If your going to use the 1979 frame, be sure to take a good look at how your steering shaft/column is going to fit. 2wd have rear steer and the box curves on top of the frame rail, making it sit farther to the left than the stock frame.

I'm converting mine to front steer to have a much cleaner steering shaft setup like the 4wd trucks.

 

Front and rear steer, as in the steering box being in front of or behind the axle?

 

Yep,

Here's a picture of my 78 chassis with the front steer.

 

OK, I'm back. Here are just some of the issues you are going to have to deal with:
1. the 79 WB and tread width do not match the 56. Unless you use some funky offset wheels the tires are going to be outside the fenders. If you do use FO wheels it will screw up the geometry destroying the handling and tires.
2. If you look the shape of the frames do not match. The 79 frame is kicked up front and rear whereas the 56 is nearly flat. The front kick is going to give all kinds of issues with hanging the front sheetmetal. The rear kick will eat up at least 1/2 the bed depth. The sway in the middle means the cab will need to sit above the frame like a monster truck or the floor/firewall will need to be notched to drop the cab down pushing the front and rear kick up higher yet,
3. the 79 cab is wider so the steering/pedals sits further to the left than the 56 seating position. Moving the steering column is not something you even want to think about, so you will be basically always driving like sitting in the middle of the seat. (OK if you're a RD postman, that's the way they drive. )
4. The engine sits further back on the 79, so you need to move the engine or recess the firewall, leaving even less room for you feet already over against the door. Since the seat is further back in the 79 that will put the steering wheel in your lap IF your lap was in line with the steering wheel.
5. unless you can figure out a way to place the radiator horseshoe in the stock location relative to the cowl, good luck with ever getting the front sheet metal to line up or the hood to close, it's hard enough to do with the stock frame.
6. Unless you have an extremely well equipped shop you are going to be buying a lot of new tools and equipment.

That's just some of the majors, there is a ton more stumbling blocks to deal with, not mentioning the time it will take, I know what I'm doing, have the space equipment and the time, I would never do this for myself (I've built my panel to tow a 8000 # trailer cross country and to be a dependable driver but I never once considered a frame swap, no way no how!), but if somebody brought this to me to do and were willing to pay for it, I'd estimate 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 years of 40 hr weeks to do by myself. If I was working a full time job as well I'd estimate 2-3X that long. Then one must ask: and what will you have at the end to show for all that time and money, and are you going to care by then?

I suggest you give my welding tutorial: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-practice.html a really good careful read, buy a whole bunch of 10, 16 and 20 ga metal and a couple spools of ,024 and .030 ESAB Easy Grind wire and do a whole lot of practicing: 10 -20 concentrated hrs a week of running beads for at least a month, you're going to need to do a lot of structurally sound welding. (can I assume you are using a decent quality MIG machine with solid wire and shielding gas?)

 

that one did not even cross my mind. so that right there is a custom steering column setup, and i don't think zip-ties and duck tape will do it.

 

Ok first his truck appears to be a 53 not a 56. Remember he has a F250 not a F100. So if he is going to use his stock box, and not a flatbed, his box is 5" wider then a F100 box.

1. You are right the tread width isn't even close!








His 79 is a dually so it already has offset wheels from the factory. No geometry change. He will have to deal with a longer wheelbase. The simplest is to just lengthen the box to fit. And since it's a dually he will also have to widen the rear fenders. Another option is to just run a flatbed.


2. To counter the center dip of the frame you use a body lift/raised cab mount frame brackets. From my past measurements the height needed is around 4". Since you raised the cab you can mount the box on top of the frame so very little cargo room is lost. But also remember the F250 box is also taller then the F100 box. A raised crossmember will be needed for the front box mounts due to the kick up.

3. Just because the 53 cab is narrower doesn't mean he has to move the steering column. That's what a steering shaft with U-joints is for! And he will be able to mount the pedals where he wants in the 53 cab. He's converting to the hanging pedals out of the 79. No need to offset them.

4. Yes he needs to recess the firewall some but most of the recess will be on the passenger side since he is going to run a 300 inline 6. So no his feet won't be wedged against the kick panel. But if he's worried about leg room he can always do what I'm going to do with mine. Yes this is another one of those horrible frame swaps.





5. The radiator mount just needs a simple crossmember mount on the frame. It's pretty simple.

6. Isn't that the case with a stock frame too? By the way I'm building mine in my driveway. No fancy shop here.


Yes a frame swap is a lot of work. But so is any build.

 

Do the 53-56 have a shorter distance between the firewall and axle centerline than the 48-52 trucks? My 302 clears the firewall just fine using the stock mounts. They did go from a 114" wheelbase to 110".

 

Yes I believe so. When I was mocking mine up on a 78 F250 4x4 chassis I had to cut out the center of the firewall to get the cab far enough forward to clear the bellhousing and the back of the engine.

 

Well i hit the game changer, WMS to WMS on the 56 is 61in (roughly), i measured the 79 and its 74in (roughly), so that is going to require one heck of an offset wheel .

So onward i go, mocking up the rear leaf springs to 56

 

Did you measure front or back? And where exactly did you measure from? You do know the dually has hubs on the front suspension that are much wider due to the dually rims. So you will want to measure the actual tire tread out side to outside to compare.

And I've got another question. The pictures you posted of the truck earlier shows a 53 not a 56. Did I miss something here?

And if you are going to mount that rear diff to the stock frame you'll want to move the crossmember ( at the rear spring front hangars ) forward so it lines up with the spring mounts. And don't forget about the pinion angle may need to be changed depending on the driveline angle you set.

And if you are going to use a stock frame you might want to find a good replacement one.

 

the hub looks to sit proud of the outer rim, so i eyeballed it from where the rim meets the hub. did i get it wrong?

I've been wondering if it is actually a 53, the title says 56


and the frame i was going to have seasoned welder friend look it over, at least I'll have it mocked up planed.

 

a few extra pics

 

You'll need to measure from the outside of one tire tread to the outside of the other. On the dually the WMS is wider due to the extended hubs. The hub measurements doesn't matter. You need the tire measurement. That will let you know if the tires would stick out past the fenders. The front fenders should measure just over 75 1/2" out side to out side.

Your truck is a 1953 F250 that had a V8 and was built in Minnesota! The 19563 in the Vin# is the consecutive sequence # ( serial # ) .

A 1956 would look like this:

 

Back at it

Getting settled into a new job (for the better) and the weather finally clearing up i got out today and wrenched

Before:


And After:


Tossed the bench in and sat in it, after a long while of piles of parts, it felt good.

Tomorrow i'm starting on the pedal assembly, i'm hoping to use the setup from the 79.

 

Needs a bit of bracing, but i think its gonna work.