well got truck epoxied primered and body work decent. did a first coat on paint about 2weeks ago. got under carraged painted, btm of cab. i say i got painted but actually my friend jason paints and I'm the grunt. i do the prep work and he is the paint guy. one thing i do know is some of the fitting of doors on these trucks are less than perfect. I'v spent several days aligning doors and they are just not gonna be perfect. truck is gonna look great but old school iron back on the day wasn't perfect. truck had a hard life before me and bringing her back to life wasn't easy. its a worthwhile process and seeing the light at the end of tunnel. also will be ordering my hood and fenders from www.autofab.com off road race fenders/hood. john does great work for these old trucks. trimming some weight off truck by doing this. also hoping to get engine set this weekend and custom engine mounts built, merry christmas to me! not using factory OEM stuff. custom urethane type mounts and extremely durable. will be doing a roll cage and will be breaking out the tig welder for this stuff. looks cool and be visable, tig welds are just cool. will be getting some photos of all this. gonna be a nice mountain truck with some abilities and pony's.

 

Sounds like it will be a sweet truck.

Jim

 

built my 400 ford to f250 frame today/night. basically built a off road race engine mounts today. used urethane bushings and built up stands and 1/4" plate to block. very stout looking mounts. will work the tranny mounts tommorrow. get some pictures this weekend once everything complete.

 

Progress is always a good thing. (When it comes to builds that is)

Jim

 

Truck looks like its coming along nicely can't wait to see it all come together sounds like it will be a great rig ill be following this build

 

one of the issues I ran into that changes things is the frames. didn't realize the differences that would matter with this compared to mid seventies frames. Not a big deal just have to go about it a little different. fuel tanks and other issues. I pulled my fuel tank out of my truck and will be on the outside, safety issue to me! mounting a fuel tank not exactly sure of how I'm gonna go about it but got a few things to play with. catch you later. 34" frame with to 38". the narrower frame allows for some cool turning upgrades and very tight turns compared to newer trucks. catch you later.

 

1970 ford 4wd crewcab build. well got front end mocked up for coilspring and 77 3/4 ton dana 44. fit like a glove. prepped the 3/4 ton dana 44 and cleaned off all mounts (torch and grinder)and did some welding on old wear and tear on tubes. used a 1977 f-150 4wd coil towers and mounts and mocked up front end. got new crossmember built for tranny mount and zf application with a 205 transfercase. got all the big projects mocked and and will work. now on the link front end gonna go 1" on rod eyes. gonna have to gather up some cash to make this work. around a $1000 to get it all together with DOM tubing. had to buy a plasma cutter for all the pieces needed to fab up everything, cool toy! expensive but necessary. will get off my butt soon and show some photos. left my camera at the shop and will hopefully get some photos in tommorrow.forgot to mention I tried to use a 1977 f-150 4wd front axle and the frame difference killed that idea with factory radius arms. could make work but looked like monkey poop and killed it. also the 1/2 ton dana 44 has thiner tubing in axle and decided to go 3/4 ton dana 44 heavier tubing within axle.

 

Can't wait for some pics did you need any modifications for the zf to fit or does it fit in without any cutting ill be putting in the zf5 trans in the spring along with the 460 just need acouple parts for the motor to be put back together then I can drop it in great seeing another crew cab build I'm at a stand still on mine until I get the motor in or buy a welder

 

if running a 460 ford not much problem. but on the transfer case which one. if going the NP205 gonna be some small mods to clear the upper shift fork of 205. I had to notch the flange on the zf to clear this. everything is bolted together and mocked up and good to go. had to build a new crossmember for this application. I'm building everything pretty much by hand/scratch and upgrading everthing with urethane bushings. understand the budget thing. just bought a new plasma cutter for all my little pieces to be welded. plasma little cleaner than a torch and less prep time on grinding.

 

400 ford to zf tranny is a bolt in deal. 205 to zf not! had to grind a section of zf flange to clear the top shift rod on np205 transfer case. little extra work but no big deal. now to the next big deal. zf to 400 bolt up. the factory flywheel is probably to thin to get proper clutch splines contact. my flywheel is .820 thickness and my spline contact is about maybe .300 ot 1/4" to input shaft. i feel this isn't enough. so the corrective action is to get a thicker flywheel. Problem is the 400 doesn't come built this way. lots of phone calls and found a company in tennesse that can build me a flywheel for about $500, cha-ching$$$. sucks but can be done. for my application i will do this. next problem is gonna have to get built and sent to me and then send off to my balance shop to match my already balanced flywheel. did all the mocking up and didn't think to check this little part of the process on spline contact. how I checked is bolt everything up and have only the clutch on input shaft and get spray can and spray the splines on input shaft and disassemble and measure the area not painted! this is your number. thinner the flywheel worse the situation on spline contact. lots of checks made to compensate for this situation and doublechecked and this is what we have. tried many ways to cheat the system but the flywheel is the simplist way. can shim the flywheel but not much. starter gear contact is the next issue and not much room to play with, waste of time. flywheel is the simplist correction. the flywheel is a 460 hyd clutch flywheel 1.200 thick with a 400 ford center. 180 tooth contact with a 28 ounce counter. I hope i got everything here and have some photos also in my albums. problem solved and piece of cake, Ha ha on me. would like to thank my friend jason on all the help on this interesting build.

 

ordered the new fiberglass hood fenders from autofab. recessed hood and raised fender clearance. one of the mods for the hood is a cross flow radiator. standard radiator CAN NOT BE USED. hood is to low. but the look is cool and functional. possible help on the air flow also. to me its worth the trouble and the new look will be awesome. talk to john for awhile and went for it. my buddie jason is a better fab guy than me and kinda curious to do this new modification. we like to modify stuff when we can. also takes about 50lbs off of front of truck or more also. parts gonna be here tommorrow if we guess correct on shipping. getting excited. been busy and shooting archery tournaments and working. getting my cash up for some other mods coming up soon. gonna order new flywheel after body parts are accounted for. autofab fenders and hood sweet!!!!!

 

definetly a lot lighter than OEM. it was dark and had to throw on truck to look at and see how it looked. Sweet! not able to get setup but will be gathering parts for a bit then get busy on truck here soon. gonna fab up some headers here soon outside frame. gonna have to play around with this because I'm not exacty sure how its all gonna play out but will be functional and mechanic friendly. talk soon.

 

Hey quick question that you may have already mentioned. But my eyes are bleeding from reading threads and getting more ideas. Did you powdercoat frame, POR 15 or just paint. I want to go eather por 15 or powdercoat. lemme know.


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frame is epoxy primer and frame paint. building up headers as we speak. using a hedman header 89360 fenderwell exit. having to weld up a new flange for the cobrajet heads, different port and has to be done. my guy headers by ed has transition ports to smaller tubes but Ed hasn't returned any of my phone calls. something has happened? sent E mail and cancelled ordered. Called jegs and ordered their flange with ports 2 1/8". not what i was wanting to do but had to. lots of extra work to transition to smaller tube headers. 1 5/8" tube for now. the smaller tubes will help on the lower end torque situation. headers are almost done and will get them high heat powder coated black. once this is done steering box is next.

 

clutch should be here tommorrow. expensive$$. it is rated for 560 ftlb torque. if zf doesn't hold nv4500 is next. will be working the flywheel situation next. thicker flywheel than standard OEM flywheel. having a fuel tank built for truck about 40 gallons. I can weld but left this one to the experts. will be recessed in the aluminum bed on frame of truck. custom situation and recessed to protect fuel tank from being hit by fourwheeler or other things in back of truck. steering box and then brakes with hydroboost will be next. disc brake frt/rear. dana 60 or dana 70 is the question? i have both to use debating. been mocking up a 2012 rear seat from a extended cab truck f-350. It will work. some minor bracket building and not really a problem. thought it was gonna be more involved but very doable. modern seats on the way, old iron with new truck smell, sweet!!