PaPa's 69 F100 Explorer Coyote 10R80 swap

[Venomous duck]

I decided to try a different support so I ordered a pair from Carolina Classics. When they arrived I noticed right away that they were different and looked to be better quality, but not without issues. I did not get a side by side picture but I will note the differences.

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[Venomous duck]

So I had to decide which support to use. Either could be made to work but since it is easier to take metal away I decided to use the Carolina Classic set.

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[Venomous duck]

I then had to see if it fits.

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[Venomous duck]

This took an amazing amount of work but came out good. The paint is just temporary. I plan to media blast the bottom and coat it with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and then spray with Chassis Black. I will have to apply filler at some point to smooth it all out and cover a few spots.

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[Venomous duck]

So that's it for now, next up is the cab mount. SPOILER ALERT!! It does not fit either!

[jzjames]

Cross brace looks good. Have fun fitting the cab mount!

[Venomous duck]

Sounds like experience talking. I am actually mostly done with it, I just need to get the pics processed and upload. Yes it was a blast.

[hfdco4]

Wow, really nice work making that fit and look like it was never changed!

[Venomous duck]

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[Venomous duck]

With the cab support finished it was time to get the cab mount figured out. A lot of people have installed these but there is not much information on how they accomplished this. They just show the mounts installed. I am going to show what I found and how I made them work. The best information I found was from Jeff Ford at Auto Restomod on YT. From what I can tell there are only 3 options. The single piece stamped mount and 2 different 2 piece mounts. I knew the single piece was not for me. I bought a 2 piece set from Auto Metal Direct. I think that these are manufactured by Dynacorn. When they arrived I was impressed with them. They looked very close to the originals, heavy gauge steel, and have the hole for the mount already there. When I laid one on the cab I discovered they did not fit at all. But even worse is the fact that they are shorter then the original. I thought I could make them fit the floor pan by reworking them but I was not sure how I could deal with them being short. The only thing I could think of was to shim the rubber mounts. I did not want to do this so I ordered the other set from Carolina Classics. These are made by Dennis Carpenter. BTW if you order them from Carolina Classics they include the covers.

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[Venomous duck]

When the second set of mounts showed up I started to compare it with the original one.

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[Venomous duck]

Next I put it on the cab. It did not fit any better than the first set except that it was the same height at the front. This would mean that the mount would not need to be shimmed. The front part would not fit against the firewall. The side that should fit the floor pan was crooked so it did not match the contour of the pan.

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[Venomous duck]

Here is a close up of the mis alignment when it is set correct on the floor pan.

[Venomous duck]

So what is going on here? Time to look at that bend.

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[Venomous duck]

Now compare with the new one. You have to wonder what these mounts are actually made for. I don't think it's the dent side. Maybe a 1st gen Bronco.

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