1954 Ford F100/F250 4x4 Tow Vehicle

[Fordman75]

Well since I bought my 54 Ford F100 my build plans have changed a million times ( the norm for me ) . Well I've hopefully come up with the final build plan.

I decided if I was going to put this much time, cash and effort into a truck I wanted it to be a truck I could use year round! I didn't want something I'd have to park for over half a year at a time. For me a truck has to be able to haul my tools, supplies and tow my 20 foot car trailer. So I figured the best way to accomplish this would be pick up a newer 3/4 or 1 ton Ford truck for the chassis. I first picked up a 78 F250 2wd truck. But after some more thinking I decided it might be wise to go with a 4x4 chassis since I want to drive/use this in the winter too.

I picked up a rusty 1978 F250 4x4 for the chassis and drivetrain. The F250 has a 400 V8, 4spd manual and 4.10 gears. The plan was to get a driveable but rusty truck so I could just swap my 54 body on it and get it on the road quicker.





A shot of the bumper with the grille gaurd cut off.








I picked up a utility box/service body to use on it. I kept flip flopping on if I should use it or lengthen the stock stepside box. But I finally decided to give up some style for some utility. But I am going to add some Ford style to it. I'm going to modify it to use the stock 54 style tailgate and do a little fiberglass work and flush mount the shield style Ford tail lights.






After some measuring it looks like the 400 would require a pretty wide/deep firewall recess to fit the 54 cab with this chassis. That and the gas prices made me decide to swap in a 300 6 cylinder. The 300 will require a much narrower firewall recess. That and the 300 6 just happens to be my favorite engine. :mrgreen:





Here's kind of what I'm shooting for except it'll have a 54 cab and front clip and will be a different color. Mine probably won't look this nice but it'll work.





This spring I've been pretty busy hauling scrap so I haven't been able to work much on the 54. I'm hoping to get going on it this month.

[Fordman75]

I'm going to be making some upgrades to this truck to make it a little better for towing. Some of the upgrades will be a 38 gallon gas tank, Draw-tite receiver hitch, dual piston rear disc brakes, Superduty mastercylinder and hydraulic power booster.

And since this truck sits fairly high up I'm going to convert the 54 front clip to a 1 piece tilt front. It'll make working on the engine much easier for me.


I got the box pulled off.







I dug the F600 fenders out of storage and just held them up to the 4x4 to see where they'd center out at and it looks like my front bumper won't work where it's located so I'm going to have to extend the bumper mount brackets.


I ordered some Energy Suspension polyurethane 73-79 Ford truck cab mounts. Couldn't get just the rear mounts in polyurethane so I ordered a whole body mount kit. Kind of spendy since I'm only using 2 of the 6 mounts in the kit. hopefully I can sell the other 2/3 of the kit to get some of my cash back. Anyone need 4 poly mounts? I'll sell them cheap!





I was checking out the bushings on the rear springs and found three broken leafs on one side and one on the other side. So I need to replace the rear springs. I will be hauling a lot of weight both in the utility box and hauling on the trailer. So since I need to replace them, I'm going to go with a used pair of springs out of a heavier truck. The only good part about this is I can go with a plain pair of rear shocks now. I was going to go with coil overs.


I found a good used pair of springs. If I get the rear of the truck to sag with these I'm in serious trouble!! I went and picked up the springs. They came out of a 1999 Ford F450! They are not light! Nothing but smooth rides with these!!!

Here's a pic of the springs. They even have a factory overload spring. Like I'm going to need that with these springs!!

[Fordman75]

Well I dug out the 54 cab out of my garage.



My brother and I lifted the cab up onto the chassis. Damn that thing was heavier then I remembered! How do you like my new supercab?




I got a good start at tearing the body off the 78. And I didn't even use any saws ( yet!! )!





I've got the 78 cab pretty much gutted now. Got the dash, steering column, pedals and wiring all pulled. The only things I still need to pull before I start cutting up the cab are the seat, the winshield and rear window.


I got some more done but then it started raining.




I pulled the top plate off the bumper too. The top plate was aluminum. The guy welded the bumper mounting brackets right to the frame. Now I get to cut thru a lot of welds.

[Fordman75]

I got some more done.

I Pulled the seat and most of the floor.




Here's the section of the 78 floor that I wll be installing in the 54 cab.




Here's a shot of my greasy NP435/NP205( Transmission and transfercase ).




I slid the 54 cab Forward just to make it look like I was getting something done on it. Need to pull the shifters and the 78 front cab mounts before I can move it any farther forward.

[p71towny]

Looks cool, but that blue ford wasn't that rusty.

[Fordman75]

Looks cool, but that blue ford wasn't that rusty.

It was rustier then it looked. The truck had plenty of bondo and many layers of paint that hid a lot of it. But either way I've cut up better!

I tried to sell the useable parts off it but no sales so the whole body goes with the rest of the scrap I'm hauling.

[Freshmeat]

That'll be a fun project for sure. Where do you plan to find a bellhousing to mate that 435 to the 300?

[Fordman75]

That'll be a fun project for sure. Where do you plan to find a bellhousing to mate that 435 to the 300?

I've got quite a few bellhousings for it. Is there something special about this transmission?

[Freshmeat]

It's not made of gold, but it's known to be pretty damn bombproof in the offroad world. I'm planning up a Jeep with EFI 351W and a NP435/203/205 eventually.
6.xx:1 first gear is extremely bad ass for crawling along trails.

[P72Ford]

Ford NP435 has a 6.68 first gear. My Dad's first car carrier had one (1977 Louisville, 391, and later a 428), and it served him well.

A while back, I was looking to put two NP435's back to back behind a BBC (to the tune of damn near 50:1 in low, low). However, I was told the GM NP435 is harder to find. We had one Ford NP435, but I needed one that would go behind the the Chevrolet. I stopped looking after a while; I couldn't even find a good SM 465 to go between the engine and the NP.

It looks like a cool project. You using DRW, or SRW?

[Fordman75]

It's not made of gold, but it's known to be pretty damn bombproof in the offroad world. I'm planning up a Jeep with EFI 351W and a NP435/203/205 eventually.
6.xx:1 first gear is extremely bad ass for crawling along trails.

I know about the 435's. That's one of the reasons I love it for towing. My 87 2wd has one I actually start out in first gear 90% of the time on the street. But I also like shifting. It's also great for stop and go traffic. No constantly stepping in the clutch. Just let it crawl.

It just sounded to me like you were hinting I'd have a hard time bolting it up to the 300. The 300 uses the same bellhousing as SBF V8 uses. I think I've got 4 or 5 laying around.

Ford NP435 has a 6.68 first gear. My Dad's first car carrier had one (1977 Louisville, 391, and later a 428), and it served him well.

A while back, I was looking to put two NP435's back to back behind a BBC (to the tune of damn near 50:1 in low, low). However, I was told the GM NP435 is harder to find. We had one Ford NP435, but I needed one that would go behind the the Chevrolet. I stopped looking after a while; I couldn't even find a good SM 465 to go between the engine and the NP.

It looks like a cool project. You using DRW, or SRW?

about the worse thing I've had happen with either a T-18 or NP 435 is the synchro's wear making it a little harder to shift. The shifters can get sloppy and the one in my 87 will pop out of 3rd gear under engine braking. But it's got 260,000 miles on the original transmission so it's earned it's minor issues.

I've got about 6 2wd NP435's sitting in my garage right now. Also have a couple T-18's and 2 T-19's. Just saving them for a rainy day. Gotta have a spare incase I grenade one.

I'm sticking with the stock diffs for now ( D44HD front, D60 rear ) with SRW. Eventually I want to swap in a D60 front and a Dually rear diff. But I'll worry about that after I get it on the road.

[Freshmeat]

I need a SBF bell for a 435. How much you want for one?

[Fordman75]

I need a SBF bell for a 435. How much you want for one?

You want an aluminum one or cast iron?

If you want aluminum, do you want one that had the factory hydraulic slave cylinder or mechanical linkage?

[Fordman75]

I got the cab almost in the position it will be mounted in. I still need to go a couple inches farther forward but I'll have to cut out the firewall and floor to do it.

I bolted on the one F600 front fender. You can see the wheel well opening that the cab needs to go a little farther forward. I'm going to try the F100 front fenders on it too to see if I need the F600 fenders.

The body will sit a little lower on the frame once it's mounted.

Here's how it looks now.

[Freshmeat]

Man, that thing is going to kick ass once it's done.