Pictures of a Crown Vic install

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 11, 2011, 6:29 pm

Here are a few pics of a Crown Vic front clip we are installing.........

We made these brackets to replace the stock units.

You can see we narrowed the frame four inches........
This meant we also narrowed the CV clip four inches too.

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 11, 2011, 6:32 pm

We uaed the CV sway bar also..

We made these to keep the truck at ride and still have room to work on the rear axle

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » March 11, 2011, 7:21 pm

Nice!! great fab work.... I like ...

jamesdfo · Post by **jamesdfo** » March 11, 2011, 7:29 pm

What alloy of aluminum is the crossmember made of? What weld procedure did you you when you narrowed it?

Thanks!
James

randyr · Post by **randyr** » March 11, 2011, 9:12 pm

I can assume you narrowed the crossmember to narrow the track, right? Did you also shorten the R&P? What engine are you using? I'm guessing it won't be a 4.6 or 5.4 since the built-in motor mounts on the crossmember will no longer fit.
Looks like really nice work. Just curious about the details...
Thanks.

Power by Ford · Post by **Power by Ford** » March 11, 2011, 9:57 pm

First very nice work. I had purchased a CV unit a couple of years ago and scrapped the idea of the swap after fitting it in place and seeing that it was simply to wide for my plans. At that time I thought of narrowing the unit and found a welder that assured me he could weld the cast aliuminuim. I posted the idea and was told by a so called expert that was previously on this forum that it simply could not be done and would not work. Glad to see someone think outside the box and execute on it nice work. I went with an after market set up but still thought about the CV narrowing often, I educated myself by reading up on the geometry of a front end and I see no reason why this will not work very well. Keep us posted. Thanks

Alan Mclennan · Post by **Alan Mclennan** » March 11, 2011, 10:17 pm

Looks great Ctom, could you just notch the chassis to fit in between the cross member instead of making a new front end?, not questioning your method!, just we can`t just rebuild the front of the chassis, is must stay basically as it was!.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » March 12, 2011, 2:04 am

Nice to see you are working on that.. Looks like we have same brands for those ford truck parts in that installation? I just taught. seeing those parts..

Johnny Canuck · Post by **Johnny Canuck** » March 12, 2011, 9:02 am

That is interesting. Not sure why you went to all the trouble to narrow the crossmember width.. how do you make the steering rams shorter? did you cut the steering arms?
In that case I too am curious about your welding methods.... that would never pass muster around here. Big nono to weld on steering parts

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 12, 2011, 9:57 am

jamesdfo wrote:What alloy of aluminum is the crossmember made of? What weld procedure did you you when you narrowed it?

Thanks!
James

We do a lot of aluminum welding here, but we did have to make an educated guess re the aluminum alloy. After we cut the 4 inches out we cut the extra piece and re welded them and did some extreme testing on it. We also installed plates on the top and sides of the cross member. I feel this is going to work fine.

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 12, 2011, 10:02 am

randyr wrote:I can assume you narrowed the crossmember to narrow the track, right? Did you also shorten the R&P? What engine are you using? I'm guessing it won't be a 4.6 or 5.4 since the built-in motor mounts on the crossmember will no longer fit.
Looks like really nice work. Just curious about the details...
Thanks.

Yes, you must narrow the rack ass'y and not just the tierods. If you look close you can see the welds on the rack. We have a 460 lined up for the install.
I'm sure you could find a rack ass'y the right size but we like doing it our self.

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 12, 2011, 10:08 am

Alan Mclennan wrote:Looks great Ctom, could you just notch the chassis to fit in between the cross member instead of making a new front end?, not questioning your method!, just we can`t just rebuild the front of the chassis, is must stay basically as it was!.

We had to build the frame anyway so why not make it fit the new front end.
Glad you guys like it, we have other projects to do but we will get back to the truck soon.

Power by Ford · Post by **Power by Ford** » March 12, 2011, 10:15 am

As an extra precaution if you are not comfortable with the aluminum welding I thought about welding in a peice of stock from frame rail to frame rail and using the motor mounts holes and bolting the cross member to it. This would also give you a base to weld in motor mounts. I forget the alloy my welder said the cross member was made from but he was very confident that it would weld and be strong. He welds prostock, and nascar chassis so he has much experience.

CTom · Post by **CTom** » March 18, 2011, 12:37 pm

Rear end is an 8.8 with disc brakes............We will be running coilovers and a four bar set up.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » March 18, 2011, 2:51 pm

What was the 8.8 you used out of? Looks like you may have cut down the axles/housing to match the front?

64low-n-slow · Post by **64low-n-slow** » March 19, 2011, 7:46 pm

Very nice fab work. Looking forward to see the rest.....

CTom · Post by **CTom** » August 26, 2011, 7:15 pm

Just a few up dates....................

fire truck · Post by **fire truck** » August 26, 2011, 9:09 pm

Very clean work dude! This is going to be one sweet effie when it's done.

Why am I not surprised at the source of the only negative comment....jttc

66fordtrucknut · Post by **66fordtrucknut** » August 28, 2011, 7:07 am

Great job. You can tell by the quality of the work, everythings been well thought out. I'm a fabricator too and like you wouldn't think twice about the aluminum welds. Maybe if you never welded alum. before, I'd be concerned. Anybody who ever shortened a stock steering column to fit a power steering box is relying on welds too. beautiful work there, keep the pic coming.
Charlie

oldtrucks · Post by **oldtrucks** » August 28, 2011, 12:45 pm

Very nice work CTom, I very much like the way you narrowed the rear frame rails to keep the rear coil overs outside the frame rails. The truck should be a dream to drive.