when your done i'll drop my truck off

 

EXACTLY!!! Now it looks like a 3/4 scale truck!

 

Werd! shortening the front clip would be like cutting a piece out of the center of a traffic cone and trying to fit the top back onto the bottom and have it all line up. Can be done, but not without a lot of tedious work. Not to mention the radiator ending up with the engine waterpump sticking thru it and having to move the front suspension and steering back...

 

Since the software program is PhotoShop, why are you calling it PhotoChopping? Shouldn't it be PhotoShopping? Just Curious......

 

Doing the photo chopping with photo shop. The images are manipulated by chopping them using cut and paste with a little tweak here and there.

AX: As far as the manipulation from the side view it was really quite simple just took 4-6" out of the back of the hood in front of the cowl and took the 4-6" out of the back portion of the front fender. The box chop was approximately 6-8" out of the panel between the front stake pocket and the rear fender.

As for the chassis, a split in the middle Z cut with fish plate leaving the front clip and motor mounts in place would require that the engine come into the cab a little in order to maintain spacing for the radiator.

As you said tho...a heck of a lot of work......

 

There is a fellow down the road from me with a 53 F100 that took approx 5 inche out of the front of his fenders and hood and shortened the box a bit, also chopped the top about 3 inches. looks really good. He now calls it a F50.

Chuck

 

i can see one potential problem, if you cut it too much, youll have to look at a v6, because there wont be enough room for anything bigger

 

The other space saving option would be to use an electric fan set up on the front of the rad in a blow configuration rather than inside the engine bay sucking air in. This would likely chave off an additional 3-4 inches minimum.

 

The side view isn't where the problem comes in, it's from the top view. The hood is tapered as are the edges of the fenders, When you cut out a section the tapers no longer will line up, and will require major surgery to realign. To picture the problem, make a simple paper model of the top view. draw two equal sized rectangles end to end to represent the cab and the front clip. Now draw two lines from the corners of cab end of the front clip rectangle to the center of the far end to make a triangle shape. This represents the hood. Now cut across the front clip rectangle any where you'd like, removing a strip of paper representing the shortened section. Move the front portion back to the rear portion. Now go ahead and do whatever cutting and pasting you need to to get a smooth but shorter triangle back in the center and the outside of the rectangle stay straight at the same time. Not anywhere near as easy as the side view is it?

 

The easiest place to cut is back at the attachment to the cab. There is no taper at that point, and you would probably want to make a forward tilting hood/fender assembly anyway. There is quite a bit of room to move the radiator forward. The stock radiator can be mounted in front of the radiator support, and if a modified radiator support is used, you can get a good 6 inches. But the stock radiator is quite a ways from the engine and the fan has a large spacer as I remember, so I'm pretty sure that with a stainless steel fan which is flatter than the stock fan, and with shorter spacers, you can get 2" there. I do think that there is little problem with 5 inches. A tilt hood would be pretty cool as well......

I have been caught up in this, but it is something I would never do. In fact, what I would love to do would be to make a club cab out of a '56 small window cab so it would be as comfortable as my '01 Silverado. It is nice to be able to put all your luggage and shopping bags, etc in the back. Of course, the gas tank is gone from the cab, but I have to use a big toolbox in the flatbed against the cab and below the window as well as two toolboxes (smaller sustom ones) along each side of the flatbed to hold skiis,fishing poles, tow chain, emergency air compressor, jack, tools, etc.
The '56 is still an act in progress, but it will be relatively quiet, and the gas mileage is close to what the Silverado gets (20 mpg) at 18.7 so far. It is not as aerodynamic as the Silverado and that mileage is at 65. So at least, I have a fairly practical truck to drive to Reno (200 miles) and buy enough stuff for two months plus construction materials. I still do not have the gas tank that I want (A round saddle tank 35-45 gallons) and I don't have the chrome stacks or the turbo mufflers, and the fuel injection works great but I haven't fabricated an air cleaner yet.

Regards,

Alan

 

If you cut several inches off the rear of the hood would it not be too narrow for the cowl? I don't have an F1 so I am speculating based on the F100 hood tapering all the way to the cowl that the F1 does something similar?

 

You would have to widen the hood a bit, but there is very little taper back at the base of the cowl, and trimming 5" that far back would require very little widening. You would have to section the fenders, but there is no taper there.

I am just saying that taking the metal out of the back end is a lot easier than cutting out of the area behind the grille.

 

Like the one I photo chopped for Terry?



Doing any major body mods other than patching existing will require major work. Heck just widening my front fenders 4" was a serious PITA that I would not want to do again.....unless it was started and finished by me in my case the PO started it, I tried to repair as best as I could and then I had a body man finish them...for this experience I gained a few more grey hairs and spent a pile of $$.

However, I am a firm believer in the motto "measure twice cut once....and then cut again to make it perfect". Anything is possible with the right combination of money, patience and intestinal fortitude.....in the correct proportions of course. Sure it would be a lot of work but if you take the time to lay it out a multitude of ways to minimize the distortion it could be done..Just my .02C

 

Yeah, that's what I would like to do. Just imagine it with a 9 foot flatbed and much bigger wheels, all 16' with 265-75 truck tires, 4WD and painted silver with blue trim. I will have to fire up photoshop and chop around.

Alan