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'62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 17, 2017, 1:28 pm
by Blanger
Hi folks new guy here (been a lurker for a long time)

Thought I'd post some pics of our current build which is a 1962 F100 Uni SWB that we transplanted on a 1998 P71 interceptor.

Here's a view of the truck when we dragged it off the trailer, it had sat in a barn for 30 years with a dirt floor, all the wheels were locked up and it had to be loaded onto the trailer with a back hoe.

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Here's a pic of the P71 before....

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Here's a view of the P71 chassis with the body removed

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And yet a picture of the Uni hanging in the air..

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And lastly a pic of the cut up P71 body...lol

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Thanks for looking and feel free to comment, I'm pretty far along on this build the truck runs and drives (around the yard), I'm doing the wiring now, I'll add other posts with progress pictures from time to time if there is any community interest.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 17, 2017, 2:24 pm
by unibody madness
Cool we like pics... especially since facebook did the world dirt. post it and it will come.
Welcome

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 17, 2017, 2:57 pm
by Blanger
unibody madness wrote:Cool we like pics... especially since facebook did the world dirt. post it and it will come.
Welcome
Thank you.....ask and you shall receive....lol

Here's a few of the body mock up, I had the ability to move the body forward, backward, up and down to get the wheel openings as close as possible, then get the ride height where I wanted it before making all the body mounts.

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The truck was really in bad shape, the years of barn life hadn't been kind to it at all even though it was basically out of the weather, it had all the usual rot that mid-western slicks have like rotted floors, rotted torque box, cab steps and risers, along with a lot of rot to the lower A pillars, I wouldn't even risk trying to lift it off it's original chassis before cutting out the torque box and reinforcing the back of the cab both inside and outside.

The truck had a 292 in it that the guy I bought it from said it would run, he was correct it took very little effort to bring it back to life and it found a new home bringing another uni with a locked up motor back to life again.... I was glad to see someone wanted it and was going to put it to good use. The rest of the frame / running gear was sold to someone who wants to build a "gasser" not sure that will ever materialize but it went to a good home none the less.

Here's it going out the door.
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I had originally thought about a partial restoration of the truck but the state of the body rot and sheet metal it just made more sense to me to do the frame swap and not spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on a project that is going to be a daily driver, we already did that with a Camaro we own, it's a very nice car but you can't take it anywhere and walk very far away from it if you follow my line of thought, we wanted something that looked cool, was dependable, and could drive it anywhere we wanted, leave it and come back to the same vehicle unmolested.

Anyway more later..

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 18, 2017, 6:26 am
by bruceandersson
Looks good. Welcome from Ohio, what part of the midwest are you from?

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 18, 2017, 7:17 am
by Blanger
bruceandersson wrote:Looks good. Welcome from Ohio, what part of the midwest are you from?
Thank you, from Indiana (southern)

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So like I said we thought about a partial restoration of the truck, but as I learned more about uni trucks as far as what is available like bed floor, bed sides sheet metal, the cost of a new tail gate, having to source good used parts like a hood and refurb it, it just didn't seem to be a good idea or a cost effective plan. I know there are purists here that frown on a chassis swap but in my mind it was the only way to actually save this truck, still lots of parts had to be replaced like the core support and inner fenders to be able to even hang the old sheet metal on.

Here's a few pics to show what I mean.

This is the bed floor on drivers side.
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The radiator support..

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Tail Gate
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There were no front cab mounts at all, totally rotted away, the cab floor had been patched several times over the years and was sitting directly on the frame.

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Cab steps on both sides were really bad, of course the normal rot we see on most slicks.
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Passenger side was even worse than the drivers.
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Both front fenders had been repaired by someone in the past that either overlapped sheet-metal or stuck it in from the back, then arc welded the metal, no filler just red primer...lol
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Anyway all these things combined to form my opinion on what to do with the truck, it just wasn't a good candidate for restoration, but still a cool old truck that had potential being somewhat rare, the guy that sold it to us has restored several trucks but just didn't want to tackle the '62 because of the amount of rot and cost associated with doing it right, we came to the very same opinion but saw the hidden potential that he didn't see.

Next post I'll talk about the sheet metal and what we have done.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 18, 2017, 9:39 am
by Blanger
I want to start this post by thanking a lot of people who have helped me directly or indirectly on this project, this site and a couple others have been invaluable providing information, members here like River City and his Youtube channel of his build took a lot of the guess-work out of what I have done and provided a direction even without a step-by-step guide which would be impossible because of the differences in the amount and area needing repair on these trucks.

Chassis swaps isn't anything new people have been doing it since there have been vehicles and people who want to modify them, but it was a first for me, I've built cars before, was a avid drag racer for over 20 years and was use to having to modify things to make them work for different situations, but gutting a running vehicle down to its chassis and running gear and transplanting a body on to it that was never intended to be there requires a little planning and thinking ahead...lol

So having posts with pictures or videos to view are really helpful, so I just want to thank everyone for the time and effort they have put forth sharing with the rest of us.

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So sheet metal...

As you can see from the pictures above the '62 is rough and while some sheet metal is reproduced things like bed sides (uni), hoods, Uni doors, bed floor with the same ribbing at a reasonable price isn't available (that I could find), I'm not a sheet metal worker, don't have many sheet metal tools, but can replace body panels if I have good material to work with, lower door skins are something that is available and turned out to be the right couture to replace the rotted out portions of the bed sides, so that is what we used to not only repair the door rot but also where the torque box had rotted through the bed sides...worked great.

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Of course we had to replace the rockers, cab steps, lower door hinge, and step risers which along with the cab floor which rots away in every slick that sees road salt, we didn't need to replace the front cab mounts since we wouldn't be using them, our slick had spent a lot of it's life outside, even though the odometer only showed 104k on the truck we had paperwork that came with the truck showing that the engine was rebuilt at 84k. It was a farm truck and was used until it was almost used-up! but that is how it is suppose to be, people bought a truck back then to work it which is a contrast from usage today.

Cab floors

I started with the passenger side first (why not it was the worse) and thought I'd just butt weld the new floor pan in......wrong plan, while i was able to get the job done the condition of the rest of the floor made welding a butt joint tricky at best, it was nasty looking when done but a grinder and seam sealer fixed it right up..lol

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On the drivers side I learned my lesson and over lapped the floor pan about a inch and it made the job much nicer.

Rebuilding the lower A pillar was not as much of a big deal as I thought once I found a picture of what it was suppose to look like (on this site) and the cab step, rocker, and riser were installed. I didn't realize until working in that area that the cowl drained at the same place, no wonder it rotted out once a few leaves and debris blocked the drain. These areas like the torque box (uni) are common areas that rot away on slicks and really appear to be design flaws that Ford made, like the torque box looks like the bed drained directly on top of it, then on mine it had a open top (facing up) that collected dirt and rocks over the years...

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The bed floor at the cab had to be removed because of rot, and to remove the torque box, the area where the back of the cab and the bed floor met was rotted away about a 1/2" up the cab back wall, I reinforced the back of the cab from the inside with a piece of 2" angle that runs side to side and is welded to the cab floor and the cab rear wall closing it up and strengthening the area. Then like others doing the chassis swap I added a length of 1x3 channel across the back of the cab to close up the outside providing strength and a rear cab mounting area all at the same time.

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Cab steps and risers had to be replaced but also cut to allow clearance for the CV frame rails, I chose a little different path on that then most, in the end I kinda wish I had did them differently but the end result is ok. I finished them off with bed liner which I hope will hold up while providing a non-slip surface.

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Later..

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 18, 2017, 2:22 pm
by Captainsparky
Thanks for sharing your work.
I have a 61 Uni that is in pretty rough shape as well. I am trying to do the Vic swap as well. Could you share more pics and detail on how you repaired the torque box and cab mounts and 1x3 channel across the back of the cab?

Thanks

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 18, 2017, 3:36 pm
by Blanger
Captainsparky wrote:Thanks for sharing your work.
I have a 61 Uni that is in pretty rough shape as well. I am trying to do the Vic swap as well. Could you share more pics and detail on how you repaired the torque box and cab mounts and 1x3 channel across the back of the cab?

Thanks
I wish I had more pictures to share about that area I'll look at my folder and see if there are any that might help you, I'll also take a few new ones this weekend and post them, might be of some help.

I did not repair the torque box, I cut it out and threw it in the scrap, doing the CV swap it's unnecessary in my opinion because you have to find a way to mount the cab/body to the CV chassis, there are lots of ways to do the front mounts that I've seen but only really a couple ways to do the rear while reinforcing the back of the cab after the torque box is eliminated. I built a 2x2 square tube mount that is welded to the CV chassis that ties both of the CV frame rails together and provides a mounting area for the back of the cab/body. I'll post a few pics of it next week.

In more detail the piece of 2x2 angle that I put inside the cab running side to side across the back of the cab had to have one side cut basically making it a 1x2 angle, I had to do this to make it fit between the back wall of the cab and a floor seam, my cab wall at the bottom had been pushed in towards the interior of the truck and had to be pushed out towards the tailgate to get the piece of angle to fit. It was then welded to the floor and the back of the cab, the voids between the angle and the cab back where filled with seam sealer from a caulking tube I think it's urethane based product that cures rock hard.

On the outside back of the cab I used the 1x3 tube, I placed it at the height where it would match the bottom of the bed floor should I choose to put a bed floor back in that area of the bed. (probably won't) so the 1x3 was welded to the back of the cab with it's width pointing towards the tailgate (3" side) that would give me a nice flat area to install cab mounts from, it was also welded to the bed sides same as the torque box was just consuming a much smaller area. I then went back and added a 1x1" angle to the top of the 1x3" at the back of the cab and welded that in to the 1x3 and the back of the cab for extra added strength, again the voids between the back of the cab and this piece were filled with the same type of seam sealer as I used inside. My goal here was to make it strong and water tight at the same time, because the truck had so much rot even the good metal in it is very easy to blow a hole through mig welding, hey it's old. lol

Anyway that's about all the detail I can give you, the pictures I'll post may spark specific questions you may have, but feel free to ask anything I'll try to help.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 19, 2017, 8:27 pm
by Blanger
@Captainsparky

Here's a few pics that may give you a idea of what I've done to mount the rear of the cab / body.

The view of the inside of the cab back wall where I added the 2x2 angle.

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This is the outside back of the cab which showsthe 1x3 channel and the 2x2 tube I made to mount the rear of the cab to the CV chassie.

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This is the seam sealer I used for the area where the voids between the cab back wall and the added metal on both the inside and out.

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I might add that to get the proper hight of the 2x2 square tube mount that I welded to the CV frame I had to first determine my ride hight that I wanted, I raised the body and moved it around several times then blocked it up between the CV frame and the truck body using wood, once I had the proper hight I wanted I built this mid mount first before building any of the other body mounts. After it was tied down I removed the wood blocks from that area and used a cherry picker to hold the front of the cab at the correct hight and built the front mounts after I had the radiator (core) support mounted and confirmed that I had it at the propper hight so the front fender fit correctly.
I'll cover this (radiator support) in my next post.



Hope this helps.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 20, 2017, 3:43 am
by Masterguns
Hey thanks a million for all the photos. I'm doing the same swap 61 uni on 85 crown vic. I just spent the weekend repairing my torque box area and back of cab/bed wall also. all the items that must have slid around in the bed over the years can really bow the metal forward a lot! I went a different route with the bed wall though, I cut the bed floor out to get to the torque box, and just ended up welding some angle from the bed side to repair the cab wall, pointing the angle back instead of forward. seemed easier to weld at least, don't know if it is better or not. starting to think this is an onion instead of a truck (lots of layers).

keep up the good work.

Mark

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 20, 2017, 2:49 pm
by Blanger
Masterguns wrote:Hey thanks a million for all the photos. I'm doing the same swap 61 uni on 85 crown vic. I just spent the weekend repairing my torque box area and back of cab/bed wall also. all the items that must have slid around in the bed over the years can really bow the metal forward a lot! I went a different route with the bed wall though, I cut the bed floor out to get to the torque box, and just ended up welding some angle from the bed side to repair the cab wall, pointing the angle back instead of forward. seemed easier to weld at least, don't know if it is better or not. starting to think this is an onion instead of a truck (lots of layers).

keep up the good work.

Mark
Hey Mark,

Sounds like your uni might be in a little better shape than mine, wasn't a lot of the torque box left on my truck, both ends had rotted through the bed sides, and I really didn't see the need to rebuild ours or the ability to do it without turning the truck upsides down...lol Biggest issue we had was that the back of the cab was rotted through about 1/2" up from the cab floor so we had to cover that area both inside and out which is why I added the extra piece of angle on top of the 1x3 on the outside there just wasn't a lot of good metal in that area to weld to. I don't think there is one right or correct way to do this swap, to me it comes down to what will work, what you feel safe doing, and what you absolutely have to do to achieve your objective or goal. I really don't think there is a wrong way to do this...lol

Case in point: The wiring I'm currently working on, I chose to use all of the CV wiring harness instead of adding a after market fuse panel and then marring the engine harness to the after-market harness, your going to be running wiring, making connections, and adapting things to your application for the circuits you want or need, both ways will leave you with excess circuits and wiring that you might or might not use in the future. Since I had the harness from the CV and spent the time to thin out the circuits (excess wire) I will never use or need I think I've kinda' ended up with the same end result as someone who uses a after market fuse panel, I mean all of my stuff will work after I adapt to the '62' switches and it will look stock which is what I'm going for in the dash (for the most part) but like I said no right or wrong way just the path you choose to take.

Jon

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 20, 2017, 4:35 pm
by Blanger
So lets talk core support (or radiator support), doing the CV frame swap leaves you with several options for using the slicks radiator support, we have to have the support because it is what holds everything together while providing a mounting for your cooling system heat exchanger (radiator), in the case of the 1998 CV I used the radiator mounted to to the top of the core support using pins cast into the radiator tanks at the top and pins that go into rubber bushings in the bottom of the support. So for me the easiest way to recreate this was to just cut off the bottom of the CV radiator support (just the part that holds the radiator), trim it in width and length, and weld it to the engine side of the trucks radiator support, luckly I tacked it first because I had it too high after a test fit I cut the tack welds positioned it lower tacked it again and it was good. I went back and permanently welded it to the trucks support and that solved mounting the lower part of the radiator. At the top I used the mounting tabs on the radiator that holds the transmission/PS cooler to the front of the radiator, I simply used two bolts welded to the engine side of the support that goes through the tabs with a nut/flat washer on one side and the same on the other side again works great.

On our CV it had a engine oil cooler in the lower radiator hose running parallel to the radiator, by reusing the lower portion of the CV support we were able to keep the support bracket for that oil cooler also which worked out nice. (sorry I don't have any pictures of this)

Here's a picture of the trucks support, the vics frame rail looks like its pretty far away but in reality it's just the angle the end of the frame rail is less than a 1/2" from the support.

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Since I had to buy a new core support and inner fenders I wasn't too keen on cutting them up, I would have if I had to but the radiator support needed very minimal cutting since I decided not to follow what others had done which is cut the radiator support so the CV frame rails extend through it, then build a support structure out of tubing to make it work again. I cut the CV frame rails off just behind the support then built off the bottom of the CV frame ends to support the trucks radiator support. It worked out fine and before you ask I've already devised a similar way to mount the front bumper that I'll post at a later date.

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In mounting the radiator support this way it is still mounted in rubber, it is still strong enough to support the weight it has to carry, and is adjustable sise-to-side and front and back to a certain degree, I did all of this with a cherry picker holding the front of the cab at the hight I wanted so I could get the front fenders lined up and running flat to the support, it was a lot of trial and error with jack stands holding the support, the cherry picker holding the cab and fitting parts, I think I've had the front end on and off this truck over a dozen times mocking things up...lol

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After the radiator support was mounted I was able to build my front cab mounts before moving the cherry picker I used a section of 2x2 square tubing (thick wall) to make the frame mount, then used a piece of 4" flat stock turned on it's side welded to the inner portion of the cab step/riser area (it goes back probably 12-14" ), where it met the frame mount it had another flat plate welded to it going horizontal and was gusseted top and bottom to add strength. I don't have pictures of them before they were painted so they are kinda' hard to see in the picture below....before the truck is finished there will be additional bracing welded to this mount going back to the floor to triangulate the support, I just need to get under the truck to do it now that the floor pans are all finished.

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The old inner fenders I used as cut patterns for the new ones we bought, they were in very bad shape but served this purpose nicely.

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Thanks for looking.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 20, 2017, 8:38 pm
by SteveCanup
Subscribed and Watching...great build.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 21, 2017, 1:16 am
by Masterguns
I definitely agree with you, no right way or wrong way to do this swap, everything just depends on what you have to work with.

By the way, what part of southern Indiana are you from? I'm about an hour east of Cincinnati.

That's the great thing about these swaps, no two are alike.

Keep the pictures coming, great job.

Mark

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 21, 2017, 8:06 am
by Blanger
Masterguns wrote:By the way, what part of southern Indiana are you from? I'm about an hour east of Cincinnati.
Mark,

Evansville...... about as far southwest as you can get before being in Kentucky...lol

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 21, 2017, 8:20 am
by Blanger
SteveCanup wrote:Subscribed and Watching...great build.
Thank you Sir....

Here's a few random pics of the truck that really don't have a good place to share.

This one is the truck after we brought it home before draggin' it off the trailer, 30 years of barn dust!
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Here's the 292, note: the chrome Mercury valve covers.
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The wheels / tires were a craigslist find off a '04 mustang brand new tires (almost ) and at $500 was a steal....these are 17" wheels and I had to use a 1/4" wheel spacer to clear the upper ball joint on the CV's front suspension.

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Jon

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 22, 2017, 7:55 am
by Blanger
So the next couple posts I want to talk about "controls" and that would be what is needed doing a CV frame swap as far as steering, brakes, throttle, shifter, basically the user controls that we use to drive.....I'm going to start with steering and have a small rant about steering wheels.

After we came to the realization that our slick wasn't going to be restored and chose a direction to take the truck / build we decided on just doing the CV frame swap, of course there so many aspects to doing this and different paths a person can take to achieve the end goal of a drive-able vehicle that is safe and dependable, some folks opt to remove the entire slick firewall / dash and replace it with the CV firewall, dash, steering, basically in some ways the easiest way to go but in others it winds-up looking cobbled together in my opinion.

Others do a hybrid of mix and match using the slicks dash and components from the CV like steering and instrument cluster while utilizing some of the slicks switches......still others want to keep as much of the slicks originality as possible and reuse as much as possible to maintain that original look. The later choice is where we fell, since our body was in such bad shape we wanted to try to keep what we could, this isn't the quickest or easiest path but it was the path we chose.

We wanted to try to keep the interior kinda' stock, I knew I'd have to replace the steering column, thought maybe I could reuse the original steering wheel (naw wrong spline) since the original '62 column was a integral part of the steering box that wasn't a option, so yeah I was going to need a column, thought about a column out of a newer Ford truck but sourcing the right one that was the proper length and had "tilt" (my wife is 4' 11") proved to consume way more time than I was willing to spend.

So aftermarket column it is! I knew I needed a a 28" column from watching videos on youtube, I wanted a black column which turns out to be a special order item most places which I found really weird, I would think black would be the "base" or cheapest column but I guess everyone wants chrome or brushed aluminum so it was a extra $30 bucks and a special order from Summit, weeks go by and no shipping, the shipping date keeps getting pushed back further and further, so after 6 weeks I cancel the order (I'm getting close to needing it at this point) and bite the bullet buying a in-stock brushed aluminum column ( I can always paint it I thought) that is cheaper.

The column comes in and looks like crap, yeah its brushed aluminum with a honking chrome steering wheel adapter on it (a $60 dollar value) that uses 9 bolt holes to mount the steering wheel. which brings me to my rant!

When in the hell did they decide to move away from the old standard 3 bolt mount that people like Grant has made for 100 years, I thought I'd just put the 9 hole adapter that came with the column (a $60 dollar value) on the shelf for maybe future use and ordered a Grant 3 hole adapter and a cool looking 3 hole steering wheel, I figured life was good, Wrong! after installing the Grant adapter which didn't come with a horn button? what the hell? today horn buttons are a separate purchase and cost anywhere from $10 to $40 bucks....really? Then after it was all installed in the normal non-tilt position everything was fine but in the tilt-up mode the fancy billet aluminum shifter handle hits the steering wheel and won't come out of park.

Here's a few pics while I compose the rest of my thoughts...lol

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So at this point I'm not happy at all, not sure if it's my fault for not measuring everything and considering just how much "dish" was needed in every tilt position but I'll take the blame and the couple hundred dollar hit for parts I'm not going to use....again the easiest way out of this is to just use the honkin' chrome 9 hole adapter (a $60 dollar value) because it's 3.5" tall so moves the steering wheel a couple inches away from the shifter in full tilt-up position. If I buy the right steering wheel (proper dish) then my problem is solved right? nope take a look around the ol' inter-webs for 9 hole steering wheels, they seem to be the newest thing because not that many are made, choices are limited, they are pricey, as it turns out they also make 5 hole adapters (a $60 dollar value) that has many more choices in wheels, but again none of these come with a horn button.

So I decided on a cool looking steering wheel that again is billet aluminum with a plastic grip ($135) and of course a aluminum horn button ($35) and now I can tilt n' turn to all my pleasure I just didn't even come close to the look I was trying to achieve, after spending almost $625 to get a working column and steering wheel with that horn button I was ready to move on to something less challenging like wiring...lol

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And here's the column installed.

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I also used a "Flaming River" aluminum 0 drop mount at the bottom of the dash, I haven't cut into the dash at all but may have to after I get a seat, the angle of the column at the firewall is high enough that I can raise the column into the dash if I have to at least a 1" or 2 if it's needed, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, at the firewall I used the CV mount from the CV firewall, used it as a pattern then cut the firewall with a plasma cutter, then welded the mount to the slicks firewall, this is the same method I will use for most of the other holes I'll have to cut in the firewall for the controls.

Edit: So I got so worked up again I forgot about the most important end of the steering column and that is the connection to the steering box....lol

So on that end since almost every aftermarket column I found is based on a '69 up GM vehicle so yeah the steering wheel spline and the double D shaft that exits the column are all GM, I actually found a easy way to adapt this to the CV steering shaft coming from the steering box (mine is a non-rack & pinion), I had a steering shaft laying around the shop from a earlier S-10 project it was complete from rag joint to steering u-joint, the u-joint on the end had splines on the inside and was swaged to the shaft, a little work with a die grinder to remove the extra material that was swaged to keep the joint in place and it slipped right off the shaft.

The CV shaft which was telescopic (slides in and out) has a modified + or cross for its basic connections at the column but was more of a hex or square where the shaft connected with what is called a intermediate shaft. it was easy enough to take that square and make it round with a grinder, slowly bringing it down to the proper size for the s-10 u-joint to be driven on to it, it even had a collar that made the depth easy not to go to far, it was then welded solid to the CV shaft, it slid onto the double D portion of the column shaft, I just had to make a groove for the bolt in the u-joint to clear the shaft and lock it in place.....again a little work with a die grinder and we had working steering.

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Next time I'll cover the rest of the controls...

Jon

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 23, 2017, 8:33 am
by Blanger
While I dig up the rest of the pictures to finish the "controls" topic I came across a few pictures of my fuel filler that might be of interest to some of you folks.

I guess I could have used the original CV filler and cut a hole in the bedside grafted the door from the CV but that would be way more work than I was willing to do, so I did the next best thing in my mind....lol
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I cut the original filler tube right where it exits the tank to maintain the o'ring seal in the tank along with the in-tank check valve, used a 90 degree fuel rated 1 1/2 Gates hose to connect the aluminum bung / filler I bought from Summit.

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I cut a hole in the rear portion of the wheel house / tub at a height that would be above the new floor I plan to build and also higher than the tank inlet, drilled a few holes for screws, trimmed the hose so there were no kinks in it or areas where fuel could lay, made sure I had clearance between the filler hose and the top of the tire and we have a way to fill the tank.
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My only consideration at this point is that the original CV filler had a vent that went back to the EVAP, this setup does not have a vent tube so I'm a little concern that there might be a problem filling the tank that it will try to force air out of the tank while fuel is entering, I don't think this is going to be a issue but if it is I'll have to devise a way to vent the filler again. I'm thinking that the vent tube wasn't really a tube to vent filling the tank but to catch slosh from over filling the tank since it went back to the EVAP and not directly to the fuel tank like a lot of vehicles use in the fuel filler tube.... time will tell. lol

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 24, 2017, 2:52 pm
by Blanger
I'm going to break this up into a couple posts because I'm a little short on time this week....

If your going to do the entire CV frame swap there are a few things you need to remember while your tearing your CV apart, one would be to protect your wiring even if you plan on using another stand-alone harness be sure to mark all the connection for later use again it's a good idea to do this because you might want to keep the ABS system, or the fuel pump wiring with the fuel cut-off switch, or maybe you want to reuse the HVAC, it's just a good idea to label everything as you tear the car apart, another is to be careful cutting out the area where the CV fuel tank - rear suspension resides.... remember you want to be safe doing this watching for hidden wiring, the fuel filler tube, try to be liberal in the amount of metal you leave, it can always be trimmed up later depending on your needs / wants.

Here's a couple views, the original cut just to fit the body on...

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Then a trimmed up view that gives us access to everything while still keeping the fuel tank secure.

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If you only trim this area to the point of it fitting your hole between your wheel tubs you can always trim it after the fact, it's easier to remove more metal than add it back.

Another thing you want to do when tearing the CV apart is cut out the drivers firewall area and save it for a pattern, you could use it in several different ways but to get mounting locations, hole diameters, bolt placement, and the two brackets that were welded to our CV (lower steering shaft and throttle pedal), I used this firewall section as patterns for everything that went into the slicks firewall including the ECM.

We'll start with the brake booster - brake pedal assembly.

I use the section of the CV firewall to locate the holes for the brake booster after the steering column was set in place, my thought process was that I need the steering column in first so I'm not creating a problem by mounting the pedal first and having to work around it or maybe move it.

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Anyone who has ever done one of these CV frame swaps will tell you that the brake pedal assemble is the easiest task you will encounter, removing the master cylinder which has braided flexible lines you don't even have to bleed the brakes when your done, just lay the master cylinder to the side keeping it upright and reattach it when your finished. The bolts that hold the booster to the firewall also hold the brake pedal assemble inside, once you find your location to mount, cut/drill your holes, in just a few minuets you can have a working brake pedal...just too easy!

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The throttle pedal is just about as easy even if it's not a throttle by wire setup, I'll cover that in the next post.

Re: '62 F100 Uni - yes another Crown Vic swap

Posted: August 25, 2017, 9:37 am
by Blanger
Gas Pedal

Our CV has a throttle cable, newer '03 and up is throttle by wire which makes installation of the "foot feed" or gas pedal very easy, but the older cars like ours (98) that use a cable are pretty simple also if you saved that portion of the firewall from the CV, on ours it had on the engine side of the firewall mounting lugs for the throttle cable and on the inside the mounting studs for the pedal. I found the right location for the pedal inside and marked the spot, then using the piece minus the pedal marked the location of where the cable would pass through the firewall into the engine bay, then used the plasma cutter to only remove enough material for the cable mount to pass through the firewall, a little bending and tweaking later I could tack the cable portion to the slicks firewall leaving the rest of the mount on top of the slicks footwell (inside) (sorry no pictures).

Anyway what I was left with was a mount for the cable that could pass through the firewall and the pedal mount that I could surface weld to the slicks firewall on the inside, if you look at the last picture I posted in the above post you can kinda' see what I'm talking about if you look hard at the gas pedal area you will see a white area at the firewall which is the CV part I used, if it's confusing I can try to take a couple more pictures and post them. The only consideration I had was that placing the pedal I could get WOT (wide open throttle) without the pedal touching the floor.

I thought I had a picture of the CV mount before I welded it in but I don't seem to see it anywhere, I've tried to take pictures along the way but sometimes you get on a roll and just don't stop to take the time, when I started this project months ago I was just taking pictures to kinda' make a build diary not to really try to help others, I've switched that to trying to photo everything so this thread might help others in the future.

Currently I'm working on the wiring as in mating the CV harness to the slicks switches and in the future I'll have a lot of pictures of problems I've encountered and how I solved the problems, some are just common sense to me others I've really strayed off into the weeds with my solution, but they all work at this point...lol I know a lot of people are intimidated by wiring and try to find the quickest way to do it then move on to something they are better at or have more knowledge about, nothing at all wrong with that, but wiring is something I enjoy doing and like the challenge of making it all work.

I'm going on vacation next week and plan to devote as much time as I can to finishing the wiring in the truck so I might not make any posts next week but will continue on when I'm back on my regular schedule, my goal is to have the truck where I can at least drive it around the block with working lights or maybe drive it to work, I just got all of the parts to rebuild the doors - windows - wing window, this is all the rubber parts and anti-rattle stuff to make the doors water tight which I need to do after I get the wiring completed. Once it's drive-able I have a whole list of things like bed floor, bed cover, gauges (using the CV at the moment), wiper motor ( I want to try to use the CV wiper motor so I can have intermittent wipers), cruse control, and a few other things, I still have some sheet metal work to do fixing the hood, tailgate, and a few other areas...so lots left to do.

See you folks in a week or so...

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