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This page and project will pick up where the '77 F-150 left off. As cool as the F-150 would have been, it was still only a 2wd long bed. After doing all of the bodywork for the 2wd, it just seemed a waste to not put it on the 4wd chassis.

This truck is the typical '78-'79 F-250 and has the 400ci engine with the C6 auto and married NP-205 t-case. Now originally this truck came with the Dana 44, but the owner was making too many warranty repair visits at the local dealer and talked them into swapping in the "Sno-Fighter" Dana 60 axle. With these goodies it was used heavily off road by the previous owner. Right after purchasing it, he installed Detroit Lockers in both Dana 60's. The truck has sat behind the shop for almost a decade while parts were robbed left and right. The 8274 winch, aluminum 4bbl intake and headers were take off immediately used on other trucks. Then the lockers and D60 rear were used in the Chevy mud truck. Upon further inspection we found the front frame rails completely packed with dried mud. The mud held in water and further rusted parts of the frame. Add to that the fact the body was the most rusted out we have ever seen, it was no surprise it was getting the body from the '77 and the Mickey Thompson Baja Claws that were purchased for the 4x4 van build!

After the decision was made to restore the truck, we had to source a rear axle to replace the robbed D60. This Ford was not getting a field plowing 14 bolt or even a Sterling. A D70 was the best way to go. I found a 1984 Dana 70-U on Craigslist only 2 days after my search began.

The tag said 3.54 but the actual gears were 4.10 Too bad the ring and pinion AND carrier have chipped teeth. I will be using 4.88 gears along with the 38.5" tires. Being one generation of body style apart, we bolted the axle in the truck just to check fitment.

Finally, after 10 years of storage, the truck was rolled to the front of the shop and the bed, cab and front clip were removed. The engine was trash as water got in the block since the cylinder heads were removed several years prior (we never planned on rebuilding the 400 anyways).

To run the 38.5" Baja Claws, I was going to need a good size lift for the low-boy. I went with Skyjacker as they were the only company who offered a 6" lift. I installed the springs on the rusty frame to see how they worked. Surprisingly it did not seem like much was gained after mounting the skinnies back up.

Attention was now turned on the rust. Surface rust covered most of the frame, with the only real rot laying in the front frame horns where the front leaf spring hangers attached. This part of the frame was perfectly flat with no drain holes and allowed mud and water to rest doing what it does best to steel. Rot also did its damage on the cross member between the rear spring mounts. It was literally paper thin in most areas and was also broken at some of the rivets due to the stress from the rock hard homebrew rear add-a-leafs. Also, 5 out of 6 body mounts are shot and will need surgery.

Now that the entire frame has been inspected, the front frame horns were the first to get tackled. I liked how the 99-04 Super Duty's used a beefy bolt on front spring hanger and wanted to incorporate that into this truck somehow. I ordered a set from my local dealer and during the 2011 Thanksgiving weekend the grafting began. First the frame had to be fully supported and leveled. Then the front clip went on to check fender clearance once more with the large tires and front lift springs installed. The front axle was supported and rotated until the desired castor angle was found. Our 1977 Ford truck shop manual recommends between 3-5 degrees castor angle for safe steering. With the large tires, I set the angle right at 5 degrees. This will decrease once more weight is added to the front end. After the castor angle was finished, we now knew where the front spring brackets needed to be. The front eyes were only 1.5" lower than stock to achieve the proper castor angle without the use of shims under the leaf springs.

With the front end properly set, the torch and cut off wheel was used to slice the front frame horn off.

The passenger side body mount had to be replaced, so we cut out new metal and welded it in. The 2" channel was used to keep everything in alignment while welding it in place. At the end of the day, we now knew where the new metal was going to finish the frame rot replacement.

You'll notice I have swapped brackets from side to side as per their original location on the Super Duty. This was done for both clearance offsets and aesthetics. We are also mounting the brackets at a slight downward angle to allow water to drain out of the frame horns unlike the original Ford design.

The following weekend work continued on the front frame replacement. Little by little, the new metal had to be fit, checked and tweaked. Unfortunately the side mounting flange on the new spring hangers had to be sliced off. It will get welded back on later.

 

The time finally came to narrow the 4"x6" rectangle tubing to match the existing frame dimensions. My father had a neat way of moving one side of the tubing while still retaining the nice radius.

 

Once everything looked good, the new frame was tacked in place. This allowed us to find the hole centers on the spring hanger and make the necessary patch pieces to box in the tubing.

 

No pictures were taken of the individual patch pieces as this was tedious and tiring, so here is the final front frame. All welds were chamfered to allow maximum weld penetration as this is a structural suspension component!

The final piece to the puzzle is the reinforcement plates. This is needed as it is not recommended to rely solely on the butt-weld for all weight carrying capacity. So we added these side plates to help stiffen up the front section. Another piece will be added at the bottom of the frame once we get around to turning the entire frame upside down. The driver's side outside picked up on the steering box bolts for more rigidity.

Finally it was time to put the truck back on its front wheels and the old front cab clip was set on the frame to check all clearances. The tubes that stick out past the spring hanger will get cut off once I figure out a bumper.

The following is a table made for my own personal info regarding the height gained from the different suspension configurations. All measurements were taken from the ground up to the topside front cab body mount.

Now that the front frame fix is finished, it is time to set the 460 mock block with trans and t-case in place for fitment purposes. I would assume most of the people out there with these trucks either have a 460 swapped in themselves or know of someone who has, so now it is our turn. Everybody says they just fit right in so how hard could it really be? Find out below!

Ok so far so good. The 460 fit right in at least with only a slight smashing of the oil pan. This pan is rusted out anyways so I just smashed it to get it to fit around the front cross member. Some will argue I should be using a rear sump oil pan instead of the car/2wd truck front sump. My argument is: 1.) I already have the front sump pan, 2.) the front differential housing is no where near the oil pan given the amount of lift I have, 3.) ever notice the rear sump pans also have a slight "front sump" section? Well due to the nature of this design you can never get all of the old oil out during an oil change.

The heavy duty 460 conversion engine mounts finally showed up from Bronco Graveyard. I would recommend these mounts over the typical vulcanized rubber on steel plates the other guys sell. We all know this is the less expensive method and it works for a few years but they will eventually separate. Now with the recommended engine tilt set according to the shop manual, I knew there was going to be front driveshaft clearance problems with the transmission cross member. The solution was to cut a scallop out and using a piece of 4" pipe, weld it back in for full reinforcement. It turned out slick and provides plenty of clearance.

With the engine/tranny/t-case in place and the cross member satisfied, we still had the issue whether or not to use the midship gas tank. Apparently most 133" wheelbase 4x4 trucks only came with the one rear tank. Dual tanks were an option but very rare from what I have been able to dig up. With the decision made to use both tanks, we needed the brackets to mount the tank. And of course since the only brackets we had access to were from the 2wd F-150, the rivets had to be cut off and new holes drilled in the F-250 frame. Then there was the issue with the transfer case. The 2wd tank is long and narrow while the 4x4 tank is shorter yet taller. After a few days of unsuccessful searching, we came to the conclusion nobody makes a replacement 4x4 midship tank. So our only choice was to cut off a portion of the new 2wd tank. If anyone knows where to get a new 4x4 midship tank please let me know!

Chopping off 9" of the tank's front portion cost me about 3.5 gallons capacity which brings the 22.5 gallon tank down to around 19 which is the same as the rear tank. We used a piece of galvanized sheet steel roughly the same thickness as the tank itself, cut it to shape and then rolled a flange lip to weld to. Dad welded this using the oxy/acetylene torch.

After the tank was fully welded, a cup of diesel fuel was added to check for leaks. A few nights of the tank resting on end without any wet spots proved it was worthy!

Now that the gas tank and mounting brackets were complete, we found a late model van with disc brakes in a junkyard over Christmas weekend 2011 and just couldn't pass them up!
So began the 1984 Dana 70U rear disc conversion!********************************************************************

While the rear axle was being rebuilt, I still found time to finish dismantling the frame. The 460 mock engine, tranny and T-case was removed. Lots of reference pictures were taken, then the front axle, springs and all remaining brackets and crossmembers were removed so just the bare frame rails remained.

Here are the bare frame rails ready to be sandblasted. I am also going to weld in all of the useless holes that right now make the frame look like Swiss cheese.

Obviously with the front axle now removed, we were looking at what it was going to take to rebuild the front Dana 60 other than time and money.
So here is the Sno-Fighter Dana 60 rebuild!*************************************************************************

Work continued on the frame by removing ALL brackets to thoroughly clean the rust buildup of 34 years. More rust than usual was present thanks to the previous owner never washing out the frame after taking it wheeling. Without a drain hole, water and mud easily collected between the frame and rear shock mounts causing the majority of the worst scale rust. The leaf spring hangers were not much better. It was also decided to weld up all the useless holes that makes the frame look like Swiss cheese! We torched off the rivet "heads" and used the air chisel to remove the rivet "tails". Always use ear protection when doing this!

Now that the frame was fully stripped, we used a piece of copper pipe smashed flat to serve as the backing while filling in the useless holes. It is important to clearly mark which holes are needed and which are not! We only goofed twice!

The previous owner wheeled the truck so much that at some point he moved the bed further rearwards. I can only imagine this was done to keep from smashing the cab while off-roading twisty trails. His torch was used to wallow out a crude hole. I was not happy with this so again we used copper backing to form a mold for the weld filler. It worked out pretty slick!

The next item up for fixing was the sloppy rear section. A shabby welded on hitch bumper and too many snatchings left the rear section in desperate need of help. The torch was used to shape the metal back into factory form. Then we made our own end plates to box the top, bottom and sides of the frame together. The previous owners attempt was lame.

Finally the last order of business was the front frame section which is still incomplete. Now that the frame was turned upside down we could finish the bracing where the new horns were added. This is a must since the bottom of the frame is in tension and should not solely rely on the butt weld and side plates.

More welding and grinding shots. For most of the holes we just used the copper backing plate while the front larger holes required a plug.

With frame filling now complete, the next hurdle was cleaning and prepping for paint. The last two frames were simply cleaned with a wire wheel and rust remover. For some reason slight rust bubbles have found their way back through the paint. What's more strange is neither of them have been subjected to rain or off-road conditions! So this time I was going to take another approach- sandblasting!

After sandblasting, the frame needed just a slight bit more attention before priming. I bought a Curt receiver hitch and figured now would be a good time to drill the holes for mounting while the frame lay upside down rather than drilling upside down at a later date. I also replaced the front-rear leaf spring hanger brackets. They were just as rusted out as the rear-rear after taking a closer look at them. I found RockAuto to be a great place for these items and would recommend them to anyone! The only catch is Ford does not make the original style 4-bolt brackets that came on these trucks. Nor could I find them aftermarket, so I looked at my dad's '97 F-350 and settled on them. I knew they had two extra bolt holes but did not know if any of them would align with the old brackets until they showed up. We laid them on top of each other and surprisingly the bottom two were a match. The main leaf spring hole was also a match with the correct drop depth. The top holes we slightly off so we chose to weld, grind and re-drill the holes in the frame. These new brackets are also thicker steel than the originals. I just wish they were not made in China!

More shot of the leaf spring hangers:

Here are some shots of the final holes being drilled for the receiver hitch. Class 4 should do fine for this truck!

We were now finally ready to prep for primer. A light coat of Ospho rust remover helps etch the steel. After the rust remover does its magic, a light scuffing with sandpaper ensure a good "bite" for the primer. Lastly a wipe down with a dry clean cloth to remove any dust and the classic red Rustoleum primer is applied. This time rattle cans were used instead of the quart can mix.