I was hoping for any other suggestions or thoughts before I weld my new frame mounts down to the explorer chassis I am using under my M-47 cab.
I used an old drawing for measurements setting the back of my cab 74" from the middle of the wheel as per the drawing.


There seems to be a reasonable amount of room between the firewall and motor when it is sitting this way... certainly would have had room to fit a V-8 nicely. Here is how I set up my measurement.


Squared up the cab relative to the frame, piece of 2x4 across the back to verify my measurement.


The front end of the truck is in pieces, but I will prop a front fender up to check how it looks. Anything else you think I should consider would be appreciated especially if you've done this before.
Thanks!

 

I know it's a lot of work and a pain ( been there many times with my 54 project ) . But you really need to put the front dog house on and center the front wheels in wheel well openings. Do you really want to go through all the work of mounting the cab and then install the front clip/dog house and find out your wheels aren't centered?

 

I would think that unless there is an error in the original Ford drawing or there is an error in the way that the op is measuring (which looks right to my eye) he should be centered as Ford did. The 48-52 trucks, most will agree, are centered as built by Ford.
I would suggest accurately measuring both sides since any error other than dead straight ahead front wheels will introduce an error. the other point to watch is that the 2 x 4 is clearly flat to the rear of the cab. I am assuming that the rear of the cab is square to the centerline of the cab, at least as good as Ford built it.
All that said, a check assembling the front end would be a good confirmation

 

I agree, if you have everything square and level then it should be correct. Is the overall wheelbase the same as the F1's? I thought that the 4 door Explorer wheel base was only 111" and the F1's is 114. If so, how will you deal with that?

 

Never mind, guess I must just be paranoid. There's never any differences in production vehicles. I know Ford did a real good job centering the front wheels on the 53-56's.

 

Isn't the front axle wider on the explorer? Since you not putting it on the original frame, How do you just use factory dimensions and not check. So, I would measure and then mount the front clip to see if you need to move a tad forward or back as you turning from lock to lock is keep clearance.

 

Thanks for the confirmations and advice. I do agree more mock ups and test fitting are ideal... tougher to do when your building stuff like this by yourself.

I spent some time confirming a few other measurements like height. It appears my cab is sitting 1" higher than the stock. My measurement from the ground to the floorboards is 22", with factory on 6.5-16 tires being 21" as per the drawing. I looked at the Coker tire site and it lists tires of that size and vintage as being 29 1/2 - 30" in diameter. My current explorer wheels are 245/70R16 with a diameter of 29.5" same as stock or darn close. Anybody know for sure? This may give me slightly more clearance for some taller tires in the future even though I currently hope to run 235/75R15 Goodyears when I'm done.

I also realized that I shouldn't weld brackets to my frame until I sort out the rake (tilt front to back) in the cab caused by the wider frame hitting the underskirting of the cab instead of having it wrap around the chassis. This makes the cab sit 2" (should be 4", but it's really rusty) higher in the back until I fix it. This was on my to do list to fix rust problems, but now I've got to move it up to priority one to get this thing to sit proper.



Fender mock up looks pretty good. Space in the wheel arch looks even around the wheel.

Problem area with the cab corners resting on the frame instead of going around it. Can see I've already started placing reference marks.

This was on my rust repair list, now I can modify it to fit better at the same time.
It'll probably be next weekend before I make any significant progress on mounting this cab again. Other comments/suggestions are appreciated.

 

Since you have F2-6 fenders with the wider openings than the F1, and the fact that the whole body will be higher you will have lots of clearance, but I think it will look a bit odd.

 

Thanks Harleymsn,

I will admit I didn't realize these were F2 fenders. Because of problems with space to store parts I still have several pieces in storage. I will have to dig out the second set fenders I have since they are likely the original ones and try it again. I thought there was more gap around the wheels than I'd like, but I wrongly assumed it was just because of the extra frame height.

 

Is this an AWD or 4X4 chassis? I have considered doing this on a 90 Ranger chassis.

 

frosh1, it's looking good. Keep up the great work and I will keep following your build!

 

I'd say you seem to have taken a lot of the pre-planning into consideration. There's always that nagging feeling that you may have missed something. If you take the time to install the front metal you should be go to go, and it will save you a lot of re-adjusting to fit later on.
Nice project , and good luck with it.

Tom