My 1969/71 highboy build.

[69Highboy]

As I waited awhile before joining, I will be posting several long winded posts just to catch all y'all up on my project. Also, updates may be few and far between. I hope to be "done"/on the road by this summer or fall. Anyhow, this story begins in 1969. My grandparents ordered a red 1969 F250 CS CC with ac, put a campershell on it, and with my two uncles and a parent in the bed head to Arkansas. My grandpa heard the broadcast of the astronauts landing on the moon somewhere in the middle of Oklahoma. The truck lived on as grandma's vehicle and was maintained by Ford's finest. It was my dad's truck through high school, college, and in 92 became his. It went to work with him every day, he drove it while he dated my mom, he loved it so much it was only retired in '06 when he got his 2000 7.3 liter 4x4 daily driver. It's bed got dented by a neighbor not watching while grandpa backed up, in 1993 my dad put a 390 with a 4bbl Edelbrock manifold and a Carter carb in it. It had two deer jump in front of it, one tailgate demolished by a tree, a flatbed boom truck back into the hood (the one that is in later pics. Ironic, no?) and all of them got fixed. I received the truck at the whopping age of 3 and let it languish till last year. I started puttering around with it, getting it to start and stop reliably, etc. Then, about a month or so ago, my brother found a 1971 f250 4x4 chassis. Me and dad had talked about converting it and I'd hemmed and hawed about it but this got the ball rolling. After my brother and I decided converting his truck would be too hard, we decided we'd do it to mine as it was already a stick and we wouldn't have to change the drivelines.
Then, it all hit the fan. The front brakes on the chassis were locked, all we had to move it was a come-along, and there was a time crunch. With the help of some boards to skid the front tires on and some pipes to pry the front end along it got loaded. The evil boom truck lifted the front end at the drop site and the trailer was driven out and we made it home in time. The next day the front brakes were gutted and the chassis was moved to the workzone. Over the next few days, the bed was pulled, the frame stripped and painted, and then disassembly began on Red. The bed was pulled along with the front clip. Then, disaster. The strap was too narrow and the cab and doors were wrecked. A buddy had a nice cab that we bought and I'd had a new bed given to me a few years ago so the old bed was junked due to issues. The engine and tranny were swapped from my truck Friday and that's were I'm at. The "new" cab has had all the minor rust and trashed cowl replaced by a neighbor who's an experienced welder. Soon the cab will go to paint (which is where the bed I was given is at) but that's where I'm at for now. I know, I know, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

[69Highboy]

Now for the pics. No vintage pics as "film was too expensive to waste on a truck" from the same guy with 30 pictures of horses and a VW bug . Anyway, All the photo's except for the ones of the bed were taken this year. The truck bed photos are out of date as right now the bed is the only thing left on the frame. In about this order we have Red, the chassis, the new cab and bed, and a headache rack on a truck my brother sold that I'm hoping to replicate on my truck. I'll split up the pics between posts to help with downloading.
[img]hhttps://i.postimg.cc/qqGgs5rk/IMG-2068-2.jpg[/img]

[69Highboy]

Now for the chassis pics. The people doing stuff in the pics are my dad and brother. I was too busy documenting the process to help . I'm only in the pic of the engine getting pulled/lifted. I'm smiling because it hadn't gone downhill yet and it still was fun. The boom truck in the pics is the most useful tool throughout the project. The guy loaning the truck and his shop did a conversion like this when he was younger. He even gave me a $200 set of dana 60 hubs that fit my 44HD for free because "the stock ones broke a lot but these didn't despite having a plastic center" They had sat on a bench under a tree for a few years so they were disassembled, cleaned, greased, and reassembled. I'll install them as soon as I stop by the auto parts store and get the gaskets.

[69Highboy]

Finally, the new body, the headache rack, and its future bumper that my brother thrown in with a bench seat he bought. $100 for a freshly reupholstered seat, a front bumper, and a 10,000lb (I think) Warn winch ain't bad. The cowl on the cab was gummed up from a camper's mounts so the old cab was cannibalized for patches. It also had a few holes in the floor but the guy included floor pans. We also have 6 doors sitting in storage. 2 destroyed when the cab was, 1 good green one, 1 green one that needs the bottom straightened, and 2 rusted white ones. Why the last 2? Because my brother said "We'll take 'em!" One of the cab pics features my neighbor who did all the welding and 60% of the patch fitting pro bono. He also did at least 10 4x4 builds for himself and countless other 4x builds for friends. He's the guy who'll help with the power steering conversion and other technical/welding stuff.

[69Highboy]

The last of the pics. Big letdown, I know but 17 pics in one post seemed like too much.

[geradr4]

Thanks for sharing some pics. That's an awesome project. I'm excited to see more updates.

[hfdco4]

Great project and a new legacy!

[69Highboy]

I did this exactly a week ago but midterms were all through this past week so I didn't have the time to post this. I re-did the transfer case bushings after class and took off one of the front hubs to see if it worked. It did so I have high hopes for having a spare set of hubs to keep in the toolbox. Now I just need to get the exhaust figured out, get a new tranny to t-case u joint, install my new body bushings, rebuild the front and rear brakes, do the power steering conversion with my neighbor and I'll be done with the chassis till re-assembly. At some point I'll drop the t-case and plug all the leaks on it but getting the truck to move under it's own volition is the primary goal.
The new and the old bushings. The new ones have a lifetime warranty so I hope they'll fare a little better. Ps. In the background you can see the current AWD king that is my main means of getting to the project, our 1993 or 4 Landcruiser that I learned how to do an engine swap on. It's a skill I use more than I thought I would, for some reason....
edit: As I'm non tech savvy, you'll have to right click on the image and go onto "open image in new tab" to see the photos until a mod takes pity on me.
Double edit: I figured picture posting out!

[redstone65]

Cool! Great work so far. Hope you get it moving under it's own power soon.

[69Highboy]

So do I. Big plans are in the near future....

[popeyes71]

Great build! Keep us posted of your progress! Love to get my hands on a nice winch bumper like what you have

[69Highboy]

Yesterday my brother gave me a Ford brush guard off a 73-79 that fit's my truck. Now I have to decide: winch bumper, Ford bumper and brush guard, or try to combine the winch and the Ford bumper/brush guard assembly?

[69Highboy]

Provided all goes well the 71 4x4 chassis will be coming home tomorrow. We picked it up and loaded it onto the flatbed of the IH boom truck this afternoon so we can drop it onto a trailer tomorrow. When the brakes are frozen and you can't drag it, lift it! In this case it was about 10 feet off the ground at times. Very nerve wracking. We also put the 2wd tires on it so they'll all match and I can keep the cool rims.

[redstone65]

Provided all goes well the 71 4x4 chassis will be coming home tomorrow.

Good luck!

[69Highboy]

The chassis made it home on the 5th but I was waiting until I remembered to take pics, but I decided I won't remember so I'll post the update now. The 4x genius that welded the cab patches and will be helping with the GM power steering conversion and the twin-sticking gave it his stamp of approval on the chassis and said it has a heavy duty set of springs. Is that typical of highboys? It has more springs per pack than our 2000 F250 4x4 diesel. Shouldn't it be the opposite?