what would you do?

[lemming]

Just tryin to get some opinions and advice...
My father in law has just givin my brother in law and myself his old work truck, it's a 97 f150, pretty much everything on the truck is crap (it was gonna cost him over $6000 for inspection). It has a 4.2? I think? which runs but not very well, auto tranny, independent front, 8.8 rear? I think?
Anyway, we plan on this being trail only (mostly rocks). A friend has a 460, 3 spd trany, t case that he says runs for $500. We also plan on doing most or all of the work ourselves.
So I just wanted to see what some of you more experienced wheelers/builders would do with a project like this (keep in mind the truck was free, and we're not gonna sell it for parts or scrap). Also, we'd like to do this as cheap as possible.
Thanks!

[tommywalton]

Hell yeah a fellow ford man.. You gotta be a ford man cause that 460 will fit about as easy as a 454 or a 440 for that matter. Is the truck 4 wheel drive? A 460 will work with a three speed but it will break eventually then you can go to a big spline ford toploader 4 speed. build it man it will be way cool!

[lemming]

yeah it's 4wd, we'd like to get rid of the front suspension setup though, you'd laugh your ass off if you saw the sketch I made the other day, Imagine; Chip Foose meets Napolean Dynamite. :laughing:

[fenderbmxer86]

Good thing your all the way on the east coast. :)

[lemming]

c'mon, noboby has any advice on
how to go abou this?

[sinkinitup]

Get rid of the IFS do SAS... that was the weakest point on mine. How much do you plan on lifting it? mine had only a 2 1/2in raise, Locked rear dana 60 and it went like hell. LWB?

[sinkinitup]

Get rid of the IFS do SAS... that was the weakest point on mine. How much do you plan on lifting it? mine had only a 2 1/2in raise, Locked rear dana 60 and it went like hell. LWB?

[lemming]

LWB? long wheel base? yeah it's got a full size bed. is it as easy as simply cutting some out of the middle and reattaching it? Or is there something I should make note of before doing that?

[Fordman500]

Hell yeah a fellow ford man.. You gotta be a ford man cause that 460 will fit about as easy as a 454 or a 440 for that matter. Is the truck 4 wheel drive? A 460 will work with a three speed but it will break eventually then you can go to a big spline ford toploader 4 speed. build it man it will be way cool!
Big spline top loader? Those are some money...

[sinkinitup]

Get rid of the IFS do SAS... that was the weakest point on mine. How much do you plan on lifting it? mine had only a 2 1/2in raise, Locked rear dana 60 and it went like hell. LWB?

I just kept mine LWB. It actually helped it out some mine was a ext cab. It put more SWB rigs to shame then you could imagine. I was suprised. If your doing a full on trail rig you don't need a bed:D

[lemming]

yeah. i think the first order of business is to remove the bed. about your truck; just wondering, other than hill climbs how is a long wheel base better on the trail? Because i was kinda set on making it shorter.

[Othr_Brother]

Stay with the long wheel base. I've had a heep at 92" and I now have a 4runner 105" and I can go places that my heep never would have gone.....and my heep was locked front and rear but the runner is only locked in the rear. I also know a guy who built an awesome rock crawler out of a very long 1 ton truck and that thing is pretty much unstoppable.