1993 F150 4X4, Step side, 302 V8, M5R2 manual, B/W T-case, 8.8" LSD rear and locked Dana 44 front.

Before I begin, please, don't tell me it's not worth it, don't give nothing but help. I love this truck. I mean, really love it. I have an OBSession, love step beds, and 4X4's. She's got it all.

Now, it's time to rebuild her as brand new, from the ground up. I had transmission issues, rebuilt the whole darn thing, and screwed it up putting it back in by myself. Now, the crankshaft walks, and the flywheel's having a hard time getting along with the flex plate and starter. I'm done, I'll be buying a Ranger to drive around and turning this into the truck I've wanted since I was a boy, and my new career beginning in a month at $50k my first year alone will fund it.

I have the blessing of living 15 minutes down the road from the original, main Summit Racing store in Tallmadge, Ohio. Great. My issue is larger components, and cheaper prices. I need to source the following, and would like to be pointed in the right direction now so I can go ahead and get my price/parts list for this winter!

-Brand new chassis. Preferably new. Built or bought, and I already found a place that will powder coat it for $500. This will be my starting point, and I'll basically be building the whole truck off of this.

-9" rear, Dana 60 front, locked front, LSD rear without breaking the bank

-6" suspension lift

-Transfer case rebuild (full)

-302 crate engine, prefer drop-in, turn-key

The rest I'm confident I can find locally, and there will be a lot of custom work I'll do myself. I'm basically looking at building a new truck and dropping the old body and interior (refreshed) onto it, scrapping/selling the rest.

You see, by new years, the wife wants a new car financed. $40k-ish for a new Fusion or Lincoln MKZ. She wants us to be equal across the board, and has given me the "go ahead" to buy a DD Ranger and sink around $20k into this project. Awesome!!! I'll be making about $1k/week take-home. Perfect!

 

I numbered them to make it easier

1, Anything else you'd like to cry about. This is the internet, learn to deal with criticism. There are guys with big bucks into their trucks here, and use them daily on and off road and for work.

2, It would be sweet to build a tube chassis for it, but that's a lot of work and I would only do it for a show or off-road only truck. Never a daily driver or work truck. Regular steel isn't up for the stress and everyday flex like the frame material is.

3, Few things wrong with this. D60 is 8 lug, 9" is 5 lug. Adaptors could be bought and used. Could also just bolt in a 10.25 from any 3/4 ton or 1 ton. Or a d60 from a superduty van and have disk brakes.
Why on earth would you skimp out and half as s the build with a LSD in the rear... Especially a 9". They suck. Detroit locker is the way to go.
Locked front??? Seriously!!! Is yours currently locked via a locker, spool, or weld? Have you tried turning. If anything I'd say LSD front, and if you have money, a true trac diff. Badas s.

4, Perfect. Not too much, not too little, can fit 40s real nice with some trimming, or wuss out and do 35s. I suggest the prerunner fiberglass front fenders that raise the fender well and flare out. I'll have to look up the site later.

5, If you're serious, find an np205. Awesomest transfercase that bolts to a ford transmission and you can convert it to a twin stick. Can even buy the advance adaptors (or someone else's kit) to add an np203 range box in front of it, then you'll be able to have 1-1, 2-1, or 4-1 low range, as well as fwd, rwd, 4x4 and any combination in between.

6, Putting a 302 into this truck would be ridiculous, when a 351 will bolt directly in its place with only a computer swap. If you wanted even more fun, swap in mass air and build a 427 stroker. You're doing all this work to build an awesome truck, and you wuss out at the end with a crappy 302. No way.

 

1. Ok... It's a Flare Side, not a step side...

2. Have the current frame sand blasted. The do any reinforcing you feel it needs. Then coat it with POR-15 and a topcoat.

3. Dana 60 with a LSD in the front, Sterling 10.25 with either a Detroit locker or if you can afford the coin, an ARB.

4. Sounds good. Take a look at Bronco Air. He is currently in the process of building a coil sprung Dana 60 front axle conversion kit for 1/2 ton's. Great kit. I will try and dig up a link.

5. What UNTAMND said...

6. Go big or go home. EFI 460 all the way. If you find the right donor truck for this project, you could score the axles, engine and trans all in one.

 

Very true on #6 Evan. Great point.

 

Wow, talk about a douche. I ask for help on where to find things and all you can do is tell me I'm "wussing out" and act like a total *****. Thanks, Let's try it this way: It's MY build, help me find what I'm looking for or walk the other way.

1: Not crying. I've had others tell me it's not worth redoing an OBS F150.

2: Ok, great, I'm going with a regular chassis, anyways, were you going to tell me where I may find one, or just sit there and impart your wisdom about things I already knew?

3:Again....

4:"wuss out"....GFYS. I'm looking at around 37's. Deal with it.

5:Why? When obviously I'm happy with my B/W and just want to rebuild the damn thing...

6:It's got an H.O. 302 in it right now, and has plenty of power. I want to keep it simple, cheap, reliable, you want to build a mega truck.

Bottom line, don't be a dick. I come in asking for advice on where to look and that's all you can do. Nice work. If you want to build this truck how you want it, then buy it off of me and go for it. Otherwise, as stated before, help me with what I'm asking, or walk away.

 

Nothing left of the rear of the frame, it'd be a bit too much and I'd really rather just start fresh. You have to go almost all the way to the front rear spring hangers to find good material.

 

UNTAMD had good advice, but you couldn't get past his response to #1. Not sure why you bothered posting here...you apparently have all the answers.

 

He started out like a dick head, and followed through, throughout his reply. But, yea, you're right, I have all the answers, that's totally why I'm here

I'll get the answers I need elsewhere though. Away from those with the pack mentality of "bigger is better" and "I'm better than you". Good day.

 

See, can't take criticism. #1 was a joke, and it's clear you're too childish to have understood this because you can't accept people's opinions.
You were all gun-hoe to "do this right" so I told you my opinion on how to do it and have an awesome truck.
I have a 1990 truck that I have thousands of dollars worth of parts just waiting to be bolted on, and I keep buying them even though people say it's not worth it. I know it's not worth it, these trucks are 24 and 21 years old... Obviously it's not worth it to completely restore a truck ford made millions of. But MY truck has sentimental value, and I really like the truck. That's why I'm dumping money into it. Have a plan, stick with it, and to he ll with them that offer info you can't use.... (Now you need to infer what I meant with what I said)

2..... Good luck finding a "new" chassis. The truck was last made 18 years ago. Your comment said "preferably new chassis, built or bought". That implies that a custom chassis was on the table. So I gave you some very specific reasons why each option was good or bad. I may not have specifically held your hand and lead you to the answer you were looking for, but valuable info none the less.

3..... I'm still not sure what you are going for. If it's a mix and match of parts, that will make it so your speedo doesn't work or electronic transmission not shift right, then you're on the right track. And I did tell you where to get the parts I mentioned. Not only will they bolt in, have bigger and better brakes, they would be stronger.

4..... I said 40s would clear, and wuss out at 35s, and you say 37s. Not sure why you're bent about what I said. It was clearly a fun jab seeing as though you need zero lift to fit 35s and you are lifting it 6". And you choose a tire halfway in between. Seems like a great compromise to me on lift and tire size.

5.... Why? Because I said so. Obviously I'm giving my opinion on how you can build an awesome truck. Why would I skimp out on the transfer case. You're spending your money on rebuilding a transfer case worth 35 bucks. I'm telling you what transfer case is the awesomest and will bolt right in. Then I gave you a few options. I'm really not even sure why you're wasting your money "rebuilding" the original one anyway. If it needs a rebuild, it is either just a chain, or if the bearings are trashed I'd just replace the whole thing, and swap to an np205, because they never go bad unless some idiot drained the oil out of it.

6.... A 302 is fine in a 2wd truck with stock size tires. You want to run 37s. See an issue. You'd need 4.88 to 5.34 gears to get this truck back to being safe to take on the hyway. I said a 351 because you said you were going to buy a crate engine, meaning what's currently in the truck is of no consideration. If you did any type of research, the 351 is a direct bolt in, using all of the original wiring and engine mounts and front accessories, and only require a flexplate or flywheel change, and if keeping sd efi, just swap the computer. A new crate engine may be 100-200 bucks more from advance. And if you buy a built awesome one, maybe 500$ more because the heads will be much better. AND IT BOLTS RIGHT IN. Even if you were to build it yourself, it's crazy not to rebuild a 351. You can keep your current engine in the truck so it's mobile, and build another one in your spare time.

You didn't give much info on what you wanted to do with the truck. So I guessed at what you may want. When all you do is say "I'm building this truck wether you like it or not" And all you give us to go on is 6" of lift and the trans is junk because you put it in wrong and a mix match bunch of mongrel parts, you want to put a crappy diff in the axle that does the most work, put a locker in the front so the thing won't ever turn, and then get upset when someone calls you out on it....
I never said bigger is better, or my way or the hyway, I have you a great path for your truck with many options depending on how extreme of build you wanted. You implied I was negatively criticizing you, which I wasn't.
I'm always here to help, along with everyone else in this forum. Accept he help, good and bad ideas, sort through them and find which is best for your project, ask for clarity on stuff you don't understand.