Every Kid's Dream

[Flipper_1938]

Any thoughts on putting the motor behind the cab?

I saw a 53-56 Ford cab over put on a IH bus chassis. They moved the motor to the middle, right behind the cab and put a sleeper over it. They used the IH diesel bus motor, probably shorter than the Cummins, but even at that they didn’t put a floor in the sleeper. You can still access most of it by getting under the side between frame and sleeper. He has a 20-24’ duck tailed flat bed on it.

Been sitting several years now, the old guy never drives it but won’t sell it, either. I tried to buy it last time I saw him out in it, no luck.

Bamamav, we thought of that and put a tape measure to it. It would work better as a COE. To do it with my cab and the Seagrave sheetmeral....it would be around a 228 inch wheelbase!!!

 

[gene49]

Hmmm.
Only 228 inch wheel base.... articulating front and rear steering? An articulating tandem rear end might be interesting to design...

A COE would put the roof of that cab pretty high up there too...

Don't you hate it when the tape measure gets in the way of our visions?

I've run into that a few times before, but not at this scale...

 

[Bamamav]

Bamamav, we thought of that and put a tape measure to it. It would work better as a COE. To do it with my cab and the Seagrave sheetmeral....it would be around a 228 inch wheelbase!!!

Not really that long when you put the vehicle size in perspective. About the same as a one ton quad cab with a long bed. Might be tough to park at Walmart though!

 

[Flipper_1938]

Not really that long when you put the vehicle size in perspective. About the same as a one ton quad cab with a long bed. Might be tough to park at Walmart though!

This was at the Redneck Rumble (last year?). I think it was a long bed crew cab to start with. Mine would need to be longer ....probably 3 or 4 feet longer.. I have longer nose, bigger cab, bigger motor.

But it would let me set the body down as low as I dared to go.

 

[Flipper_1938]

With a 32" tire, I can lay running boards. This is the rear wheel I had on my flatbed.
View attachment 181620

Ride height
View attachment 181621

After stewing it over for a week, this is what I have to do. Anything else is selling out. I don't care if it means poking the engine through the hood and having a big ole transmission in the cab with me. In has to be a HOT ROD!!! The grill shell needs to be on the ground.

 

[transport module #3]

i believe you got it daddy-o
it looks right

 

[Flipper_1938]

I think this will be close to ride height (not with these tires). Plan is to weld 6x3 to the top of the frame and do braces inside the c-channel with the same material. ....and the cut out a 8.75 inch tall pocket out for the axle/airbags.

I'm think I'm going to use 255/70r22.5 front tires. They are a little over 35 inches tall (tires on now are 38" tall).

I think this will be about a foot lower than stock.

 

[Flipper_1938]

I'm wussing out again. I'm back to this height. This motor is too ugly to poke through the hood. ....and I'm to sure I can make raised fenders look right.

I started cutting out my plates to expand my axle mounting brackets. I gotta practice my stick welding before I weld this. I don't think my mig has enough umpf for this heavy stuff.

 

[kenny c]

Nice job cutting the plates out with the electric chainsaw in the background. Where can I get one of those?

 

[bob w]

It'll be fun to burn some sticks.

 

[Flipper_1938]

I went to the Redneck Rumble and ended up buying a 1957 Ford dash. It looks like a pretty good starting point for an interesting big pick up dash. When I bought it, I was thinking about sheetmetaling all of the openings and installing generic gauges. On the way to the parking lot, I spotted a instrument panel with a diesel tachometer. The guy said he thought it was from a 70's F700 COE .the speedometer and tach are electric. Did Ford have those in the 70's?

If I can find info on making these work with my engine and trans, I might shave the bubble off of the dash and make the flat belt line taller.

⁹

 

[Bamamav]

The F100 guys snatch those dashes up. Especially the ones that don’t have the air gauges.

 

[Flipper_1938]

The F100 guys snatch those dashes up. Especially the ones that don’t have the air gauges.

Any idea what year range/model it is? I need to try and figure out what kind of sending units I need and how to wire it up.

I didn't think ford had electric speedometer until late 80's

 

[Flipper_1938]

Ford apparently built those funky cabovers a lot longer than I thought they did. ...up until 1990?

 

[CORPO]

Just stopped in to check on progress.. its going to be a beast no matter which way you decide to go

 

[Flipper_1938]

I put in a few minutes with some metal polish and it looks like this will clean up pretty good. Still no luck finding any documentation on this cluster.

 

[Old Stuff]

Just getting caught up on this from being gone so long. I think it's crazy cool. I can see the struggle with wanting to slam it- then having limitations like the motor to keep it higher. I'll tell you this much, that truck when done will get tons of attention even if not slammed. Big trucks are awesome.

 

[bob w]

It's a Samsung.

 

[Flipper_1938]

It's a Samsung.

That was the best lit spot I could find.

 

[Flipper_1938]

Up until this point, I have been playing with mock-ups using full length frame rails(40 feet?). This weekend, I plan on making the cuts to get to pickup truck size. ....and hopefully commit to a ride height.

I flip flop daily on ride height. Part of me says be sensible and build a functional beast. But then at cruise nights, I catch myself walking past nice stock-ish height cars.