The body is already channelled about 6" or so over the frame. If you really want to do away with the running boards the logical way would be to modify the bottoms of the fenders and leave the cab/hood/raised fenders alone. But if you don't have a welder, equipment, etc. it's gonna be an expensive long uphill battle. Larry T
instead of moving the whole fender up and having to do a shit ton of work on the hood, I would think it would be easier to section the bottom of the front fenders. Thats just what I'm thinking, I may be way off? But with no welder, it would be less welding for someone else to do.
So reading your first post you have a '53 F100 and want it "slammed". You want this done quick and you don't have a lot of money or access to a welder. So after realizing just flipping the frame is ridiculous, you have a friend who built trucks in magazines come over and drop the rear end four inches... and are next planning to move the rear end to the top of the springs which will give about another six. So you're going to drop the rear end ten inches. Now, you have (bought?) monoleafs for the front – which, by the way, could have financed a welder – which lowered it four inches but it's just not slammed enough so you're going to flip the front shackle hangers upside down, build another set of lowering shackles and find a bolt on C-notch kit. (presumably for the back as well as the front.) And after everything is slammed enough you're going to body drop the cab then unbolt the front fenders, move them up to line up the bottom of the fender with the bottom of the door, then either find a place to section them somewhere above the wheel well or just let them be because you don't have a hood. So to put the chassis in perspective: 1) You're going to cut your frame into three pieces, add at least four more pieces, then bolt these seven pieces back together to use as your frame. 2) You're going to cut some of your spring hangers off and bolt them back onto the frame someplace else to get it lower. 3) You or a friend are making shackles to fit the suspension back together.
Well, I'm completely lost...even after Kevin's explanation...I guess the English language is in serious trouble, so I'll just go find another thread that I can understand. R-
Yes i do have a welder it is 110. I dont trust 110 welders to weld my frame. Yes right now the front is dropped 4 inches and the back is around 7. the back lowest piont on my frame sits 15 inches off the ground. I plan on welding a new floor out of 1x1 tubing and then laying 16 ga. Im here looking for help, not to be put down. So please keep so corn joke to your self. I want my truck to look like the one i sketched up for my pic here on the hamb. I thank all that is helping and a big thanks to Kevin Lee for trying to clear up any Qs.
the unboltable front end is too wide for these trucks, you have to go to the pre 92 chassis,cut the front end off and weld it to the frame like i did
my miller 135 will weld to 1/4" 1 pass use 80,000psi-90,000psi good wire,preheat with torch. make sure the metal is clean, and try welding when the neighbors are using the least power if your getting penetration problems. I dont "trust" any welder. It's either doing a good job or not and knowing how to weld is knowing the difference. there is no trust involved every weld is suspect. Here are a couple pics from when I subframed my 76 f250 supercab 2 wheel drive with 77 f150 4x4 suspension on this application the spring is mounted to the virgin f250 rail and the subframe only supports the front sheetmetal and steering box and gives me my 4x4 front crossmember replacing the 2x one that would have interfered with the axle. the geometry here removes my welds from significant forces and the frame sections are boxed in an interlaced fashion as well. If your 110 welders a good one and your house power is good and you keep the extension cordage to a minimum and use a heavy guage one you should have no problem making a good weld with skills. fishplate the weld to distribute forces that might try to tear at the weld.
The cheaper welders use cheaper windings and capacitors A thick heavy extension cord adds capacitance. Capacitance is how many electrons can be piled up as static electricity. when you first strike an arc there is a voltage drop as electricity begins to flow to ground. capacitance supplies extra electrons to keep the voltage up in the tool until more electrons can travel through the line to replace the ones you sent to ground. It all happens at the speed of light but it does happen. A construction company I worked for started with the cheap ones and burned em all up as they worked their way up the price scale. I had the money at the time so I bought miller but not that another would have done the job in a non-production environment. It was $550 10 years ago. I have an ac/dc stick welder now for the heavy stuff. with the 110v at first the weld will be cool and try to pile up bead without burning in all the way. That's why I preheated. minimizing the extension cord and house wiring between the welder and the fuse box helps. I made a complaint of the top 2 of the 4 heat settings all exhibiting the same power, and sputtering. as I weld the wire starts to bottom out in the puddle AND burn back into the tip...The welding supply place tested my welder for me and told me it was not the welder or the wire feed mechanism but I was experiencing symptoms of voltage drop. they said it's not uncommon for 110v circuits to drop voltage when under load and then the windings in the welder will heat up creating resistance which compounds the problem. some commercial circuits run about 115v it's not a perfect delivery system. Linweld told me since I'm not commercial the power co has no real mandate to guarantee a pure 110v under load and don't do anything about it. I noticed any problems I have welding thicker metal are helped by pre-heating and voltage. Once I had alot of welding to do, I put new suspension under my car trailer and I rented a 3500 watt generator and ran my welder off it... Linweld was right... it was the power delivery and neighborhood voltage drop. running off the generator the welder performed beautiful as designed. My 220 welder has no power problems. with 110v you are running from 1 hot leg (black wire) to common (white wire-power ground) not to be confused with safety ground (bare copper). The white common is a ground to the hot BUT it also is a hot to pure ground. The electricity flows from hot (power) to common (system ground) The common then connects to actual ground like a waterpipe through the fuse box. The safety ground also connects to ground but is seperate from the common until it gets to the earth. this is because the power comes off hot, goes through the tool which does work and then to ground. The hot side had juice all the time... The ground side of the tool has juice flowing through it from hot to ground when the tool is ON and working. You cant get shocked off the white wire with everything off but if anything is turned on it will be live as the electricity finds it's way to earth. Your tool chassis is connected to earth through the bare copper wire. if for any reason there is a short or the tool gets wet the juice will flow through the bare wire to earth and not you. Even so...you can still get zapped with a gfci ground fault interruptor..if juice ends up hitting the bare ground it instantly turns off the power so you dont get killed. when working outside ALWAYS use a gfci in any wet environment ALWAYS. ...and a gfci will not protect you from any electricity out of the welder
Yes the sketch is it. I looked is to a s10 swap but i realy would like to keep my f100 frame i bought this truck for 400.00 and it already had a sbc swap kit, power breaks, and discbreak kit. The only bad thing is the motor was bad and it needs floor and cab corners pacht but came with new cab corners.
sounds like you got a good deal.. there was a trucking mag i think that had a 56 i believe with no running boards on it that was laying rocker .....you might be able to find the mag or if i find it i will post some pictures .....good luck on your build sounds cool
Tim Alans f100 i think was done like that? Well back to the garage this weekend and ill post some pics and im going to start on the new floor. O im also going to have some Qs on the streaing box if i can rotate it down to bring it down and what it will take. I never thought about useing a thicker cord for the welder.
It sure sounds like you want a lot for next to nothing. Maybe you should just do what you can afford and not try to cob something together. Just be happy with what you have until you can afford to do it right. Doing a little bit here and there will be so much better in the long run. Get it running and driving and make changes as you go. That's what I'd do if I had what sounds to be limited funds. And I agree, your typing is crazy. Just like your build...SLOW DOWN!!!
I was reluctant to get back in to this conversation but then I remembered how I must have sounded 40 or more years ago. I also was a High School drop out, couldn't spell for Shit. Hell I couldn't even type then,, so what. Things I could do was Cut and Weld. Being raised as a poor Farmers kid it was mandatory. I also Loved Hot Rods and got in a lot of trouble for that reason. What I did learn along the way is "Your Shit has to work when your done " Think first, think a lot. Then get busy. Here is a shot of one of my Trucks taken in 1972. I think this is where you might want to end up. Yes it's sitting on it's stock frame rails. I drove this Truck every week day to work and Cut the Fuck out of it on the weekends. Of all the rides I've built this one is "that" one. The one I wish had never gotten away even today. The Wizzard
I'm generally pretty Open minded. I also try to only make + comments. I'll be kind by asking if the front part and back part are actually pieces from 2 different projects? It also looks to be loose pieces stacked together for a "what do ya think" photo. Nice pieces though. The Wizzard
Yes thank you for all the pics, thats the look i want. Thank you for understanding my bad spelling. Im just ready to get it done. I have never built my own its always been a customers car in a shop with all the right tools needed. Im not used to doing this work out side of a shop and i started to set my garage up like that, but I cant buy everything. But back to the truck. I was looking at it agean, im going to pull some rear springs, and then ill see where im at. Pist-n-broke thanks for coming back. I need all the help a can, and thanks for everyones help this far.
Ok just an update. I went out and messed with my welder and some 1/8th. and its not welding that thick, but it will weld everything up to that. It just kept ripping under the weld. The weld goes deep but not to far to penetrate. So im just going to do my 1x1 tubbing and build a new floor. I got a tape and spent 2 hours going over the old floor and how to lay out the new one. im dropping it another 4 inches over the frame. I did find out that the motor swap in my truck is from speedway motors and that i can run a sbc, bbc, and the 90' v6. So i thought of picking up a 4.3. I know they have alot of parts out for them. But hell for 50.00 at speedwaymotors.com i can pic up a sawp kit to put any motor in it and i think it would look cool with a straight 6.
So explane to me why your building a complete new floor and why your using 1" sq tubbing? Sounds like Way more work than you need to do. Is there No floor to start with? This part of your previous statement (It just kept ripping under the weld.) also makes no cense, The Wizzard
I also would like to ask you what your doing for brake/clutch pedal? If your going to end up with a 6cyl isn't the firewall recess necessary? You loose 4" of that and you'll be moving the motor forward, then what about the Rad? It grows as it grows. Don't be so quick to cut that you build a never ending can of worms. Remember, Think and Kiss. What are you doing with the rear bottom edge of the Cab for frame clearance? The Wizzard
so if your welds are ripping out in 1/8th inch steel dont you think its going to rip out of your box tubing? get yourself a decent mig with gas! don`t want to hear later on that you hit a small bump and your cab fell off!
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