This is my first Ford vehicle and the plan is to RESTOre and MODify it a bit.

My Dad and I picked it up for $650.
It was pretty complete, except no interior, door glass and a few other odds and ends.
Had a Pontiac or Buick motor swapped in at some point, we scrapped that and are going with a Chevy 350/TH350 combo






Teardown:











Cleaning:

The cab had a couple stress cracks that I patched up, but all in all it's a fairly solid platform to start with.



All things considered, the frame was in excellent shape for its age.













Parts:



This is the Ballistic Fab diff cover for the rear 8.8, I cleaned it up and clear coated it



Rebuilt TH350 3 speed automatic transmission



Ford blue, Chevy 350 motor



Assembly:

3" lowering springs all around





scored 5 of these wheels off Craigslist for $100



Rear axle is out of a mid 90s Explorer, 4.10s, limited slip, and disc brakes
Using Ruff Stuff Specialties narrow perches and spring plates for the swap







grill rehab







I'm going with a ratrod theme with this build so for the firewall I patched some random holes "rat" style then clear coated over the entire thing.
Gives it a kind of industrial look.







This is how it's currently sitting, work is limited to weekends at the moment so it feels a little slow going but progress is progress

 

Nice build!
Where are those springs from? Short & Smooth stacks or Posies?

Thanks.

Kepp up the good work

 

thanks and the springs are Posies Super Slide

 

Ok I was thinking about the short & smooth, but I haven´t made up my mind yet. The Posies are a bit more expensive?

Are you happy soo far with the posies

 

Awesome build. I would love to find something like that around here for $600.

 

Very nice! Only recently have I started to appreciate Rat Rods. After my F350 restore I have a 69 VW Squareback that I'm going to do either a low & slow or rat rod theme.

 

I'm not familiar with the short and smooths, but so far I'm happy with the posies, they seem well made and the price seemed competitive with other similar springs. I picked mine up from Speedway Motors.

I was debating whether to go with the mono leafs or multi leafs and decided on the multi I guess because I wanted more adjustability in height.

I feel like the rear is a little tall still but I can always pull a leaf or two later on.

 

BEAUTIFUL! Subscribed.

 

Looks like this is gonna be awesome when you get it on the road. Cool already, nice score!

 

made my own frame plates using some poster board templates then transferring it to some 1/8" plate material

i'm going to drill holes and weld in sleeves for 1/2" bolts through both sides of the frame for the motor crossmember

 

Nice welds! This really makes me want to get an old truck.. I mean, it doesn't get much more simple then that.

 

thank you and you're right about the simplicity, there's really not much to these trucks and it helps keep the cost of building them down...to an extent

 

a few more progress pics from over the weekend

made a patch for the fuel filler hole, i'm going to run a fuel cell in the bed, but with a twist, stay tuned for that

also you can see where i took a big wire wheel to the cab floor and firewall, eventually going to paint it and dynamat
the crap out of it so i don't have the steel drum effect going on when it's up and running


patched a section of the cab as well, had a few holes rusted through it



this was the old master cylinder reservoir access hole in the floor, going with a firewall mounted unit



and patched the fuel line hole in the cab

 

finished up the motor mount today
it all came out pretty good



i hadn't welded the flanged tube side to the bent tube in this pic yet, but I assure you i did after
i will flip the bolts at final assembly so the threads are toward the motor



inside of the frame
ground flush for the crossmember



outside of the frame
i ground the outer ends of the sleeves after the picture to give more surface area for the washer

 

How much spring travel do you have left in the front? With the motor in? They are suppose to lower 3", right?

Looking good!