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So i decided to document my 1977 Ford F250 build now. Originally i was not going to build the truck, but i could not leave well enough alone and things quickly snowballed. details on the truck are as follows.

1977 Ford F250 Supercab Shortbed
460 BBF
C6
2WD
3.54 gears
48,000 miles
3rd owner, have all original paperwork from the original owner(window Sticker, Finance Contract, Owners Card, etc.)



i purchased the truck as a birthday present to myself with approval from the wife on 4-27-16. i picked up the truck and immediately drove it over 150 miles home without any problems. here it was the day i bought it.


the truck was very clean overall, minus a few cracks in the dash i would say mint for a almost 40 yr old truck.





I couldnt leave the stock Pizza Cutter tires on the truck at the very least so i started shopping around and ended up finding 5 17" method wheels and 5 35" Toyo Open Country MT tires for a smoking deal for the truck.
this was the first roadblock i hit as the 35's would not properly clear without some modifications.

my first thoughts were to put glass on the truck with the stock suspension and run it for a while. after weighing my options around the begining of may i decided to embark on what i called the 14 day build.
we were headed to Hawthorne, NV for the VORRA race and wanted to take Brown Betty along for the ride.

i began researching lifts, and springs i could use to not go overkill with what already worked well. I wanted to run some lift springs and extend the radius arms and throw a decent shock on the truck. upon weighing my options and a check of the wallet i decided to bend the beams and do a coilover swap on the truck. as it was not too much more $$$ wise than adding a coil and a decent shock under there parts wize. i had all the tools and time to build the beams and radius arms already so that was a wash.

So as of about 2.5 weeks ago the plan was to cut stock coil buckets out, remove radius arm mounts from frame and add a simple engine cage, Pie-Cut beams and plate for the lift, extend radius arms. here are pics from the build process over the last couple weeks.












i finished the truck up just in time for the trip. shortly after building the truck my wife and i jumped in it and drove over 500+ miles through california and Nevada without a hitch. the truck ran super smooth on the road and handled very well off road. i ran out of time to get the rear where i wanted it but it will get remedied shortly. overall this experience has been fun. I would of not been able to get everything finished if it was not for my friends that helped and my wife that continuously brought me waters and food to the shop so i could continue jamming on the truck.


here is the only picture i got from the weekend of the truck out and about. looking forward to some small modifications and some future trips out in this thing.

This is coming out bad ass!!

Vary Nice!!!!!!

David...

Love this & the quick turn around & enjoy!

thanks guys, i am really happy with how this thing is turning out. i will be cleaning up a few things and getting it ready to take out to a local graffiti parade and show here in Modesto next weekend. it is not the normal deal to see around here so i think it will definitely draw a few people in. never know i may walk away with an award. hahaha

thanks guys, i am really happy with how this thing is turning out. i will be cleaning up a few things and getting it ready to take out to a local graffiti parade and show here in Modesto next weekend. it is not the normal deal to see around here so i think it will definitely draw a few people in. never know i may walk away with an award. hahaha

Here are some pictures of the engine cage

sooo clean, I love it!!!!

Definitely one of the coolest sleepers I've seen, nice!

Some little things showed up for the interior today, going to get windows tinted this week as well.





after this weekend and the parade/car show i will be tearing into the rear. hopefully throwing my bypasses out back under the bed. not sure if they will fit though. I am just not ready to cut a hole in the bed yet.

What length are the rear shocks?

2.5 x 12 king triple bypasses.

That will be really tight without some major lean. I think Philo has some pics of doing his in one of his truck threads & then I think it was JKrell with the black, 90's stepside that had pics of his setup as well. I think John (JKrell) may have stuffed 12's under there - can't remember. Pretty sure Philo did 10's. I did 8" on my crew but if I ever get back rolling on it & actually using it I will try & swap them out for short bodied 10's as I have the droop, just no nore room for the longer body at full bump.

ChaseTruck754 wrote:That will be really tight without some major lean. I think Philo has some pics of doing his in one of his truck threads & then I think it was JKrell with the black, 90's stepside that had pics of his setup as well. I think John (JKrell) may have stuffed 12's under there - can't remember. Pretty sure Philo did 10's. I did 8" on my crew but if I ever get back rolling on it & actually using it I will try & swap them out for short bodied 10's as I have the droop, just no nore room for the longer body at full bump.

exactly my thoughts when looking at it. The other factor i have that creates an issue is having both tanks, as the front tank is pretty close to the axle on a shortbed. right now i will absolutely not cut any holes in the floor. I gotta go through the spring pack anyways so i will be cycling the axle and hopefully i can get them to fit. if not i will be on the prowl for some 10s soon. my plan is to tear into the rear next weekend after the carshow/cruise this weekend.

Also i am on the prowl for a 78 grill for this thing, my grandpa had a 78 for years and i am very fond of the 78 grill. i dont want to spend full price on a repop so any heads up would be niice.

My advice on the grill is to watch the wrecking yards & better yet CL for trucks parting. Repops are overly expensive for the crap they are. They are so thin you can dent them by looking at them funny! Dennis Carpenter is the only one that is even worth giving a second glance at and it is over $500 just for the shell I think. At that price and quality the used, stock setups are much better of a deal anyway. They are getting a little more expensive now, but there are still quite a few out there.
Also, keep in mind you will have to change your headlights and buckets as well - even if you want to stay with the round headlights vs. the rectangular (78 was the only year with the 2 options. In '79 they all went square), so grab all that stuff as well.
Personally I like the 73-75 grills best. A buddy used to put 78/79 grills on everything he had, so whenever he'd end up with a 73-75 or I'd end up with a 78/79 we'd just trade. I've got 3-4 setups in the rafters here now tucked away just in case.

Back on the shocks - you will find out soon enough, but I think the 12's are for sure out with the dual tanks. 10's are doable with some good lean and the lower mounts hung pretty low on the axle. This hanging low thing is what I was trying to avoid & why I ended up going with 8's really. It's all just a compromise without going through the bed as there is no setup that seems to take advantage of all the bump and all the droop. It'll all get pretty clear when cycling & you'll figure out which compromises you want to make.

so doing some more research on this today, i think i will be going with removing the front tank and swapping the rear tank for a 38 gal
replacement. giving me the ability to mount the shocks as far forward as i want and or even doing a cantilever kit in front of the axle if they lean to far forward.

the 38 gal tank is only $125 brand new. which is pretty cheap.

38 gal tanks are cool, especially for the price. They hang a bit low though, so look at making a skid for it for a little extra protection.

Its only 5" taller than the one that's there, I'll make a skid for it for sure as I have quite a bit of 3/16 alum sitting at the shop...

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