Is there any heat-treat on the 1996 F-450 frames? I'm thinking of buying an 168-in wheelbase and shortening it so I can put on a regular 8-ft. bed. Does the cutting and rewelding weaken the frame?

Thanks,

Dave

 

I don't think full frames are heat treated. I've seen body shops use a torch to heat a frame to help get it straight after being hit. So my guess, if you weld it right and don't warp the steel you should be fine.

I've read the uni-body on the Mustangs are of a higher carbon steel and should only be welded with a mig, as too much heat will destroy the high carbon steel.

 

Also, strengthening the area that youl be cutting and welding is vital

 

When I was an inspector in Maryland, any frame repair had to be fish-plated to pass inspection.

On a personal side note, I wish I had a 10' bed. I've wanted to do just the opposite, and make a frame longer. I'd love to have a 450 or 550 with a 10' bed.

 

LOL.

I can see a 10' bed with the rear wheel-wells set-back like on the '70s super camper specials. That would cool too.

Don't give me any idears.

Dave

 

sounds like you just need another bed to lengthen the side pannels...

 

Need a bed stretcher from Advance Auto Parts.....





-Wes

 

There was an F-Superduty like that on ebay last year, they took the front half off a SRW pickup bed and welded it to the front of a pickup DRW bed (after removing the front wall of course), then bolted the entire affair on the long-wheelbase F-Superduty stripped chassis. IIRC she had a fuel tank / toolbox combo in the front part of the bed with a Lund Racerback over it, and was used to pull a cigarette boat trailer, looked pretty darn good

Years ago when I had just started at a shop I was sent to get the frame-stretcher... I came back dragging the MIG welder behind me. Next day they gave it another try, this time it was the frame-shrinker they wanted - I returned with the biggest sawzall I could find Yup, they got the hint, lol

 

I have thought it would be something really different to do something like that, except..... Make the box 12 ft long and slip a set of tandem axles under it... Dually of course....

 

You may actually not wanna do that, as some roads have a restriction on number of axles on the pavement - for instance parts of the interstate loop around Atlanta only allows two-axle vehicles in the left lanes. Also, if you have three axles you may be required to register as a commercial vehicle and hit the scales...

 

I was thinking along the lines of a big toy....


But then again it couldn't be much worse than pulling a 28 ft tri axle goose neck....

 

We did this to my fathers 88 F350 cab-n-chassis back in 95. IIRC it was a 165" wheel base and put a dually bed on over the tires, then added 26" to the front of the bed. We removed the front bulkhead and welded another bed to the front of the bed. The bed was 10'2" long. We bolted a lund fastback to the bed, and used 8' bed caps and side rails.

People always scratched their heads when we put 2 FULL pallets of sakrete in the bed and still had room for 2 wheel barrows