1963 Ford Unibody Truck build

We finished my Buell Chopper project which we rode down to the Roundup. Might have seen it at the gate: We are back on the truck and have pulled the body off the frame again and started working on smoothing and welding up the frame. We are going to box everything and also remake the step in the rear as it is kinda ruff.

The whole project is a 1963 Ford Unibody F-100. It has a Dodge Dakota front clip in the front stepped up 4" or so and the rear is a Disk braked Ford Explorer with 3:73 gears and Limited Slip. The rear is a triangulated 4 link with 3 bellow bags and the front is all tubular control arms with bags. Wheels are steel dodge truck with 4" whitewalls.

The plan is to have it drivable for the Roundup 2011.

Here are a few pics, the newer ones are towards the bottom : http://illambitioncustoms.com/galler...ord-shop-truck

I will update as we upload new pics.
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Is the front clip stock dodge dakota? Do the tubular a arms give more drop or make the clip narrower? What is the front track width (wheel mounting to wheel mounting)? What year explorer rear? How wide? I am building a short uni and am trying to decide what to clip it with. Thanks.

 

The front clip is 2003 Dodge Dakota and the rear is 01 or 02 Ford Explorer. The upper and lower control arms are from Airbagit.com and they have the ball joint mounting kicked up so you can go lower with no binding. They leave the width the same which is around 63-64". It is wider than stock and frankly I was under the impression it was narrower until we got the clip and measured it. The earlier Dakotas had a narrower clip but this one has big disk brakes, rack and pinion steering etc. We kinda chased our tails on this one but we had the Dakota hubs redrilled for 5 on 5.5 which is cool as it had a small 6 lug before and no wheels were available. Anyway we tried to use the original steel wheels and they did not clear the brakes in front so we found the steel Dodge truck wheels that fit. The original 9" would have been fine but since were building the rear suspension we decided to upgrade to the Explorer as it has disk brakes and limited slip etc. We used an adapter wheel spacer to make it the same width as the front and also go from 5 on 4.5 to 5 on 5.5 lug pattern. The offset housing is causing a slight issue with bag mounting but everything should work.

 

Isn't 63-64 inches going to be to wide?

 

I am hoping not. I think the original axle was between 61" and 62" so I don't think the extra few inches will be too much of a problem but if it is we can replace the Dodge wheels with a custom centered steel wheel. If we were not going so low with the truck it would be fine but since it will be laying frame and the tires are so tall (30+") we might have some interference. I am sure we can work all the details out as the build goes on. The rear tucks just fine and there is room between the bed and tire so that is good and we have hung the fenders once with the truck at rid height and it seemed ok. Like I said I think we can fix it with a recentered wheel if we run into a problem.

 

What size, make are those wheels, tires? Thanks.

 

Is that an LO3 305 from a '91-'92 Camaro RS? Sure looks like one! Also cool build always liked those trucks!

 

The wheels are 17" 02 Dodge 1500 steel truck wheels with 4" whitewall Firestone bias plys.

The engine is a 302 out of an 89 Ford van and the tranny will be an AOD that came out of the same van.

 

I think the tires are 750/17", here is the Coker catalog :http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/bd6b8fee#/bd6b8fee/22

 

The truck is looking good. On a side note, does anyone know if Elpolacko is still selling the Dakota crossmember kits? I'm looking to buy one soon.

EDIT: Actually I just ask the man himself.

 

It still shows them on his site: http://www.industrialchassisinc.com/Web-blog/?cat=5

It does say something about his partner leaving and taking the Dakota Line with him.

I talked to Steve at the Roundup this year but I did not ask.

That is where we got the idea for the later model Dakota clip as it is a little beefier and has the rack and pinion steering, big disk brakes etc. If I had it to do over I probly would have went with one of his kits but I am not sure how much step I could have put in it to get the frame layed out on the ground as we ended up with a 4" step to get it on the ground.

 

I'm not making the kits anymore, my partner and I have split and the manufacturing is his. I wanted to concentrate on custom fabrication rather than production.

I'm not so sure I would consider the later (Gen III and up) Dakota stuff beefier over the earlier stuff. In fact I might want to say just the opposite.

The real problem for me on the later stuff is the connection on the rack is Dakota-Viper unique, the upper arms are much wider and could become a problem with header clearance, six lug unitized hubs and a large one piece cast spindle (no dropped spindles available because of the lower ball joint design). They don't seem to be as modifiable as the earlier units.

Subframing will allow you to Z the front and get the ride height you desire.

 

We kicked up the subframe pretty hard. To take care of the rack and pinion we are going to use a stock Dakota steering shaft and modify it to route back along the frame with rod ends and steering joints. I have seen a couple of custom Jeep CJ's done this way. We had the 6 lug hubs drilled out for a standard 5 on 5.5 at Moser Axle. It was not too expensive. We are also using Airbagit control arms for better ball joint angle at full drop.

We have learned alot using this clip and with all the stuff we have had to do to make it work it will be different and trick. We probly would have been ahead of the game going with one of your subframes but hey, live and learn!!

 

Here is the body sitting on the frame, it is back off now for mods.

 

Clip stepped up in the frame

 

I did not like the way we had the original rear suspension set up so we cut it out and I am building this bridge and will be making a new frame step:

 

Man, I did'nt realize how long is has been since I have posted on the truck build. Alot has changed. I shut down my shop and moved the project home. I just recently got the garage all set up to work and have gotten back on the truck. It took awhile as I started a new job and was training on top of finishing the 8 customer projects I had at the shop. It did'nt leave much time to work on the 63. Anyway, I made completely new rear frame rails that kick up very high and have curves instead of hard angles. I finished all the TIG welding on them last night and will be moving to the front clip for a little more boxing and gusseting for strength. I hope to get it on the road for the roundup 2013. If anyone lives near Arlington Texas, I always have a cold keg of frosty goodness in exchange for a hand with things!!!

Here is the latest pic and I will continue to update as I make progress:

 

I started the front clip strengthening Tuesday night. I hope to find some time to get it done this weekend. Would work on it tonight but it&#8217;s the wife&#8217;s birthday so that would go over like a lead balloon.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I did get the outer passenger side done and need to finish the inner which will tie in a boxed gusset between the clip and the square tubing used for the step. Once finished it should be strong as a tank.<o></o>
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Then I can start building the rear suspension for the second time.<o></o>
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I don&#8217;t know if any other Unibody lovers like myself saw this 1961 on Egay but this thing is sweet!!! <o></o>
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Congrats on the new job in this job market they are hard to find. I know what you mean time really fly&#8217;s by. I love the work you have done on the truck keep posting your progress. Thanks for the pictures.

 

This truck is the honey badger of unibodies!

 

Staying up on bee larva and field mouse trying to get it finished!!! Oh yea and King Cobra.

 

Well I got the front secured up. I think you could Dukes of Hazard this thing and it would not hurt it. That is if you could get it up the ramp with a 4" ride height.

 

I decided to plate and box everything as we started this like 4 years ago and I don't remember how strong we tied everything in. Better safe than sorry.

Here are the rear rails again. This things going to look bitchin' once its all together and painted

 

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Should be able to start the rear suspension next week. Wish me luck. The kid starts 1st grade on Monday and have a ton of other sh-- going on and oh yea, work. We shall see.

 

Thanks 65. I was off work for 6 months so getting back on the job was a blessing. Things are pretty good now though.

 

Finished up the bridge on the rear axle. I wanted to add a removable bracket to the back to make sure it was tied in on all four corners and not only rely on three. The 8.8 diff can be a little tricky since the pinion in off to the side a bit and there is nothing to weld to beside the tubes. I think it came out pretty good and I have plenty of flat surface on the top to attach my upper links


Front of the bridge


Rear open with the cover off

 

I modified the cover so the bracket could bolt on flush



Modified

 

I cut some templets and copied them onto some scrap 3/16" steel



This is an earlier pic all bolted and lined up before drilling