Spring is here!

Well spring is here officially, we have had Easter and some good April showers now it's time for flowers and sunny days and warm weather! so after taking stock of what we need for the truck parts wise, we found a interesting Junk yard in Delphos, Kansas full of old iron and a lot of old muscle.

This place had every thing from tractors to buses, we found a lot of old cars in this 20 acre patch of woods, there were piles of engines and transmissions discarded on the road into the yard as well as piles of rear ends and even lawnmowers  here and there we climbed and crawled and hiked all through out this wonderland of automotive trophy's all in various states of decay.

After finding several Ford trucks in the proper vintage we started hunting parts, we needed front fenders and a radiator support and inner fender apron as well as a grill and some bumpers.

We found a truck with a straight grill that looked good and a 67 that looked very similar to ours but it wasn't a custom cab

Over all I left the place feeling good having spent some time in and around cars from times gone past. It really motivated me to get back into our truck project after a too long winter, 

We recently got a compressor and a welder for my garage and some air tools to make this project come together quickly. soon we get back to work and finish the front end swap then we can start the tear down on the rear end. 

Well we're Past the point of no return....

After some thought about how to go about tearing into the front end to remove the unwanted suspension components we decided to avoid a blow torch as neither Jay or I know much how to run one and we didn't want to damage the frame whilst cutting away the front saddle and spring perches, so we invested in some cut off and grinding wheels for my 4.5 inch angle grinder and set to work.

Most of the suspension is held in by big rivets, so we took to grinding these off and banging away with a small sledge hammer to loosen the pins holding the spring perches and rear I beam mounts in place.

Here you can see the antiquated Front drum brake hubs and I beam suspension dropped on the garage floor.

As you can see this process is quite messy and dirty, and after some intense labor we got the spring perches removed from the frame, next came the rear I beam mounts which are attached with 4 pins to the frame we spent a lot of time grinding away and  banging with the sledge hammer to remove these mounts.

Here is the Crown Victoria front cross member with Rack and Pinion steering and disc brakes the rack is not hooked up to the front end as this part was pulled separate from the front end before the whole cross member was pulled. 

Here is a quick shot of the IRS out of a Lincoln Mark 8 that we will be installing using Dave Held's IRS kit from Team 321 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, you can find out more about this kit at http://team321.com/truckirs/truckirs.html

Disassemble the front in preparation for a new suspension

After getting the truck home and into the garage we decided on a plan of action. Originally we were going to upgrade the Manual steering and non power brakes to power disc brakes and power steering from a 78 or 79 F150.

Wanting to lower the truck a bit and give it a more aggressive stance we decided that some drop I beams were in order but after pricing what a donor truck and some drop I beams would cost we decided on a more radical approach.

While reading the various Ford forums we came across a few trucks with a Crown Victoria front suspension, this set up is both independent and very economical including a power rack and pinion and disc brakes, most importantly the whole setup is practically bolt on.

The Crown Vic front assembly is a easy upgrade and it provides the power steering and brakes we wanted as well as lowering the front end about 4-5 inches. But first we needed to tear the old beast down and get her ready for her front end makeover so here are some pictures of the front end tear down.

"Lets get a truck!"

A few years ago I was talking with a friend about my passion for owning a classic truck, we tossed some ideas around and started searching Craigslist, Nextech classifieds, and eBay for a truck in decent enough shape to rebuild. Anyone who's lived in the Midwest knows how hard to find a rust free truck can be, so we searched not only online but every where we went around the county roads and such but all we could find was dilapidated rusted out heaps.

Not letting it slow us down we expanded our search to the states surrounding Kansas, looking for the right truck. this process got harder as we found that the right truck also had to be a fairly inexpensive one as our budget was not large, who's is? it seems all the really nice trucks, like the daily drivers and such were priced astronomically high, and the rest were farm trucks, mostly beaten up and mildly rusty, and since we did not want to travel more than 500 miles in any direction to find our truck the search tapered off, with one or two trucks every six months coming up on our radar.

Time passed as it always does and a few more smaller projects occupied my time, I built a lap steel guitar from scratch, and restored a custom tricycle, but the ford truck itch never really went away, Id be driving down the road and see one and say to my wife hey look there's a 68 and she would look at me and sigh, then we'd drive on and I'd shake my head but the idea of a classic ford truck stuck in my mind like a fox tail and as it pushed its way in to my brain I kept thinking what if I could.... Then I found it the Truck we had been looking for, I talked to my buddy and we set out to see what would soon become our new truck. a 1967 F100

All in all she  is in really great shape, with minor body cancer in the front fenders, and a tad bit on the drivers door, the cab mounts looked good and the floor wasn't rotted out and the best part was the price, cheap.


We got some gas ,ether, a new battery and an air bubble, then we aired up the one tire that was flat and poured some gas and gas additive to the tank and in just short amount of time we got her started, and idling. The 352 Big Block FE motor was alive and running, we paid the man and signed the title and drove her out of his back field and out onto Highway 36, since it was running a straight pipe to a  rusted out glass pack about 3 feet behind the engine it was loud, so we decided to take some of the old dirt roads that go between Mankato and Jewell, after bouncing down the hill and running back out to Highway 14, I decided to open her up and push her a little. My buddy Jay was following close behind me but not for long I floored it and ran it through the three on the tree that's when I noticed the Speedometer wasn't working, not wanting to get a ticket on my first ride I slowed down and coasted for a while, till Jay caught back up with me then we moseyed in to Jewell and to my garage.