Projects 1956 F100 Build Thread

CT any idea what width you mounted the rear Lower control arms at, Center to center????

 

If you look close at the Rack in the link you will notice a weld in the center. You might ask how involved it was to narrow. Just in case you decide to go that route.
The Wizzard

 

love your welds ... I used your thread to point out how to weld on a problem thread ...keep up the good work

 

Got the Rear Sway Bar installed yesterday. I was going to make mounts and weld them to the frame, but the endlinks ended up hitting the outer frame edge. So I but the bar in the vice heated them up and bent each side in 1" to center it on the frame rails.

I heated each side at a time and allowed it to cool in a bucket of sand for about an hour each side to dissipate the heat slowly......after an hour they were still warm.

 

I'll get some better pics later instead of these crappy cell pics.

NOW for the BAD news:

I dropped the front springs to check the alignment.....what a PITA. Anyhow I drew a line around the center of the tire like you would if you were aligning the vehicle. I then raised and lowered the frame from ride height 3" both ways. Here is what I discovered....

3" lowered (compressed springs) 63.25
ride height 63"
3" raised (decompressed/hanging)62.75

So compressed the tires tow out 1/4" inch, 1/8" each tire.
Decompressed they tow in 1/4", 1/8" each tire.

This was hard to see with the naked eye, and the movement at the tierods was so minimal you couldn't measure it with a tape. BUT moving that small movement 12" away from the tire turned it into 1/8".

Now will that show up in the steering wheel going down the road.....I don't know. you would have to compress the springs 3" to get an 1/8", and its not that often you hit something that tall in the road. I think this is why the guys say they have no bumpsteer when they misalign their racks and there aren't any affects shown because its minimal.

I am going to cut each end of my rack piston down 3/4" since I narrowed the frame 1.5". And NOT narrow the housing, this will correct the bumpsteer and alignment. As a trade off for this I will lose some of my wheel clock, If that turns into an issue, as a last resort I will shorten the housing.

 

Generally speaking that's minimal movement. What happens when driving is one wheel reacts to what it goes over (or in) by itself. They seldom travel in unison. When 1 tire tow's in or out it will scrub that tire. You may not notice it a lot at the wheel but you'll chase it to some degree. It always surprised me how much people will accept when I made a living at it. One guy's not bad another one can't live with it. You won't know till you drive it. I say keep going and drive it to see what you think. Worst case is you go back to the rack and do it right (by my standard) if you don't like it. Shortening the tie rod won't change anything but the length. You'll need to narrow the rack the 1.5" to change anything.
The Wizzard

 

OK guys, SUSPENSION IS DONE!

I have to tie up some loose ends when I disassemble but now its onto brakes, motor and tranny.

Here are the pics:

Rear Shocks and Swaybar.



I adapted the perch plate to accept the shock.



Rearview..



Front, got the sway bar in today.



Battery tray (stainless) I am working on.

 

Does anyone here use plastic brakeline clips, holders? If so where do you get them. All I can find is steel and I really like the clean look of the plastic ones.

 

find your local auveco distributor
http://www.auveco.com/download/catalog/auveco_catalog.pdf

 

I like your build. Especially the way you anchored the rear of the control arm. Keep it up, love to see more. As far as the weight of that 300 goes, it will not budge the springs if the front end is from a squad. I just finished the same swap (CV) into my 61 Uni with a 300 and AOD. I needed to stand on the front bumper to get it off the bump stops. Squad springs are 700 lb/in while standard CV are 400lb/in. I'll be swapping mine out.

 

ok whers the build thread for your uni????

 

nice build thanks for all the pics.

 

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i'm wondering about the rack.....chuck

 

Welded on the used F100 mounts oof another truck I picked up. The PO had welded them to the frame so I cut them off and welded them on mine instead of bolting them on.




Here is the spare tire wind up. It is off of a 97 F150. I made the mounts and adjusted the stock unit. Added a shaft and bearing to the frame rail with a 1/2" craftsman extension welded to the shaft I can use a ratchet to take it up and down.




Wiring Harness from the 89 F150 Donor....What a mess. I pulled the engine harness as well as the ENTIRE Wiring harness for the truck.




Cab Mounts and running board brackets I picked up off of the other F100.



Here is the 4.9L/300 Donor Engine. I had a major SCREW UP. Accidentally bumped the stand with the mower, The AC pulley took the brunt of the topple, it had to be replaced anyhow. Sucks working outta your garage, never enough room.




Whats left of the donor..........






The parts yard guy was really cool and dropped off the whole truck and said take what I want for $450. So grabbed everything I could possibly use.

It'll be a few weeks before I get up more pics. This coming weekend the rivets are coming out of the frame and then each piece is going to the sand blaster. Hopefully when I post more pics it will be assembled and painted.

Frame is gonna be silver, and all accessories trimmed in black.

 

Sandblasted parts...


Boxed the freshlyblasted rails. I painted the inside and backs of the plates and rails prior to welding. Most of it burnt off during welding but I figure its better than nothing at all. I am using KBS, topcoated with SUMMIT URETHANE.








NEW LEAFS!!!



NEW PARTS!!!

Master Cylinder and about 200$ worth of nuts and bolts.

 

Frame is DONE.

I painted 2 coats KBS galv. disassembled. 2 coats KBS Galv assembled, and 2 coats and a dropcoat of Summit Silver Metallic Single Stage Urethane.

Heres the pics:









CPP power brake booster.


How I hung it to paint it.


My vent fan.........freebie!!! furnace fan with an old motor and used v belt. I raise one door set it at the bottom, block off the rest of the door with cardboard and open the vent in the shop, works like a dream.

 

Your build is looking good, one thing I would bring up is that there should be a crossmember under the transmission. You may have one fabricated but if you haven't I would encourage you to do so. The downward force placed on the front cab "wings" creates a twisting force on the frame rails. The crossmember counteracts this twisting force...if there is no crossmember then you will see cracking in the frame before long.

 

There will be one at the brake booster, and I am hoping the front crossmember from the vic will help as well.

The frame was actually twisted from the PO for that very reason, he cut out the factory xmember that supported the top and bottom frame rail and just replaced it with one on the bottom rail and it twisted. The cab mounts dipped down about 3/8" on each side.

 

frames looking good

 

Awesome build.

 

A look at the tire winder...


New leafs with full length plastic liners.


Gotta get the motor and tranny mounted and set the pinion before it gets blasted and painted...


Mevotech End links...these things are built way better than the factory ends on the crown vic front end! Put a piece of angle in to keep the tires lined up until the rack gets shortened and rebuilt.


A look at everything mounted....I like all the blue bushings instead of red!


Front end all painted.



Unfortunately the project is under a tarp under my deck until spring.......sucks but it is what it is. In the mean time I am gonna get the rack turned down, engine apart and mounted together with the tranny and everything measured up for a transmission crossmember.

 

great work

 

nice work

 

looks damn good!!!!!!!!!!

 

Someone asked what shocks I used, they are Monroe shocks part number 32207, Napa 94038.... a normally stocked item. The are used on small nissan pickups.

 

Thought I'd share my "paint booth" with you.........



I use an old fan from a furnace, stop up the bottom of the garage door with some cardboard....works for frame and primer. I'll do better for paint.

Oh and check out the light....My great grandpa engineered that thing. LOL when he died most thought it was junk I was like heck no Im keeping that. It is a brake drum with a piece of pipe welded to it. He used a garage door hinge to slide over it with a spring, so you can squeeze it together and adjust the bulb up and down.



Here is my soulution for moisture when painting. Water seperator at tank, then I run it through 40' of hose on the cool floor to condense all water. Then through a second seperator on my sand blaster and then to a filter at the gun.

The air is bone dry.

 

Very nice!!

 

Got some goodies in the mail....scored these brand new Dynomax headers for $147. ChaChing.

 

Bad news is I have a couple stuck valves and pushrods.........

 

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