1970 F100 Frame and Powertrain Swap (to 07 CrownVic running gear)

[biggurn]

I know its been done, but I figure its my turn! I've also noted that thanks to changes made by photobucket, swap pictures are getting thin online for this rather popular option. So, here we go.... my next project. 1970 Ford F100. My first vehicle, when I was 15, was a 1970 F100, 360, 3 speed on the column. I was the 2nd owner. Sold it when I was 16 as I couldn't afford the 8mpg, even though gas was $0.99/gallon... found this one last week, it has "55k original miles" (interior condition and chassis really seem to support low miles... but maybe 155k?). I'm super excited to again have a '70 F100. This one will be a tad different. Going on a full roller chassis from a '07 CrownVic P71 with 80k miles. Will have the 4.6L modular and 4R75E that came in the C-Vic (3.55 gears with Trac-Loc in the back). I'll section the 8' box down to 6.5' to fit the crown vic wheelbase (the SWB Fords were 115", the crown vic is 114.7"). Engine and transmission control will be done via Holley HP EFI, MSD Transmission Controller. Gauges ordered from Speedhut... several other parts are also on the way .. Once progress starts, I'll make sure to keep and post pictures.




Last night, the first piece to the puzzle arrived:
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[QSA United]

I'm stoked to see the results!

[1guydude]

should b sweeeeeet. very nice!
-d

[biggurn]

Thanks! The next item needed arrived today... my wife warned the mail person to expect frequent visits to our door over the next week or two

[biggurn]

like all builds, it's often the little things that can hold the project up. One of them that occured to me was related to the brakes. Since I'm not running the OE ECU, the ability to utilize the onboard anti lock brakes becomes an issue. So, to overcome that, I'll eliminate them and replace the pump with a Wilwood manually adjustable proportioning valve... which happened to arrive in the mail today.

[biggurn]

Its getting to be like Christmas around here... the bezel for the gauges arrived, along with wire loom and a few other wiring essentials... working to finish up other projects so that I can start work on the truck!

[Manny]

Pulling up a chair this should be good.....

[biggurn]

I have high hopes that it'll be good Fortunately, its not my first Rodeo. I had fortunate to grow up in a shop building high performance mountain mod-sleds, so undertaking projects both large and small came to be a way of life. I see guys doing things like this as their first project, ever, and everytime I have to tip my hat to them!

Purple Santa paid a visit yesterday, delivered a few goodies.

Yesterday, my current project exited the shop, under its own power, for the first time in 50+ years. Its on hold until I have access to the sheet metal shop (which is currently under construction/moving).

https://youtu.be/rrf0dDi_XAE

....for the first time in 6 months, my shop is empty, so next week, this project should get underway

[Manny]

Man very cool you have some very fun projects look like!!! 50+ years that's impressive!

[biggurn]

Thanks! I've collected antique tractors, engines, and chainsaws for years, always fun to find an oddball derelict that has spent half a century sitting in someone's back pasture and bring it back to life.

This one came to me, literally in milk crates

• https://youtu.be/04VH_7HjUKU

This 10k lb, 40hp single cylinder engine is a one-off, many of the parts had to be recast at a foundry, from patterns that we made.

https://youtu.be/rA4uITH10q8

Doing the truck is a diversion away from old cast iron for a while towards sheet metal.

[WhitsEnd]

I'll be tuning in. Interested to see what a fellow sledhead is doing.

[biggurn]

Sadly, we closed our dealership in 2000, we'd had too much of the general public. I traded off my last two selds in 2008 for a 1991 Chevy Blazer to build into a crawler, much more family friendly. Just couldn't afford that hobby with kids and having moved away from all my riding friends, just couldn't justify them for one or two outings a year. Maybe someday I'll have sleds again, but at the cost today? Probably not!

But, I digress... Santa in the Brown Truck visited today, delivered the last major component I had on order...

Eventually I'll have to order a shifter, but until I see where the cab sits, I'll hold off on placing that order to Lokar. AC, Cruise control and other amenities can wait until the truck is leaving parallel lines in front of my house!

[biggurn]

Thanks to some major help from a good friend (YoungFordKid here on the forum) this morning, the Muscle Truck (1970 F100: called Floyd) received a huge start today! In just over 3 hours, we completely disassembled the body, removed and stored all parts that will be reused and lifted the body off the chassis. The chassis is in the BG&S shop, ready for chassis prep...
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Time for me to get back to work!

[biggurn]

More progress on the truck today. I managed to haul all the scrap off and then I found that the cats had mysteriously disappeared. Fortunately I was able to weld a couple of replacement pipes into place! While running around town, I also stopped by the local you pull and grabbed a 2003 Crown Vic cable driven throttle body. I was able to get everything, intake, cable, sensors, etc for $44.

[biggurn]

More progress on project Floyd. The F100 is now fully disassembled and the cab is in the shop. YoungFordKid is pretty excited, this truck had power brakes and steering... His '67 will now soon have power steering and brakes! Not to mention he also has a spare 4 speed transmission and axle for his truck after today. The frame was cut in half to simplify cab removal (I thought YoungFordKid might cry). Thus far there are 10 total hours invested into this project. Can't say enough about having a Skidsteer around for jobs like this, so much more versatile than my sub compact JD tractor was!
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