lookig into putting my '51 f-1 on a 4 door explorer frame. want the swamp buggy look. not worried about fabbing mounting brackets - just if it will work dimensionally.

 

as we all know i put my ol' 55 on a 74 ford 1/2 ton frame . i shortened it to the appropriate wheel base when i cut the s curve mid section out of it , and put straight frame rails in there place and it would have been fine had it not been for that unfortunate incident ...............................

 

Please enlighten us,,,did it not work

 

Thought I'd just add another view so you could see the front cab mount and running board brackets

 

I'm using a '99 Explorer rolling chassis for my '53. I realize that the '51 probably has some different dimensions but it should be close. Because of issues with rust in my cab, I decided to use the Explorer floor pan and firewall which I am going to graft into my cab. Theren is another member here that has done this with a 2WD explorer chassis. I believe his user name is houghda . It turned out pretty nice.

Later Man...

 

i read his thread about his truck, my truck was a marine corp truck and since i can get the explorer for $400 and it runs i thought i would make a 4x4 51 , nice 15" rims rapped in mud tires and a gorgeous flat od green . the welding and fabbing arent issues - i have friends that fab for cranes- and not expensive. but a motor and wiring etc. cost so i thought i would use what i got. and the donor comes with a v-8

 

no , panel it worked out great , even though people said the suspension track width was too wide , nope it fit under the front fenders and the bed was a cut down 9 foot express which are wider and left me with enough room under it for 14 inches of rubber without tubs or frame mods !!!! my wife got in a big d-mn hurry to have it moved out to my unks , and it was mocked up with the fe in it etc. and the body on it for some measurement s and other things , but no , not one crossmember in it . the front frame horns were just sitting in where we stabbed 'em in the 74 frame tacked in , and the wrecker picked it up got around the corner , the front frame horns broke out damaged some things and the frame got twisted !!!!!!!!!!!!! lets just say i was heart broken and oh so f---in' mad for a long time , pardon the language . that's pretty much when i gave up on it .

 

Yikes, that was an incident. There is no way of getting it back the way it was, if not, a real shame. There is so many options and ideas out there but I was thinking of grafting the front of another chev c10 to the back of a spare 56 f100 frame I have for a pickup, the frames are the same width.Think it would be similar to what you were doing.

 

kinda , sorta . you'd have obviously an a arm suspension where as mine had twin i beams , as ford calls 'em . was wanting more modern , but from a distance looked like a straight axle . there's a couple of guys on here swapped in the front suspension from a 67-72 as they are for sure the right width , into their half tons successfully . as of now i dont have the time the idea's or energy to try another but , as soon as i figure the 53 is as close to done as it's gonna get well....................... still a lot of these trucks out there and if i sit and think , and have the time i can come up with some crazy stuff ..........

 

heres some pics of it before it got trashed , just before actually 56 panel . it after this got put on a frame i had with a monte carlo clip and i lost interest as i said .

 

here it is on the other frame...........this time i was gonna put a 351 w init , but like i said just lost interest as i had worked pretty hard to get it where it was and have a cool daily ride i hoped soon after ..........

 

So did you just scrap the frame or the whole project, do you have title to the cab and frame, curious. I've got two 56 cabs and only title to one the other will be experimental bound, chop section maybe stretch kind of stuff.

 

Remember that buying a title or vin plates for a truck is illegal so any posts on FTE with this in them will have to be removed and infraction points will result.

 

Not if they get an assembled vehicle title for it. Or don't they have that in Canada???

 

AFAIK, They don't in MN. They have a reconstruction title, which is a new title issued after pics, drivetrain, and other details are submitted...typical of a street rod. But no existing title can be used for anything but the vehicle it was titled for. My first '48 f1 had this problem. Anyway, trying not to get too off topic.