Build Thread: '49 F321
 

I bought this in April 2010. Shortly after, I found this great Forum!
My wife Nicolle bugged me about this truck for a good 2 or 3 months. She found it and wanted me to look at it. I said, "We don't need anything like that. Too much money, too much time, and I get a bad case of OCD. You don't understand!" So for an old fishing boat and $200 dollars cash. It gets hauled to our house by a friend of the previous owner. No charge for the delivery. And found out that the previous owner went to school with Nicolle. He was the grandson of the true owner. Him and his Dad were going to do something with it.
And decided that their time was better spent fishing.

So it sat in the drive for maybe a couple weeks, while I was doing some research on the rebuilding of the flat six. I couldn't afford that so it's time to start leaning on the door of the darkside. MII front suspension? too expensive. Jag IFS?
$300 and a trip to the salvage yard.
I wanted it low and with modern day abilities like power steering/power brakes/etc.
So I started removing the 6 cylinder and tranny.
With alot of time spent on here asking millions of questions, I picked up my '79 JAG XJ6 IFS, A rear axle from a 2001 Ford Explorer( 8.8, 3:73 limited slip, disc brake unit.) and an AOD tranny from a '91 Ford Grand Marquis. Also bought the rear half of an '89 Dodge Dakota for the rear springs and hangers. I learned that worked, by reading here.

Jeff, Glad to see you start this thread. I look forward to your progress. This thread might take a while to get from this point to where you currently are.

Now let me get this straight, Nicolle convinced you to get it, she watches while you fix it all up......Now be careful, she will use her wifely charms (or threats) to get to drive it all the time. :)

Yeah Joe, no kidding...I sort of wish I left it hard to drive!}>

So I am going to try to fill in the blanks, but it will be tough doing it after the fact. But I will try.
I took the flat bed off the truck because it was home built and, to me, ugly.
I needed a bed and bought one from a guy here on the forum. I don't want to mention a name, but he is very knowledgeable about "widowmakers" ....
:-X06 BARK! BARK!

Good stuff Jeff. Cool to see the before pics. You were right about the bed... um... interesting. If you ever need any help with your build look me up!

I think youve got a good idea Jeff. After watching other build threads over time, Ive regretted not doing a step by step thread myself. There is so much stuff I didnt take pictures of, so its pretty much out of the question for me. Ive always admired your front end work, so Im looking forward to seeing more.

Hey Jeff,
I'm signed on - I like your resourceful approach!
I've got exactly the same rear Explorer axle & gears - It's working
nice for me. Now that AOD - I hope you can find some experienced AOD guys to help you with it. You are looking for that wise old guy sitting in the corner who can attach & set that cable correctly.

Good luck over there! It's looking good. Not sure what you are doing for ignition but solid state electronic ignition beats old school points/condenser as long as you are on the dark side anyway.

Ben in Austin

allright jeff you got too much time on yer hands to put up a build thread !! LOL !! now come on get all the other photos up and to date for the newbies here in so they can see where you are , and that a long bed can look damn cool too !!!!!!!!!!! got the engine out and apart yet ????? later i got the itch to go order some more parts to let sit around here and gather dust while i drive my time away ....................:-jammin

Hey Jeff that flat bed did't look so bad:D. I did see the battery box you fab up in the inner fender look real good ,great job on it looks like it was made for it. Keep up the good work . And keep this thread going you are way ahead of me. Buzzy:-X0A6

This got me thinking, you can locate all your threads like this and put them in this thread for easy access.

For all the guys/gals that aren't familiar with my project, I am running about 1 1/2 years late on this build thread. Bear with me and I will work on catching up.
May 2010: I started to remove and replace the the old Timken split axle(original to the F3) and install the 8.8 from an Explorer. Mounting it to the original springs could have worked, but being an F3 they were short and stiff. Also you can use the original Explorer spring pads on the original F3 springs. It puts the pinion angle up about 15 degrees, way too much. Unless maybe it's a 4x4, but not the case here. So I went to the salvage yard and found an '89 Dodge Dakota. Spring hangers and springs were just what seemed to look about right.

And here is some of the Explorer axle trials and tribulations.

In the end of dealing with the pinion angle, I had to fab plates for the front end of the springs and reverse flipped the rear shackles, to get the right pinion angle. I have no pictures of that at the moment apparently, and will get some on this post when time permits. But my pinion angle is somewhere between 3-5 degrees up. I can adjust, if needed, with taper shims when that time comes.

On to the JAG IFS. I sent a few questions to the JAG IFS users here. 48Steel,49Willard,Rhopper,Hillbillybob, if I left someone out, please accept my apologies. Also thanks to all who have answered my questions!
The Jag IFS can be soft mounted using the JAG hardware and some fabbed brackets or hard mounted/welded. I tried to set up for a soft mount and wanted it lower than what I was seeing. So I played with the thoughts of welding it to the frame. I did a bunch of research about this before doing it. used measurements acquired by 48Steel, to set it in the right place. after I was happy with what I saw, I prepared the frame for modification.

Then after doing the basic welding to the frame, I fabricated boxing plates out of the 1/4" steel plate, that were once the bedsides of the original homemade flatbed! I had to clean the rust and paint off, it was a pain, but it was free!
I made templates out of foamboard, bought at most department stores, works great!
A note I forgot, after I made my plates and welded them to the frame, the crossmember was welded to again. so there are 3 welds front to back.
1.Outside the frame 2. inside the frame where I cut out the lower flange and 3. a weld at the crossmember where the boxing plate goes across.
it's welded anywhere I could effectively weld.

Looking good Jeff. did you jag front end have trailing arms? I no see.Also is the Big C clamp staying.LOL Any way please don,t make me look bad with your progress I am really lagggging. I am soft mounting with a little notch level for mounting the crossmember. Great Job Jeff keep the pics coming. Buzzy:D

In these pics you can see my engine mounts that I fabricated. I tried an angular type engine mount and I didn't like the difficulty of trying to calc the right height, width, angle, etc. so I used a different route using the JAG engine mount
rubber biscuits or "crumpets" as someone called them!
The lowers are made out of that same 1/4" plate from the homemade bedsides.
the uppers are too, but wrapped with 3/16"x 3/4" flat bar. On the bottom side of the uppers, I welded (2/ea side) 3/16"x1/2" flat bar in , for stiffening. I was a little concerned about engine torque bending these. I still have some concern about that, but after seeing some of the skimpy aftermarket mounts...I shouldn't have to worry much. We shall see!

Okay, on to my shock mounts for the front. Again using some steel bar from the truck...the previous owner pulled a tractor to the field using this truck. the so-called hitch was a pair of flat bars. Each bar was 1/2"x 2" approx. 3' long.
attached to the back of the truck and front of the tractor with big pins and clips. I bet that tractor was all over the road! I used these bars to make the main structure of my shock mounts.
In the first picture look at the hitch area, the two bars are visible.
And a somewhat finished shockmount with strengtheners added. All welded to the frame.

Subscribing, love the work done so far, keep up the good work, and keep up the great pics.

It's funny when I see your username now! Buzzbox is the first thought!:-X04 George it is though!
I cut the arms off, not needed and in the way when welding it to the frame. And it looks nice too! Your advantage is adjustability, replacement not impossible and a bit more of a "Town and Country" ride!

Going to watch this.....thanks for the information.

Paul

A few more shots of my JAG IFS. And yes, my vertical welds are nasty and embarrassing. But I welded and then cleaned out and welded again.

I chose a 351W in the heat of the moment. I always thought the 351W and 302 were basically the same, dimensionally. Now I know that's not true! The 351W is wider and a little bit taller. Taller is no issue for the Bonus Built engine compartment. Wider presents an issue with the Jag steering shaft along the drivers side. But if you want it bad enough, it can be worked out. The biggest problem is the cost of those dang u-joints! They are proud of those little suckers! I wanted my engine centered left to right. You can offset it to the passenger side a bit, but I didn't want that. I went to the salvage yard and pulled steering u-joints from '80's and '90's Ford trucks and vans. Under the dash they come out pretty easy and are useable with 3/4" DD shaft. You have to machine some flats in the shaft and grind out a spot so the bolts can go through. If you look at the end of some truck steering column you can see how they are made and I just duplicated the Ford design. A little time consuming but cheap and effective. My first setup worked good enough to move it in and out of the garage, but I knew it had to change because it was binding up enough to bother me. and the middle joint was really close to the header. This is my first attempt.

My headers are just ceramicoat replacements for a Mustang. Bought them scratch and dent for a $100. There was one light dent on the passenger side front tube. The exhaust gases won't have enough time to see it so neither will I.

What steering column did you use?

One thing I learned about steering u-joints. The factory ford joints and aftermarket joints (3/4" DD) do not phase (line up) properly. I think that is done to keep you from using anything but ALL NEW u-joints. But that's just my conspiracy theory. I used 3/4" wooden dowel rod for my mock up. A little quick work on the bench grinder and it works great!

It is from a Bronco II, tilt column. I will be changing the color of it of course.
I spent $40 on the column. the internals are the same in thunderbirds and cougars, maybe others as well, just didn't look.
Internals meaning if you have something inside that broke, you don't have to look for a BroncoII.
I used the B II column because the tube diameter is the same as the original. 1 1/2" and it fits the old dash mount.
I had to cut the end off and welded a FREE bearing to the end. A local bearing shop I went to helped me find the right bearing.
I told him what it was for and he said "no charge"!

In the middle picture, you see the black bracket? it's the lower column bracket? I made it from a N.O.S. hitch for a 1975 Skidoo Snowmobile.
My name is Jeff and I suffer from Hoarding Disorders....LOL ! I did a little cut, grind, weld action, welded a 1 1/2" muffler clamp to it.
It will all be covered eventually.

This is the best Father's Day I guy like us could have!
Father's Day 2011
No Safetyglasses...I stopped everyone...and told them the story about pulling a wire from my brother's eye.
Wasn't long and I was by myself again!
But Nicolle made them come back...:-X04

Every once in awhile, i got to throw some sheetmetal back on just to see what is what. This is how the front end sits/looks with the F3 front fenders. I am going with F1 front fenders, but don't have them yet.

I would love to save this paper oil change sticker.

For what its worth, i love it when guys use stuff they have collected over the years to aid in their vehicle builds. Jeff have you ever checked out the rattle can rebuild on "the hamb"? Sounds right up your alley!

Hey Jeff,
I'll post up a pic of our steering linkage - It would make the
great pyramid builders jealous. I think I may have your steering contortions beat but let's see. I've got the same 351W fitting into the shoebox '48-'52 trucks.

I was amazed out how expensive all the aftermarket steering stuff
was... I couldn't swallow the Ididit $700 column - I went with some knockoff & I've been paying for it since. I like your Bronco II solution - I looked around at used steering columns on Ebay - they wanted even more for the reconditioned old ones.

You are coming along great. What's your plan for F1 fenders. I went with fiberglass finally & they are nice & not too costly. I think I would have been a year trying to get all that bondo fixed up - just wasn't worth it - I think I paid around $200 per fender.

Your boy looks to have shot up past you - I was doing pretty well with my 20 year old son Zack - then he kept growing into college - got me by a good 4 inches now. Nice family - I'd faint if my wife came out to work on the truck.

Ben in Austin

To save the oil change sticker try using a hair dryer or heat gun and a scraper underneath the sticker. Take your time and be careful. You can also take a high-resolution digital image of the sticker, crop it on your computer and print it out. It'll look practically the same.

Hey Jeff what is the final height of your front end with the Jag? How many inches from bottom of frame rail to ground? Also what size tires are you going to be running? Also your motor mounts look great! Looks like some beef to me. George

Great "do it yourself build"! You are making good progress, will be watching.....

It's sitting at 9" IIRC from the bottom right now, but not all the weight is on it yet. Tire size is 235/60/15, but I might use something different. And I hope the engine mounts are as strong as they look, because I like them!
More to come, just dealing with a motor issue right now...

Taking the cab off

Floor repair, not much though!

After the minor repairs, i coated the bottom with CHASSIS SAVER.
I will add a picture when i find one! Sorry..

I bounce around sometimes to see something different. So here is some rear fender repair. I don't have the best mig welder, but it does the job.