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'79 F-150 build, under 3mo, under $3K

123K views 442 replies 104 participants last post by  VerticalTRX 
#1 · (Edited)
This isn't going to be a step-by-step build up thread, since I just finished the truck (mostly) today. I've been too busy thrashing try to get this thing done to do a day by day build-up thread. So here it is:

'79 F-150 SWB

-351M (although theres a GT-40 windsor waiting to go together on my engine stand)
-NP435
-NP205
-HP D44, 9" w/ mini-spool, 4.10's

Some might also find it interesting that I did the entire build up in under three months, and for well under $3,000. Also, it was built in our farm shop, using farm shop type tools (AC arc welder, oxy-torch, HF pipe-bender, all hand tools.)

So this was what I started with:



It was a $500 basket case, rusted beyond belief, rear axle and motor on thier way out.

The rust on the rear frame was impressive to say the least:



So, out came the torch:
 
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#2 ·
New rear frame was in order, staying with the whole 'farm truck' theme, I built it pure straight-truck style: :p


Lots of fabrication went on between these pics, but I was too busy welding to be taking pics. Heres the rear suspension setup that I went with:



This setup gave me about 4" of lift (even after OEM blocks were removed), and a stupid amount of flex considering they are stock rear leaves. My custom shackles can be seen, they are 8" OC, cut out of a single piece of 2x4x.250" box.

Next was building the tube flat bed:



When I started I strongly considered just doing a full-tube truggy style rear end, but I needed this thing to have pleant of bed space, storage area for carrying gear on longer wheeling trips.

BTW, all the tube is actually 1.5" SCH 40 structural pipe, roughly 2" OD, .166" wall.
 
#3 ·
Heres the finished tube flat bed, there will be an Aluminum chest tool box, and a full size spare bolted down:


If you look close you can see the little square gas door that I had to put in the center rear portion of the bed. I had to do this because the bed was too low to allow proper fuel flow down the filler neck. Now there is just a bung welded to the top of the tank with an OEM gas cap right under the gas door.

Now, skip ahead a few weeks...







So yeah, its nothing too extreme, but it was designed that way. A '4x4 sleeper' is what I'm eventually going for, not to mention just a fun little truck to take on the local trails. BTW, those are 34x10.50-15 LTB's, and the truck is on roughly 4" of lift.

Measuring for shocks:





I was a little disapointed on the amount of front flex, but I think it will get better after the Skyjacker 4" coils break in a little. The radius arms shouldn't be limiting it, since I custom built them about 12" longer than stock. I guess time will tell.

Next time I'm home I'll get some pics of some of the more detailed stuff such as the extended rad. arms, custom x-member, gas door setup, amongst other things.

This thing is far from done, but at least its wheelable now. The rest of the mods in my sig are being done as we speak, throught the next year.
 
#7 ·
I think its only slightly lighter than stock. The bed is roughly 400lbs, but the rear frame is fairly heavy. When I had stock tires on it, it felt about like stock as far as the weight of the rear end. If I can keep this truck under 4700lbs I will be very happy.
 
#8 ·
i almost did my rear like that with the leafs but decided to make my own rear lift with some hangers made for the front of the leaf and it gave me about 8" of lift for $0.00 all held together with 1/2" diamiter grade 8 bolts holding the brackets to the frame, also put in some sch40 1 1/4" to stop frame flex, check out the 78 f150 buildup thread in a bit, ill be putting up pics rather soon of the setup.
 
#10 ·
PCkrawler said:
how much did it cost to build the flatbed?
Well, including the main tube of the roll cage (which is an integral part of the bed) there was a little over 2 sticks of 1.5" sch40 pipe, 1 stick of 2"x.125 channel iron, and about a 4x10' sheet of .120 hot-plate. I don't recall exactly how much it cost for just the bed, but I think it was around $375 or so. I can look at the receipt next time I'm home if you'd like an exact price for the metal.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the compliments. While I don't have many super bling fabrication tools, I pride myself with building things true old school style; heck, for sheet metal I still oxy-ac weld it, lol, AC arc welding on everything else. I do have a notcher and a hyd. operated bender, but only because those are absolutely necessary for this type of work, I'd rather spend money on the rig than tools if I can help it.

LOL, I can't believe that I'm admitting this, but all the paint was done with a brush. I worked as an aircraft mechanic restoring P-51 Mustangs for a few years, during which I also did most of the paint work. Painting a $1.6M aircraft is stressful at best, everything must be 100% perfect, super high dollar paint, top of the line HVLP setup, down-draft booth, etc. With that being said, there was a huge grin on my face when I broke out my $0.99 paint brushes and a gallon of Rustoleum. For once it really didn't matter how the paint turned out, so long as it holds up well and prevents rust. Furthermore, while I do have all the equipment to paint properly, it was during the dead of winter and my shop isn't setup to paint inside.

As for the cab, its shot. The floor pan is completely rusted out, and I hate to even look at the abortion of a patch job that the P/O did. Luckily I have a virtually rust free '78 F-150 cab waiting to go on this summer. Once that happens I'll go ahead and finish the interior cage. So, you guessed it, the plan for now is to wheel the piss outta it, all the current cab will be good for after I'm done is scrap metal...."hmmm, you say a full-size will never fit down that trail?":evil:
 
#16 ·
I'm not sure if I'll leave the grill on or not. I also have a factory grill for it, either of which would get equally destroyed. The one reason why I might want to swap back to the OEM grill is that this one is hard as heck to get your fingers between to operate the hood latch. On a side note, this truck came with all the late '70's bling possible. Between the grille, the hurst T-handle shifter(on a 4spd, lol), polished aluminum Mickey Thompson Valve covers (those are going on the wall of my shop when I swap motors), and it apears as though it used to have a bed mounted roll-bar with KC lights, lol.

I plan on leaving it full-width since I like the challenge of wheeling a full-size places that it really shouldn't go, so no narrowing. Thanks for all the replies.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Coors, yes the bed rubs the tires at full stuff, but I designed it that way. I wanted the lowest C.O.G. possible on this thing, so I made the bed as low as reasonably possible. Most of the rear travel is droop, so using the tire as a bump stop seems to be working fine. Nice rig btw, I was looking at those pics on another thread.
 
#22 ·
Updates:

Well, I'm a bit over 3K and 3mo by now, but things are coming along nicely. I've gotten my 351w 98% done, and it is read to drop in the chassis. Since the stock cab was so rusted I got a different cab repaired the rust on it (floorpans and cab corner), painted it, and it is ready to install. The frame was powerwashed, degreased and painted, new cab mount pearches were fabricated for the front of the cab, and the tranny and t-case were removed for a rebuild (more on that later). On to the pics....

A little tom foolery before dissasembly:



Now on to business:

Even my 'good cab' was pretty rusty, floor pans were cut out and replaced, the entire floor of the truck will be covered in roll on bedliner:




Here is the cab completed:



While this was going on we were also building the motor at my buddies shop. Motor is a 351w out of a '78 T-bird that was throughly shot (had to go .060 over to get the cylinders true.) Motor specs as follows:

'78 351w, .060" overbore
-Speedpro flat top pistons, 9:25:1 CR
-E7TE heads, ported, polished, bowl-blended
-ARP rod, main and head bolts
-Comp extreme 4x4 cam, 206/214 durration @ 050, .448/.483" lift
-Crane roller rockers
-Edelbrock Performer intake

For simplicity I'll also be running a Proform HEI distributor and a GM 1-wire alternator, read: only one switched wire to run the engine, and one wire from the alt. to battery. No more ford duraspark crap and voltage regulator, etc littering my engine bay. Along with this I completely revamped the stock wiring harness, hacking out about 20' of useless wiring. Things are much neater now.

Heres a pic of the motor on the stand, sorry I did get more pics, I was too busy wrenching:flipoff2:



As for the NP435 and NP205 I removed them with all intent of rebuilding both, mostly just to stop the profuse oil leakage. After spliting the t-case and tranny I found this:


:eek:

So the tranny is fawked, no sense in rebuilding this one since the whole back half of the casing is cracked. The only thing holding the top together is the aluminum cover. I slaped some RTV on it, bolted the units back together and droped it back in the truck; I'll run it till it blows (I would have done something now, but I'm on a strict time restraint).

Option 1: Buy another 435, rebuild it and drop it and a 205 back in
Option 2: Another 435 with a 1356
Option 3. Say to heck with this setup all together, and drop a ZF and 1356 in

Any suggestions?

More updates will come after this weekend, lots more pics.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Wow, nasty. If I were you I'd just get another 435 just cause they work well and are cheap. Around here I could probly find one for $100 if I shopped around. A lot of times they won't even need rebuilding.

edit:

Nice looking engine job! I'm in-progress on my first rebuild .. never realized how much work it was :)
 
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