Gary Lewis Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 Making it into a bullnose is an attractive thought (pun intended), but no, the plan is just to bring it back to a nice looking solid OBS. And the plan is for it to return to year-round daily driver status. When I got into it today to drive it out of the garage an on the trailer my thought was "I miss this truck!" Maybe I should have started by shopping for a more solid starting point. And if the cab repair goes poorly I still might! Replace the cab, maybe even with a Bullnose, and keep the driveline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 What I HAVE to do is rust repair. I plan to start with the cab: above the windshield and the corners. I've never done body work before, so we'll see if that gives me a good cab or a pile of scrap metal. If that goes well I'll move on to cleaning up the chassis. Then the drive train. Right now I'm leaning toward a Cummins 12V and a Tremec 5-speed (TR-4050?). But we'll see about that. I keep bouncing between that and a 351W. Then front clip and finally bed. I'm wishing this will be a 2 year project. Realistically I think I should be happy if I get it done in 4 years. Crew cab and full bed is a lot of truck! Do you have space for the cab, bed and chassis? While piecemeal sounds great from the start, the reality is you end up working around things all the time and it ends up being 5x the project you wanted, budgeted and have time for. DAMHIK... With the chassis fully exposed you can get to all of it. Needle scale the inside corners, nooks and crannies. It's WAY easier to run brake and fuel lines. You can get to the rearmost spring hangers where they fit in the pocket. You can get to the radiator support horns. You can get to the cab mounts beneath your feet. You can tip up the bed and clear the debris out of the mount channels, then wax-oil them all the way across You can easily weld in cab corners and that brace at the back of the cab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Replace the cab, maybe even with a Bullnose, and keep the driveline? Overall the goal is to end up with a crew cab short box daily driver. If it turns out I don't have the skills to restore the cab the plan will be to find an easier way to the same end. So Bullnose or OBS will depend on what solid cab I can find. And I'll only try to go farther across that bridge if I get to it. Crew cab and full bed is a lot of truck! Do you have space for the cab, bed and chassis?.... It'll be tight, but I hope so! The entire truck won't fit in my garage, but hopefully I'll be able to get the parts I'm working on in there and bring the rest up to the cabin to wait their turn, because... While piecemeal sounds great from the start, the reality is you end up working around things all the time and it ends up being 5x the project you wanted, budgeted and have time for DAMHIK... With the chassis fully exposed you can get to all of it. Needle scale the inside corners, nooks and crannies. It's WAY easier to run brake and fuel lines. You can get to the rearmost spring hangers where they fit in the pocket. You can get to the radiator support horns. You can get to the cab mounts beneath your feet. You can tip up the bed and clear the debris out of the mount channels, then wax-oil them all the way across You can easily weld in cab corners and that brace at the back of the cab. ... I didn't go into the detail, but that's the plan. Remove the cab so I can fit it in the garage and restore it. Getting the cab off will involve removing the bed and at least most of the front clip, so pull the rest of the clip and the drive train so I can restore the chassis. Put the cab back on the chassis so I can fit the new engine/transmission in. (Yes, the cab may have to move once or twice in that process) Get the front clip fit around the engine, and get it restored. Restore or replace the bed. And that's why I BOUGHT the trailer rather than borrow a friend's. Lots of moving big parts back and forth from the cabin through that process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essmaker Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Replace the cab, maybe even with a Bullnose, and keep the driveline? Overall the goal is to end up with a crew cab short box daily driver. If it turns out I don't have the skills to restore the cab the plan will be to find an easier way to the same end. So Bullnose or OBS will depend on what solid cab I can find. And I'll only try to go farther across that bridge if I get to it. Crew cab and full bed is a lot of truck! Do you have space for the cab, bed and chassis?.... It'll be tight, but I hope so! The entire truck won't fit in my garage, but hopefully I'll be able to get the parts I'm working on in there and bring the rest up to the cabin to wait their turn, because... While piecemeal sounds great from the start, the reality is you end up working around things all the time and it ends up being 5x the project you wanted, budgeted and have time for DAMHIK... With the chassis fully exposed you can get to all of it. Needle scale the inside corners, nooks and crannies. It's WAY easier to run brake and fuel lines. You can get to the rearmost spring hangers where they fit in the pocket. You can get to the radiator support horns. You can get to the cab mounts beneath your feet. You can tip up the bed and clear the debris out of the mount channels, then wax-oil them all the way across You can easily weld in cab corners and that brace at the back of the cab. ... I didn't go into the detail, but that's the plan. Remove the cab so I can fit it in the garage and restore it. Getting the cab off will involve removing the bed and at least most of the front clip, so pull the rest of the clip and the drive train so I can restore the chassis. Put the cab back on the chassis so I can fit the new engine/transmission in. (Yes, the cab may have to move once or twice in that process) Get the front clip fit around the engine, and get it restored. Restore or replace the bed. And that's why I BOUGHT the trailer rather than borrow a friend's. Lots of moving big parts back and forth from the cabin through that process. No truck work today....just boat. Check out on the twin 454s before a trip. Love the sound of these monsters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 No truck work today....just boat. Check out on the twin 454s before a trip. Love the sound of these monsters Yes, those must make sweet sounds. I can only imagine what duals sound like. We sold our Sea Ray with the Mercruiser 377 in it, basically a Chevy 350 with the 400 crank. What the hotrodders call a 383 when it is bored .060 over. It was Chevy's answer to Mercruiser when they asked what they were going to do when Chevy discontinued the 454. At one point the Mercruiser site said of the 377: "Same power and more torque than a 454 HO carbureted engine. This torque monster delivers 429 ft-lbs of raw torque at 3800 RPM to launch even the heaviest boats with authority." But it had a little bit of lope at idle, which made the exhaust note cool. We took it to Lake Powell and idling back into some of the sheer-sided canyons it made an awesome sound! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelplate Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Yes, those must make sweet sounds. I can only imagine what duals sound like. We sold our Sea Ray with the Mercruiser 377 in it, basically a Chevy 350 with the 400 crank. What the hotrodders call a 383 when it is bored .060 over. It was Chevy's answer to Mercruiser when they asked what they were going to do when Chevy discontinued the 454. At one point the Mercruiser site said of the 377: "Same power and more torque than a 454 HO carbureted engine. This torque monster delivers 429 ft-lbs of raw torque at 3800 RPM to launch even the heaviest boats with authority." But it had a little bit of lope at idle, which made the exhaust note cool. We took it to Lake Powell and idling back into some of the sheer-sided canyons it made an awesome sound! I finished replacing the 500,000+ mile leaf springs on the Bronco with the ones I took off that 1991 F-250. The amount of lift that it added in the back was a little more than I thought, so the truck has a rake now. It gave it about 1.5" extra and I was expecting about 1 inch of lift. In this picture you can see the Bronco sitting on a hill and looking fairly level. During the test drive, I could definitely feel more of the road, but I expected that. Both the rake and the feel of the road are things I'm going to deal with for a while because I need to do a lot of towing lately. Eventually, I'll end up getting a new set of stock ones to get it all leveled out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpin Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 I finished replacing the 500,000+ mile leaf springs on the Bronco with the ones I took off that 1991 F-250. The amount of lift that it added in the back was a little more than I thought, so the truck has a rake now. It gave it about 1.5" extra and I was expecting about 1 inch of lift. In this picture you can see the Bronco sitting on a hill and looking fairly level. During the test drive, I could definitely feel more of the road, but I expected that. Both the rake and the feel of the road are things I'm going to deal with for a while because I need to do a lot of towing lately. Eventually, I'll end up getting a new set of stock ones to get it all leveled out. Looks good! I like the rake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 I finished replacing the 500,000+ mile leaf springs on the Bronco with the ones I took off that 1991 F-250. The amount of lift that it added in the back was a little more than I thought, so the truck has a rake now. It gave it about 1.5" extra and I was expecting about 1 inch of lift. In this picture you can see the Bronco sitting on a hill and looking fairly level. During the test drive, I could definitely feel more of the road, but I expected that. Both the rake and the feel of the road are things I'm going to deal with for a while because I need to do a lot of towing lately. Eventually, I'll end up getting a new set of stock ones to get it all leveled out. It does look good, that's for sure. But there is another way - put air bags on it. You could use your old, original springs and normally add just a bit of air to level it. Then when you are going to tow add more air. I have a pair on Big Blue and really like them. It was a pain getting them completely air tight but I did and learned a few things. Now when I tow I can make the truck level again with just a shot of air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 It does look good, that's for sure. But there is another way - put air bags on it. You could use your old, original springs and normally add just a bit of air to level it. Then when you are going to tow add more air. I have a pair on Big Blue and really like them. It was a pain getting them completely air tight but I did and learned a few things. Now when I tow I can make the truck level again with just a shot of air. I think Gary's on to something here. I know that I really dislike driving my truck without the 1,000 pounds I almost always have in the bed (and that's with a 133" WB!) But some people like driving CJ's. Pitching and bobbing over every crack in the road. I certainly don't want to come off as criticizing how anyone else chooses to roll, I just don't think I'd want springs that stiff in a 150 or a Bronco. Maybe highly arched softer springs. AKA suspension lift intended for a 150, and shocks to match, but then it wouldn't fill the role of dealing with an overweight trailer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 It does look good, that's for sure. But there is another way - put air bags on it. You could use your old, original springs and normally add just a bit of air to level it. Then when you are going to tow add more air. I have a pair on Big Blue and really like them. It was a pain getting them completely air tight but I did and learned a few things. Now when I tow I can make the truck level again with just a shot of air. I ran air bags in my '95 F-150 and really liked them. After I had down-sized from my '85 F-250HD to the F-150 I got a slide-in camper. If I'd've known I was getting the camper I'd've got another F-250. but to work with what I had I got the lightest slide-in camper I could find and put air bags on the truck. That set-up worked really well for quite a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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