I have taken the plunge. In my quest for power steering and power disc up front, I read through a lot of current and archived posts. I have to give a lot of credit to this project to Fordboypeep and several archived responses he provided on this subject.

I have a 66 Custom Cab with a 300 and 3 on the tree. My donor truck is a 1979 with a 351 Cleveland and C4 auto trans. Below are some pictures. It is hot here and getting the cab off today was the final step needed to take the frame inside and work in the shade.

Don't know why but I seem to always start a new project with the back brakes and work my way forward.




Hello beutiful! I plan to have the C4 rebuilt and will go through the engine and see what I have and what needs to be changed.


You can see old blue eagerly waiting for her new home, lol.


Had to throw in a pic of my shop. We moved here the first of april and I love the new space.


Will update as the progress takes place.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics and info. Keep us posted as to your progress.

 

Some great pics thanks for sharing

 

I am glad to see you doing the frame swap I am very interested to know how it works for you. I thought about doing it myself. But by the time I thought about it I was so far into mine it would have been to costly to change course. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Oh Good looking shop, we should all have it so good.

Bill T.

 

Did the same swap a few months ago. See this post https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...-79-frame.html and pictures in my gallery for some info on the positioning of the bed to address the 3" or so difference in frame length.

Nice shop. Get it inside and fire up the fan.

Chris

 

Thanks for the pics 66sprint. I had that beutiful wrap around bumper on mine also. Think my gallery shows the short term solution. Friend with a cutoff wheel removed the excess so it does not look as bad. I plan to go with a roll pan in the future. The 1979 came with a 2 inch receiver hitch so I will still be able to use it as a truck. Just have to be careful backing it up for that hookup, lol.

later

 

Its been a while since my last post. I keep buying a few parts here and a few parts there. I plan to go with all new brakes since its just so cheap to buy brake components for the 1979. Tomorrow I will be pulling the third member. Plan to take out the 2.75 gears and replace the whole thing with a posi unit or at the least go with 4.11 gears. Pulled the trigger tonight and ordered drop beams and drop shackles. I plan to get everything on the frame upgraded before I even think about swapping over the body.

I have to give credit to the speed channel and the pinks all out marathon for getting me off my rear. Stupid show just makes you want to burn some tires.

 

Been off here a while and missed this one. NICE SHOP!! And the swap thing really is cool. Wish OI could go that route. No room for it here.

 

Well its an old thread from this summer I resurected. You know what they say about best laid plans. Today I did put my time in, but as usual it was focused on something else. I finished cleaning 30+ years of rust, oil, and dirt off all my engine mounting brackets and pullies. Found my alternator bracket was actually cracked and needed to be welded. Got all of them prepped as good as I want them and will try to hit them with some gloss black engine paint tomorrow. My harmonic balancer was found to be cracked once it was cleaned off. Got a new one on the way. Bought some new brake calipers for the front end and hit them with some ford blue caliper paint. They sure look sharp. Hit the new water pump with gloss black. Still had time to pop a deer in the back yard today also, ha ha.

 

Send me some back strap LOL!! ok , I'll settle for hind jerky

 

LOL, got a bag of jerky actually sitting in front of me. When it comes time to move the metal from the old frame to the new frame, come on over and I'll pay you in jerky and deer sticks, ha ha.

I call this the rattle can paint shop:



Blue front calipers. Gonna be hard to return if I got the wrong ones!


This poor engine lift in the picture has done way more than it was ever intended to do. From a post I remember a long time ago, I got the bright idea to weld a larger piece of pipe on the end of the current pipe. Gave me enough reach to remove the front clip, cab, and bed from the donor truck. I can say being a big ole boy can be handy when the engine lift gets a mind of its own, lol. I just didn't have the right scrap around, but I would recommend a widows peak welded on top just to be safe. I got lucky and took a chance without one.

 

Is there a parking space between the chassis and the sheetmetal? I see the 2 hour limit parking sign and bet the sheetmetal is over extended, and could be up for fine.



John

 

LOL, yep that brown 79 sheet metal was fined and towed off by a new owner. Made $300 back on my original purchase for that metal.

 

Well I feel I've made enough progress to write another entry.

I have the I beams, front springs, and radius arms removed. I have the dream beams waiting for a new home. I sent off the radius arm and spindles to be sand blasted and powder coated the same color as the drop beams. I have the dust covers on the front brakes being powder coated ford blue. The rear backing plates are being powder coated black I think. I plan to purchase a new set of front springs. I have the axel removed and will drop it off to be powder coated black(got a 4.11 limited slip rearend on its way). While tearing into the front end I found out the drivers side radius arm bracket was loose(not something you can really tell when everything is hooked up). I have new polyuerathane radius arm bushings, new king pins with brass fittings from Moog, new rotors, calipers, rubber lines, and wheel bearings are waiting to go. The shop is starting to look like a parts warehouse. I still have the orignial 351C that came with the 1979 truck, however since I was going to do so much work on it, I also bought a rebuilt 1970 351c with 4v heads and Offy 360 intake. Premium gas here I come. I have a new water pump, high flow fuel pump, came with new oil pump, and braded lines to plumb the holley 600cfm carb. I'm reusing the old carb for this project. Gotta cut some corners.

****Helpful hint #1 The bolt on the 79 frame going from the radius arm up through the i-beam and holding down the spring retainer cup is a 1 1/8 inch bolt. You must take the nut holding the spring cup off first. There is another hidden nut underneat the spring cup.

Since I am going to place my sheet metal on a 79 frame there is a wheel base issue. Some suggest shortening the wheel base, while others cheat and move the bed back to compensate some and place the wheels in the correct location in relation to the wheel well openings. There is enough wiggle room to go ahead and move the axel forward so this is the option I went with. Holey Hell !!!! ford never intended for those rivets to come out. For those interested Just remove 1. Then think about it since you have 29 more to go to move the axel forward. Oh well that part is behing me. I cannot suggest a best way to remove these rivets. I tried cutting the head off with the torch, but didn't like the result. Resorted to my 7" monster angle grinder. Then I got a punch and the BFH. You really need to spend the money on the punch with the big protective handle. Guess how I know? The first measurement I made is the cross member verticle rivet. That is as far as I got today. I have a couple new 1/2 drill bits to start doing their job tomorrow. I have an old machine shop hand drill that turns at a moderate speed that should just do the trick for this type of work. My poor drill press is still on my trailer from the move, but will need to come inside tomorrow to drill the new holes for the front shackle mount in order to move it up two inches.

****Helpful Hint #2 Just spend the money and buy a shortbed so you don't have to worry about wheel base changes in later year models, lol. Better yet, just talk the wife into letting you buy one that already done.

Still kicking around the idea of having the entire frame powder coated, instead of blasted and painted.

 

Do you have any pictures of the progress you have made on your frame swap? I for one would like to see them.

Jeff