck.
The solution is crossover steering that uses a long drag link to cross over from the steering box to a steering arm on the right side knuckle.
Chevy D44:
old steering:
crossover steering:
solfly said:Moving the axles around.
solfly said:For the rear axle I elected to upgrade to a 9.5" semi float 14 bolt. This axle was used in F44 "heavy half ton" trucks and 6 lug light duty 3/4 tons. A 5 lug version was used in 454SS trucks. It's not as robust as the big 14 bolt full floater but it allows me to stay 6 lug and to keep weight down and ground clearance up.
This particular unit came from an old friend who now lives about five minutes from me. Also scored a few other small parts, some of which can be seen in the picture below.
SF14
Run_Away said:Nice!
How were the Dorman SS brake lines, decent fitment? No leaks?
They actually were really well made and fit nicely. They are bent for shipping and marked clearly where to straighten them out. For the price you can't beat them.
December 2021
Scored this cap from a customer who had an F150 that was totaled. I noticed the cap didn't fit the Ford well and turns out it was on his K1500 originally. Offered $100 and snagged it.
December 2021
Decorated for Christmas. Big hit at daycare pick ups.
Version one:
Version two:
March 2022
Parts started to roll in, one of the most exciting ones being the Eaton e locker for the front. I wanted something selectable for the front and the Eaton was the most appealing to me.
March 2022
Ended up ordering the Reid Racing right side knuckle instead of sending the Chevy knuckle for machining. This is a stronger option and uses four studs for the steering arm instead of the three the machined stock knuckle uses. It's also bright orange.
March 2022
Trying to organize the bed of the truck and make it a little more usable for camping/offroad/recovery. Also making up for taking out the tool box.
Added a swing out tool box on the side.
Had these ammo cans and moved straps etc around between them and the swing out box until I was happy with the arrangement.
Shovel tucks in nicely behind the tool box.
Looking great DJ.
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