Fopar's 72 F-250 project

[Fopar]

I've been working away at test fitting things back onto the truck and happy to say the radiator core support and inner fenders went on without to much of a fight. I will need to drill holes for the rubber isolators that the core support sits on, but shouldn't be to hard. The fender & wheel look right as for how they sit. Also there is plenty of frame sticking out up front to work with for the bumper and ect.

 

[Fopar]

The steering box is way up front so I will have to see if I can modify the shaft off of the 02 to hook up to the 72 column.

And here are some random shots under the truck.

 

[Fopar]

I'm going to test fit a few more parts and line up the bed real good then go under it at mark all the bed rails so when I take it all back apart I can C notch all of them. Also I will have to dive right in and grind out the frame welds here in this pic.

After it is separated at that point I will need to cut off 23-1/2" slide it back together and reweld it. I am at the point that I really can't do to much more without cutting the frame so might as well get it out of the way........ right?

 

[Fopar]

So back to work on the truck today, I pulled the bed, cab, & engine back off the frame so I could cut it down to a short bed length. The bed on the 02 is a short bed but the cab was an extended so that’s where the cut will be made. I tack welded some legs to it so when its apart it will be easier to work on and also slide back together.

The factory welds were the perfect place to cut so I cleaned them up so they would be easy to follow.

 

[Fopar]

I then made the cuts to each side and then slid the apart. After that I chopped off the extra 23-1/2” and ground off all the excess metal.

 

[Fopar]

 

[Fopar]

got out my ratchet straps and pulled it back into place nice and tight. Clamped everything and then took more measurements to make sure it was right.

 

[Fopar]

 

[Fopar]

Then welded it up cut off the legs and got ready to drill out the new bolt holes for the trany mount.

 

[Fopar]

The placement of the trany mount is perfect for reinforcing the welds because it overlaps and bolts through both sides of the welds

 

[Fopar]

One shortened frame, Done!

 

[Fopar]

I put the cab back up onto the frame and with the frame shortened I now was able to bolt it down.

 

[Fopar]

I had to trim some more of the lower back part of the cab so the cab would sit down onto the body mounts.

 

[Fopar]

The rear body mounts were only a little off so I had to drill new bolt holes.

The floor pans seem to follow the frame like they were supposed to go together and the front cab mounts still shock me on how well they lined up.

I have the typical cross support rust so I will have to fix that along with the rusted floor pans.

 

[Fopar]

got a few hours in the shop today and was able to mark off the bed and cut it down. I cut it so there would be a little overlap up front to help support the cut bed floor. Cleaned up the over lap sprayed it with weldable primer and got everything close to lined up. A few more adjustments and a little trim here an there and I should be able to start tacking it back together.

 

[Fopar]

Here are a few pic's of how the bed has turned out so far....

 

[Fopar]

I cleaned out the seam sealer along both sides and started to tack it togther also. I still need to cut out the 4" on the other end and then notch the bed rails so it will sit lower. oh and fill all the holes that are everywhere.

 

[Fopar]

I finally have a short bed bump! I completed the cut down and tacking it back together. Now I just need to weld the inside part of the bed and then I can flip it over and finally notch the bed rails like I've been talking about.

Here's a before and after shot.

and after

 

[Fopar]

and then a few pic's in between

 

[Fopar]

I also welded up most of the holes and started on the passenger side welding up the bed seem.