Calling all f100/f250 Prerunners

[1971ford]

good call on laying down your spares, i plan on hacking out my spare holders and laying them on top of the cage like they did in the '70's. Stand up spares are never stable. Very handy though, i can stand behind my truck and roll a spare off in seconds, and i don't have to climb on top of the truck and throw a spare off.

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[Tycho]

I'm not sure what you mean by "bump-formed" but any 9inch housing will work for you, you already have one even. Just put in the gears you want, if you want to change, and truss if you plan on hucking the truck and beating it hard. There isn't much to do with rearends unless you're making a trophy truck.

You recommended I get my rear-end trussed or reinforced.
I assume this (showed you it before) accomplishes that:
http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Per ... _1691.html

I'm going to stick with 3.25 for now considering the truck is making ~100 more hp than it was when we first drove it. It's alive, for sure.

There are many 9 inch disk brake conversion kits out there, i dont have one but just google for some kits

Yeah, found one for 400ish. Parking brake actually failed when we were working on it and almost crushed my friend but we stopped it.
I think ill do that all at once, front and back. Front needs some new rotors and pads, plus the whole system needs new fluid. Plus, shiny
new rotors look great behind the wheels!

As far as your bumper goes, can you PM me all the pics you have? I'm going to ask some guys I've talked to before about making one similar
and how much it might be. How much was yours, raw material wise? And what diameter tube did you use?

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/aos/1480768643.html

[1971ford]

You can get that housing if you want to but i wouldn't.
Not because it isn't a good housing, but because it isn't something you really need and it needs a lot of work. That housing, is just that, a bare housing. It still needs the spring perches, all brakes, axles, your 3rd member, and that housing is not trussed so it won't be much stronger than your current housing. I would hold off for a while.
I have pictures of that bumper being made and everything, i will put them together and send you the good ones that you could use.
That garage fabber ad doesn't look too bad, i wish i could see some bigger pictures so i could look at the bends and welds. He needs to have a good bender costing about $1000 to be able to not kink tubing, not many people have them. A lot of people use the harbor freight benders, but they kink the bends.

[Tycho]

You can get that housing if you want to but i wouldn't.
Not because it isn't a good housing, but because it isn't something you really need and it needs a lot of work. That housing, is just that, a bare housing. It still needs the spring perches, all brakes, axles, your 3rd member, and that housing is not trussed so it won't be much stronger than your current housing. I would hold off for a while.

sounds good. I won't be racing or pounding this truck anytime soon. The stock 9 inch should hold.

I have pictures of that bumper being made and everything, i will put them together and send you the good ones that you could use.
That garage fabber ad doesn't look too bad, i wish i could see some bigger pictures so i could look at the bends and welds. He needs to have a good bender costing about $1000 to be able to not kink tubing, not many people have them. A lot of people use the harbor freight benders, but they kink the bends.

sent them an email with the pics, as well as other ones I gleaned from your race dezert page. I may have to paypal you some money towards your spring project in exchange for exact measurements of your bumper.
Also, you welded yours on. Is that the norm?


I noticed some guys (including Brodozer) switch to 1 ton kingpins. Any advantage?
And how does Brodozer get 20 inches of travel out of the stock suspension?
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=59826

Plus, one last stupid question. With the shifter (art carr/cheetah/whatever) do I have to row gears 24/7 or is their a normal D like the stock tranny? Never used one before.

Thanks for the patience

[1971ford]

You can get that housing if you want to but i wouldn't.
Not because it isn't a good housing, but because it isn't something you really need and it needs a lot of work. That housing, is just that, a bare housing. It still needs the spring perches, all brakes, axles, your 3rd member, and that housing is not trussed so it won't be much stronger than your current housing. I would hold off for a while.

sounds good. I won't be racing or pounding this truck anytime soon. The stock 9 inch should hold.

I have pictures of that bumper being made and everything, i will put them together and send you the good ones that you could use.
That garage fabber ad doesn't look too bad, i wish i could see some bigger pictures so i could look at the bends and welds. He needs to have a good bender costing about $1000 to be able to not kink tubing, not many people have them. A lot of people use the harbor freight benders, but they kink the bends.

sent them an email with the pics, as well as other ones I gleaned from your race dezert page. I may have to paypal you some money towards your spring project in exchange for exact measurements of your bumper.
Also, you welded yours on. Is that the norm?


I noticed some guys (including Brodozer) switch to 1 ton kingpins. Any advantage?
And how does Brodozer get 20 inches of travel out of the stock suspension?
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=59826

Plus, one last stupid question. With the shifter (art carr/cheetah/whatever) do I have to row gears 24/7 or is their a normal D like the stock tranny? Never used one before.

Thanks for the patience

I'll grab some measurements for you tomorrow, if i remember.
yup i welded mine on, as far as it being normal, it varies. I'd say half of prerunner bumpers are welded on and half are bolted.
There are pros/cons to each, but basically it is just the extra work of making it bolt on. I didn't bother making mine bolt on, because this was when i was having a guy from a forum do it for me at his shop, and i wanted it done as quick as possible because he was taking time from his weekend to do the work for free, so we just welded it right on. It will take 10 minutes to cut it off if we smash it for some reason (we won't be nerfing people for a long time in my truck, that's more for baja, we don't nerf in VORRA usually) and won't take long to weld another one on. But it's definitely nice to have a bolt on if you have the extra time/money.

You and me both have 7/8 kingpins. Just about 1" but not quite, so some people swap over to a even beefier front end, to get that extra big kingpin. Really i wouldn't worry about doing the swap unless you are racing hardcore races where you can't afford to break. I'm not going to swap to 1" because i see no reason. It is unlikely that my 7/8 kingpins will break, but they are more likely to than a 1". If you want 1" kingpins for the extra strength, grab a F350 front end.

Brodozer is no where near stock suspension any more. well, he does still have twin i beams, and i believe that are not lengthened either. But, if i remember correctly he is running 16" travel 3.0 Fox coilovers up front, allowing about 19 at the hub. To do this, he has a full engine cage tied into the frame and cab cage for the upper shock mount. In the rear he has a 4 link obviously, allowing a lot of travel.

My shifter is a Winters, same as Art-carr. The ability to leave it in 3 and not shift depends on your tranny. With a stock tranny, yes you can install the shifter and only the shifter and you can leave it in 3 or shift as you want. But ive heard it isn't good for your tranny to be shifting it when you want, so we installed a TCI manual/auto valve body in my tranny. So i can still drive in 3 or i can shift when i want. But once you install the shifter, you may never leave it in 3 again FOr example my 429 makes lot's of power at higher RPM's, say 3,500-4,000, and the tranny automatically shifts around 2,000. So i shift it myself with my handy art-carr at 3,500 and get much more power. Besides, shifting is way fun
My fully built race c6 that i got out of a TT for free with 40 miles (hehe, good to have connections!) has a fully manual valve body, therefore i will not have the ability to leave it in 3. But i have no problem with that. It also has a much higher stall torque converter and i will have to run 2 coolers/fans but that's another story.
Oh and the other thing is shift pattern. Make sure that the shift pattern on the shifter you get is correct. For a stock tranny like yours, the pattern should have the "1" on the bottom.

pheeww that was like a whole english essay worth

[Tycho]

Your plan sounds really good.
Keeping the front simple with an autofab kit is perfect. Consider the front done besides shocks, you will want to ask John at Autofab what to do with shocks. If i remember correctly, and depending on which kit, it comes with new coil buckets and shock mounts. So you would just need new shocks that are longer, that would allow as much down/up travel as possible. You don't want to bottom out on the shock and you don't wan it to catch your wheel's weight when you are airborne (bump stops and limit straps needed).

Thanks. The kit will be good, but a nice chunk of change, as well. Guess I could do the front separate from the back. Damn lack of cage is making this complicated.

Where did you mount your fuel pump? What pump is it? Holley? red/blue?
For power we just ran the ground wire to the mount and the hot wire along the frame to my switch panel. You can go to any wire under the dash that is hot when the ignition is hot though. I would run it to a switch just for kicks. You should think about swtiches too, because before you know it you will have quite a few switches to play with

It's a Facet gold-flo pump. Trying to mount it somewhere inside the engine bay since my fuel tank is in the cab. Thanks for the tip. Been raining here so understandably any electrical work has been impossible.

[1971ford]

ahh I haven't heard of those pumps.
Reason i asked where it was mounted is because most pumps (like holleys, probably yours too) are pushers not pullers. So you want them as close as possible to the tank. I'm not sure what to do about a in-cab tank though, i wouldn't want the pump inside, and anywhere outside seems to be pulling too much. hmm

[Tycho]

ahh I haven't heard of those pumps.
Reason i asked where it was mounted is because most pumps (like holleys, probably yours too) are pushers not pullers. So you want them as close as possible to the tank. I'm not sure what to do about a in-cab tank though, i wouldn't want the pump inside, and anywhere outside seems to be pulling too much. hmm

http://www.amazon.com/Facet-Purolator-F ... B000BMBSQ2

Got it from Checker for 80ish.

"We recommend that you mount the fuel pump no more that 12 inches from the fuel supply (gas tank). All our Electronic fuel pumps will push fuel rather than pull fuel. Some pumps only have suction limit of 12 inches, therefore you should mount as close as possible to the tank."

Well, damn.

"When you install a Facet pump on a vehicle use a source that is controlled by the ignition switch so power is cut off when the engine is off."

Goes along with what you said.

That's all from their website. I'll have to let my guy know before he does anything. Not sure If there is anywhere underneath the truck where the incab flows down that we can mount it. I'll have to check.

[1971ford]

well the line comes up out the top of the incab tank and then bends down and goes through the floor. anything outside of the cab will be about 2 feet away from the fuel. But i wouldn't mount it inside, so i would do it as soon as possible under the cab. No way around it really until you get a new tank, like a fuel cell in the bed.

[Tycho]

well the line comes up out the top of the incab tank and then bends down and goes through the floor. anything outside of the cab will be about 2 feet away from the fuel. But i wouldn't mount it inside, so i would do it as soon as possible under the cab. No way around it really until you get a new tank, like a fuel cell in the bed.

I can't seem to find the suction limit for the particular model I have. It's the top of the line one they make, so who knows? I guess we will try it under the cab and see if it pumps worth a damn.

Edit: guess dry lift is more or less the same as the suction limit. says 2ft.

[Tycho]

Look up pictures of leaf sprung prerunners on any forum or google or whatever, and see how they mount there shocks. Just about every one will have the lower end of the shock mounted to the U-bolt plate. You want your shocks there, not inside the frame with the stock mounts. You can weld tabs to your stock plates or buy fabbed plates.

I've been looking and yet to find this. Almost every truck I find has them mounted to shock tabs welded to the axle. If you could dig up some prefabbed plates from somewhere on the internet I'd appreciate it. Absolutely love pre-fabbed bolt on stuff.

the FOA shocks look nice. The 2.5 reservoirs will run me about 350 for a pair. If I could get plates and the Chevy swap done, in theory I could get the entire rear done for around $750...not counting the cage.

Damn cage.

Oh, we found a guy who can weld. Friend of my mechanic welds for a living
In theory if I got a cage designed (or copied yours) and had the pipes bent & cut to measurements beforehand we could, again, in theory, do it ourselves.

I'm coming up with nil for cage shops here in Phoenix though. Lots of places that do crawlers, but none for prerunners really.

And, since you work in the metal business, are these prices competitive or decent? http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/DOM ... _c_18.html

[1971ford]

Here are the shock mount plates i am talking about http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/cat ... p-374.html
I have pictures of shocks mounted in similar plate on my other computer.

That DOM seems very expensive to me.
I got a bit of a deal since my boss got the tubing for me at price that it was for him. I payed less than half of what ballistic lists there 1.75" .120 DOM for (and i used 2" .120 DOM). Plus you might want to go 2" .120 wall, and they dont have that. Any steel places around you?

Sounds good, if he is a welder for a living he must be good, just find someone with a bender!

[Redcap]

That is REAL high for DOM.

[1971ford]

That's what im sayin'
I payed less than half that, i think i payed less than $3 a foot. It should be somewhere around $3 a foot.

[Tycho]

Steel has gone up considerably since you guys last checked, I'm sure. About how many feet should I plan on buying for a cab & bedcage?