Stepside to Styleside + Coyote & 10R80 with a Little Boost

[Aerocoupe]

Might be a good conversation piece on the street but by no means will this be a SEMA level truck. I want to drive it and beat on it and I just cannot afford that kind of build. Its been three years just getting to this point...ha ha ha!!! Seriously, thanks and for sure I will make it as nice as I can but I am not going to worry about how pretty the welds are or stuff that just doesn't make sense mechanically for this truck to be a super nice street truck. I could just POR 15 the frame but I am not willing to do that on my time when I can take it to someone and have them media blast and powder coat it and all I do is drop off and pick up. That and I think it just lasts longer and makes working on it easier down the road.

Got a little time Saturday to tack weld the boxing plates into the frame rails. Should have them all welded out in the next couple of weeks as my buddy and I both want it done before the 4th of July.

Rear Plates:






Front Plate:


We also talked ourselves into gusseting the four link front cross member on the bottom for two reasons, one we thought it needed it and two we had the plate so why not melt some metal. Will clean up the welds but this was about 10 minutes after they were welded up.



So from here about the last thing to weld up are the front lower control arm rear bushing mounts. Will need to do some research on that so that I can get the caster at about 5-6 degrees positive before we weld them up. This will allow for a couple of degrees of +/- adjustment down the road. I couple guys have done this and have some good write-ups on how to do it so I just need to reread those and fully understand what I am doing as this is critical like getting the four link setup right.

[69bump]

Where did you get the driveshaft loop?

[Aerocoupe]

it is part of the Fatman Fabrications four link. Mine came with the QA-1 coil overs for $1500 and they now come with the RideTech coilovers but the price went up to $1800...wow. Bottom of the page here:

https://www.fatmanfab.com/product/1948- ... rd-pickups

[Aerocoupe]

Well its only been a little over nine months and not a whole lot has happened. We did finish up welding the boxing plates on the frame and got the rear of the front LCA's mounted.

Rear frame boxing plate weld out pictures:











Front LCA rear mount attachment:









When I take the front suspension back off I will make the other two pieces to completely seal off the rear LCA mount to the frame and weld those up. If I leave it like it is debris and water will pack in there and rot it out.

[Aerocoupe]

I wanted to get the control arms for the rear end powder coated but the rod ends that came with the Fatman Fabrications four link are the old RideTech ends in that the bushing is pressed in and they quit making them. So if I attempted to remove them and damaged one I am SOL. I could cut them off and replace them with the newer RideTech design (R-Joint) which allows for better movement and they are rebuildable but the cost is ridiculous so I think these are just going to get painted at this point.

I got the 9" housing mocked up under the truck and a buddy narrowed it for me at his shop a few miles from my dad's shop. That then went to the powder coaters and is now black like the front suspension parts. Thought I had some pics of the rear axle housing powder coated but I cannot find them but if I do I'll post them up.

The guy that narrowed the rear axle housing has a jig to measure the length of the axle needed from the 3rd member to the axle flange and then you have to know the offset for the brakes you are going to run to get the correct axles.

Jig he has is a plate that slips over all the studs that the 3rd member attaches to the axle housing. This one is similar but it only attaches to four of the studs on the axle housing:



You can see window to the left side which is where the ends of the axles would be.

I called Moser and they talked me though what information they needed and a few weeks later the axles showed up. The same guy that narrowed the axle housing assembled the 3rd member with the 3.73 gears, new trac-lok, and a bearing kit all from Yukon Gear. I have everything for the 2001 Explorer rear disc brakes except for the calipers so I am now working on getting those. Once I have them I will assemble the rear end and put it under the truck.

[beejaytx225]

Really nice progress!! I saw you picked the truck up from Austin. I'm about an hour from Austin. If you need help on anything hit me up! Ide love to learn as much as I can

[Aerocoupe]

Decided to go with a Gen III Coyote and 10R80 and top it with a 3.0L Whipple later down the road. Turbo stuff was just too much piping, rework of the exhaust, and I think the Whipple will be cleaner. It will allow for me to work all the bugs out naturally aspirated and then move up to the Whipple and go north of 700 hp.

Don't expect to update much until the motor and trans is bought which I hope will be in March or April of 2022. One other note is I decided to save a little longer and just buy a crate motor and trans so I don't have to throw the dice with salvage yard units. Prices on salvage parts have gone way up with the whole auto manufacturing chip shortage so it helped close the gap between new and salvage prices. Only thing that will suck is after the drive train is done it will be more waiting to get the body work and paint done as the days of $3,000 paint jobs are gone. My buddy that painted my last two cars said for what I want it will be north of $5,000 and it will not be a dark color...good grief.

[hfdco4]

I hear you on part prices. Things aren't good at all.