This is a 92 F150 that was my first vehicle. My dad has owned it for the majority of its life and gave it to me when I turned 16. I drove it around for a while then parked it and used it as my backup vehicle when my first jeeps would always break down on me. This F150 started out as a 2x4 long box, and was reliable as heck! The only major thing ever to go bad on it was the ECM and I replaced that and along with balljoints and tierod ends and a water pump the truck has 260,000 miles on it. My parents got to the point where they were tired of it sitting in the woods and told me I could go ahead and scrap it if I wanted to, but I felt to guilty doing it since it runs great still and it was my first vehicle.
So far this is the plan:
Keep the I-6 until it is all finished.
Dana 44 front, possibly a 60, but since I want to keep this cheap probably a 44. Not sure what to do for the rear axle, probably a 10.25 due to the speedsensor being on the dif and Im sure I can make it work with a 10.25 axle.
4 link rear
Radius arm front
Rear section of truck "truggied style cage tieing into a cage in the cab.
Find a 4x4 auto trans or manual trans and tcase out of a similar f150 and swap that in.
Here is a pic of it to get a good idea how much the wheelbase has changed, here is a pic with the only thing done to it is the box removed.
After the cut
New wheelbase
First we removed the doors. I think I'm going to leave it like this, I saved the mirrors and will figure out some way to mount them in case I ever drive it on the road.
A buddy who has helped me with it all so far built a dimple die for a 1" hole and did two sets of them on the hood, and on each front fender.
We cut the frame and I did a open butt joint to reattach the frame. I then welded it , ground the outside smooth, and made a fishplate for each side. The fishplate is a total of 18" long, it attaches the rear section of the frame with 3 grade 8 1/2" bolts and the front with 4 (I don't think I have them all drilled in this pic or installed), then there are 3 plug welds on each half of the fishplate, then the outside of the fishplate was welded to the frame. There is a brace that bolts to the inside front half of the reattached frame that runs to the first crossmember I built that will be the structure for the upper link arms for the rear axle. The braces are built out of 1.5x.120 dom tubing.
For the rear crossmember I went a little overkill on it, I should of went with 3/16"s wall but went with 1/4" and used 2x6x1/4" tube and welded that inside the frame channels, and took a piece of angle iron on both edges to better tie it into the frame. I then welded 3/4" dring tabs to it. We then braced that and the rear section of frame where the coil buckets will be with this tubing portion. It is made out of 1.5x.120 dom and will be used to mount the shocks also. Where it mounts to the frame for the coil buckets there is a fishplate there to strengthen up the frame a little bit and give a better area for it to mount to the tubing.
Next I need to remove the trans, and rear axle and leaf spring mounts, only reason they are still there is to keep it moveable to take to my buddies house to use his 220v welder becasue I only use my 110 miller for tacking because I don't feel that it gets warm enough to get suffiecient penetration for the critical stuff on here.
So far this is the plan:
Keep the I-6 until it is all finished.
Dana 44 front, possibly a 60, but since I want to keep this cheap probably a 44. Not sure what to do for the rear axle, probably a 10.25 due to the speedsensor being on the dif and Im sure I can make it work with a 10.25 axle.
4 link rear
Radius arm front
Rear section of truck "truggied style cage tieing into a cage in the cab.
Find a 4x4 auto trans or manual trans and tcase out of a similar f150 and swap that in.
Here is a pic of it to get a good idea how much the wheelbase has changed, here is a pic with the only thing done to it is the box removed.
After the cut
New wheelbase
First we removed the doors. I think I'm going to leave it like this, I saved the mirrors and will figure out some way to mount them in case I ever drive it on the road.
A buddy who has helped me with it all so far built a dimple die for a 1" hole and did two sets of them on the hood, and on each front fender.
We cut the frame and I did a open butt joint to reattach the frame. I then welded it , ground the outside smooth, and made a fishplate for each side. The fishplate is a total of 18" long, it attaches the rear section of the frame with 3 grade 8 1/2" bolts and the front with 4 (I don't think I have them all drilled in this pic or installed), then there are 3 plug welds on each half of the fishplate, then the outside of the fishplate was welded to the frame. There is a brace that bolts to the inside front half of the reattached frame that runs to the first crossmember I built that will be the structure for the upper link arms for the rear axle. The braces are built out of 1.5x.120 dom tubing.
For the rear crossmember I went a little overkill on it, I should of went with 3/16"s wall but went with 1/4" and used 2x6x1/4" tube and welded that inside the frame channels, and took a piece of angle iron on both edges to better tie it into the frame. I then welded 3/4" dring tabs to it. We then braced that and the rear section of frame where the coil buckets will be with this tubing portion. It is made out of 1.5x.120 dom and will be used to mount the shocks also. Where it mounts to the frame for the coil buckets there is a fishplate there to strengthen up the frame a little bit and give a better area for it to mount to the tubing.
Next I need to remove the trans, and rear axle and leaf spring mounts, only reason they are still there is to keep it moveable to take to my buddies house to use his 220v welder becasue I only use my 110 miller for tacking because I don't feel that it gets warm enough to get suffiecient penetration for the critical stuff on here.