Projects Wheelchairs and Wonder Bread, a great combination!

Love the tags. I often search for catfish nuggets.

 

as well you should, they're delicious!

 

Put a big headlight on top

 

Yeah !!! Polish and big headlight !!!! An' a train whistle !!!

 

There were these 2 brothers that my dad knows that built a 53 Ford step Van back in the early 80's. It was done up like a conversion van inside with a sign that read "Morgan's home for unwed mothers to be". It was quite the around town cruiser.

 

Vinyl.?..... vinyl billboard?

With billet wheels and bologna tubes......

H.

 

Ooh, bag it

 

It's just too tempting, you gotta polish it!

For motivation, I think I'd go with a 6.2 diesel and a Turbo 400 tranny. While it wont have the get-up-and-go of a SBC, it will definately have the torque to haul that tank down the highway and still return something resembling mileage.

Plus they are dirt cheap and easy to work on... And you can run it on home-made bio-fuel.

If you can get parts, and the steering box is in decent shape, I'd say just freshen up the front-end. Out back, a dually dana 70 with some 3.56's will get the job done without breaking the bank.

Bring the brakes into the 21st cetury, and some thick shag carpet for the inside, and you be pimpin' baby!!!

 

MMMMMMMMMMMM, and where that $5 you owe me ...joe

 

Looks like my 58 f350 underneath. I bought this f350 with a 7.5' x 9.5' grain dump. it had 17.5 tubeless tires and 6:86 gears in the old timken rear and would go 40 if you pushed it hard. I installed a 4:11 dana 60 in the rear and converted the stock front to 8lug. According to Hollander, ford used that axle up into the 70's in the p series van. I couldn't find one for parts.
What I did was this:
Either 66-67 or 67-68 in the f350 were the first 2 years for 8lug wheels but the last 2 yeaqrs for drum brakes. they changed to 8 lugs on 1.5-tons when they also changed to twin Ibeam axles so you cannot easily just swap on the 8 lug drum or disc spindles because the kingpins are different and the steering arms are wrong. It MIGHT be possible to do that but i didn't try.
I installed the front hubs and brakes from a 67 f350 onto my 58 f350 spindles.
The 58 f350 and 67 f350's use the same wheel bearings. the 58 spindles were 1/4 inch longer and I had to grind the tabs off 1/8" thick hardened snap rings to shim the bearing races in the hub. the backing plate bolt pattern was different so i drilled the 67 backing plates with my 58 pattern and bolted them on. The backing plates didnt line up right because the newer brakes were 3" wide instead of 2" wide. I took 2 pieces of 1-1/4" wide x 1" thick steel bars and drilled holes in them so they could be used as spacers between the backers and the spindle...worked perfect.
I installed new kingpins, tie rods ends, spring bushings and tightened up the steering box. You could 2-finger or palm it around a corner it steered so smooth.
I stayed with the stock 1 outlet master cylinder. I ran all new steel and rubber lines and had new wheel cylinders. Since everything was new I went with silicon brake fluid because it would be sitting alot and I didn't want the glycerol type fluid absorbing moisture.
I soldered an airline chuck into the cap for the master cylinder and when bleeding the brakes I only had to top off the cylinder with fluid, set my shop compressors regulator to about 3-5 lbs and plug it into the master cylinder to powerbleed the brakes.
I ran bias ply 9.50x 16.5 duallys on it, swapped the 260ci superduty six for a 292 v8 from a 1960 f150. it would get 10 mpg and would run 65 on the interstate at about 3500 rpm

 

Don't be a nancy: polish that mother!

 

if only we knew someone who had experience with oversized vehicles...

this is what i'm looking for. anybody else have any suggestions for upgrading the suspension with a frame swap?

 

Damn Steve, that the ugliest thing ever, have fun

 

wouldn't be awesome if i showed up in orlando in that thing? your neighbors won't mind if i camp out in your yard, will they?

 

i think swapping a rear axle would be pretty easy, but i'm wondering if a stub swap is worth the trouble in the front...

 

I would think a F350 Chassis would work. I think the WB on my F250 Super Cab (long bed) is 131". Would be the same as an F350 Super Cab. Find one with Duallies and you'd have it made. I'd find one with a 7.3 Diesel in it. IDI with a Banks Turbo makes good power and they are around. Thousands of school busses had them .

 

You might be able to use the suspension from a 1963-87 2500 series or larger GM truck, the front suspension unbolts from the frame. That way you wouldn't have to swap the whole frame out, just the suspension.
I'd also measure the frame width to see if you could just clip the front suspension using the frame & front suspension from whatever make truck that may work....joe

 

That thing is boss. Looks to be in remarkably good shape for a 50 plus year old industrial work truck.

 

this sounds interesting. i've never had a 4wd, anybody have a pic of what the knuckle and spindle looks like?

 

i gotcha, the u-joints from the spindle would act as the kingpin, right? i guess you need cro-mo tubing, too. i don't think ordinary driveshaft tubing would be strong enough...

 

ha-ha, i told you i don't know anything about 4x4s! that's about a 3" tube, isn't it? i wonder what it would take to put a drop in a tube axle that big...

 

Hey Steve, thats gonna' be cool. I think a 1 ton diesel dually your flavor might be a way to go. There are even some 4wd 1 ton duallys. They have been around long enough it would be possible to find a savage unit. The later model G.M. would probably be the quietest though.

 

There's a guy here that uses one of these as a mobile slaughter truck. Maybe you start some competition.

 

the guy with all the advice got banned and deleted, so i'm back to asking questions. anybody have a firm grasp on what i (might) have for a gear ratio in this thing? could i run a 300 and AOD and get up to highway speed? do they use roller or tapered bearings?

 

If your tires are 36 inches tall (just an eyeball estimate from the pictures), a 3.60 overall gear ratio will give 30 mph/1000 rpm. Ford AOD high gear is .67, so you would need about 5.40 gears. If the tires are only 33 inches tall, gears around 5.00 will give about the same 30 mph/1000 rpm.

I am thinking 30 mph/1000 rpm might be too tall for a six cylinder pushing as much frontal area as you have. For 27 mph/1000 rpm, you will need about 10% more gear, maybe around a 6.00 gear for 36 inch tires, or about 5.50 gears for 33 inchers.

Please note that all the numbers above are fat-pencil estimates, with a little plus-or-minus rounding error.

Definitely talk to someone that has operated a big vehicle powered by one of these sixes. They have a reputation for getting the job done, but the combination of motor/trans/gears/tire height is really important to make the whole mess a happy deal.

 

A 300 / AOD combo should be fine. I had a 292 six in my GMC bread truck with 4 speed manual OD and hauled down the freeway just fine.

 

I think the motorhome or ambulance chassis suggestions are right on target. They share similar engine placement, and would give you late steering/brakes/power.....too bad you are so far away, there was a fellow on www.performance-shop.com trying to GIVE AWAY a Dodge motorhome the other day, but Alberta is a bit of a haul from where you are
Kool truck! Make sure to update us once you start the mods!!

James

 

Hell that thing comes with 2 extra steering wheels. It REALLY does need to be lowered. Awesome!!