1968 F100 6.0 ls build
 

Found this forum through a friend and it seems like it might be a better place for me to get good feedback on my project.

Little bit about me and my project.

Car guy through and through, have a few pretty neat projects over the past couple years and really not a fan of the mainstream. I am 35 and a steamfitter/ service manager by trade. My dad recently retired and we finished his 64 ranchero this year. We decided that next summer we need to take a major road trip, kind of a trip of a lifetime if you will. Now I needed something cool to take on this road trip, something that is not another c 10 or a nova or a mustang.

I am a huge foxbody mustng fan, have owned several of them in the past from all different years. I would not call myself a ford guy though.

Started to search for an early bumpside F100 shortbed in descent body shape. I found a 68 white shortbed, clean with a dent on the passenger side of the bed. No motor in it but it was in the bed.

So the journey begins.

We loaded up the trailer and headed from home here in Portland down to Grants pass. Truck was exactly what he said so we paid the man, loaded it up on the trailer and headed for the house.

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Finally got it in the garage after our big Alaska adventure and got to work. Pulled off the front sheetmetal, got it up on stands and proceeded to chop the frontend out from under it.

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Once I was down to some framerails I started to mockup the 2003 crown vic stuff I picked up in Seattle, pretty easy stuff really, ran some .25 wall tubing through the framerails and burned in the mounts.

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Got the frontend hung under there and built some tabs for the rear trailing arms and got those burned on there as well.

Truck is getting a 6.0 from an 03 hummer lq4 and a built 4l80E.

Power will be assisted with a Borg Warner s480 turbo, 80 lb injectors, circle d triple disc full billet converter and a HD-2 shift kit. Looking for somewhere in the 700-800 WHP range.

So, I got to work getting the engine in place and building some motor mounts.

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Engine is nice and low in the engine bay, tranny should work out nicely and the engine is staggered to the passenger side to assist with steering rack, booster and exhaust clearance.

Here are the engine mounts all finished up and ready to go for powder coating. I am using the OEM locations on the front K member with some poly bushings sandwiched in there, trying to leave some room for the 4" downpipe.

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So, I got the brake booster and brackets from a 75 and swapped the pedal into my 68 assembly, pulled everything I could from the firewall and dropped all that stuff off at the powder coater on Monday and that gets us up to speed for the weekend.

Hope to finish any work on the firewall and get that shot with some paint so things can start going back together.

Hope at least a few of you folks follow along, should be a fun little winter project.

Sean

Had an epic weekend.

Saturday morning my buddy Asher and I loaded up the tools and headed out to the yard for some digging.

I came up with exactly what I was looking for, 1981 ford F100. 9" axle, 65" wide, 31 spline and 5x4.5 lug pattern. The axle that we found was missing some hardware on one axle end, but it was complete other than that.

By the time we got home it was about 1 pm. We got busy getting to work.

Pulled the motor back out and set it aside, stripped off everything from the firewall that was left. Sanded, sanded and sanded some more, little work with the wire wheel to clean it up where there was some rust and hit it with two coats of epoxy primer.

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As that was drying, we got with the program and unloaded everything I was storing in the bed and got that sweet bumper pulled off, unbolted the bed and got that set aside.

Oh what fun, more rivets to get off for the rear crossmember. I have a pretty good method though. Grind off the head with a flap disc, then drill out just a little bit of the rivet and it pops right out.

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So with a little time I was mocking up the fuel tank and see what I was going to do back here.

My buddy Dan came by in the evening and was awesome enough to tackle the Trans GO HD-2 shift kit installation in the 4l80E tranny. He got it all finished up with the exception of a pan gasket and a filter.

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Although not a terrible task, I was able to keep working and knew that it was in capable hands with Dan on the tranny.

Pretty much see what I left in the garage on Saturday night.

Sunday morning was clean up time, we left it a mess on Saturday.

Saturday started by buttoning up the tranny so that I could get back to some dirty work.

Picked up parts and got that done early.

I have seen a couple folks build the frame and set the fuel tank inside the framerails. While I like the idea of gaining some clearance in the rear, the idea of having to pull the bumper, the bed and the rear crossmember to get the tank out was not for me. So I went a little different route.

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Its going to reside between the rear crossmember and the next crossmember forward. I am hanging it under the frame and holding it in place with two straps.

I got the tank where it needed to go, marked it out and bet up some straps. Welded some nuts to the inside of the crossmembers and got the tank hung.

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Also went to town on the rear frame with a wire wheel and lots of elbow grease. The frame is in perfect shape though and I have still yet to find a single spot of rust on the entire truck. Body mounts, cab corners everything is in great shape metal wise.

So with the tank all mounted, the weather looking good I hit the firewall with some scotchbrite and knocked down a couple of little flaws, mixed up some paint and tacked off the firewall....Here is the end result of my driveway reshoot on the frontend. Aside from a run or two, the paint turned out great and should allow me to get to putting stuff back together this week.

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I dont know how, but it was still only 1 pm at this time.

We headed over to Daves place who runs Old School EFI here locally in vancouver. I took him my ls harness a couple weeks ago. He set it up for stand alone operation, added in relays for fan 1, fan 2, fuel pump, starter and all the works. Literally a three wire hookup and it runs. He did an awesome job on the harness and reprogram.

Got back and went to work on the rearend. Cut off all the brackets off the new 9" ground everything down after Asher got after it with the wire wheel. It was looking good. Took some measurements on the old rearend and got everything tacked up. Doing a spring under swap on the rearend.

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Pulled the old rearend and amazingly every bolt came off without any major problems. Rolled in the new rearend and lightly bolted it in.

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Oh what a difference the stance of a project makes. Looks a lot better, front end might need to come down a little bit but its a heck of a lot better.

Pretty much where I left it off this evening.

Hope to get brakes plumbed and start on the firewall reassembly this week.

Sean

Welcome to the site Sean. Looks like a sweet project. Keep the pics coming.

Cool truck!

And a Chevy motor in a Ford? Makes sense to me. :thumbsup:

Wow, you got a bunch done in a weekend....

What are the plans fo the outside? Leave the patina or new shiney paint?

You didn't need to spell it out it's pretty obvious you sure aren't a Ford guy:lmao:

Sean

Welcome to the site. You made a lot of progress Hackstering that truck so far. :superhack:

Looks like you have some talent those were some nice looking welds on your mounts. :thumbsup:

I'm sure this latest C10 build will be very popular.:lol:

It that a pea soup Volvo in the background? What's the story on it?

:cheers:

Welcome to the site Sean,very nice work so far,like Rob said the welding looks great on the mounts.:welcome3:

Pretty sure that it is going to get a nice coat of shiney new whimbledon white all around.

Trying to decide on wheels right now. Thinking 20x9 up front and 20x10 in the rear. Going back and forth between 18's and 20's though....18's seem much better to drive on, and a little bigger tire.

The pea green Volvo is a 1982 242. That was last springs project. Makes a little over 300 hp on just 2.1 litres. Not a big number in this crowd but a very fun car to rip around town. Rear wheel drive with a mustang t5 tranny and a spool makes for a pretty fun little car.

All work done in my little shop on this one with the exception of the intake manifold built from scratch by my friend Nathan.

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Uhhh...20's all the way around. :underchair: :underchair: 20's fill up the wheel well on trucks nicely to me.

Got home a little bit early today. =)

Went to work on a little cleanup in the garage and rolled the truck out in the driveway. On the jackstands once again and prepped the rearend for some paint work. One light coat of primer to help with adhesion and some flat alk200 with some catalyst added in to add a little bit of hardening and shine. Turned out a little glossier than I anticipated but looks pretty damn good for just hitting it with a wire wheel.

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Also ordered my torque converter from Chris at Circle D. Most money I have ever spent on a converter. Tripple disc, full billet 4l80E converter. He said it should hold up to 1000 hp no problem. Good thing I am only shooting for somewhere between 700-800 whp.

Sean