1954 Ford F100/F250 4x4 Tow Vehicle

[Fordman75]

Here's today's progress.

I started out by pulling out the shear. I marked and drilled a couple holes on the cross bar on the front of my trailer. Then I bolted the shear onto the trailer ( I unbolted it when I was done with it :thumbup ).



Next I brought out the box with two 2'x4' sheets of diamond plate/tread/floor plate (whatever you want to call it ) 16 gauge steel. I bought these off the internet from Discount Steel. I also bought two 2'x3' sheets in July or August. They have great service. and the sheets were double boxed to keep them from getting damaged during shipping.

Here's a shot of my floor material.



I used the templates I made yesterday to mark out the cut lines. I started using the shear. It cut great except You can only cut about 7" deep with this shear! :banghead :doh0715: I knew I should have spent the extra money for the throatless shear. :slap Oh well this will work great when I start doing the body work. I'll need to cut out a bunch of small patch panels. Since the shear wasn't going to work for cutting out my floor pieces I dug out the my hand held jigsaw.

Once I had the panels cut out I clamped the panels between a couple 2"x2" tubes. I clamped the whole thing to the tailgate of my 87 F250. Then I hammered the ends to get a bend in them. Next I checked the panels to make sure they fit. I clamped the driverside panel to the floor with a vicegrip.



Then I welded the panel in.



I went over the weld beads quick with the grinder to clean them up a little. I'm going to smooth them out a little more once all the floors are in.




I moved to the passenger side and welded it in.



I cleaned up the welds a little.




It's starting to come together. I'm hoping to get a big chunk of the floors done tomorrow. :toothless

[Archangel]

You're doing some big-time good work man, keep it up!

[Fordman75]

You're doing some big-time good work man, keep it up!

Thanks!

Here's today's progress.

I started out by making some templates for my rear filler panels. It took a couple try to get them right. :oops: Once I finally got them to fit right I traced them onto the diamond plate.

Then I cut them out with the jigsaw. These panels are fairly complex. So it took me a few hours to get them cut out. Once I got them cut out I did a test fit and marked out where I needed to drill the holes for the body mount bolts and where I needed to bend the panels. I used a hole saw to drill the holes. The smallest hole saw I have is a 2 5/8" that I bought to install my guages. So the holes are a little bigger then they need to be. But hopefully the seats will cover up that area anyways.

Next I clamped the panels to the cross bar on my trailer and hammered the one part of the panel over. Did a couple more test fits. That's about as far as I got today. I still have a few small adjustments to make to the panels and then weld them in. But the pictures give you and idea of what it'll look like.









I've got to fix my brother's Taurus so it will probably be a day or two before I get back to the 54.

[Fordman75]

Yesterday I did the final trim on the rear floor section. I did some more trimming on the transmission tunnel. And I did some more cutting on the firewall. I did some more test fitting of the transmission tunnel.




I also did a lot of clean up with a grinder, flap wheel and wire brush on the rear floor section. Then I sprayed some weld thru primer. I was just going to spray the areas I was going to cover up but I got a little carried away. I also cut out most of the cab brace I installed. I did leave the front crossbar in place until I get the front floors in.





I have some issues with those rear diamond plate panels I made. I'm still trying to decide if I want to make a couple new ones or try to work with the ones I made. I made a couple mistakes on them so they don't fit as well I want.

[Fordman75]

Today I welded the transmission tunnel in. It still needs a lot of work but it's welded in. I need to make some filler/trim pieces to blend it all in. But it's in.

[Lincolnmania]

takin shape!

[LTDMan83]

Definitely coming together nice.

Keep up the Great Work mang!

[Fordman75]

Thanks guys.

I think my time is running out quickly. We've been getting snow/rain here the last 3 days. It looks like I might have 3 or 4 cold but dry days this week. So I'm going to do my best to get the front floors in. Don't know if I can get it done or not before we get some serious snow up here.

[gabegt90]

looking great ted theres always next spring winter is a coming lol

[Fordman75]

looking great ted theres always next spring winter is a coming lol

Thanks, I know there's next spring but I really want to get into the chassis and drivetrain first thing next spring. I've got to rebuild both diff's, transmission, transfercase, driveshafts, and the 300 inline 6. I also have to go thru all the suspension, steering and brakes. Then there's the biggy cleaning it all up and painting it all.

So I really want to get as much of the cab structure done now as I can.

[Lincolnmania]

need to at least prime the bare metal and cover it all up......are you using replacement floor pans or something for the rest? do you have to build the front cab mounts?

[Fordman75]

need to at least prime the bare metal and cover it all up......are you using replacement floor pans or something for the rest? do you have to build the front cab mounts?

A little flash rust won't hurt anything. I'm going to paint the entire floor top and bottom with "Rust Bullet" paint. It's a lot like POR-15 just fewer steps in the application. The only areas I'm really concerned with getting primed now are the areas that I'm covering with panels. Those are the ones I needed to spray with weld thru primer. Because I won't be able to get to them later.

The front floors, toe boards and lower firewall are all going to be diamond plate. The drop down panels from the transmission tunnel and the seat riser area will also be diamond plate. The rest of the firewall recess I will be making out of some 18 guage steel sheet. I'm still trying to decide on what kind of reinforcement ( if any ) I want to add to the bottom of front floor sections.

I bought the replacement parts for the stock 54 front cab mounts. I am modifying their layout a little bit. though.

Here's the replacement 54 front cab mount parts.



The "L" shaped brackets ( bottom of the picture ) sit on top of the floor pans and up against the front door post. The other plate goes on the bottom of the cab against the floor pan and the rocker. But I need to lift the cab about 4" for it to work. So I'm using some 4" long 2"x2" tubing stood on end between the floor pan and the bottom mount plates. Then I'll tieing the tubes into the rockers with some 1/8" thick steel plate to make it a little stronger. I thought doing it this way way be stronger then using a standard body lift block. I also already spent the cash on the stock style 54 body front cab body mounts ( only they are polyurethane ) .

On the frame side I'm using the stock 54 front cab mount frame brackets. I had to shortenen them an inch due to the wider frame.

[Fordman75]

Well it's getting close to the time to start working on this again. But over the long cold winter I've been doing a lot of thinking. I have decided to go with a newer chassis.

I want to make this truck chassis as bulletproof as possible. That meant upgrading both differentials in the 78 chassis. They offered two front differentials in 78 and 79 F250 trucks. The weaker one is a Dana 44HD and the big dog Dana 60. The Dana 60 front diff was specific diff for the 78-79 F250(snow plow option ) and the 79 F350 4x4's. So they are harder to find. Which means expensive! And the Dana 60 rear diff in my 78 was a pretty weak version with small axle shafts. So I wanted to upgrade it to the much stronger Sterling 10.25" from a newer F250/F350. And the diffs both have the 4.09/4.10 gears which is just too steep for the 4spd with no over drive and stock size tires.

So I decided the wise choice would be to get a newer chassis. Which are more plentiful (but still hard to find when you want one! ) and the parts are cheaper. Well after a lot of searching I found a 87 F350 4x4 regular cab truck that had the gearing ( 3.54 ) and the differentials I wanted. And it cost the same for the whole truck as it would have cost for just the Dana 60 front diff for the 78 chassis. And it also has a 460 with a 4spd transmission. The engine supposedly had a bottom end noise.

And if you aren't completely confused by now here's another twist. I'm going to pick up a cheap 80's F250 4x4 and swap the F350 differentials and suspension into it. The only reason I'm going to do this is the F250 is cheaper to register. The F350 would cost around $70.00+ a year more to register then the F250 would. I should be able to pick up the F250 for less then $300. I plan to have this truck for a lot longer then 4 years so it will eventually save me the cash. To me it's just not worth the extra cost every year to have F350 emblems and 1 ton license plates when I can just swap the 1 ton diffs and suspension into the F250.

And the final twist is I decided not to run a 300. I really like the 300 but to make the power I want it would cost way too much money. I can make the power/torque I want with a mild V8. So I'm going to give up some leg room and make the larger firewall recess to fit the V8. If I can get this 460 running good without dumping a lot of cash into it I'll use the 460 otherwise I'll be running a 351W.

Anyways here's some shots of my new donor truck. Yes all 4 tires are flat and everything is packed with mud!







Here's the 460. I've never seen this much mud on an engine before.





And here's a shot of my poor cab that I never got in my garage before winter! I'll have to do a little clean up in spots before I start the metal work this spring.

[Fordman75]

Well today I changed the tires on the F350. It looks a little better now. And hopefully it will roll a lot easier now!








I also borrowed a battery out of one of the minivans in the background. Of coarse it was just about dead so I put it in the 4x4 and threw the battery charger on it. After a few hours I decided to try and start the truck. It turned over and over and over but didn't start. Then I remembered this is a carbed engine! I've been driving a fuel injected truck way too long! So I pumped the gas a couple times turned it over and it popped a couple times. Pumped the gas a couple more times and it started up.

The guy I bought it from said the engine had a noise coming from the bottom end of the motor. But lucky no rod knocks. There is a light ticking but it's either an exhaust leak or something dealing with the air injection. The guy removed the air pumps but didn't remove or plug anything after he removed the air pumps.

Now the bad news. It does run a little rough. So it will need some fresh gas, a tune up and a carb rebuild. And the alternator is toast. But so far no major oil leaks and not much smoke ( only a little when you really stomp on it ) . Not bad for sitting for a year.



And here's a shot of what doubled the value of the truck and why I bought it. The high pinion Dana 60 king pin front diff.




Here's a shot of the interior. Someone was having too much fun in a mud hole!

[Fordman75]

I've been looking for a pair of these for a while but they aren't the easiest to find. I just won them on epay for $13.00.
They are in good condition but have some pitting. but all the mounting studs are ok. So now I'll finally have the 54 F250 hood emblems.