Now that my 69 F250 IDI project is pretty much done, I've been looking towards the next big one. My Courier is next, getting a Mercedes diesel, and 4x4 conversion, but after that we need a family vehicle.
I'm leaning towards a 67-72 crew cab cab, custom Excursion-style rear body, all on a late 80s/early 90s F250 chassis with a 7.3IDI and either E4OD or ZF five speed.
I know there has been at least one other truck on here turned from a crew cab to full bodied SUV, but I think it was done with a Cadillac or Toranado FWD setup.
My one real question has to do with tackling the rear roof. I'm thinking of using either the roof and rear windows off a Suburban, or maybe a van. I don't want to do a removable roof like a Bronco, I intend for this to be equivalent to an Excursion.
The other issue is the rear doors. I'm heavily leaning towards barn doors, but a full lifting gate isn't off the table. A drop gate is out, had a Wagoneer with one ans it's the worst thing ever on a large, tall SUV.

I know this will be an immense project, but I'll end up with the vehicle we need rather than trying to fit into what's available.
Any suggestions would be appreciated (except to just get an Excursion, I want something unique).

 

Sounds like a cool project.

A fullsize Bronco top would be the easiest. But since you don't want a lift off top the fiberglass roof might not be the best choice.

I've got a few other quick thoughts on the rear roof.

1. Lop the rear roof and side panels off a 75-91 Ford cargo van and graft that onto the bump side box. If I did this I'd use the rear side windows from a fullsize Bronco. It would take some work to make it look right but it's probably the cheapest and easiest to find. But would take a lot of cutting and modifying to get it to look cool. And not like a box dropped on your bed.

2. find a 70's Ford fullsize wagon and cut the roof off it. It would probably take quite a bit of metal work to get it the right scale but I think it would have the best body lines.

3. would be since you want it to be like an Excursion. Find an Excursion in a bone yard and take the sawzall to the roof!

It really depends how you want it to look. If you want a more modern look then the Excursion clip would be the way to go. If you want it to look like it could have been built by Ford in 67-72 I'd lean towards the wagon. But whatever you do is going to require a lot of metal work to get it all to flow with the rest of the 67-72 body lines.



And for the rear doors/gate how about an upper lift gate with a barn door style lower gate? Isn't that what the actual Excursions had? I think that's the most functional lay out without having to deal with one huge and heavy lift gate. The one piece lift gate would require a lot of structure in the roof-down to support the weight.


I wouldn't go suburban it's just not going to look right with the rest of the Ford body lines.

 

My suggestion is to get going, work day and night, and post lots of pictures. Other than that, I've got nothing

 

Here's the body style Suburban I'm talking about:

This is the one we used to have, just scrapped it a couple weeks back. It spun a bearing in the old 6.2, and then the guy who was going to buy it found a rust hole and backed out.
My basic intention would be to cut maybe three or four inches below the glass, and then blend that into a lower section made up from bed side panels, provided the angles of the windows can be replicated in the doors.
If the angles are funky, I'll use the roof and D pillar sections, rear doors, and make up blank sides. Custom windows would be needed, and then I could make them any angle needed to match the existing angles.
I do like the idea of lower barn doors and upper gate, but I'm not sure about fabbing up something like that. I'd probably end up using Excursion pieces, provided the width and height were close enough to work with. I do like the thought of not having a giant line up the rear view.

On edit: The Excursion has too much of an angle to the sides, I'll need something with more vertical sides.

 

Yea I thought you were talking about the older suburban body style. The problem is no matter what you do to the suburban roof and rear doors. They are still going to look like suburban parts. I just don't think it would look right.


I've been thinking about this a little. The 67-72 Fords have a lot of cool character/body lines on the back of the cab. So if you graft the rear roof clip from something else onto it, it's going to look strange. It's going to look like a 67-72 with a different roof welded on the back. To make it look right is going to take a lot of metal work.


I think you might want to consider picking up another 67-72 Ford truck cab. Then cut the upper section of the rear wall off ( circled in the red in the pic ) . I'd use this for the rear piece of the truck roof. I would slant cut the bottom of it so it leans in some. Doing this will give it a better look then just a square straight up and down rear wall. You might have to do some modifying to the top of it to flow into the roof line once you lean it in some though. You'll have to fill in between the new rear wall and the back of your cab. But that will allow you to get the right contours. Use the roof skin from the suburban or a van or wagon ( some thing with the strengthening ribs ) . It's all about the details/contours. The roof edge on the 67-72's are nice and curved. While at the bottom of the roof, top of the box sides, would have the section that angles in ( marked in blue in the pic ) .




For the rear hatch and doors you'd need to make the inner structure of them from either your suburban doors or some rear van doors. Ford the rear hatch just use the rear wall and window from the 67-72 cab. then add the inner structure from the doors. For the rear doors use a 67-72 tailgate. Just cut it in half and add the door inner structure to them.


It would be a wicked project but man that's a crap load of metal work!! Good luck.

 

That's why I was thinking along the lines of a drop hatch- Use a tailgate and back of a cab (I will have a spare one of each after all), and hinge it at the top. A larger window, maybe. I think the 73+ was larger, the 67-72 would be a bit small.
Maybe hinge it at the side like an old Country Squire.......

 

The issues with the one piece hatch is that is one big chunk of steel! Not only do you have a very heavy door/hatch. Which is going to require some strong structure to handle it. You will also need a lot more room when ever you want to open it.


Ah man that little back window is part of the 67-72! Going with the larger back window is going to get rid of all the cool stuff on the back of the cab!


I remember my grandparents old Country Squire. Those tailgate were cool! Either drop them down like a pick up tailgate. Or open it up to the side.