might as well start a build thread

mavereq · Feb 17, 2010

this thread won't be moving nearly as fast as some others, but i have the bare frame in the garage and have been grinding away. i don't have a lot of free time since i'm active duty and spend most of my spare time fighting, but i'm really enjoying the fabrication so far.

here's my little two-car garage that i'm doing all the work in. it gets cramped fast.

here's a few shots of the radius arms i just finished up today. i cut down some old radius arms and used 2x3 rectangle tubing. i welded johnny joints on the ends.

i just upgraded to contributor status so hopefully there's no problem with these pics showing. i'm putting them in my gallery so if they don't show up here then you can see my gallery here

i have two sets of full width axles and i'm not sure which ones i'm going to use. one set is from a 78-79 w/ cast wedges and the other is a 72-77 w/ welded wedges. i'm leaning towards using the cast wedges on this one so i can hold onto the other for a 3 link i've been brainstorming for a future build.

right now the machine work is being done on my 408 stroker. i have afr 185's hydraulic roller cam, and holley ta carb for it. i picked up two np435's which turned out to be wise because the first one had the 31 spline output shaft and the gears were mangled. i have 4.5" deaver coil and wh leaf springs and a 1" bodylift.

i'm really only focusing on the frame right now. once that's done i'll look at tackling the floorboards and other sheetmetal.

Explorer · Feb 17, 2010

Subscribing. Want to see that engine when you get it back. Long way from original plans.

mavereq · Feb 17, 2010

Explorer said:
Subscribing. Want to see that engine when you get it back. Long way from original plans.

yeah, it's a loooong way from the original plan. this isn't the six cylinder frame tho. i picked this frame up from bajafresh in nashville and trailered it back home. my tub is still sitting on the other frame right now.

Russ · Feb 18, 2010

Nice arms. I look forward to watching this build.

stinky · Feb 18, 2010

Looking forward to watching your build and THANK YOU for defending our country

Stinky

mavereq · Feb 18, 2010

i didn't get much done today other than stripping the hp d44 and taking the housing to the sandblaster. i have weigh-ins tomorrow night and an mma fight saturday night so i'm trying to avoid any garage accidents. i haven't had any sodium in a week so i get vertigo really easy.

i'll get back to it on sunday as long as i'm not too beat up. the next step is to mock up a dummy axle with the radius arms so i can weld up the frame mounts for the johnny joints. baby steps.....

mavereq · Feb 18, 2010

stinky said:
Looking forward to watching your build and THANK YOU for defending our country

Stinky

you're very welcome. i love what i do.

sprdv1 · Feb 19, 2010

Good luck w/the build, look forward to the progress

mavereq · Feb 19, 2010

here's a shot of the driver's side coil bucket that i'll be cutting off shortly. i got a new set from duff because they weren't much more than the stockers from jbg and they look beefier.

also in the pic is the frame reinforcement for the 4x4x2 box that i have yet to acquire.

mrw · Feb 19, 2010

mavereq said:
... the next step is to mock up a dummy axle with the radius arms so i can weld up the frame mounts for the johnny joints. baby steps.....

like to see those pictures.

mavereq · Feb 19, 2010

i'll get some pics up. the axle housing is being sandblasted and won't be ready until monday afternoon to i think i'll just use some pvc pipe and rig up some plumbobs with the frame flipped upside down.

mavereq · Feb 22, 2010

well, i got a little work done today. i slept in this morning and it felt gooood. i won my fight saturday night so i thought i'd treat myself. anyways, i did a crude job of mockup up my front suspension today and got the brackets welded to the frame. my welder quit feeding wire so i have to open it up and see what happened. i think the trigger mechanism went bad. it happened once before. maybe i shouldn't buy welding equipment at lowe's. anyways, here's the pic of the ghetto suspension mockup:

it's pretty warm tonight so i think i'll pull a late night cutting the old coil buckets off so i'm ready to weld the new ones on as soon as my welder is back up.

cody72sport · Feb 22, 2010

show us more of those radius arms when you have them mounted

mavereq · Feb 22, 2010

will do. i cut some old ones down short and built them out of 2x3 rectangular tubing. it's the first set i've built so there are already some things i wish i had done differently. i don't have a buttload of money into them so i might build another set for this just for practice.

mavereq · Feb 23, 2010

i got a little bit of work done today. i cut the coil buckets off and found 40 years of crap behind them. the factory bucket has a bend and is welded to the bottom of the frame so i initially cut the bracket to leave the bottom portion so it could be welded to the new bucket and strengthen it a bit. after seeing what was behind the portion i cut off i decided to cut the bottoms off so i can clean it, prime it, and weld a new plate on the bottom.

i'm in awe of how crappy ford welded frames back in the day.

mavereq · Feb 23, 2010

i got a few parts in from the ups man today. he dropped off (cussing at me the whole time) my 4.10 gears for both axles and one of my leave springs. funny how they both didn't show up at the same time. i also got in my f250 shock towers but i'm thinking about making a shock hoop instead. we'll see how motivated i am once my vacation is over.

my ups man could pass for woody harrelson's brother.

mavereq · Feb 23, 2010

i'm glad i decided to remove the bottoms of the coil buckets. there is a lot of rust underneath:

i did some grinding/stripping on one side and decided to call it a night. i'm gonna just go ahead and take the frame to the sandblaster tomorrow and drop it off. i'm getting tired of working on the frame when it's this dirty.

mavereq · Feb 26, 2010

i haven't been too productive the past few days. i got the frame sandblasted and have grinded down some of the ugly factory welds in anticipation of my welder being fixed. i put an ohm meter on the cable to make sure it wasn't the trigger and then took it to the shop that covers lincoln's warranty. they are supposed to have it fixed on wednesday.

i picked up some flexible chimney cleaner rods and used rust converter and towels to clean the inside of the frame as much as possible. the sandblaster did a pretty good job of getting up in side the frame but i still managed to get some more gunk out, and hopefully any rust is now being turned into something else.

the plan is to have all the grinding done and all the pieces cut so that i can get the frame completely welded up next weekend. once that's done i'll get the axles/suspension underneath and start working on the steering and the rest of the drivetrain.

mavereq · May 2, 2010

i finally got back to getting a little more work done on my frame today. ive had a couple of fights and a few road trips lately so i haven't gotten as much done as i'd like. i decided to go with a 5-link front suspension setup instead of the radius arms. i have all the brackets tacked into place and now just need to wait on the dom and the rest of the links from ballistic fab so i can get everything setup. the engine is together but hasn't been fired up yet. i need to get the accessories mounted and get it on the dyno. the np435 and dana 20 are rebuilt and ready to go. it's sitting on 4.5" deaver coils.

you can see in the pics that the body mounts are going to get in the way of the upper arms. the plan is to make new body mounts out of 2x3 tubing that sit on dop of the frame so they dont need the gussets that far out. that'll give me 2" of body lift so this thing is gonna be sitting up there. i might need to rethink my choice of gears if i end up putting 37's on.

Explorer · May 3, 2010

Looks like a quality build. From talking with you, I expected no less. Keep the pic's coming. Still interested in how the engine dyno's out.

might as well start a build thread

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Jr. Member

New Member

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

REBEL

Bronco Guru

Full Member

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Sr. Member

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Bronco Guru

Attachments

Bronco Guru

Similar threads