Figure I'll get this thread started up,

So around the beginning of this past summer, my father showed me a few videos of Hot Rod Garage's Crown Hick project. We liked the idea, but weren't big on the boxy style of the year F100 they selected. After some time we decided that the '53-'56 year range had a style we liked. We were still thinking at that time that we'd go the Crown Vic route, but eventually came across Mr. Shift's project thread. After realizing this was going to be the best / 'easiest' route to take, we started watching for Explorers as well. As with Mr. Shifts, we'd be getting the '97-'01 AWD V8 model.

I've had a number of 'almost buys', with everything from piles of parts to full running trucks. The best priced options kept getting bought up before I could spare the time to visit the sellers, and the other options made me realize that I wasn't going to 'put up with' a old work truck til I got things sorted. (My sis daily drives a '68 Bronco with a 302 and 3 speed, I dunno how she puts up with it.)

I'd been communicating with Mr. Shift, and he got me in touch with "Johnny's Junkyard" in Phoenix, AZ. Johnny pieced together a '56 from good parts, but his asking price was just a tad too high for my tastes. At that time I had an Explorer in Phoenix lined up as well, but had to back out on the deal. A week later, my parents decided they're going to fly out to Phoenix for the weekend to visit my 'snowbird' uncle (who lives in South Dakota). We get back in touch with Johnny and the owner of the Explorer, they fly out, and since my father's taken such a liking to the whole project idea, he bargains for a '53 F100 to be included with my '56. They pay for the Explorer (with my money) and the 56 / 53 (with money I'd also provided), and drive the Explorer back home. As of writing this post, the F100's are getting ready to get loaded up on the shipper's truck.

Our plans are to do the '53 first as a 'test run', with either the Explorer we picked up or another one my father will be getting being the donor. The other Explorer will be given to my sister to drive in the meantime. This is in part because she wants to do some upgrades to the Bronco that would require it to be home and potentially unable to be driven.

Plans for dad's '53 include:

1. tilt forward hood
2. power windows & locks
3. modern ac / heater
4. keyless ignition with remote unlock
5. shaved front and rear bumpers
6. 'hidden' tailgate latch & possibly a tonneau cover

Plans for my '56 include:

1. tilt forward hood
2. possibly shaved cowl air scoop
3. modern ac/ heater
4. power windows / locks
5. keyless ignition with remote start and passive door lock / unlock
6. flush door handles (thinking Kindigit)
7. shaved front and rear bumpers
8. 'hidden' tailgate latch & possibly a tonneau cover

There's a number of items we've already picked out for some of the above, and other things I'll likely be posting up about to ask about. Depending on how long after the post is made, I'll edit / update this original post with dated comments / questions.

Photos will come soon, we're expecting to have the trucks at our house this weekend.

This won't be the only project(s) I'll be working on. I'm slowly working on restomodding a '66 Morgan +4, called the MogRod. I'm nearly done with a ground-up restoration I did on my father's 1970 Plymouth Barracuda convertible. That was running for a while, but due to carb and power steering issues, I'm currently in the middle of putting a EFI setup and new rack and pinion steering on it. I'm also working on a '72 Airstream Ambassador. That was originally going to be turned into a customer car trailer, but I realized we didn't have as much use for it, and instead I'm fixing it up to sell it off (hopefully by this coming summer). It'll help with funds for the MogRod and probably the '56 to some extent.

 

Figure I'll post some minor updates on this, haven't been good about keeping my various automotive project pages up to date over the past year or two.


The trucks as they were delivered to our home in March of 2018.

They were pulled off their chassis, which were in junk condition and sold off, and stored away with some disassembly.



Taken last weekend (Sept 2019).

The 56 cab is stripped down of components, and the 53 cab is coming along on that path.

The beds have been disassembled (including drilling out the spot welds for the four sides), and one 'good' bed will be made of the parts for the '53. I will be ordering a new bed for the '56.

The floor on both are rusted and will be replaced, but the front corners of the '53 are pretty shot and will need a good bit of work.

To be determined if we'll keep the '53 as a project, as my father's ambivalent about it and got it mainly to give to my step brother once we're done. If it requires too much work we may just sell it off.

The other fenders are from one of our two project Morgan +4's, a 61 and a 66.

 

Gotta start somewhere. Its tough having more than one project at a time.

 

Looks like a fun project! Not sure if its possible with an explorer but if you can keep the firewall and floor, then you can integrate the original a/c ect,makes it even funnier to try and make it all work.

 

It's definitely possible to use the Explorer firewall and floor-- just WWWAAAYYYY more work.

 

Agree with Mr. Shift, that is a lot of work to try and do. Always scratched my head a bit at the body-swap projects people have done where they try to meld modern vehicle flooring / bodywork into the classic stuff, I like Shift's approach of just dropping the body onto a frame a whole lot more.

There was a post on a F100 Facebook group I'm part of that showed their floor panels and firewall a new sheet metal that had bead-rolled in supports (along with the welded on under-side bracing). That's likely the route I'll be going for the '56, as even if I got new skins they'd have to be modified and reinforced anyways to make clearance for the Explorer transmission. It also means I get rid of the swiss cheese of holes for original equipment through-ports.

As for the A/C, I'll likely be using a Vintage Air Gen II kit, as it will work with the factory A/C compressor from the Explorer. I'd add to that Dakota Digital's automatic A/C control unit that's designed to integrate with the Gen II.

I plan on going the bucket-seat route (instead of bench) and, having access to a CNC router, will be fabricating a custom center console for the vehicle to house the stereo, shifter, cup holders, and house the electronics / electrical chassis for the vehicle.

 

But then it will give you a/c,use the harness and wiper motor, power windows,cruise if you use the column,its well worth it , cheaper,I'm a tight ***😆,check my post,I just converted a 52 f3 using a 05 Dakota that I sectioned the floor and firewall, all done in 7 months.

 

Definitely cheaper. Depends what you want to end up with and what your skill level is, I guess. Also, some of these 50's trucks don't have much of a stock floor left, so using the floor/firewall from the donor makes it more worth it.

 

This is a great forum to start looking around,theres lots of great builds,everybody has different ideas and outcomes, main thing is have fun doing it!!

 

Really glad to have the ’53 & ’56 F100 cabs and some other parts back from media blasting. Shop actually took care of delivery for us, will be getting some other parts (hoods, etc) for the F100’s and the Bronco roof back this coming week.

We will more than likely be selling off the ’53 as my brother’s decided he’s not interested in having it.

I’m excited to have the ’56 cab back, having all the rattle canned paint and other gunk off it shows how little damage / rust there actually is. Need to start scheming on getting the body off the donor Explorer, not being able to have friends over definitely will make that more difficult, but it’s still doable. Will likely be putting together an ‘initial parts’ order soon for things like door hinges and other core hardware so that I can throw it all together.

 

Good to see its still going. I think I had my explorer body off by myself in 1 day. 8 bolts. I used a big engine hoist and a regular car jack with some blocks.

 

Good to know, going to be an interesting project unto itself!

Actually wanted to ask, what, if anything, did you have to do to deal with the 'fuel shut-off' switch the Explorers have? Was that just removed from the harness or did you have to get that programmed out of the ECU?

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One of the things I've wanted to do on this project was flush door handles. The Kindig-It sets are cool but pricey. Asked around recently and was told about a company that makes reproduction 'Lincoln push button latches', but those wouldn't set as flush as I would like and are stylized. Did a bit more searching along those lines and found these DIY instructions that I may just follow. I'll likely make a few tweaks to customize it, but I dig the results.

 

I've always wonder when you get tags for a vehicle which has a chassis and body which does not match how do you list it and what year would you call it?

 

I kind of look at it as 'what is the final assembled vehicle being presented as?'

If I was going with the attitude of building a custom Explorer, you could make the argument that it should tagged and titled as a current Explorer. Think of something like those coach-building companies that do the custom pickup / utility trucks. Those may not even have the original cab, but they're still being presented as the modern vehicle.

For me, doing something like this is just buying modern equipment upgrades as a package deal for my 56 F100, it just happens to come wrapped up in a factory-built vehicle already. Also makes a lot of sense from a money standpoint - you figure most aftermarket chassis, which may not even be rolling setups with suspension and brakes, can go for upwards of $15 - 20k, and then you still have to sort out an engine and drivetrain. Not to mention I shudder to think how much one of those chassis fab companies would want to charge if you approached them with the idea of an all-wheel-drive build.

I'll put it this way, I've been (barely) resisting the urge to buy a project 60's Volvo P1800S that's for sale locally. If I got my hands on it, I'd be taking the engine and transmission I have from a wrecked Pontiac Solstice (was going to be for one of our Morgans, but plans changed), and likely the front and rear end assemblies from a Miata or similar smallish vehicle. All I'm doing is giving the Volvo some fresh equipment, it just happens to be sourced in large chucks from modern vehicles as opposed to aftermarket vendors.

 

I would have to agree . If you purchased an aftermarket frame and everything that goes with it you would have to insure it as a 56 so where you get your parts from should be irrelevant . Plus I have no doubt that law enforcement would prefer it as looking for a 2000? explorer would make it hard to find a 56 truck . JMHO