So I purchased my 47 Ford C.O.E in 2009 and I have been lurking and admiring on this site ever since. My intent was to start on it years ago but as usual life is consuming. First comes love, then marriage, then a baby carriage and a new houseyardwokbuisnessanotherbabycarriage. I am keeping the name Seymour(see-more)the previous owner gave it. I think it suits the truck, The plan is to build a four door with a flat deck big enough to haul the family and all the toys/camper.I've been fortunate enough to build a garage big enough to accommodate this project.
picked up 3 cabs to get all the parts i figured i would need to make a four door. this is the ford f-450 donor vehicle
Well Derrick, its a real nice start. Very, Now LETS BUILD !!! I hope you have as much fun building yours as I am putting mine together. Great bunch of guys on here too.
Al, you can thank Derrick for not letting his two parts trucks go to the rebar factory. One of his wrecks is the donor for your back window. Just like real organ donors, something has to die so others can live. Make sure you have signed your real organ donor card......my public service announcement for the day
I only killed two reciprocating saws cutting up the box. I cant complain when I get to go tool shopping anyway. After being cut down, the base looks like a good enough start for the flat deck.
Well Derrick & Barry, When the Donor part is welded into my truck I suppose this will mean, WE ARE RELATED !!!!! I'll be looking forward to my birthaday card etc
Before I forget I need to thank B-bop for helping get the picture posting thing figured out. Here is the donor for the engine/******. I know the ford 6.0L powerstroke turbo-diesel has a bad reputation, but after addressing the issues I feel it is good motor with one of the best ******'s.I got the van real cheap and the motor only has 50,000 miles. Plus I'm a blue oval guy, so it keeps it in the family
The f450 ran and I drove it home, but had 370k on it so the motor is probably past its prime. ford doesnt make it easy to get a turbo deisel out these things. I figured out the engine/****** combo weighs almost 1500 lbs. I was doubtful my engine hoist would be up for the challenge but persistence prevails.
The biggest complaint I heard about the 6.0 (lots of friends with them) almost always turned out to be an issue with the factory ground. Once Ford figured that out a LOT of the problems went away. I'm sure there are several TSB's out there on it.
Well I guess you are all now cl***ed as my distant COE zuns It'll be a great family reunion when it happens.
I slid the old body back and sat the COE in its new place.The old cab is outside and nobody seems to want it, so it may go to the wrecker soon. Looks pretty damn long at this stage
stock suspension The front rails are convoluted and oddly shaped so I cut them off where the rail starts as a simple c-channel.
Ford used this monotube axle on the f450/550 that used the dana 110 rear axle.It is basically a dana 60/70 4wd axle without the differential. F250/350 and some 450's used the twin traction beam suspension which is terribly hard on tires.I chose the monotube because the inner C's are welded on and can be cut and re-welded. It's a bit of work to grind out the weld without taking too much inner C material off. It took about 1\2 hour to hammer the inner C back on and make sure it was at the correct caster angle. I ended up taking out just over 5" to bring it to the stock COE axle width
That looks like it worked slick! I did a similar thing on mine. I had a Dana 60 front from a 4WD 97 Dodge dually, I cut the pumpkin out and slid a tube over axle tube ends, set my width and welded it up.
I like to do my own fab work, but I could justify buying these from Zone Off-road. They are similar to what I would have built anyway and they were reasonably priced considering how beefy they are.
This is the 3rd vehicle of mine that I've used the chevy 1 ton y-link on. It comes from Ruff stuff Specialties and this whole set-up is cheaper than the one single long factory tie-rod. I'm waiting for the proper tube to come in so found this conduit for mock up. works pretty good for the moment. I finished the rails off with some rectangular tubing, mounted the stock Ford box just turned straight verticle
Derrick, Looking from the front, the hole in the pitman arm should be the same height off the ground as the tie rod. Yours appears to be way above, or does the last picture/mockup have me confused. Looks like the parts you're choosing are bulletproof and I like that!
The picture doesn't show it we'll, but the angle of the drag link is almost parallel with the tie rod. The pan hard bar is about 2" higher but angle is the same so there should be no bump steer.
School me a bit please.... What kind of springs does it take? Is that a panhard bar I see just behind the pitman arm? It looks well done and very heavy duty.
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