67 F250 cab onto 76 F250 Highboy Chassis

[bwlyon]

Back in the spring, April, I purchased a 67 F250 2wd that a local welding shop purchased new and used as the shop's welding truck. Several years ago it was sold and changed hands a few times, until a local mechanic wound up with it where it has sat for the last few years, outside and unloved. He put a new battery, starter, and starter solenoid on just before I purchased the truck. It is Rangoon red and has the original unmolested 352, NP435 4 speed trans, and Dana 60 with 4.10 open diff. Interior is plain Jane, but does have the optional full gauge package, and cigarette lighter, no radio was optioned and has the radio delete plate still in place.The truck was kept inside by the original owner; therefore, the body is solid with little rust, even though there are several dents in the fenders and bed. With it pushing 50 years of age there are several oil leaks. It had a loud ticking from the engine, so I pulled the valve covers and found a few bent pushrods which I replaced. With the ticking gone, I found the carburetor to be in need of overhaul, so I rebuilt it. However, I couldn't get it adjusted to suit, so I threw on a 2300 Holley and that fixed the carb issues. The truck runs good now, but the brakes needed attention. I went through the brake system, (new master cylinder, new wheel cylinders, shoes, spring kits, new drums, and new brake lines from distribution block back and all new brake hoses). While doing the brakes I took the time to replace the front wheel bearings, races and seals; the rear wheel bearings looked great and only replaced the seals. I drained the rear diff to find a pristine ring and pinion gear set, so I cleaned and replaced the cover and refilled with gear oil. All the gauges worked, but the fuel gauge float decided to sink to the bottom of the tank and was replaced. The seat vinyl on the driver side was bad and I had the seat recovered. The exhaust does leak a bit around the doughnut gaskets. I have managed to put about a 1000 miles on it over the summer and have had no issues, other than having to put oil in the engine, cause it leaks like a sieve! All in all I really like it except that it will beat you to death around town. I have thought of doing a frame off restoration, but what I really like are the Highboy trucks. Well, I was turned onto the Facebook market place by a friend, so I have been looking on there for various items I might like and stumbled across a 1976 F250 Highboy. More on that in next post.

[bwlyon]

Well, A month ago I went and looked at the 1976 F250 Highboy. When I got there I gave it a quick go around, and asked if it would run, to which the man said, "If I pour some gas down the carb". He poured some gas in the carb and I cranked the key over to start. VROOM! The ole truck fired right up and then quickly died. I said, "I'll take it." What I found was a 76 Highboy with open knuckle HD Dana 44 with disc brakes in the front, Dana 60 open diff rear with 4.10 gears, 360 engine, NP 435 transmission, and a NP205 transfer case. PAY DIRT! Although the body is shot and very crusty, the chassis is all there and intact. We pulled it onto my tilt bed trailer I borrowed from my brother-in-law, and I brought it home. It had a homemade flatbed on it that was only chained on, so I pulled off when I got it home. With the bed off I could get a good look at the back side of the chassis. The chassis has a lot of surface rust but not to the point of causing weakness. With that said there is considerable rust/dust/crust build up between the frame and the bump stop brackets and a little around the rear cross member brackets that should clean up with a blaster. This is a Midwest truck and has been used to snow plow with in the past. Even so, the front springs sit up good and tall. Well, I decided to try to get it started and running. I found an older manual choke autolite 2100 carb sitting on the intake, with girlfriend in the truck and gas can in hand I said turn it over. With a little gas the ole truck fired right up, but ran very rough and wouldn't idle with out a lot of choke applied. It smelt of old musty gas and smoked, but the smoke had no oily smell. The oil pressure gauge showed excellent oil pressure, so I let it warm up and the smoke began to clear. I ordered a carb kit for the old 2100, picked up a manual choke cable, and rebuilt the carb and put it back on. I pulled the choke and cranked the truck up and it ran decent. I let it warm up and adjusted the carb. It is either running really lean or just needs the tank drained and fresh gas, as it still requires a little choke to run smooth. I backed it out of the driveway to sling a little oil around the gears and bearings and try the 4x4. Everything seems to work except the brakes are spongy! I drove it up and down the street a few times and pulled it back into the driveway. Now come up with a game plan for a full chassis restoration, to prepare it for the 1967 body. More on that in the next post.

[bwlyon]

THE PLAN! I believe the smart move is to strip the 76 down to the chassis, and remove any parts that I will need for the swap off the cab. Since the 76 has power brakes, I will take the power booster and mounting brackets off as well as the brake push rod off and save those, as well as the throttle pedal assembly in case I want to use the later model pedal.
Since it has power assist steering, doing an integral power steering conversion seems prudent; although, I'm not sure what steering gear box I will use.
With the truck down to a rolling chassis, I would like to strip it down to a bare chassis, in major components. Pull the engine, trans, and transfer case. Pull all brake lines and any other component off the frame that will come off. Then pull axle assemblies out with leaf springs attached. This should leave me a bare chassis that is ready for cleaning/stripping to bare metal. Once that is complete painting/coating the chassis to prepare it for reassembly.
With a prepped and painted chassis, the leaf springs and axles will need to be cleaned, refurbished, painted and assembled. This should give me a rolling chassis, that is ready to accept the engine, transmission, and transfer case.
As far as the transmission and transfer case they seem to be working ok, so I will open them up for a visual inspection then reseal to stop any oil leaks. The engine on the other hand is a different story, I'm not sure what avenue I will take. There are so many things a person can do these days, stroker kits, aluminum heads and intake, headers, cams, etc. So I will have to ponder that for a while.
With a complete chassis, it will be time to prepare the body for the for the swap, strip, repair any rust, paint and set it on the chassis. Which leads me to what do I do with the bed? I've always wanted a flatbed truck, and I really like the CM, SK truck beds with 4 boxes and full skirts. Since these trucks ride fairly rough, the weight of the CM bed should soften the ride quite a bit.
That's all I can think of for now. This project will probably take a few years, minimum, to complete, but nothing worth doing is happens fast anyway. This project probably won't start till spring as it is cold outside and I don't have space in the garage now to begin the work. I will post pictures as time allows. Any and all comments, suggestions, and advice is welcome. This shall be an adventure!!

[bwlyon]

Well, no progress as of yet. It's been getting colder and I haven't got a place opened up to work on the project inside. With that said, no harm in posting a couple of pics of the two vehicles to get fused together in vehicular matrimony! This is a gonna be a shotgun wedding as neither truck has a say in the matter! Sorry about the crappy pics.

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[hfdco4]

Watching closely

[popeyes71]

I'm looking forward to your build! Hopefully you can find a place inside that is warm to start the project.

[bwlyon]

This morning when I made it home from work, I decided to try and take some better pics. Here is the 67 which is a rough riding, but good driver. On a side note, I went to Lowes 30 miles to my north a while back, and on the way home with several sheets of sheet rock and some lumber the ride smoothed out tremendously. It only has 60 odd thousand miles on it, so it still drives really nice and straight. I just had the seat recovered in a manufactured leather material. I really like the feel of the seat, but now I sit to high in the seat and to far forward. I called the Upholsterer which said to give it some time to settle in. If that don't work back to the Upholsterer and have some padding taken out of the back. If that don't suit some has to come out of the bottom. Before I had it reupholstered the springs were so soft I'd bottom out when I'd hit a bump in the road, but the riding position was almost spot on for my large 6 foot frame. It has full gauge package and everything works as it should.

[bwlyon]

Here is a few pics of the 76. As you can see in the pic of the rear bump stop brackets, time has allowed a large amount of crust and rust to develop. It will be interesting to see if this crud will all come out without resorting to removing the riveted brackets. The rear frame rails will have to be cleaned up, which will requires some welding as well to close up the non-factory slices someone cut into them (I assume someone got a little carried away with the torch).

[Ranchero50]

Should be interesting. I think the dents are an inch or so longer due to the longer door opening. You'll have to figure something out for the wheel arches to fit correctly.

[bwlyon]

Should be interesting. I think the dents are an inch or so longer due to the longer door opening. You'll have to figure something out for the wheel arches to fit correctly.

I believe the precise measurement is 2", 131" vs 133" wheelbase. In the old ford literature the dent side was stated to have 2 extra inches in the cab, but oddly enough, the cab mounts are in the same places lengthwise on the frame. Of course the rear cab mounts on the 4x4 are on the outboard side of the frame vs the inboard 2wd mounts, and will have to be accounted for accordingly. Fortunately, my understanding is that there are indentions/marks on all the cabs for the rear outboard cab mounts. I will set the cab down on the frame to ensure this is correct and drill from the bottom up to make sure. The one thing I'm not sure of (and someone can chime in on this), is which cab mounts is the best to use the dentside or the bumpside.

As stated earlier, I've always wanted a truck with a skirted flatbed with side boxes, the CM, SK style flatbed is my preference, here is the link, http://cmtruckbeds.com/truck-beds/sk-truck-bed/. Fortunately, some of the Dodge trucks have a 58" back of cab to center of rear axle measurement vs the more common 56" measurement of the ford and chevy pickups with standard pickup beds on them. With the cab swap, my back of cab to center of rear axle measurement will grow from 56" to 58", which will mandate the dodge 58" wheel well opening position. As well, since the 67-72 dents and all 3/4 ton highboys have the industry standard 34" chassis cab frame width, this will make for easy placement of the long rails of the flatbed. All of this CM will be able to do using their standard parts. I just have to order the bed with the 58" wheel opening length, 34" long rail width, and single wheel bed width. With all that said, I do love the look of the bumps fleetside bed too! I hate complicated decisions!

[fordhillbilly]

Don't know much about the dentside body mounts, but I do know that inboard body mounts were used in two wheel drive appilications and the outboard mounts on 4x4. I did a 2x4 to 4x4 body swap (bumpside to bumpside) and had to drill the outer "indents" in the cab and it worked perfectly. I can't speak for dentside, but would bet they would be close, if ot he same. I think the wheelbase difference would be in the bed region, but don't know for sure.

Also will be following this post, I know that the '67 has many unique features as compared to even '68-'72 bumpsides so I would like to see how these are accomplished. I think its all doable and will be an awesome swap. Good choice!