73's Build Thread...

[73 ford guy]

Alright guys been wanting to do this for awhile now but i've just never been considered finished ( like it ever is) or close enough to do so. Over the past 5 years I have ALOT of pics so this is going to take awhile. So anyways here we go


Trucks life started as a bone stock 1973 ford pickup that sat for about 20 years that I came across from a friend of the family that had a tenant who owned it and he needed it gone. I've always loved these year trucks as me and my bro built one when we were in high school and I needed my own. It wasn't until years later I finally found a good starter project.
I got the truck for $450 and it was a red cab and clip with a brown box. The body was in fairly decent shape but needed everything!! I don't have any pics from when it was dragged from the woods unfortunately.
After a rattle can paint job,a set of semi decent 42's and a lift set up I had awaiting the day of when I actually got a truck here is the first pics...

[73 ford guy]

First few pics here are actual real pics that I again took a pic of with my i phone ,which is what I use for all pics..

Next I cleaned up the interior and freshened up the motor which was a bone stock 390 that I swapped in from the burnt out 302 that was in there.

[fatdan460]

subscribed for the fail within

[73 ford guy]

Specs so far:STOCK
16 spline d60 rear
Closed knuckle d44 front
Manual steering
...Nothing special

[73 ford guy]

I needed better brakes and steering so the first to go was the drum 44 up front. I swapped in a disc d44 and swapped out the manual steering gearbox for a 2wd unit that was bolted to the inside of the frame with a 3/8 plate and new steering shaft to connect.
Steering was pretty much still just scary with a block under the driver side steering arm and the bolts constantly backing off loose. Yikes
Needed a change after having white knuckles driving on edge down the street never fully comfortable..

Dana 44's are junk anyways and I knew it was a waste to put any $ into .
Me and my bro managed to snap his in half around this same time jumping it offroad


Well I guess I got lucky and my timing was right cause I found this..



In goes the d60!
Broke my thumb in a street fight drunk downtown one Saturday nite and I was off work for a couple weeks. By the way I'm a welder/ fabricator in a structural steel shop at this point now.
I had some time off so I called around wrecking yards looking fir random parts I never had time to get cause I was busy with work and I just randomly threw out out there on the phone asking if they had any 70's d60 front axles. Buddy told me he got one in 2 days ago and I was there in 1/2 hour. I managed to get it for $500 from a camperspecial with 3:54's. The axle is a 79 kingpin d60.
First upgrade I called up Northwest Fab and ordered a crossover kit. Nwf is only about a 2 hour drive away so I'm lucky to get shipping for dirt cheap

[73 ford guy]

Steering was soo much better and I now had some confidence in the strength in the axle for wheeling or just everyday stuff. I swapped out the gears to 4:10's with a brand new ring and pinion to match the rear ratio. Rear diff was a stock posi and front was open for awhile. I eventually swapped the rear diff to a powr lok which was a nice posi unit.
My truck was finally starting to get somewhere so I needed some front traction. My next purchase was a Detroit for the front but still with stock inner axles.
Now that my truck was more capable I needed a roll cage for some protection..

[73 ford guy]

I got some tube from work and bent up a couple door posts and made a top hoop..




The top hoop was made with elbows with bevel for good pen on welds then corner gussets for extra strength. Posts to top hoop where a bolted connection as I wanted it to be removeable for any reason but mainly if I wanted to swap it into a new cab



I tapped some holes to mount the center visor holder for the driver side only as it would now only fit one side as it was now too narrow but who cares about the passenger right??

[DIESEL DAVE]

Originally Posted by 73 ford guy

My buddy did the same at Oregon mud fest 2006! It was awesome! lol

[73 ford guy]

I slapped some cage wrap on it and called er good

[73 ford guy]

Originally Posted by DIESEL DAVE

My buddy did the same at Oregon mud fest 2006! It was awesome! lol

Yeah it was pretty sweet.. Lol
I like to weld around the pot to tubes now on my axles for extra insurance . Maybe a front truss one day I even have a cardboard template in my tool box at work for one.

[Redbeast9]

Keep going, want to see how this turns out. Off to a good start!

[73 ford guy]

Everybody loves the carnage so here's a couple more...




And a broken front d shaft driving over this



You can see the excavator giving a little "nudge" to get all the way over.

[73 ford guy]

Originally Posted by Redbeast9

Keep going, want to see how this turns out. Off to a good start!

O don't worry I got lots..

[73 ford guy]

Now at this point mechanically it was pretty decent. I started focussing on cleaning it up I guess doing some body work which was somewhat minor and blasting with some primer grey



I swapped the front grill for a newer style 79 as I always did like the square headlights better.

[fatdan460]

Originally Posted by 73 ford guy

O don't worry I got lots..

he's just slow cause he's from canada, eh. it turns out pretty decent..... seriously, it does.......... 73, i mean that.............. until............ well fawk, i'll let you tell them, don't wanna ruin the surprise

[73 ford guy]

Originally Posted by fatdan460

he's just slow cause he's from canada, eh. it turns out pretty decent..... seriously, it does.......... 73, i mean that.............. until............ well fawk, i'll let you tell them, don't wanna ruin the surprise

Thanks Dan..Lol

[73 ford guy]

At this point I needed some new meats so my bro just picked up a set of new 49" iroks I thought 44's with real good tread he had left over would probably look pretty sweet...

[73 ford guy]

My(identical twin) bros truck has come a long way since high school now but he focused 90% on making it pretty!! He made it big to the point where it really couldn't be decent offroad and why would you when you got purdy paint like that. We've done ALOT of mechanical upgrades on it afterwards but in this pic only thing going for it was the same 79 d60 front but no gears installed. More on this one later but here's his 49's..

[73 ford guy]

I was still in the process of cleaning things up as well by undercoating the entire frame, resealing t-case and installing ALL grade 8 bolts to basically everything. I get a good deal on bolts from working in a structural steel shop most of the time getting 70% off but even still it wasn't cheap!

[73 ford guy]

At some point along the way here I pulled my stock 390 and freshened it up..





Motor was bored .030 over , edelbrock performer intake, heads rebuilt, new rv crane cam, 650 edelbrock offroad carb, electronic ignition conversion(bye bye points ),rings/bearings,Meling oil pump and headers

[73 ford guy]

Trucks gotta be dropped down on wheels to get motor in. The 390 stuck around for awhile until I changed my mind down the road..

[73 ford guy]

Wheeled it a little bit with the way it was so far. My first run with the new motor I decided to mash on it up a steep snowy hill testing out some stuff and I found a weak link..



After catching a little air on the top and skidding back down my clutch pedal dropped to the floor.
Basically the engine on a fe the motor mounts sit in a little "pocket" with the rubber mount with pin to frame and the receiver "pocket" bolted to block but not a bolted connection! The motor jumped out of the mount which popped out my clutch linkage.
My buddy a mechanic explained it's a ford thing and you have to chain the driver side of the block down with a turnbuckle?? Well I wasn't gonna do that so I made the driver side bolt on "pocket" mount into a box with a threaded pin bolt welded on it so it would bolt to the frame engine mount permanently!!! I made the stud long and used a rubber cab mount sandwiched between the frame mount for some vibration dampening. To thus day it's held up awesome with lots hard wheeling.

[73 ford guy]

My next upgrade was going to be the driveshafts as I broke a couple rear ujoints. I dud some research on here with billa vista and got some awesome tech on a cv shaft I was going to build..




I took some measurements and starting the work on rotating up diff and getting the parts for the driveshaft. Looking at the pics again I guess I was doing a shackle flip too..

[73 ford guy]

The shackle flip I found that it was best to use the front mounted , rear spring hanger in the rear position and to replace the front mounted hanger with a early 80's chev tall hanger to even everything out. I very easily could of fabricated a stronger hanger but I liked the "stock" look better for any inspection purposes as I did drive this on the street.

[73 ford guy]

My first attempt at this my angle was to far forward and nit kicked back vertical and the hanger over extended inwards in a bind!!! Only way to undo it was lift from frame and pull it back. I realized my problem and redrilled the hanger holes to leave shackle leaning back to swing with suspension.
Live and learn.