Draw me a picture of what you're thinking. We want to do some sort of bedside but I don't know what yet and we need ideas. That's my 65 in the background, lq9, t5, full coilovers, 4 link, 4 wheel disc, rack & pinion... love driving it. Makes smoke really easy. I think I'm skipping air ride for the cab for now. After a little research I didn't really see something I liked. I'll use rubber and some sort of latch on either frame rail for the time being. From what I saw the air ride was almost like a 5th wheel hitch on bags that sits in the middle of the frame. I cant mount anything in the middle. I was thinking a couple regular truck overload airbags mounted on each frame rail. I want to see how it is to ride in it before I explore that route.
I traced the picture of the side view and briefly sketched in a ramp . Not being an artist it is tough to nail it but send me a pm with your phone and I'll take a pic and forward it that way if interested. Greg.
I was really scratching my head about the intake. 4" diameter with a hard 90 degree turn right outta the turbo... measured the intake on the ls in my nova... 4" with a hard 90... no way. Also it'd be nice to make the filter look old. Maybe turn an old headlight bucket on its end and slide it over? Any ideas?
Try to find an air ride seat, makes all the difference in the world in a big truck. They have units with twelve volt compressors on them since you’re not using air brakes. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Air ride the seat is the answer . I had a Deuce and a half for years , it might as well not had a suspension , the air ride seat made it drivable . The old White I remember at work had a spring suspension on the drivers seat . That Cummins weight will dampen out harsh springs easily in the front .
Finally got the trans crossmember done. The engine and trans are officially mounted for good. Had some pieces of metal leftover from a 1950 chevy truck/s10 swap kit that I did for a guy last year. Started piecing stuff together and it came out nice. Dropped the driveshafts off this week for shortening and lengthening. Moving on to the steering. Bent the wings up and welded them for extra strength. And lots of welding later it almost looks like something. Here's one of the frame side mounts. A little thick piece of angle iron and some gussets. Done!
Steering will be the hardest part of this build. Tilt cabs are a pain in general and I have a front to rear swinging box that needs to go to a side to side drag link. There are no provisions on a front ball joint dana 60 to install the push pull arm. I'll have to use a bell crank to convert the motions. Bought a box from a Ford LCF (low cab forward) truck because it was side swing, a good price and super beefy. The original box tilts with the cab and the hinge is the drag link to pitman arm connection. Kinda ingenious as opposed to using u joints or a slip yoke on the column. Only two little bolts held the original box on. The box is about the size of a typical steering box. The box is also touted as a variable ratio. As you turn tighter the ratio changes to make it easier in parking lots. Look at the screw portion of the column and the different sizes of corkscrew spline there. Pretty impressive to have a variable ratio with no electronics or motors. Just pure engineering. Here's the new ford lcf box next to it. Way beefier... but possibly not gonna work due to size and space limitations.
Took off the center of the bumper that included the grill and torched out a lot of junk. The old box was mounted to a big ugly cast piece that is part of the hinge and cab support. The arrows point to the old steering box holes and then the snout went through the big hole in between them. The end of the pitman arm must have been exactly at the pivot of the cab. Cleaned out the gaping hole along with the area behind the headlight. The Ford LCF box is sitting in the headlight hole. It will all have to be on the outside of the cast piece because its nose isn't long enough to fit through the center hole. I wonder if I'm the first person to ever have to clearance a headlight bucket for a steering box? The steering column shaft will come down at an angle from inside the cab. Probably only have an 18" long column and then a u joint and d rod. Just need to make a big mounting plate and key into every hole I can. My main concern is whether the drag link will hit the tire at full turn. This is looking from the front axle forward. The jack is on the pitman arm.
There is a power assist steering available for trucks like you have , it uses the OEM box , a control valve on the draglink and a cylinder on the tie rod to handle the power assist . I installed this type of steering on a Deuce and a half , worked super nice and easy . Garrison Steering is the company to contact if the box doesn’t work out for you .
Steering is 75% done. Lots of parts in the mail and I have a rough approximation of a bell crank that I made, more on that later. Box is mounted. Got the driveshafts in, playing the ujoint conversion game with the front driveshaft. I looked into doing a power ram assist but my concern was an unobtainum 1955 White steering box which is a problem if I'm on the road. Plus I had no idea of the condition of this one. Getting close to doing brakes. Thinking side mount under dash model t style going to hydro boost brakes using a speedway mount like this... Or there is this large space behind the grill... or a underfloor master/ booster combo that tilts with the cab like a 50's Chevy truck. There isn't much space behind the dash so that is probably my last choice. Then I got a tip from a buddy, might be building a 57 White 3000 for my dad. Probably 2wd and bagged would be my guess. Dragging it home in a few weeks.
What's your plan for the 4x4 shift lever? Modify linkage to side shift or leave as is and acesses via hinged door on the bed surface?
I figured since its manual hubs anyway, I could just bend the 4wd shift lever sideways towards the outside of the frame rail. If ya gotta get out of the truck to lock the hubs into 4wd you might as well pull the transfer case lever while you're out there. As an additional theft deterrent you could always kick the transfer case into neutral if you're worried about the truck getting stolen while its sitting.
I find your build interesting since I'm building a Cummins 4BT powered '54 Willys 4x4 Truck. Engine is done and Willys body is ready to go on a '80 Ford F150 4x4 rolling chassis. I bought an OEM Cummins bellhousing/flywheel/clutch out of a bread truck that mates to the Ford T18 manual transmission in the F150 donor. BTW, I also love White trucks. I almost bought a '49 White Super Power several years back but decided I have enough projects going on. Good luck with the build and keep us updated.
I welded in a couple pieces of angle iron and mounted the f550 fuel tank at the very rear of the White. Just need to order a couple 90 degree filler neck hose bends. While waiting for steering parts I've been gutting the interior and playing around with seats. You guys are right about air ride being the best route. I have a set of 2000 Suburban seats laying around. Not sure if they'll work or not but it'd be nice to have the shoulder belt built in.... plus full power in every direction... and seat heaters... and lumbar support... we'll see. The problem is the seats mount to an 11" tall shelf in the truck so you sit really really high. My head doesn't hit the ceiling but I'm 6'1" and my legs dangle. Not much I can cut down from the seat so I'd have to lower the entire shelf which would impede on my engine compartment. The same would be true with air ride, they generally have a tall base from what I've seen. I took out the pedal and clutch assembly. I never could get them to work or even figure out how they worked. Looks like the entire reservoir moves up and down and there is a big push rod at the top that was mounted with a pin. The reservoir moved up, which pushed the plunger in, bizarre! See how the reservoirs are different heights? One is stuck in the up position.
Making some progress on the steering. Drag link and bell crank are all tacked in. Used a 1750 pound trailer axle stub for my bell crank post. Silky smooth with two large bearings. The arm itself is still in experimental stage. Currently it's just 3/8" plate with no tapers. I'll either have an arm cut out of 1/2" plate with a cnc or double up and reinforce this one and buy the appropriate size reamer. I've got about of inch of clearance from the spindle nose to the leaf spring but the bearing cap there is mostly empty so we'll see if it makes contact. At the moment I don't have full lock in both directions without hitting the tire on the bellcrank but I am going to leave it and move on until I get the wheels recentered. That should give the rest of the clearance I need. If it still hits then there will be a version 3.0.
Look at the passenger side seats in a 80’s to early 2000’s International conventional cab. They are mounted on a riser that the heater/ac is under and use a shorter air ride frame. Probably 6” shorter than a normal riser.
Great build. I'm following. Just a tip replace the water pump before you bury the Cummins in there. It's a 2min job (2 bolts) with the engine out but depending on how it's in the vehicle it can be a fight. I've had 5 Cummins in various work trucks they are great but water pumps only last about 50-60k miles max . OE ones are cheap enough not to risk an aftermarket in my opinion.
Yep, I put a new water pump in it and saved the old one for the tool box. Made some good progress in the past couple weeks. I've got a brake pedal, booster and master all mounted! I am going to use the dodge vacuum booster for now until I locate a hydroboost and all the little fittings for it. I bought and cut up a tri-five under floor power brake mount. Had to redrill two of the holes to accommodate the wide dodge booster pattern. I started cutting it all apart. I realized if I turned the bracket 90 degrees I could just bolt it to the floor of the White and let the whole thing tilt with the cab. This was my first attempt at mounting it. The push rod and booster has to be offset because the booster would hit the frame rail when the cab tilted. The big crossbar tilts with the cab and interferes with darn near everything. After a test fit I had to cut the mount some more. Moved it up 1.5" and back 1.5" and totally cut off the brake pedal bracket. With the offset of the pushrod I had to come up with a custom clevis to attach to the brake pedal. I cut the eyelet off the booster pushrod and cut threads into the remaining rod. Then I tapped the clevis so the threads would match. You can see the new clevis and the piece I cut off on the vise stand. Here's the final iteration of the brake booster bracket. Reinforced, shortened and absolutely butchered within inches of its life. The reinforcement is part of the old brake pedal. Everything now fits perfectly. Clears the center bar no problem. And here it is from underneath. A lot of my cutting of the mount was to allow the booster to fit up behind the seat shelf. The master cylinder has a thick rubber seal and the reservoirs are almost completely separated so there should be no drain or leak issues. Just need to run hard lines and a soft line at the cab tilt hinge and the brakes will be done.
Got the brake lines all ran and hooked up. Haven't actually introduced fluid to the system yet. Used a rear rubber brake line from my 65 Nova for one of the cab hinge rubber lines and a 69 Chevy Impala rear rubber line that has the built in T for the other rubber line. The T allowed each front brake line to intersect there. The yellow arrow is pointing to the hinge. With the cab partially tilted the rubber lines barely even moved. I was having a heck of a time flaring the brake lines using the standard cheapo double flare tool. I found that if you strip the vinyl coating/ paint off the brake line it flares perfectly every time. Here's the tool in question that everyone has in their tool box but dreads having to use. It would just push the brake line out the back of the tool if the coating was still on the brake line.
Was up at my dad's checking out the 57 White 3000 we brought home the other day. So many differences. Frame is shorter and has narrower c channel and it has a kick up over the rear axle. Rear axle is considerably smaller.. Front brake drums are much smaller and they have an adapter/ spacer for the wheel bolt pattern. The original color was the same red as the frame. Maybe a coca-cola truck originally? Inside his doesn't have the gauge pod that protrudes from the dash like mine does. Its just a flat dash with a square panel for the gauges. Much smaller heater that is centrally located vs mine which was on the passenger side. In the engine bay there is a tube on the right that we believe held flares? Can't get it open to verify. On the left is 3 stacked canisters, my guess would be extra oil but does anyone know what they actually are? Its fun seeing all the nuances between the two.
those 3 on thr right are oil pots,like flares ,thet have a wick,and oil iun them,put them by truck when you break down
Started with the wiring and realized the dash had a million holes in it. Its easier to patch and paint before anything gets wired or mounted... and since the welder was out I might as well patch the floor where the shifter, parking brake and steering shaft went... and since I was patching the floor I should repair the rear seam at the base of the seat shelf... Rear seam You can see some of the many many dash holes here. Decided much of the rust and holes could be eliminated in one piece. Also interesting is that the floor is almost 1/8" thick. It was easier cutting with the Sawzall than the grinder. 2 days of cutting and welding and we can get back to the wiring. I will lightly hit the floor with the grinder and paint it but it'll all be covered up anyway so no point in getting carried away. I'll grind the bottom next time I flip the cab up. The rear seam is pretty visible under there. Also painted the dash gauge pod and defroster vents. All of these are made out of aluminum and they have "white" stamped in them with a patent number. Way higher quality than anything ive seen today.
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