Calf's 69 Crew build, and CNM67's 67 shorty build

[BobbyFord]

You guys rock!

[Weapon_F]

That sucks guys when it gets hot and things don't work. I feel your pain,would roving the tunnel cover help? Just trying to picture where it's getting caught.

[tylerb43]

You guys have still made huge progress! Don't feel defeated, just fallback, regroup, and charge at it again!

I gotta ask though, (if I'm understanding it right) Why didn't you guys just remove the crossmember?? There's only 8 bolts - 4 per side - that hold it in... You could've unbolted the trans mount crossmember as well, and slid it back out of the way, only 2 bolts hold that one in. Am I missing something?

[Calfdemon]

The trans cover was removed, the clearance issue was between the crossmember and the high centerpoint of the cab firewall. Maybe heat was getting to our brains and we weren't thinking clearly, but we will look at it again next time we go over there.

As for removing the crossmember, the crossmember on both of the frames we are working with are riveted in and not bolted. I suppose we could have ground off the heads, moved it, and then bolted it back with new bolts, but it would have been easier to unbolt the cab and just lift it the 3 inches we need to clear it.

Anyway, we will re-address it when we get a chance to get back at it and maybe we are just overlooking the solution. We both became extremely frustrated yesterday and the high heat was not helping anything. Ill be the first to admit that it was easier to give up than try and move forward due to the heat and the limited time we had.

[tylerb43]

Rich,

That's right, I remember reading somewhere on here that some crossmembers were riveted, but not always. The two trucks I've had apart recently were bolted on. Sorry if that sounded insulting, you guys obviously know what you're doing!!

And I hear you on the heat, it can make it pretty freaking tough to stay calm. My brother's and I were loading my truck last week on a very humid 102 degree day, and there was a couple times I just wanted to snap and say screw it! It makes things pretty miserable.

Hang in there!!

[Calfdemon]

No worries, it didnt sound insulting and I appreciate anyone trying to give helpful advice. Its a lot easier to be calm and think rational when sitting in air conditioning like I am now. I would have gone back over and taken a look again, but it was 113 yesterday and is going to be even hotter today. Its only 9:45 and it is already 97 out. Supposed to be over 115 today. Needless to say, the truck can sit and bake for a while. Im not leaving the house today. Took the week off of work to be a prisoner in my house with the A/C blowing non-stop. Lol

We will figure it out and get this thing done. On a side note, I have reevaluated my finances and situation and rather than turn that longbed into another truck, I will be parting it out. So if anyone in SoCal need a solid bed, cab, LB F100 frame, 9 inch rear with all new brakes, doors (2 sets), hood, front clip, complete trim, or just about anything else, PM me and we can work something out. This stuff will end up on Craigslist eventually, but would give my locals here first dibs.

[Calfdemon]

Well, got the problem solved. The only way I could get the transmission to fit between the firewall and the lower crossmember was to take the cap off the top of the transmission (the plate where the shifter goes). With this plate off, it dropped about 5 inches off the height of the transmission and we were able to slide it into place. I then reinstalled the plate onto the transmission from inside the cab.

Anyway, got the motor into place. Did not have a lot of time this afternoon but had the muscle lined up to maneuver the hoist on the sloped driveway, so took advantage of it and just did about an hours worth of work today. Now that the motor is in place, I can do the rest of the tightening, rewiring, coolant system, and other odds and ends by myself until I need to get the hood on. Anyway, its in place and we feel a lot better about it now.




(The front clip is just resting in place and not secured, so ignore the fact that it is not lined up. It will line up fine when its actually bolted into place)

And here is the transmission with the cap back on. You can see where the stickshift goes into the transmission. That hump was just too much to clear the area given to get it into place. Removing 6 bolts rectified that problem.

[tybob81]

Looking good. Keep chugging on and you'll get there. I feel you on the eat. We had a break from it for a couple weeks now, but it's coming back just in time for me to start working on my projects to.

[sargentrs]

Man! You guys did a month's work in less than a week. Congrats!

[Calfdemon]

Well, less than a week if you count the actual days (3 days?? maybe 4). But those days were spread out over more than a month just because the trucks are parked at an off site location. I really gotta get this shortbed done for Caleb soon though as I want to get it out of my Bro-in-law's girlfriend's driveway! And the sooner I can get that truck out, then the sooner I can start selling off the parts of the other one and clean up her driveway. I feel bad having all of this stuff over there, although she has not complained once. Still, I hate putting people out like this, but we just had no where else to do this swap and she offered. Besides, i want to get all of my tools back at my house!! haha

[sargentrs]

I hear ya! I'm allotted half of the garage for my truck and if I encroach on my wife's parking space she gives me tons of grief. So, drag everything out, work on it, put everything up, sweep the floor, drag everything out, work on it......

[CNM67]

Well, less than a week if you count the actual days (3 days?? maybe 4). But those days were spread out over more than a month just because the trucks are parked at an off site location. I really gotta get this shortbed done for Caleb soon

I'm having withdraws! I wanna drive my F'ing truck man.

[fbomb100]

Ok, so today we got started on the longbed to shortbed swap at about 9am. It was already almost 100 degrees out and muggy as all hell thanks to the rain we randomly got a few days ago... Needless to say, it peaked at about 110 today while we were working on this swap. We couldn't touch the black frame with bare skin for most of the day.

Here we are at 9am this morning when the longbed was pulled into the spot next to the shortbed frame. Hood up, and starting with the front bumper removal:
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2 hours in and with some scalding heat, we had the front clip removed, doors off, cab emptied, and things were moving right along:
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Unfortunately, we ran into a few unexpected delays with the transmission that was in the longbed. It will not mate with the shortbed driveshaft. So after running over to my house to get the other T18 from the shortbed, and a few other stops for food and supplies, we ended up running out of time to get the engine and trans pulled before our friends showed up with some extra muscle to help move beds and cabs. The buddies that came over to help after they got off work were only available for about 2 hours, and we used that to move the shortbed onto the frame, and get the cab over from the longbed frame. Due to us not getting the drivetrain pulled, this made the cab swap take a LOT more time than we originally hoped for. We got it done, but did not get everything we wanted to get done involving 5 sets of hands. Here is how the truck sat after the shorbed was put on and the cab moved over:
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And here is the extremely messy 352 still on the longbed. Too bad we dont have the 390 built yet as it would be so much nicer to just drop it straight in rather than have to pull this 352 twice...
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By 10pm tonight, we had the power steering moved over and steering back in the truck, brake system fully hooked up, interior of the cab all back together, gas tank installed, both doors put back on and aligned, and driveway pressure washed. This picture was taken before the driver's door was put on. Front clip is just sitting in place for now since it needs to come off for the engine install:
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Unfortunately, there is still quite a bit of work to do to make this a driving truck again, but hopefully we can get it done on Wednesday... we will see. If not, its going to sit for a while because I have family coming into town this weekend and Caleb is having surgery next week. So until he recovers, nothing will get done to these trucks. Hopefully it is a little cooler on Wednesday and we can complete this project!

hey hows it going calf. its been a long time I was on here .. looking around on the fordifiction and seeing what every ones up too.. and looking at this trend of yours.. As I was reading and looking at the new stuff u been doing .I seen the pic of this swb that you put in the loaned driveway and thought I have seen it before..than this 4th pic down is it ..it had a clear shot of johnny&suize house what a small world it is!! johnny has a nice little two tone '32 ford roaster!

[Calfdemon]

Hey Fbomb! Yeah, long time no see!

Yeah, he lives across the street from my Bro-in-law's girlfriend. I met him and saw his 32. That thing is sweet! It truly is a small world when you can pop on a website, look at some pics, and then spot a friends house! haha

Hope all is well with you.

[Calfdemon]

Well, due to Caleb's surgery and recovery time, we have not been able to spend as much time working on his truck as we would have liked, and when we could, he was pretty much able to hand me light tools as he couldn't lift anything with much weight. This led to only working on it for a few hours here and there and about 2 days a week. This week though he has been feeling a lot better and we dove in to finish it up.

Other than a few minor issues with brakes and exhaust, we were able to get the truck back together without any further problems once we got the transmission figured out. Yesterday, we got the brakes working, got the exhaust figured out and hooked up, got the wiring all hooked up, front clip and hood on, lights all put back on and wired up, and fired the bad boy up. My worry was that there was going to be a transmission problem since we put in a transmission that we were told was good, but never actually saw run. Once the truck was fired up and taken out of the driveway, we saw that it was going to run fine and after no time, there were burnouts happening and the truck runs a lot stronger and faster than it did before. Its the same tired 352 in there, but with the T18 (had a NP435 in it before) and the different rear end, the truck drives so much better! Plus, it is quite a bit lighter now that it is a short bed.

Anyway, we didnt finish until about 9pm last night so the pictures are dark and hard to see. We will get some new ones today with it in daylight so the final product can be seen (minus paint). Now we just need to get the truck all one color and get the 390 built for it that is in my garage... Then after all that is done, get that bad boy lowered and his other wheels on it. But in the meantime, at least the truck is driveable again and we can call the swap a success!!