So, the truck is down to the frame now (I'm still getting this thread caught up to the present time; I didn't make this much progress in the last couple of hours). The nice thing about stripping down a truck that's in this bad shape is that you don't have to worry about body damage. After some persuasion with the red wrench and a breaker bar (and colorful language), the cab bolts came out and the cab was unceremoniously tossed on its side.



I think the previous owner must have moonlighted as a tractor pulling driver, because the hitch on the back of this frame was stout. You can see part of it on the frame at the bottom of the picture. He built it out of square tubing and angle iron, triangulated the hound out of it, and then triangulated it some more. If there's any doubt that it will hold, weld some more metal on it, right? Between the homemade hitch I cut off and the 1/2 inch plate he was using as his gooseneck platform, I hauled about 200 pounds to the scrap yard. The truck facing the camera in the background is the two wheel drive 1976 supercab that will be donating its cab and bed. It came with a 460, which I sold to help recoup some of the cost of all these trucks. It helps my cause to be able to tell my wife that I'm actually making some money with this hobby by selling parts I don't need. I know people like these supercab trucks because of all the open space, but I don't think this is what Ford had in mind when they built them:



Yes, that is me grinning like an idiot in the background. The roof was in just about as bad of shape as the floor, so everything got loaded up and hauled off to the scrap yard.



I felt like a gypsy.

 

If this thing was going to have a Cummins in it, the old 351 was going to have to go away.



You can thank my cousin for taking all the pictures with me standing in them, messing them up. With all the extraneous stuff (such as the cab and bed) out of the way, I could take a look at the frame to see just what I had. I was a little worried about its condition after seeing just how bad the body of the truck was, but these old truck frames are built out of some pretty tough steel. I drug it out of the chicken house and over to the hangar to wash it off and do a much-needed axle transplant.



With a little pressure washing, a good bit of loose rust, grease, and other debris came loose. No amount of pressure washing in the world, though, was going to blast that Dana 44 out from under it.



Now that will work. After four years of owning a 1979 high pinion Dana 60, I finally had a place to park it. Talk about putting the cart in front of the horse. I guess with as much as those are costing now, it makes sense to pick one up when you can find it, especially when the price is right.

 

Wow, if only every part of this project were as easy as swapping out the Dana 44 for a Dana 60. It just bolted right up. I reused the old U-bolts for now, as I'm going to be taking the axle on and off a couple of times before it goes in for good, but for the final installation new hardware will be used. This isn't the one time you want to cut corners by reusing old hardware.

Fortunately for me, the sandblaster lives next door to me, so a tow strap and a two minute ride later, I had the frame dropped off. I kind of feel bad for Behemoth having to load his frame up in the back of his truck by himself. I had a little easier time of it than him since I didn't have to load it up. This is the frame, cleaned up and back in the chicken house from the sand blaster's shop.





It cleaned up pretty good. I feel like I've spent the last few weeks dragging this frame up and down the road and between the different buildings on the farm. I guess it will live in the old chicken house for a while. I had planned to take it to the off-road shop this week to have the frame sectioned, but as my wife and I are building a house, I don't think the truck should be at the top of my list of priorities. All in good time, I suppose.

 

Looks good, wish that axle didn't cost so much I want one.

 

You're not kidding about those axles being pricey. They're getting harder to find around here, and they certainly ain't getting any cheaper, either. When I lived up in Maryland, I used to make decent money on the weekends by finding old rusted out snow plow trucks in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and some of the other Northeast states, then loading them up and bringing them home to Georgia to part out to the other rednecks building their mud trucks. You could buy an entire 1970s snowplow truck for $800 to $1,000, take the Dana 60 out of the front, sell it and make your money back. That was 12 years ago, and from what I've seen around here lately, kingpin Dana 60s have been going for north of $1,200. I'm glad I got mine a while ago.

I still say that you're doing better than I am overall, though. You've got your donor Dodge, which is still a big purchase that I haven't made yet. Unless you really go to romping on your truck, the axle that is under there should hold up just fine. You can take your time waiting for the right opportunity to snap up that elusive and desirable D60 while you enjoy driving your truck.

 

Ah, a Dana 60 looks great in the front of these trucks.



So I got the truck loaded up and off to the frame shop for a short bed conversion. Loading up a truck by yourself, even onto a trailer and not in the bed of another truck like Behemoth did, is no fun. Having a comealong instead of a winch makes it even less fun. After some persuasion, the frame was ready for the trip across town.



In addition to sectioning the frame, the shop is going to repair some rusted out body mounts, which are the only parts of the frame that didn't turn out alright after the sandblasting. The guy who owns the shop walked me around to show me some of their projects. They have an actual monster truck that they use for advertising, as well as a tank (I kid you not, a tank) that they built. The owner also has the nicest '67 F-100 I've seen in a long time. It was his first truck, and he learned how to fabricate on it when he was a teenager. It's sitting on 44's (it is an off-road shop), and the suspension he built for it is impressive. The owner has a fondness for Fords, and he seemed interested to hear about the plans I have for the truck. Needless to say, I feel comfortable leaving my truck in his hands, and I have a feeling I'm going to be using this shop quite a bit for the specialized portions of this build. One last shot of the whole rig getting ready to hit the road:

 

The frame shop called this morning. The truck has been at their shop for less than 24 hours, and they've already sectioned the frame, repaired the bad body mounts, and welded up a cracked frame horn from where the previous owner "modified" it to mount a homemade, four inch diameter steel tube bumper. These guys don't mess around. They used a jig to make sure the frame was square prior to welding it back together. Steve told me that someone looking at the frame probably wouldn't even know it had been shortened. I'll post some before and after pics of the area in question to let ya'll see if that's true.

Steve also CNC cut four new washers to weld in to the flat area of each body mount. Only two mounts were rusted through, but now all the mounts are the same height again so that the cab will be level when reinstalled. All of this work was done for $350 out the door. I don't have too much experience with having fab work done, but that sounds like a pretty reasonable price. If the job is anywhere near as good as Steve said it turned out, I'll be sending these guys quite a bit of business. If you're around the Chattanooga, TN area and are looking to have some work done to your truck, I would highly recommend these guys. PM me if you want their information. This probably won't help the West Coast guys, but I think a shop that does good work should be rewarded by being recommended. Everyone tells all their buddies when they get stiffed by a shop, and rightfully so, but I'm equally happy to put the word out about a group of guys that does quality work for a reasonable price.

 

any updates, i like the sound of this project

 

Great start sub'd

 

looks good, what do you use them long outbuildings for? storing hay? or livestock?

 

I haven't posted any updates on the project in a while, because I haven't done anything with it. My wife and I are trying to finish our house before the holidays, so that hasn't left a whole lot of time for working on the truck. I will post some pictures of the shortened section of the frame. I'm hoping that after the new year I'll have a chance to paint the frame and locate a donor truck for the engine and transmission. I hate not being able to work on it, but I'll have the opportunity before too much longer.

The out buildings you see are a chicken house and an airplane hangar. The chicken house isn't in operation, so it gives us quite a bit of storage.