1954 Ford F100/F250 4x4 Tow Vehicle

[Fordman75]

Today I started by pulling the hood, front valance, air deflectors and radiator mount back out.





Next I pulled out Mr. Super Sawzall and lopped off the front frame horns. And that took care of my little clearance issue. I'm going to weld some 10 gauge plate over the end of the frames. I'm also adding a crossmember to the top of the frame that will have the radiator mount built in and will give me a solid platform for the front frame extensions.






Next I reinstalled the radiator mount and air deflectors to check the frame clearance. No problems, plenty of room now! I ran out of day light so I didn't get the valance thrown back on.






The pictures below show some of the nastiness on the passenger front fender. It's got a lot of rust thru and damage. The second picture shows just how much the fender is twisted/pulled away. The third picture shows what the fender should look like. I'm not looking forward to trying to fix this fender!!









Here's a couple engine compartment shots. This should be a joy to work on with the tilt front clip. Nothing but room. I'll see how it looks once I get the inner fender panels installed.







And a couple pictures of it when I quit due to darkness. The front shot was with the flash on the camera. :smirk:

[87gtVIC]

You can get another fender easily enough?

[Fordman75]

You can get another fender easily enough?

Yea if I want to pay big $$$$. This is a F600 fender not a F100 Fender. So there are reproductions being sold. I've been looking for the last year and a half or so trying to find a good one locally.

[Fordman75]

Today I pulled out my inner fender panels out and checked the fit. The front halves weren't too bad but the rear halves were a no go. So I marked them out and then cut them out with a jigsaw. I did another test fit and they were pretty good. there one spot on each of them that still needs a little attention. I'll fabricate the new rear halves once the cab is mounted and finished. Then I bolted them in place.












The little problem with the passenger side is an aftermarket steering stabilizer bracket. I just pried the inner fender panel out out to clear it for now.



The driverside had a little problem around the steering box. I hammered it out of the way for now. I'm going to have to cut it out and fabricate a little to go around the box.



This shot shows how it fits to the inside of the frame. Never mind the markings on it those were from when I was test fitting them on the 78 chassis.





Next I bolted in the front valance and then bolted in the grille. The truck now has it's fangs!






Then I started to cut down the box. I need to cut 8" out of the front half and 10" out of the rear half. I made 3 cuts and then decided to clean up and call it quits for the day.

The first picture shows how much will be removed out of the front half. The marks are silver.



Here's the front section of the box sitting on the truck. I'm going to have to raise it up around 4" or so when I mount the cab.





Here's a couple more pictures of it with the hood back on.

[Fordman75]

I finished cutting up the box. I left it long because I knew all my cuts would be perfectly straight. =)) I've got plenty of extra length on each piece so I can clean up the cuts. I set the sides up on the frame to get an idea of what it will look like. The rear section of the box isn't on there so it's a little shorter then the box will end up.





The box is sitting a few inches lower then it will be sitting once it's mounted. But these shots give an idea about what the truck is going to look like. I think I like it.











Here's a picture from the back. The front box wall is a few inches too low. But the width is close. I'm going to be building a subframe out of 2" x 2" steel tubing that will sit under the box. That will give me a solid platform for the box floor and will make it easier to mount the box.

[Grand Marquis GT]

Lookin' good!

By chance have you posted a want ad on FTE for that fender? A NM or AZ member may be able to find you one. I'll keep and eye out, but stuff still rusts here. Slowly, but still.

[MrMarquis]

Damn...that's a lot of work to go through to Frankenstein a truck together...but that's gonna be one bad ass ride when it's done.

Have you thought of how you're gonna paint it yet? If you've previously mentioned this, I overlooked it somewhere...if it were me, I'd put some big ole' wide whites on there.

[Fordman75]

Lookin' good!

By chance have you posted a want ad on FTE for that fender? A NM or AZ member may be able to find you one. I'll keep and eye out, but stuff still rusts here. Slowly, but still.

I'm trying to find one locally. Shipping would cost me big time. And most guys that have a nice F600 fender think they are worth their weight in gold.

I found a complete F600 For $750 but I'm a little short on cash.

Damn...that's a lot of work to go through to Frankenstein a truck together...but that's gonna be one bad ass ride when it's done.

Have you thought of how you're gonna paint it yet? If you've previously mentioned this, I overlooked it somewhere...if it were me, I'd put some big ole' wide whites on there.

I like to work hard for little gain. It should be a fun truck when I finish it. But that is looking like it will still be a few years down the road. I need a lot of big dollar parts and it may take a while to get the cash for them.

I'm painting the whole truck the same blue as the front fender. The grill, trim, emblems, wheels and possibly the bumpers will be painted bright white. So I think there will be enough white. I'm going to run the wheels that are on the truck and the tires will be the same size as the current ones. But the tires will be some BFG A/T's. I'm running the tire and same size on the back of my 87 F250 and love them.

I'm wanting the truck to look like a basically stock appearing truck with a little dash of hot rod in the interior and under the hood. I'm kind of shooting for a service truck/farm truck look.

[Fordman75]

Today I dug out the rear fenders and put them on. I put some blocks under the front of the box to raise it. And I put a 2"x2" under the rear halves to support the sides. It's sitting too high right now. I'm going to mount it a couple inches lower.

I don't really like the short stake pockets right above the fenders on a shorter box. They will be removed.

Then I cut down the rear frame rails some more. I still left about 3" extra on the frame rails. Then I moved on to the rear box section. The rear box panel doesn't have cutouts for the frame rails. This panel actually drops over the end of the frame. Mine was pretty damaged so I cut out the panel so I could set it over the frame. I'm going to be making a new panel for it when I get that far. After I cut out the panel I set the rear box section up in place. I used a tie down strap to hold it in place. The rear section is sitting about 2" farther forward then it will. So the box is 2" too short right now.









The rear fenders are going to need some work. The passenger side is pretty decent. It just needs the usual lower front patch where the running boards meet the fender. The driver side fender is thrashed. The spare tire well is rusted thru ( going to close of the spare well anyways ) . And the whole front section of the fender is rusted and thin. I still don't know if I"m going to fix it or try to find a better F250 fender.








I decided something was missing so I also dug out the tailgate and put it on ( just with the chain latches not hinges ) .







I'm really starting to like the way it's looking. It actually looking more like a truck now instead of a just pile of parts. And it's taking a lot of restraint from me to not break out the rattle cans and spray the whole thing Ford blue right now.

[MrMarquis]

I'm liking this truck very much...how many different trucks are now part of it??

Would look good with stacks, like these: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...n-Stack_01.jpg .

[Fordman75]

I'm liking this truck very much...how many different trucks are now part of it??

Would look good with stacks, like these: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...n-Stack_01.jpg .

So far parts from 8 different trucks but I'm not done yet.

Stacks are ok on diesels but not this truck. It's getting duals that exit just in front of each rear tire.

The main thing holding me back now is lack of cash. So donations are welcome!

[Lincolnmania]

lookin good mang!

[Fordman75]

lookin good mang!

Thanks.

[johnunit]

Nice, it's all coming together

[Fordman75]

I took a short break from the scrap metal and worked on the 54 a little.

I decided I'm going to start from scratch on the firewall recess and transmission tunnel. The 87 F350 transmission tunnel was a lot wider then I needed. The firewall recess I had was going to cause an issue with the pedals. Not to mention the cylinder heads were hitting and there was some header clearance issues.

So I'm going to buy some more diamond plate and build it all out of 16 gauge diamond plate steel.

So today I broke out my sawzall and hand jigsaw and cut out the firewall, the firewall recess and most of the transmission tunnel. I'm going to keep the 87 transmission inspection cover.

I've got plenty of room now!







I'm not going have the cash for the diamond plate until sometime next month. But once I get it I'm going to hit the cab hard and try to get the metal work done on it. I was going thru my metal stash and I found enough 2"x2" steel tube to build the box subframe and do the work on the rear cab mount crossmember. So once I get done with this load of scrap I'm going to build the crossmember and the box subframe and get those done and off the "To do list" ( more like a book instead of a list!! ) .