Hey Guys! Im new on here. Last fall I was given a 1950 Ford F1 from a older gentleman at church. At one time the truck was in mint condition. Last year on the 4th of july one of his grandkids threw a old firework in the trash can in the garage and went home. Not to long after he looked outside and saw his garage was on fire. He had his mint F1 and a fairlane in there. Long story short, they both got heavy smoke damage, the truck and car got so hot the paint bubbled off and he was to the age where he didn't have it in him to rebuild the cars. So he gave me the truck and his grandson ( my best friend ) the car. Heres the current set up it has

351w Engine
Mustang ll front end ( its low )
C6 Trans

Here is what I want to do. I really want to turn this into a drag car that can race on the street. I want it to be street legal but I want its primary purpose to go from A to B quickly. I don't have unlimited funds and I realize this will be a project. Give me your list of what'd you do to turn this into what I want. Keep it realistic! Thanks






Trans





Heres how it looked when I got it

 

if you like Fords I would find a fox body mustang to build into a drag car, plenty of them already cut up for pennies on the dollar. You can go fast for very little cash.
Stock F1 frame will not hold up and sounds like you do not have the budget for a $10000 frame to get started, these trucks are not drag vehicles.

 

Wjy dont this ever happen to me. Take Daves advice if you want a drag car but if you want a cool ride that will turn heads in town including the ladies it is that truck. A nice small block ford, disc brakes, and a cool paint job will put you there.

 

I started drag racing > 55 years ago when you could do it cheaply. Uncle Sam and family and earning a living put my involvement with drag racing in hiatus and by the time I started to get the itch again the costs and technology had skyrocketed. Both my younger brothers that I got started into it continued with it, so I'm quite familiar with the costs involved. Both of my brothers have > 100K in their very well prepared bracket racing cars. The most either of them has ever won in a season is a few hundred dollars. One fact: today's drag strips, tires are much better so the prep work must be much greater to keep it going in a straight line to the point where any attempt at a combo street/race car will never be very good at either, to the point of being possibly very dangerous to yourself and others and will never be inexpensive. Racing on the street is pure lunacy bordering on suicidal. Just on tonite's Street outlaws, the showed Daddy Dave nearly dieing while destroying his brand new nearly 1 million $ race car, and another guy won 500.00 while destroying a 10K racing engine short block. You had better have VERY deep pockets, and paid up life insurance and major medical insurance. As others have already said if you want a race car buy something that lends itself much better to becoming a race car then build a dedicated race car. If you want a really cool street car, then build the truck to be just that, forget about racing it.

 

So you want input on building a truck that you can use to endanger the lives of others while racing on public streets? Am I correct in my understanding? If so, my input is simple: Change your plan. Either build a strip only vehicle and have at it - or create a street legal cruiser with some pop and enjoy the longer rides.

 

I know you don't want to hear it but this post is truth. If you have ever seen one of these run down a track with a strong motor you'd believe. The frame is completely insufficient unless you want to run some 17 second quarters and I'm sure that's not the goal. I bought an old Mustang just for this reason.

And congrats, you have a very nice project truck.

 

Welcome to FTE... How does it run and drive now? Is the metal weaken from the fire? what other things were affected by the fire, Saw the hood and roof... What about wiring, seals, and/or rubber? Can we get more pics?




What are you trying to do... are you wanting to drive on the street and/or race, track, drag? How fast do you want her to be (goal 11 sec, 10 sec, sub 10 sec)


*** end of these are not design to hook up... another week spot, the frame, isn't design for speed, to get you from point A to Point B fast... So I would start by replacing the frame... Big $! How much do you want to do your self? What engine are you wanting to us? who's building? Trans? Rear End? Tires? Tire size? Wheels? When you change one item may change another... Are you wanting to run Nitrous, Super charger, Turbo or a combo of? Are you talking about Race Fuel, or pump gas? Major Point that has to be said if you build it fast A to B.... You need to stop it Faster than stock. I guess I' trying to say is there isn't a cheap way to make it fast. The only thing it's going to do fast is empty your pockets...


Anything your want to race in big bucks! I did a road racing a couple times in my Porsche 944... I think I had about $5k in suspension alone. and had close to 3 times that in my engine/trans/rear end.

 

As noted above, these trucks were designed to work hard over uneven terrain with 100hp to motivate it. In no way whatsoever were they ever intended to do what you're desiring to make it do. Even if you could, it wouldn't be safe. Too much chassis flex, improper suspension and inadequate brakes for big power output. To make a drag truck, you're best to start off with an aftermarket racing chassis, like from Morrison or similar, and build it right from the ground up with proper racing suspension, brakes and full roll cage. Cut the floor out of the body and attach in typical race car fashion. With a beginning like that, the sky (and your wallet) is the limit for what you can accomplish.

The truck doesn't look like it was hurt that bad from the fire, and appears like a better candidate for a fun cruiser or restoration. Seems a shame to cut that one up, but it's your truck. Have fun whatever you decide.

 

I agree with AXracer, racing on the street is lunacy. But Street Outlaws is not a good example, as it is a scripted show in a controlled environment. Where in this civilized planet where you can stage illegal street racing on grand scale as they do and not get notice by the police, sorry if I hijacked this post,

 

I enjoy Street Outlaws but it sets a terrible example. The OPs verbage in his post is EXACTLY how they speak on the show. i.e. "Go quickly for A to B". I didn't even notice in the initial post he wanted to street race. I thought he wanted a street/strip truck.

We had a drag racing death locally just last month. Non-participant killed and the young men racing will go to jail for a very long time. We have a fine dragstrip just 30 minutes away.