Chassis Swap (1972 onto a 2002 Chassis)

[67mann]

So with some tweaking to get those gaps out, you think it'll drop down and be near right on??!! That just seems like it was too easy. It was easy from where I'm sitting - ha! Even if it's not perfect, it's close enough you could shim up the cab to get the lines dead on. Gotta say, I had my doubts you'd ever get it to drop that much, but that looks damn good, man. Damn good!

Awesome work!

I'm with tyler,but awsome fab work and too fricken kool to have an bump body on a modern chassis

[FoPAR]

if anything it looks like it might drop a little to low when I get everything trimmed out. Not sure but I might have to put some shims under the bed to bring it back up a little.

Nothing wrong with easy..... or maybe I'm just that good.... sorry just had to

[67nukeford]

Wow, this is an amazing project! When you filled in the bed seam, did you just fill it with weld, or did you weld in a rod into the gap?

[FoPAR]

Wow, this is an amazing project! When you filled in the bed seam, did you just fill it with weld, or did you weld in a rod into the gap?

I just filled it by welding it, no rod. I'm not sure I like the idea of there possibly being a gap behind the rod where moisture could get trapped and rust it out. That seam is not sealed in the back very well so if you leave a space with the rod, water could get in and I'm not liking the thought of water sitting in there to much. So I'm just taking my time and filling it slowly and not over heating the metal.

[fbomb100]

this is looking too good.. I'm liking it all the way!!!!!!!!!!!

[FoPAR]

well I got a little work done this weekend, not as much as I hoped but everylittle bit helps right? I pulled the bed back off and you can see the "C" notches in the 2nd pic and the amount of room they gave me to work with.





after that I stood it up on one end and started cleaning, grinding, and trimming, oh and a little welding too.



Going to keep cleaning it off a little at a time as I go along, I just hate that part of it, but oh well it will all get done sometime....

[Aussie_1970]

wow just read this thread - that's fricken amazing.

Great skills sir

Can't believe that the cab mounted up to the same holes !

[FoPAR]

wow just read this thread - that's fricken amazing.

Great skills sir

Can't believe that the cab mounted up to the same holes !

Thanks! Yeah sometimes I have to just stand back and look at it, cause I was really was shocked when everything lined up so nice. I knew it would be close but never thought I would get away with dropping a bolt in and it's good.

[Joshpow]

And everyone says nothing interchanges on fords!! They aint tried hard enough. Looking better al the time man.

[FoPAR]

Put some more time in down at the shop and it looks like I have the bed lined up now....










maybe a shim or 2 here or there to make it perfect but good enough for mock up. I put the front end back together to check the body lines, so far so good...







Looks good enough for now. Time for the next phase front end/radiator core support mounts and bumper brackets.

[Joshpow]

You put in time in the shop. I wanna put in shop in the time!! Must be nice to have a shop. Oh well, no stopping now. I got too much to do on mine!! Looking better all the time.

[FoPAR]

yes the shop is nice, I haven't always had one..... more like a shed in the past. So I know it can be real tough to try and fix a vehicle up out in the weather(I lived in the Seattle area for 33 years... just a little rain now and then no big deal ) but with the shop now I have no reason I can't get some kind of work done on my projects. So now I just have to keep getting in there as much as possible.

[FoPAR]

Well been stuck at work late and also had to help out my parents this weekend so not much to report other than I did start on the radiator core support and bumper mounts. We all know what our front frame rails look like by now...



and by the way, a 2002 looks nothing like our frame in the front...



So after chopping off 12" of the 72 front frame and 8" off the 2002 frame this is kinda what I'm going to try to make work in some way or another...







It will give me the correct core support mounting location and the bumper mounts if I can get it lined up right.....

[FoPAR]

ok so it's been a little while and not much to report, everyone in the family got really sick and it just sucked the energy right out of us. So just now starting to pull out of it and can't wait to get back to work on the truck. I've been thinking about custom grill inserts but not sure what I want to do yet. I picked up some metal mesh samples to see what might look good. I really like some of them and think I have it narrowed down to one.... .....maybe.....oh dang I don't know...
















The one I like the best is in the uper right corner of the first pick, what do you guy think/like?

[tylerb43]

I totally agree, even before I read your pick, I liked that one the best. The tight mesh ones will look too solid and busy from any distance over 10 feet, and the other wide mesh ones just look too, well.. too much like what they were originally intended for - you can picture them on something else too easily, ya know? The upper right one in the first picture looks like it's right at home on a custom auto, not like a "re-purposed" piece.

Glad you're back at it!! Excellent job so far!