What an awesome set of updates..

You've convinced me, while it's apart to do the cleaning/stripping and painting to give it that nice fresh look and to service the hubs.

We need a 10-star rating for this thread !

 

I really appreciate the kind words!

Finished, daytime pic of the radius arms. They came out nice...


Gearbox prepped for paint in there.





Then I washed up the coil buckets. They cleaned up nicely with just a little elbow grease. I'll need to do some paint touch up in a few spots.





I also finished painting the front calipers. Should be able to put pistons back in them tomorrow.


Here's that gearbox...


Not done painting it yet, so no reveal on color right now.

I would have done a lot more today, but I had to drive 3 hrs round trip to pick up the new piglets. I also made a quick trip to the Mine.

 

I went out to the Gold Mine for some rust free bed bolts today, and I grabbed a newer master cylinder off a 2010 truck. Here is what you are looking for:


Piston size is stamped on the side...


...or on top under the reservoir.


Here is a 99-04 stamped with the 1 3/8 piston size.

 

Really cool thread! I don't see myself doing this particular mod in the future, but it's still great to follow because I get all sorts of new ideas. Thank you!

A question though...you rebuilt your calipers by simply removing the pistons with air while supporting them so they don't fly out, clean them up real good, replace the o-ring and gasket, push the piston back in, and that's it (not including slide pins)? Really?

 

That's all there is to a caliper rebuild. Disassemble, clean, paint and reassemble... Assuming you have good pistons of course, but you can buy those new for pretty cheap as well. Also a good idea to remove the bleeder screws and ensure the bore is clear on them as well.

 

And here I've been purchasing calipers my whole life.

And the rebuild kits don't seem super expensive either! Double

Learn something new every day! Thanks!

 

I'm gonna try to get my hands on a set of the 13+ calipers, pads and rotors if I can. I'm not seeing a reason one could not buy the newer stuff and bolt it onto a '05-12 axle, unless Ford changed the mounting points for the caliper brackets...the axles are the same from '05-'16 with the only difference being the rear pinion starting in '08, and in '11 the rear differential gained the ability to be electronically locked, but that might not have changed anything out on the wheel ends. If the mounting points are the same (caliper brackets and calipers), it just might work if you get all 3 components.

 

Slow going this week with the cold and wet weather...



I hate snow...



Did manage to work on some brake part cleaning...



They look pretty good after a little elbow grease.

 

Got the pistons back in the brake calipers today.




The boots can be tricky to get back in...

 

I've already done this swap but on a larger 450 chassis, truck rides much smoother than it did with leaf front, not sure if it's the Super 60's big knuckles or something else but mine turns much tighter than before.
We had the engine out and swapped the front frame sections, I will add that on the 450-550 chassis the 08 steering box we used had a completely different bolt pattern that would have required major work to fit it to the 04 frame.

Primarily subscribing to watch the progress.

Nice job and attention to detail, really appreciate all of the photos.

 

The change to coils itself gives the wheels more room to turn as opposes to having the leaf springs in the way. That's another plus with doing this swap!

How did you mate the new front frame section to your old frame? I know there's rivets holding them in place from the factory.

 

We knocked the rivets out and used a cutoff wheel to split the seam weld, there's a inner frame section that both outer rails mate to to help keep every thing in alignment.
After the old frame section was removed we ground down the remaining weld to give a clean area to weld back to.
After we slid the 08 front onto the 04 frame we installed grade 8 flange head bolts and nuts in all of the rivet holes. Measurements were taken to insure everything was straight and level before tightening the bolts, after the bolts where tight measurements were taken again before we rewelded the seams.

Side Note: The 08 frame section had a plug weld on the top flange that the 04 frame didn't have, we torched out the plug weld and with the 04 frame not having that we had a nice area to weld back to.

Weather one changes the frame sections or does the bracket swap I highly recommend using grade 8 flange head bolts and nuts, they have better clamping power than bolts with flat washers, we used them on semi frames and never had one come loose.

I got my bolts from The Bolt Barn on eBay, good price on bags of 10 or more, never hurts to have extra bolts laying around for that next project.

PS. Some of the radius arm brackets need longer bolts to go through the bracket, spacer and two sections of frame, others only go through the bracket and one section of frame.

 

Today's update:

I now have a Black Head steering box...

 

Careful, don't adjust that Blackhead box else you'll void your zits...

 

Got a lot of parts cleanup done today. All bolts cleaned up to like new.


Thank goodness for wire wheels!


I'm hoping to carry over my Russell lines from the current axles, but if I can't, I have these thoroughly cleaned inside and out. I blew the lines out with compressed air.