1971 f250 DESERT truck- 10/24 race prep

[1971ford]

i have decided to make my 71 f250 into a "old school" desert racing truck. its got front disk brakes allready, and its got 3.73's in the rear as well. plus its a f250 so that means beefy parts.

here is an example of an "old school" bumpside. this was back in the 70's when the bumps were new! i really want to base the 71 on these trucks. keep it old school!
http://www.tracksidephoto.com/gallery/i ... ks&start=0

Cage/interior:
we are going to build a complete in-cab cage of course. since i work at a welding shop with everything you could possibly want in a desert build... my dad and i are going to take it down there on a weekend and bed the cage's tubing and tac it all together. then the good welder will get it all solid.
we will swap the junk bench seat out for racing buckets, hopefully they will look old school.
keeping all glass so its streetable.

Engine:
the 429 Thunder Jet with Dove C head's/intake that will be swapped in. we will be pulling it out of this 69 i just bought and scrapping the rest of the 69 since its completely wasted because of rust.
the engine ran pretty good, but were going to dig into it and clean it up and probably put in some goodies. we hope to get quite a bit above 400HP. that will pull us out the turns on the desert pretty well

Body:
were going to try to not use any fiberglass so i can have the old school look and save alot of money. color i am unsure of.

Suspension:
we are going to still run leaf springs in the rear. they will be National Leaf Springs.
also going to use FOA shocks.
the front is still under examination for what we'll use on it










429CJ:

[BiggDogg]

Cool deal Ryan and Ryan's dad! Looking forward to the updates and progress on this one

[RedneckTexan]

I've throughly enjoyed your 69 project, and I'll throughly enjoy this one! Keep up the good work Ryan!

[71Ford100]

Might want to update your engine info.....mwahaha as much smack as you talked to allen and I its our turn to rub it in how its not . I'm sure I'll be keepin up on this project to.

[1971ford]

oh yeah . for those that dont know, we got screwed on the deal and we didNT buy a 429 CobraJet. several people have told me after checking the numbers on the block/heads/intake that its a 429 ThunderJet.

i just pulled the under-bed tank out of the 71. WOW! took about 3.5 hours to pull to damn thing. now i have to go back under and get the brackets which some are riveted in. sheeeeesh.
im putting this tank under the 69 since it will be a tow vehicle and it currently only has one tank.

im leaving the in-cab in until we get a fuel cell

[LANCE65]

What are you planning for the I-beams and radius arms? I have a freind that owns an OFF-ROAD fab shop in Barstow. He's built LOTS of prerunners and a FEW Trophy Trucks. So if you have any questions I can give you his #,just PM me. LOSE the 3/4t suspension TOO much unsprung weight. It would probably be the same $ to put rear trailing arms/coil overs on as oppsed to Deaver or National rear spings. Good Luck. And I will be watching this. I grew up in the deserts of BARSTOW.
-Lance

[1971ford]

OOOoooooo a desert guy cool!

for i beams i plan on having them bent to fix the camber when they are drooped and for radius arm... i plan on slicing them before it goes round and have my boss weld some thick rod leading to a Heim joint

yeah ive decided on running Deaver's in the rear, mostly because of cost of quality shocks. i dont want to fork out the money for tripple bypass shocks w/ coilovers on a 4 link. this is a pretty budget build.

[1971ford]

tiny smidgen update.
spent over 3.5 hours removing this stupid thing. sheesh. what a mess. i hate underbed tanks now. im going to install it under the 69 im going to leave the incab in until we get a fuel cell




i love how the "posers" take their tailgate off and throw a spare in the bed and call their truck a trophy truck.
heres my trophy truck


tomorrow i am going to strip out interior parts. i want to get my buckets


thinking about mounting this up front since i have it and it will retain the old school theme. its a little on the heavy side though, its going to cost me.

tomorrow i should have this grill on. its not steel, so it will get banged up but it will last until i get a steel one. i dont want to use the 71's because it is too nice. plus this grill matches my 69

as of now.

[LANCE65]

Ryan, there are alot of people out ther parting out their race/prerunner stuff. Curt LeDuc is my neighbor here, I'm sure he may have some stuff F/S, then I have a feind here (Rick Holmes) that built Jesse Jones'(?) Trophy Truck. I can ask him about used Kings or even Kusters,FOX or any parts that may help. Have you ever thought of doing the rear suspension from a pre 72 Chevy truck? They had trailing arms, will handle MUCH better than leafs.
-Lance

[1971ford]

never heard of the pre 72 truck idea...????? so they had trailing arms factory? strong? i mean i could make trailing arms... but it will just be more expesive shock setup without leaf's.

id MUCH rather run a 4 link. but its $$$$.

if you can get me a hookup on some used shocks that would be SWEET

[LANCE65]

let me see what I can do..
-Lance

[1971ford]

let me see what I can do..
-Lance

coooooooooooool thanks

[1971ford]

got the rear bumper off, the underbed tank brackets and alittle more trim and the spare tire out from under the truck. this is where the spares will go, one behind each wheelwell. dont worry thats not the official strap, its just a strap that was laying beside me


the second layer of the bedsides shown will be cut out so its just plain bedsides. also plan on cutting out the bed floor so all there will be is plain metal bedsides.



tomorrow i have the day off from work so ill get more done. like swap grills, start getting the engine ready to pull, remove interior parts, try to remove all the trim, and whatever else.

[1971ford]

update..

well i got this much done

-got the 71's grill off,
-removed all a/c stuff,
-re-lined the gas lines to the one incab tank,
-tore apart the a/c thing to get the brackets so i could mount the tranny cooler (it will be relocated to the bed cage once the bed cage is built, we will get a shroud for it and a little ricer car fan)
-figured what ill do with the spares

i figure we will replicate this cage's basic design.


before, there was little roof for the radiator to get air. so i removed the a/c blockageness.




i had to kill the a/c thing to get the mounts off the sides of it so i could remount the tranny cooler.




NEW OLD GRILL! looks good. need another headlight cover though.





stooting right along

[Mooosman]

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=602287


Check out this thread on Pirate4x4.com It's an F-100, but the same things apply. I think the leaf spring suspension will work fine for you. That F-100 in the thread uses Deavers (I think) shackles and springs for more travel.

He also welded on extra shock mounts on the front and rear. It would be a good idea on yours, too.


Cool truck! I wanted to make my 72 F-100 into a vintage style desert truck, but it's all original and too nice to cut up...


Nick