Hi there, new member here
I purchased a 1960 f100 with money that I made selling plasma for extra cash (pays about $60 a week so this was a lot of time and blood sold to buy the truck if you could imagine..) For those who don't know, plasma comes from your blood and can be used to make vaccines amongst other things, so its charity right?


Anyways, here's the details of the truck originally:
1960 F100 2wd custom cab longbed style side? I'm not sure what the non-stepside is called?
292 Y block
3 on the tree
"big back window"

My mind went down several paths and has lead me to this concoction:

Some may say this is *******ization, others may love it, and some may not care! Either way, It's my truck to ruin so enjoy what comes of it or leave!

That being said, I decided to go with 24 valve Cummins Turbo Diesel with a mechanical injection pump (p7100) even though I grew up a v8 Chevy and guy. The current engine/turbo/fuel setup is good for about 500hp (theoretically) and probably close to 1100 ftlbs of tq..at the wheels.. (I may turn it down a bit for the sake of the poor frame..and my life..)
An nv4500 5 speed and np241 transfercase will consist of the rest of the drivetrain.

The rear axle is an AAM 11.5" off of an 05 Dodge Ram 2500 (best/toughest axle for its ring gear size in my opinion) the front axle is from the same truck.. so an AAM 9.25". Both axles have 13.9 inch disk brakes with dual piston calipers and I will be using the factory dodge hydroboost master cylinder so this thing will stop like a new truck. The steering mechanism I haven't quite figured out, however I'm leaning towards a custom steering column and a newer style Dodge 2500 steering gear box to keep things simple between it and the steering knuckles..

I had a custom set of leaf springs made for the rear, adding 4" to the ride height to give it more of a 4x4 stance and increasing the spring rate to hold the heavier weight. I decided to do a 4 link coilover setup in the front instead of the wagon riding leaf springs and will run King 2.5"(maybe 3.0") dual spring rate shocks (maybe single spring rate, this won't be seeing baja in my lifetime!) when funding allows. The frame which is the original, obviously needs work; so I'm in the process of boxing and redoing the entire setup to not pretzel under the weight and torque of the diesel engine(hopefully), as of now I have the front half of the frame done for the most part.

Right now the truck is not necessarily looking like a truck.. The engine/trans/transfercase and rear axle are mounted and ready to go, the front half of the frame has been reworked and is in my opinion, much stronger than before, the front axle is sitting on the ground in the backyard and will need to be setup with the stuff I got for the 4 link which will hopefully be done soon given I will have some free time coming up with Christmas around the corner

The body still needs a lot of rust and dent repair and of course the usual paint and whatnot that goes into a full restoration. THIS WONT BE A RATROD LIKE ALL OF THE OTHER CUMMINS CONVERSIONS I HAVE SEEN!(not that rat rods aren't cool, just that all the diesel conversions I've seen have been rat rods!)
I'm not positive what color yet but i'm thinking a metallic brown like the beautiful F100 in this article:
1960 Ford F-100 - Cappuccino Effie - Custom Classic Trucks Magazine
Anyone know who owns this truck BTW? I would like to ask a few questions about the steering column..maybe best to ask the manufacturer of said column..and those AC vents..HMMM
I hope to have the finish quality of that truck (or better if that's even possible) when I'm done, except in a long bed 4x4 configuration and obviously the drivetrain differences. Just a tad bit more "Truck" like and a little less "Car" like, Ya know?
That leads me to interior, the seats I have are from a 2005 f150 and are going to be redone with a King Ranch/Longhorn Laramie style leather. There are several other plans for the interior, but i won't go into much detail until I actually start with that portion because my mind changes a lot...

Right now I am predicting that it will take me at least another year, maybe 2 (okay, 3)given my current financial situation and work/school schedule. Hopefully one day it will be something cool though!

Heres a couple pics of the truck when I bought it:





Heres the engine! Don't worry, the dodge valve cover will go away before too long and i will touch it up some more to make it a little nicer when its done being pulled in and out every week!






Something to note here, I am building this entirely out of my garage, my garage is 400 sqft so literally every inch of space is taken up. I have no yard space for extra parts, the city has already sent me several letters and my driveway needs to be cleared out every time I work on it! this has been a struggle to do thus far because of the limited space, time, and funding, however in due time I believe It will turn out the way I want it!




I am going for this ride height and general appearance, just a different color as mentioned:

If anyone knows the owner of this truck as well (found on google) Let them know that it looks good in the one low quality picture I found of it!
I don't have many pictures of the trucks progress really but I will get some as things start to come together more and more over the course of this project, though sadly, as of now it will remain just that..a project.

 

Ps, does anybody have a GOOD radiator core support for sale for a 57-60 f100?????

 

I can't help, except with some information. If your actual center core support is good and has the typical rust-out to the side panels you can replace the side panels with those from any size truck.

It's a bit of a welding project to cut them out and replace but my '58 F-100 radiator support consists of the original core support and the side panels from and 1957 F-750.

Lou Manglass

 

Sounds like you will have a good looking work horse when its finished.
Will you need to narrow those axles, to keep the wheels under the fenders?
Good luck in your quest!

 

Looks great so far, I also wondered about the width of the axles. I bought a 97 with the same idea in mind, for various reasons ended up scrapping that plan and going w a Ford drivetrain. Can't remember exactly but it seemed that the dodge axle even with the offset of the oem wheels was about 6" wider than original. Love both the look and the concept of the Cummins, also big thumbs up for 4WD. Hope you have enough blood left to enjoy it when it's done.

 

I don't believe I'll have to narrow the axles. They are definitely wider, but I think with the right back spacing/offset it will look fine. I'm thinking a 0 offset wheel with a deep backspacing will be ok. These trucks aren't really any more narrow than a newer dodge. I know they are by a little, but with the rear one on it doesn't look like I'll need to do any narrowing.

 

The side panels are pretty much gone and the actual framing of it is rusted through on the bottom and is really no good. I was thinking of making a new one from scratch out of some small square tubing and some sheet metal but I don't think it'll look as good as a good original.

 

****UPDATE****
Some progress has been made!
I moved out of my tiny garage and upgraded to an 875sqft storage unit with power outlets.

Here's the truck when i got it into the new place:


I tore everything off what i had on the frame, this was the result:



I decided to remove all the factory crossmembers that were riveted in and replace them with my own design crossmember that i made from scratch.

I am using an AAm 9.25" front axle and decided to 4 link the truck and go with a set of King Dual rate shocks-12" of suspension travel up front, here are some pics of the 4 link setup and the axle mid-rebuild:










I decided to paint the frame with POR 15 Sterling silver gloss after sand blasting the entire thing (after all the fabrication work was complete). I made sure to use a generous amount of the Metal prep to ensure a good adhesion, i am confident now that the frame will NEVER RUST. Here are some photos of the frame finished, you can see the crossmember and boxing plates i added as well!









Some Weld **** (mig welds in kinda pain in the *** places, so they aren't the greatest welds in the world)






Next on the todo list is to finish the transmission crossmember (I've made 4 of these now because i can't decide on a design and some looked pretty ugly)

 

Nice welding! That frame looks plenty stout.

 

Thanks! I'm hoping it'll be fine. I can't make it flex at all by hand now. I used to be able to lift the frame by myself entirely, now two people lifting struggle with it

 

Nice welding!

Looks like you've grown into your larger surroundings, too!

Lou Manglass

 

Nice work and an ambitious project. Keep those pictures coming. With the amount of lift you have, I will be interested to see how the tie rod and track bar come out. How much do you think the front will settle when it's done? About half what we see there maybe?

 

Yes, the king shocks are designed to be mid shock, so it will drop 6" from there if all goes to plan. It should sit about the same height as a new f350 with a leveling kit. The shocks sound huge (27" long) but in reality that covers 4" of frame and 11" of shock tower so really it'll only be 4-5" taller than the factory springs, however the axle diameter, shock tab height and so on will factor into that as well so maybe 6-7" of lift total. I had the bed on it with the rear end setup how it will be completed and it measured .5" taller than a stock f250 on 35" tires. The f350's sit about 1-2" higher in the rear than a 250 so I figure that'll be about right.

 

Maybe you are a 'new guy' here, but it's quite clear this isn't your first rodeo. Holy cow, you are a great fabricator!

 

Funny you say that. This is the first ever build like this that I've done. I'm just not afraid to screw up and start over until it's exactly what I want it to be (hence why I'm on cross member #4 for the transmission)
I started this project 3 years ago during my sophomore year of college and its finally moving along. The big part of it was not having any space, time, or money to do what I wanted, so it took a lot of saving and doing really small amounts in my free time. This past 4 months I have had more space and free time and most of the big expensive parts have been previously saved for or purchased so it's been moving along now finally. I hope to start a business building hotrods soon, I enjoy it and So far I'm fairly happy with my work (though I want to get a lot better).