Joxracing's Newbie F-150 build.

[Joxracing]

hey guys,
Im 17 and live in the UP of Michigan. Its absolutely misserable here from november to april. Its about as far away from the desert as you can get, but in the summer its a blast for offroading.

My background info:
Ive built a few VW Bugs, my baja is my pride
Ive had a couple old FoMoCO's, a '64 shortbox, and a '63 Merc Monterey.


Now, for my build

Its and '89 Ford F-150
351w
33" BFG Mud Terrains

A real pro install of a nice 2" lift consisting of...
longer radius arms?
drop brackets.

Now, i picked up the 6" Deaver coils, ext brake lines and the drop pitman arm
For the front, im gonna go with that kit, Bilstein 5150's, limit straps, Those balljoint cam adjusters, and ditch all the sway bars.

Sound like a decent enough set up?
any changes i should make?

what size shock should i use?

...and for the rear end, i have no idea what to do.
any help?

keep in mind im 17, have hardly any money, i know how to weld, the truck will be in a shop with a lift and all the tools i should need for fabbing.

speaking of fabbing, im thinking of bedcage, any thing i should know before i venture into that?

thanks in advance guys, here's some pic's of the beat up old swamp donkey.

The day i got it....








The suspesion set up thats on it now...





How it sits now, yeah., its been a rough first season for the ol' girl.

[Joxracing]

Whoops, sorry guys. just realized i posted this in the bronco section. i'll move it as soon as i get back. thanks

[johncharlesb]

Welcome to the site. Your build looks good. I was wondering when you would venture over here from RaceDezert.

The front setup sounds good. The drop brackets will work well for the near future. You can decide if you want to go cut and turned later. You can plate those arms to beef them up. A set of junkyard alcoas are a very good inexpensive wheel.

For the rear a set of National or Deaver springs, getting rid of the lift block, shackles, and some decent shocks will take you a very long way for not much money. You can make a bed cage, but a very good rear suspension can be built under the bed.

It looks like you have a good plan and a good truck to build.

[Joxracing]

Alcoa's...

ive heard that name tossed around, what are those?

...and i dont know if my budget can handle deaver's for the rear quite yet.

[johncharlesb]

Alcoa is a large aluminum maufacturer that builds all kinds of industrial stuff, but also makes wheels, most notably for semi trucks. Alcoas made the ten hole 1990s factory Ford wheels without the rivets. Alcoa forged these wheels vesus the casting process of most other factory and aftermarket wheels. Alcoa wheels are much stronger than cast wheels and inexpensively sell used for $25-50 per wheel; although, I have seen them go for less. I think there is a set on Detroit Craiglist with good stock tires listed for $200 (I know that is far from Marquette, but you get the idea). They are on my 1962 truck, and many other trucks on this site. The size is 15 x 7.5.

If you can't afford the rear Deavers, get a nice shock setup and start looking for used. You can run a used aftermarket lift spring and get rid of the factory lift block. You can also have the factory springs arched to eliminate the factory block. Used shackles can be picked up from the desert guys for around a hundred bucks, or fire up the welder and build some, and the springs will work much better.

[Joxracing]

alright...

alright, i know ive asked this question about 20 times before, but...

What size shock, i'll be mounting off of the radius arm, and i wanna fab a new upper mount for it.

the shocks im looking at give 2 sizes, extended and collapsed... which should i go off of?

...and im thinking the 5150's or the mx6 pro-comps...

thanks guys.

[Joxracing]

like im thinking this shock right here...
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EXP-MX-6053/?rtype=10

ext. length is around 23"
and collpased is 15"

to small or to big?

or these ones...
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/BSN-25-188349/

ext length is 34"
collapsed is 20"

[johncharlesb]

The info is available in the Go Fast tech section. There is one post titled 'Rancho 4" shock lengths' even. http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/view ... f=15&t=509
There are other similar threads like 'Front Suspension 101' and the like that will give you all the basics.

A 14 inch shock fore, and a 10 inch shock aft of the coil is what you are looking for. I would suggest browsing the 7 pages of go fast tech and pick up on what others have done.

[Joxracing]

any other opinions on the shocks?
im thinking the bilstein's

just drove the truck down to the shop, work starts tmrw.

probably gonna install the new water pump, and gas tank before i start on suspension.

[78Class3]

i like the bilsteins between those two.

[Joxracing]

Got the truck in today, and up on the lift.

Ditched the front sway bar
Drained Coolant
Adjusted rear brakes

The front end pulled alot of travel just like it is, so i cant imagine what its gonna be like with the Deaver's



Sorry, pic's a little blurry.

[navynuke]

I'm running a 10 inch travel shock behind the spring.



Camburg coil buckets, rancho springs and radius arms.

Other than a bit of a problem with spring bow causing rubbing it works pretty well.

I also use limit straps to keep from over extending the shocks, leaves me at right around 12 inches of travel.



I use the front shock mount to mount the limit strap, and drilled the frame for the upper mount.

[Joxracing]

that looks like a solid setup.

what size coils are those, 4"?

so, maybe a set of the FOA 2.5 10" ?
http://f-o-a.com/shop/index.php?main_pa ... ducts_id=2

[navynuke]

yes 4" coils, and F-O-A shocks have worked well for me in the past.

Like anything else, it has its bugs, but most of mine came from the camburg coil buckets and drop brackets, at least from what I can tell.

[Joxracing]

yes 4" coils, and F-O-A shocks have worked well for me in the past.

Like anything else, it has its bugs, but most of mine came from the camburg coil buckets and drop brackets, at least from what I can tell.

alright, so your running the 4" coils with a 10" stroke shock, and im running the 6", so i should go with a 12" or 14" stroke shock?

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Maybe a 12" would be ok but not a 14".

[Joxracing]

Today we ditched the old coils, shocks, and brake lines... now it really droops down.





final pic...


cycled the travel...
around 29" of droop from where i want to mount the shock.
and around 17.5 at full bump.

so that means i should go with around, a 14" stroke shock..?

or 12 like your saying?

[hobbyturnedobsession]

I'd go 12 man, bump and strap and haul a$$ because trying to mount a 14" is a big pain. Esp behind the bucket. If your going to do it that way, save your pennys and definately buy a 2.5 x 12" stroke shock. I know I'm running Sway-a-way (and I love them) but with the deals and tech with this site go bilstein. And remember used bilsteins as well as kings and sway a way are all rebuildable and tune able.

[Joxracing]

okay, so i think this equation finnaly clicked in my head here...

since i cycled it, its 29" drooped, and 17" bumped...
so, basicly i wanna find a shock with the ext. size to be 29" and the collapsed length be 17"?

right? please say yes. haha

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Hahaha, where did you measure from? Wherever your shock location will be is where you want to measure your collapsed/ extended length.