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Topic: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside (Read 15202 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #45
So during my research I did find a guy that built a '68 F100 back in 2008 or so and it was over the course of a couple years.  Nice thing was it was a project that one of the magazines was doing so they did it in a bunch of parts over a couple years.  In Part 4 they started the four link and it is the same kit I am using so it has been a pretty good source of info.  py part is they finished the install in Part 5 and I cannot find it online anywhere.  It was just C notching the frame, installing the Z bar (what we call a panhard bar), and installing the coil overs (which includes the bar between the frame rails for the top mounts of the coil overs) but it would have been nice to see it done.  I grabbed a couple of the pics so you can see what I hope to end up with but again the bars on my truck will be inside the frame.

So here is the forward cross member that the front of the four link will attach to and you can see why I needed to remove the factory cross member in this location:



This is the four link mocked up with the rear end in place. Notice the two jacks holding everything up in place as they had not even tack welded things at this point.  It is sans the C notches in the frame, the Z bar, and the coil overs but you get the idea:



This is the anti-roll bar or sway bar that I will be running (between the coil overs and mounted on the same upper mount as the coil overs) but I cannot order it until I have the four link completely installed including the coil overs.  This is so I can order the right length torsion bar as they cut it to length and spline the ends.



Hopefully the engine cross member comes out easy and I have time to work on the IFS and get that assembled.  Putting my mig welder cart together this evening so hopefully the instructions are easy.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #46
:like:
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #47
So it was another productive weekend working on the F100.  Granted it was more tear down and more removal of metal and a couple more rivets but it is finally ready for the new suspension.  Spent Friday making a poor attempt at installing the ball joints and bushings on front LCA's so they are now at a machine shop getting done.  Problem with the ball joint installation is that the top and bottom of the LCA are not parallel to each other at this location so no matter what I did I could not get the press to line up parallel to the bore of the LCA where the ball joint goes.  The forward bushing was just a space issue with how the control arm is shaped in that no matter how I configured it our press was just wrong for the job.  Getting them out was easy as demo seems to always be but going back together is a different animal especially with the powder coat on the control arms.  Machine shop owner is a family friend so he said he would treat them like his own...hopefully he likes things to have coating on them.   So that is how I blew my Friday along with chasing some parts and rental tools down.

Anyhow, moving on to more metal removal.  On Saturday I did some preliminary measuring and sure as shiznit the one brace I left in the rear of the frame is right where I need to box the frame as well as in the way of the forward four link mount.  Look at the first picture in Reply #45 and you can see where it is going to foul the forward mount.  Here are the pictures after the brace was removed and we put some temporary tube and an angle iron "Z" brace on the rear of the frame so it would not roll or move.







Started to prep the front of the truck for the engine cross member removal and removed what is left of the front clip and stored those parts.  After sweeping up and cleaning up again it was time to call it a day and head out to a buddy's house for smoked steaks, sides, coooooold beer(s), and Live PD....yeah we are those guys.  We comment on it like Mystery Science Theater 3000 as we have an ex-police office in the group so it gets pretty funny.

Woke up early on Sunday as it was time to move back up to the front of the frame and get the old engine cross member removed.  This has all the rivets removed but it is also welded to the frame at the top and along the sides.  The driver side also has the fun option of more plating for the steering gear mount so that was also welded across the top and then to the cross member.  I will not take credit for this idea as I saw a guy on YouTube do this so this was my chop saw for the top welds, an old Makita circular saw and a 7" metal cutting blade.



Results in about ten minutes of cutting as expected and beat the  out of a plasma or sawzall.  First picture is the passenger side and the second is the driver side with the additional steering gear bracket/reinforcement:




83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #48
Once that was done I started to cut the rest of the way through on the back of the passenger side and as soon as the sawzall blade went through the frame slightly twisted in on the bottom and spread on the top jamming the blade.  This was where I took a break and got some water and took a deep breath.  Looked things over and grabbed a bottle jack and some round pipe.  Applied very little force and the bottom of the frame moved back where it was prior to the cut.  I called a buddy that welds and he came over and welded some angle iron across the bottom of the frame back towards the cab.  Next we grabbed a come along and wrapped it around the frame and subsequently with little pressure sucked the top back to where it needed to be.  Again, he welded some angle iron to the top of the frame at the same location as the angle iron below it.  At this point I wanted "Z" bars welded across both of the frame braces to limit twist and my buddy burned them in (this is when the "Z" brace got added to the brace on the rear of the frame).  With this done my welder had to roll out and do some dad stuff and it was lunch time.  After eating I spent the next two hours removing the cross member and nothing moved.





In this photo you can see the "V" shaped bracket to the back of the left over "channel" piece of the cross member:



Then I had to remove what was left of the cross member inside the channel of the frame as well as the spacer for the steering gear.

Passenger side:


Driver side with the "V" shaped steering gear spacer already removed:


The spacer was easy as it was just crimped onto the frame so I ground the crimps and it fell out.  The remaining part of the cross member was welded to the inside of the frame but only about about 3" with gaps at the top and bottom and then only on one side of each piece.  I was able to cut the channel shaped piece at the bends and divide into three pieces.  This allowed me to take a BFH and bend the side pieces back and forth until the weld broke leaving only minimal material to grind flat.  Once those were out then the top piece was pried down from the back and what was left of the weld from the circular saw pass broke quickly.  From there is was just cleaning up the welds and dressing up the edges of the frame.

Passenger side:


Driver side:


Will start on the suspension installation in a couple weeks as we have stuff going on this weekend and my buddy that will be welding all of this up works this weekend but off next weekend.  Fun part will be temporarily putting the front suspension under the truck (ratchet strapped) and U-bolting an old rear end to the back so we can roll this up on a trailer.  He wants this at his shop (60' x 120') where his much larger mig welder and tig machine are.  I will take a picture of the hillbilly express on the trailer as it should be good for a laugh or two.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #49
So I gave up on pressing the ball joint and forward bushing into the lower control arms for the Crown Vic IFS.  Popping them out was easy but getting thing lined up to get them pressed in was not something we had to tools for or the patience.  Paid a local machine shop that has hot rods $60 for a couple hours labor and done.






83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #50
Okay, so here is where I tell on myself and offer some advice...remember to tell the machine shop which way the ball joint is supposed to be pressed in.  So $30 later and another week later I got the LCA's with the ball joints pressed in correctly.  So I discovered this when I was trying to assemble the IFS in the garage so I just finished up what I could which was Just putting the UCA's on...boring.  So I then decided to go ahead with locating the engine cross member into the frame and getting it bolted up.  There were a couple factory holes in the frame we welded up as they were going to get partially consumed by the 1-5/16" holes that were going to get cut into the top of the frame.  The lower holes for the bolts to pass through as well as the locating pins also had factory holes that needed to be welded up for the same reason.

Here is what I ended up with after welding the holes shut and drilling the new holes for the spacers:





Grabbed the engine cross member and got it installed and torqued the bolts to 100 ft-lb just to keep things located for now.  We will tack the tubes in place and then remove all the suspension to weld them out fully.  Will also box the frame 24" at this location to add some strength.





So that is as far as I got two weekends ago.  Got the control arms from the machine shop last Thursday and they got the ball joints out and pressed back in without any damage.  I wasted zero time last Friday and got the IFS finished up on the truck.



 

I went ahead and installed the upper braces as I figured putting the truck on the ground and loading the suspension it would be good to have them on and we will be pushing it up on a trailer to take it to my buddy's shop to weld everything up.  Better safe than sorry at this point.







So it took a couple adjustments on the coil overs but this is about two inches higher than the ride height I want but that is about how much I think it will come down with all of the drive line and sheet metal weight.  I also leveled the frame from front to back and side to side and then I let the Alpine play...



Not slammed but definitely not pickup height anymore.

Here is one shot from the back and yes Chuck I had to have your wheels.  Seriously, had them on my Coupe until 2011 and have had them in the shop up on the storage ledge since then.  Very appropriate mock up wheel if you ask me.


83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #51
Headed back this weekend to get the rear end from another friend who is welding up some new ends on the 9".  We were going to go stock width but I started researching rims and tires and that isn't going to work.  We are just going to leave the ends off for now slide the four link brackets on the tubes.  Had to put the brackets in his lathe to open them up just a tad so they would actually slide down the tubes.

I am going to have to narrow the rear end at least four inches on each side but I want it under the truck with the four link installed and the bed on it so I can see if I can fit the tires under it that I want.  This isn't for the weak of heart fellas...



Tire Data:
Size - 29 x 18.00 R20 LT
Rim Width - 15.0 to 16.0
O.D. - 29"
Section Width - 17.2"
Tread Width - 15.5"

So if everything works out I will be running a 20" x15" rear and a 18"x10" front wheels.  Fronts will most likely be 295/30 R18's.  This is if I can get it all to fit without chopping thing up.  I know one guy got a 295 under the front on some 18x11's so it will go but I may end up with something a little narrower depending on what all has to be done.  This is all a long way out as this is some serious $$$ so that in itself may back me off my dream of some steamrollers in the rear.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #52
The whole thing looks great. Especially the appropriate mock up wheel.  :toothless:
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #53
That is a honkin', big-assed, righteous, godlike, and asskicking tire lol.

Dude, you gotta put them on this truck!

But I have to admit the Cobras would look good too :like:
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #54
The Cobras are just to roll it around on. Those tires will find their way under the truck. Rims are a whole other issue...20x15’s are not cheap.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #55
So I hacked a rear axle for the truck to get it up on a trailer and out to my buddy's shop to finish the front suspension and then move to the four link.  Here are a couple of pictures of the getto axle and I am proud to say it went up on the trailer and back down it with zero issues.  We did put it on jack stands for the trip out there and strapped the  out of it.





Removed the getto axle and then rolled the rear end under it and the driveshaft loop cross member that the front four link brackets will attach to.  The ends were removed off the rear end as they are the wrong ones for the Explorer disc brake set up and it will be narrowed.  I had to open up the ID of the four link rear brackets that slide on the axle tube as they were 3.00" and the stock axle tubes are 3.09".  Metal carbide bit, die grinder, and a few minutes took care of that issue.



If it appears that the drive shaft loop cross member is offset to the passenger side you are correct.  The 9" is centered in the truck and the center line of the pinion on it is 15/16" to the passenger side so we moved the loop over 1" to the passenger side.  The motor and trans have a factory offset of 3/4" to the passenger side and with the motor mounts I am getting I can correct that to 1".  Hopefully I can get a straight shot left to right on the drive shaft so the u-joints are only dealing with the up and down.

So with this setup the top of the drive shaft loop cross member is level with the center line of the rear axle.  You need to know the diameter of the tire you are going to run to set this up and also know the ride height of the vehicle.  From there the back of the drive shaft loop cross member is 25-3/4" forward of the rear axle center line.  Once you have all of this figured out then its level the frame up from front to back and side to side and fire the plasma cutter up.  We started with the driver shaft loop cross member first:

Plasma cutter in action


Fitment of cross member


 

Welded it up and then a couple rounds of welding to fill in the gaps and lots of grinding got this

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #56
From here we moved to the 3" c-notches as the ride height will have the top of the axle tubes 1" from the bottom of the frame and the travel on the suspension is +/- 3".  With the notches I have 4" above the axle tube and the top of the rear end will miss the bottom of the bed by 1/4" so bump stops will be mandatory.

Metal prepped and c-notch marked (notice the long dimple on the left there is one on the right as well)


Plasma cutter back in action (you can see the c-notch on top of the frame to the left)


Welding in the c-notch (6.625" x 0.280" pipe that was cut 3-1/4" wide and then split in half all on a band saw)


Back of the c-notch installed


The bottom of the frame in front and back of the c-notch will be cut out as Ford clearanced the frame for the shocks.  This was done in a press when the frame was made and we did debate heating it up and just hammering it flat and then thought better of it.  Plasma cutter will make short work of it and I will make some templates and transfer those shapes to some plate I bought for this and the boxing work.  Should look pretty slick when it is done.  I am debating on getting a dimple die set and putting holes in the boxing plate.  This would be for looks but also media blasting and getting the powder coat all in there.

Front side with additional welding to fill in some factory dimples


Ground all of that flat and then added some more filler weld and ground that down and then hit it with some 80 grit on a flapper wheel


So this is where we left it yesterday evening after two days of lots of interruptions which included attending two BBq's

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #57
So this morning (took the day off) I went back out and we installed the bar between the frame rails for the upper coil over mount and the Z-bar.  I didn't take a lot of pictures of the fitment as there was weather moving in and I wanted to be back home before all that shiznits here in a couple more hours.  The bar had to be cut to length and then two 3" heavy wall pipe spacers installed such that only 1" stuck out from the bar.  We used the drill press and a hole saw to make that happen and my buddy tigged up the side that stuck out and then mig welded the back side and ground that side flat.  The top of the coil overs are 1" inboard relative to the lower mount so we had to account for that as well which is where the plumb bob came in handy...again.

Upper coil over mount getting welded in


And the four link is in all be it with the dummy bars in place of the coil overs.  We did this so things would not move around while it got welded up and who wants to weld around that stuff anyhow.  I worked myself up over this  install and after it was all said and done my buddy and I looked it over and then he said "We could do this in one day now".  I would say two but all he did was weld and make four cuts with the plasma and I did all the measuring, calcs, metal prep, and yeah holy shiznit this was pretty easy.

The welds on the forward brackets need to be done as well as a couple welds on the coil over bar but that is it.  The brackets on the rear end are tack welded but it will come back out and go into a jig and get about 4" cut off one side and 6" off the other and the new ends put on with some pretty tig welds.  Here are a few shots of all of it in place, I'm liking it...











Taking a couple more days off in a few weeks and hopefully we can get the front suspension all welded up (spacer tubes, boxing, and the rear LCA mounts) and box the rear frame.  Lots of tpuppies, templates, and welding but it should look pretty sweet when done.  From there it will be put the bed on the truck and 100% figure out how much to narrow the rear end.  Once that is narrowed then we will have the Moser axles shortened and resplined...could kick myself in the ass for order them as quick as I did as that is costing me $125 to shorten brand new axles and respline them.  Live and learn.


83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #58
Got some more time last weekend to work on the truck.  I got the bottom lip of the frame cut out in front and behind both "C" notches and made some templates to transfer the shapes onto the sheet of 10 gauge SA-36 steel.  Got those cut out with the plasma torch, shaped them, and then burned them in.













Got the bottom side welded up and then ground all of that flat and brightened it up.  Still a couple small spots to weld up so it is filled in but we will get those when we are done welding up the boxing plates.





From here I stared making the templates for the boxing plates on the rear of the truck and for the front as well.  I was going to try and do the rear plate in one piece but getting it around the front support for the four link, the "C" notch, and the rear coil over upper support bar was going to be a pain so I opted to two piece it.

Here is the template for the back section of the rear boxing plate


Then the rear boxing plate fitted with the front template being fitted


Front and rear boxing plates fitted and ready to tack into place


Moved to the front of the truck and made the templates to box the frame where the Crown Vic IFS is installed.  Welded up the spacer tubes and then cut the boxing plate out and fitted both sides.  I think we are going to heat the frame in a couple spots as the lips on the frame are just not 100% straight and it will make the welding a lot better.





Should get back on welding out the boxing plates this weekend if all goes well.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

Re: '70 F100 Short Bed Styleside

Reply #59
Got a little time Saturday to tack weld the boxing plates into the frame rails.  Should have them all welded out in the next couple of weeks as my buddy and I both want it done before the 4th of July.

Rear Plates:






Front Plate:


We also talked ourselves into gusseting the four link front cross member on the bottom for two reasons, one we thought it needed it and two we had the plate so why not melt some metal.  Will clean up the welds but this was about 10 minutes after they were welded up.



So from here about the last thing to weld up are the front lower control arm rear bushing mounts.  Will need to do some research on that so that I can get the caster at about 5-6 degrees positive before we weld them up.  This will allow for a couple of degrees of +/- adjustment down the road.  I couple guys have done this and have some good write-ups on how to do it so I just need to reread those and fully understand what I am doing as this is critical like getting the four link setup right.

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp