Mark - Nothing wrong with a darkside M-H I guess. If you did as you describe you'd just need to make your frame cuts aft of the rear transfer case mounting bracket. And shorten the rear shaft. It would honestly be a more useful wheel base for off road use if you did that. With the big 16s and lift blocks it'd sit taller than a similar F-1 and would have less risk of hanging up the rear end on dips and ditches. Similar to what you did on your '59. If you do this and want even more rear lift, I've got the taller rear blocks from the '53 F-250 M-H I parted if you want to swap.



The p.o. of my Ranger must of hung the rear end a few times so he just torched it off. But how that worked with the big ugly rear bumper I have no idea. Might have been a later addition. Something else to fix! Stu

 

Can I get a zip file of your build pictures?

Also, tell me more about the compressor setup.
Is that just a standard everyday air condition compressor?
how does it cycle?
What kind of PSI do you get out of it?
CFM?
Never thought of putting in an air tank?

 

Stu, i didnt know the 53 had a taller rear block, but how would i. i might have to kick that around a little. the deuce didnt come with a rear driveshaft so i have to have one made anyway. might as well be a short one. so was i right about the body parts? 48-50 cab, 48-50 box and a 51-52 front clip?

 

How would you what? I've thought about using them myself (but won't) on one of mine because visually a stock F-2/3 M-H sits a little bit taller in front than rear. Makes sense that M-H used these on the new '53 model to level them out a bit.

Agree. It's a 48/50 cab and bed with a 51 hood and 51/52 front clip. Stu

 

pm me your e-mail and I will try to dig out all my pics and see if I can zip them to a reasonable file size.

yes it is a regular air conditioning compressor I get over 120 psi out of it but have no idea of the cfm. It isn't the greatest for long term use since it spits out a lot of oil but it works ok

 

the cab is a 1948 the front fenders and grill came off a 51 it now has a 52 hood and the bed was a 1948 and is now a 1950

this thing is a real mutt.

It gave me some issues this past 2 weeks but is back on track..

one of my rear wheel bearings when out while hauling the band equipment last week then this week after leaving a show the clutch fork broke and I had to weld it up then the next moring the batter shorted internally so I needed a new battery then my header broke...so I had to weld it up.

everything is now fixed but it is crazy how something will run 100% reliable for years and 60,000 miles then in 2 weeks everything brakes!!!

 

Been a while since I updated this post...or been on the site for that matter..

I did finally get around to swapping out the VERY tired 200 a few weeks about with another not quite so tired 200. It runs a lot better and my mileage is back up to over 20 MPG.



I ALSO made some headway on my next 50's vehicle that I should have done in a few months that is going to have ford early bronco drivetrain.....a 1959 land rover...here is a quick synopsis of what I got done on IT last week.... I figured I would post it up since it relates another way of making a 4x4 chassis if your original frame is junk and if the replacements are either supper $$ or impossible to get.....plus I am cheep and so far I have a whopping $200 in the below project after scrapping the unwanted stuff and selling a few odds and ends off the donor vehicle.



so far I stripped her down,



took measurements of the rusted frame



cut up and scraped it...



picked up a ROUGH 76 bronco



stripped it down and scrapped most of it...



then bent up some steel to weld up to match the bronco frame AND to use to mimic the rover frame dimensions.



Then welded her up to match the original frame (the kickup with flat rear section is important to mounting the body of the rover) after some measuring and cutting....







Next I gotta set the drivetrian back 10 inches and fab up some rover looking crossmembers and body mount outriggers and put the aluminum body on it and wire it up. I will also have to modify the firewall and transmission hump some.

 

Oh and on the f-1 I tallied it all up and to BUILD it AND to maintain it for 60,000 miles thus far it is around $6,000 NOT counting gas and oil.

I really has been a bargain of a truck for me since it keeps on going and I have had some CRAZY offers on it.

 

I know you ended up going with leaf springs up front, but in any of your early mock-ups, did you see where the coil buckets, coil springs, and radius arms could have worked?

 

Yes it would have worked if I made the frame kick up to have clearance for the radius arms, used a later steering box in front of the axle which would have entailed cutting and modifying the inner fender and rad support and I would have had to fully box the frame.. BUT this would have involved a LOT MORE work and I would have a pretty hacked up frame and tinwork under the hood which is NOT what I wanted I wanted something reliable and close to a stock conversion.

I like that my truck has very little modifications and could be made back into a 2wd and all stock pickup in a weekend.

So in a nut shell If you are NOT building your truck specifically to rock crawl you are doing yourself a big favor by keeping the stock leaf sprung suspension

Basically if you would want to use a radius arm setup on an old truck you will need to do something similar to the land rover project I posted above.

I also got some more done on the rover.

 

Ok, thanks.

I have a spare frame, and is missing the front springs, axle, and hangers, so I thought about trying to make the coil spring set-up work on it, and use my old '66 Bronco driveline. Made the '66 axles work on my '87 Bronco II, so I figured why not? Not that I'm gonna, but it was just a thought.

 

Hey John, Good to see you keeping busy during these long winter months. Thought about you earlier today when I had my truck out for a short run.
Take care.

 

Are you sure you want to even mess with a 66 dana 30......last time I tried to find parts for one of those it was impossible.... I would try to find a dana 44 if at all possible.

If you do go that route be sure to box it properly.. I bought a parts truck one time that was converted to 4x4 using coils.... and the frame was broke in 3 places!!!!!




Dennis, I am always busy!!!

30 model a coupe
31 model a pickup
48 f-1
50 ford coupe
59 land rover
68 bronco
76 bronco rock crawler
electric dune buggy for my daughter.


PLUS my "finished" vehicles that I am constantly maintaining and upgrading.....

52 f-1
52 f-1 4x4
74 bronco rock crawler
79 f-350 4x4
79 f-150

It never ends!!!!

 

Looks like your busy, you picked up a few more projects since I was up your way. I really like that 50 Coupe that's sitting in the driveway, what are your plans for that one? I have a soft spot for the shoebox body style.

Take care.

 

Dennis, I was originally going to build a gasser but now I am leaning towards stock exterior and interior with a stockish Lincoln 460 and rare c4 auto that I have sitting in the garage....basically will be a nice family car.


I finally found an extra set of 4 16" stock ford f-1 rims so I painted them and bought 4 new 16-7.50 8 ply tires from Coker.

They are a few inches bigger BUT ride a lot better, have less road noise and should hopefully last a bit longer while hauling all the band equipment every weekend..they have a higher load rating........ the 15-7.00's worked great the last few years but I always wore out the backs way to per-maturly when loaded.

I got to get used to the bigger tire look and the higher feeling the truck has but so far so good.