1978 F150 - 1-tons and 40's

[holdmypocket]

I documented the start of this build on Irate but since I moved to NC December 2024 I thought I'd continue it here as well so I'll be light on the details up to the present (unless anyone wants to see something specific).

This is something I've wanted to build some version of since I was in high school in the late 90's reading 4 Wheel Offroad and Fourwheeler. My favorite issues were the ones covering the Ultimate Adventure and Top Truck Challenge. Instead of an F-series though my first vehicle was a 1974 Bronco. I learned how to wrench and fabricate on that and made some great friends in the Early Bronco Community in San Diego, CA.

After several Broncos, life, etc.. I found myself in Norfolk, VA in 2017 in need of a cheap daily driver I could maintain. I found this 1978 F150 that was stock on 31's (351m, C6, NP205, Dana 44, Ford 9). Had some rust but I could weld and had seen worse. The plan was get it safe, reliable, comfortable, and on 33's, then upgrade the shafts, minimal lift, and put it on 35's with ARB lockers. I picked it up in Charlottesville, VA and drove it 3+ hours to Norfolk. Did all of the above upgrades up to just before 35's and lockers. It was a reliable daily driver that I did a few road trips in, was very happy with it.

Then I found myself moving back to Southern California (Orange County) in 2019. Blew the engine (oil pump shaft broke in half). Installed a remanufactured 400 with an rv cam and then I had to get it to pass smog in CA. Took a year but managed to do it buying parts on eBay, learning how to read the vacuum diagrams and test everything myself. Had the C6 rebuild and then I enjoyed it as my daily driver for a few years, installed Vintage Air AC, and started collecting 1-ton parts.

Eventually I was able to afford a car for daily-driver-duties, which is when the fun began. It went together pretty smoothly because I had a lot of time to learn/research/etc. It took me less than a year to get it on the road working on it after my day-job. It drives great/straight down the road and does 70-75 mph on the freeway (the 400 is torquey but lacks horsepower).

The details:
- 2006 Dana 60 4.88's Eaton E-locker
- 2014 Sterling 10.5 4.88's factory E-locker
- 40x13.50x17 ProComp Xtreme MTR tires
- 17x9 ProComp Wheels
- WFO Radius arms with Metal Cloak rear joints (set caster to 5.5 degrees)
- WFO's Super Duty drag-link, uses rod end on the frame and stock tie-rod end at the knuckle
- DOM and Rod ends for the trackbar
- Barnes trackbar mount on the axle
- Custom trackbar mount on the frame out-boarded 8"
- Battle Born Brakes Coil bucket on the frame (bolts up and uses the stock Dana 60 spring and coil cup on the axle)
- 1-2" leveling coil (forget the brand)
- Deaver 10-pack springs in the rear with a BroncoAir.com adjustable-shackle-flip
- Bilstein 5100's
- 2019 Honda Accord electric iBooster with stock master cylinder (needed to efficiently move the big Super Duty calipers)
- Saginaw Steering pump
- Lincoln MKVII fan with PWM control from autocoolguy.com
- Exhaust manifolds to a single Magnaflow knock-off muffler out behind the axle on the passenger side with a turn down

Then we decided to move to Charlotte. This brings us to today where I'm currently working on correcting/redoing my hack wiring and installing a Dakota Digital gauge cluster. I haven't even had a chance to do a real shakedown run yet but I daily drove it around town from December to April. Then I got myself a 2018 Super duty to DD and eventually use as a tow rig.

Here are some pictures:

 

[ghost]

Nice build!

 

[Monkeynono]

We have the GTG coming up soon at Uwharrie. You should bring that out.

 

[CasterTroy]

I'm so relieved this wasn't in the swap meet like I initially feared

This is a really cool build

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Really cool truck.

 

[holdmypocket]

I thought I had my electrical issues all sorted out after the re-wire but I started it up yesterday after a few weeks sitting.. warmed up, sounded good, everything works. I hop in, put my foot on the brake (remember, iBooster..) and the truck shuts off.

Dakota Digital Gauge cluster isn't coming to life but the control box status light is blink fine, dome light is on, but no headlights, no stereo in ACC or ON. Thinking I blew another ignition switch or the connector is bad but will have to mess with that later. Fusible link looks fine but will go through diagnostic steps to make sure.

The iBooster is on the Painless 7 Circuit box that uses relays to switch the IGN ON circuits so I'm not really understanding what's up.

Just another hurdle. I was planning on finally wiring up my e-lockers. Designing a "pod" for the two switches for the e-lockers, the dakota digital switch, and my fan's manual override switch.

The re-wire job is still a bit like spaghetti but it's not as chaotic and shitty as before and easy to trace.

 

[Kickdeez]

Love this truck so hard! My dad had a 77 F150 Custom regular cab long bed on 38s when I was little. That truck was 100% what sparked my lifelong passion for trucks and sent me down the offroad path. Hope to see this on the trail someday soon!

 

[Pless]

Have any good pictures of the front suspension? I am interested to see how you attached the axle. Radius arms?

Edit: I just read you used the WFO radius arms, but I'd still like to see what it looks like.

 

[Shreddinlettuce]

Reminds me of one of my favorite builds online

1977 Ford F-150 – Harry Situations

harrysituations.com

 

[holdmypocket]

Reminds me of one of my favorite builds online

1977 Ford F-150 – Harry Situations

harrysituations.com

Very much inspired by that.

 

[holdmypocket]

Have any good pictures of the front suspension? I am interested to see how you attached the axle. Radius arms?

Edit: I just read you used the WFO radius arms, but I'd still like to see what it looks like.

Yup, WFO arms and RuffStuff brackets for the rear mounting point. This is kind of the time-line of that part of the build:


I used BattleBornBrakes.com coil-bucket+shock mount to keep things simple. Pricey but saved me a ton of time and headache; they bolt right up.


This is the RuffStuff frame out-boarding bracket with the WFO supplied rear radius arm bracket welded to it.


Lower arm.


Passenger lower arm.


Upper tacked in place.


40's don't rub on the arms at full lock.. that was nice.


This is when I realized I screwed up my caster measurements and made the lower too short. That sucked but ended up not being a big deal. Look at how unthreaded the heim is on the frame.


Lining things up for trackbar measurement.


Found my target angle, noting where the mounts need to land.


Axle-side. Grinding out the original mount took a lot of time. I wish I did that ahead of time instead of being lazy.


Measuring the frame-side. I got 8" off the frame before the. mount would hit the tire.


Trackbar mount made out of trailer stock and some plate I had laying around. I had one designed in CAD to have made by SendCutSend.com but I was in a rush getting ready to move.

 

[holdmypocket]

If I were to start this over.. (I kind of am going to on another chassis but thats a couple years out) there are a few things I would have done differently.

1. To start I would have used a steering box that mounted on the inside of the frame rail to shorten up the drag-link and get the length of that closer to the trackbar if not exactly the same. I'd probably use a newer Super Duty steering box.

2. I would have liked it to be significantly lower but didn't have the time to do the body work to make that work (sectioning the wheel wells and lengthening them). I used some 2" Super Duty coil. I may put in a stock height and adjust the mount on the rear leaves to get it down as low as possible.

3. The front driveshaft has put me in a conundrum. My C6/NP205 uses the short transmission adapter which puts the front output yoke very close to the transmission body. This means I cant run a CV joint (even a 1310 and I am running 1350). The answer will likely be a Tom Woods off-set u-joint to provide more angle to the single u-joints at the axle/transfercase. The right way to fix this is source the longer transmission adapter and shorten my brand new rear driveshaft.

Those are my main critiques of my own build without having taken it wheeling yet. It's been a hectic year but I'm working on getting it on the trail as soon as possible. Drives GREAT on the street/highway doing 70-80 though!

 

[holdmypocket]

Last night I (think I) figured out why the truck had no power... hit the headlight switch (which made the dome light turn off) and then went under the hood and started wiggling all the grounds/cables etc. Seems like the cable coming off the solenoid to the starter was the culprit as I wiggled that my headlights came on and everything worked again. Not even surprised since I pulled that out of my buddy's spare parts bin when he helped me stick the remanufactured motor in this thing. I always meant to replace it.. funny how you never get around to those things. Anyway, made a new one out of 1/0 which is way overkill and presented its own problems routing because it's thicker and stiffer but no big deal.

With that said, I'm still a little suspicious as I don't see how that would disrupt power to the ignition switch so if someone has any ideas... going to make more time this week to really go over grounds and check everything over.

Anyway, here's a video I took of starting up with the new Dakota Digital RTX Gauge Cluster:


Overall, I'm very happy with the Dakota Digital cluster. I've had it for over a year and wish I had just installed it a LONG time ago as it was actually really quick and easy, cleaned up a lot of shitty/inaccurate analog gauges, cleaned up my wiring, and it's nice and bright. My stock cluster slowly lost all of it's lights and when I replaced the bulbs that didn't fix it. Took it out and looked at it and it was held together by RTV and safety wire and had crumbling plastic, burnt connections, etc. The one I pulled out of the parts truck was hardly in any better shape. Buying a replacement or the parts to restore mine was uninteresting and I knew I had plans for a modern drivetrain so I figured this would get me a step toward simplifying that.

With this, the Holley headlights, super duty axles, saginaw steering box, iBooster, and Vintage Air.. this really feels like a modern truck. It just needs EFI and overdrive. I'd sell the 2018 F250 before this thing if I was ever in a financial pinch.



GF Asked me to decorate outside for Christmas so I took the truck for a quick test drive and turned it around for some low-effort Christmas cheer.