Was he making engine noises while he was 'driving'?

 

Somewhat productive weekend. Got the front frame horns chopped off, this was kind of fun thanks to the frame rail profile. What is interesting is the frame rails aren't symmetrical due to the power steering box. This made keeping the cuts even tricky but its not super critical as long as the new horns are square and level.



We then capped the end of frame rails to prepare for the new horns.




The new frame horns are 6"X2" rectangle tubing, I had this laying around from a bumper build and it seemed perfect for this. Currently the tubes were left long while we figure out how the bumper will be mounted up. Also the rusty square tube was just in there for welding.



Last thing we did before wrapping up was salvage the core support mounts from the Superduty horns and get one mocked up. The core support bolt will need to be changed a little due to clearance but that should be straight forward.

 

This may sound like a silly question (I mean it's ME after all ) but are you making sure about future serviceability? Will routine servicing be easy, the same or a stinker? With the work you're putting into this puppy, I'm sure it'll have a spot in the drive for a loooooonng time. What if you need, or want, to upgrade the engine down the road? What if the transmission fails under heavy usage?

 

Ideally everything should be about the same as the stock Dakota, the frame extension is just to get the core support mounted. The goal is to use as many off the shelf parts as possible, once we start installing the drivetrain we will see. I know we will have to build motor mounts but hopefully we can keep the Superduty isolators and just make engine brackets. Current plan is to use the 4.7l from our 2001 Dak but I have been looking at how much work a 5.7l swap would be. For simplicity we may just us the parts from the donor to get it on the road and then make changes down the road.

 

By using reasonably late model stock parts, field serviceability will be better. I always thought if I hit the lottery I wanted to build a dream car. Use a vintage body, maybe a 1957 Chevy with reproduction parts to look old but with a modern drive train so I could fix it on the road.

 

Parts availability is huge! Stock off the shelf stuff makes it nice.

 

Scored a good deal on 6.5' bed, tailgate and tail lights from a guy parting out a regular cab. The bed is in pretty good condition all things considered and with the modification we need to make wont matter much. I set the bed on the frame to see how much I need to move the axle forward and what needs to happen to line up the body lines. With the axle in the stock location there is a 12" gap between the bed and the cab so it needs to move forward about 10". Rough number show we will need to make a sub-frame to move the bed up from the frame anywhere from 5" at the front mounts to 3" at the frame hump. Tire coverage looks pretty good with the stock F250 wheels but the wheel wells need to be opened up some. The plan is to move the bed forward 10" and shift the axle forward 8" using 99-06 F250 leaf spring and relocating the rear shackle hanger. This should leave the front fender lip just in front of the front edge of the tire, then I plan to section the wheel opening and shift the rear lip backwards about 5". This should leave the wheel opening wide enough for tire clearance, I will still need to add the front "fangs" to the bed to match up to the cab.

Played a little with powerpoint to get a idea of where the bed will be and what the wheel opening should look like. For a short time I thought about stretching the bed and keeping the axle in its current spot but after looking at it I think i like the 6.5' bed.

 

Personally, I'd make a small auxiliary fuel tank and mount it there. Either for the truck on the road or for gasoline to odd road toys like dirt bikes or ATV's. Hook a 12 volt fuel pump to it to fill the tanks on your bikes or what ever. Just a rectangular box with a few baffles will work just fine.

 

I thought about something like that but it would still leave the weird body line on the cab and my so e wants it to look "kind of" stock
​​​​​​.. Lol

 

Well, if he's building it, it's his truck. You can always mount a tank IN the bed. I've got a dune buggy tubular tank I used for off road supply. The truck it was in is gone but I took several kids and their dirt bikes out camping and we had enough fuel for them to wear themselves out riding. Nlormally they would stay up late but by 9 pm, they were all zonked out and me and momma had the fire to ourselves.