'56 F600 Shorty build (lots of pics)

Thanks

It took a whole lot of work to get it to my doorstep, but it's been well worth it

lol I remember when you went too get it and it would not fit on the float
How did you get it home??
later Andrew

Yeah, that was a "fun" night...

The guy I bought it from brought it down to me for the price of gas, but he had to take off the compressor and flat bed to do it (they added 9,000#s). The only reason I didn't op for that at first was because there was a Schramm compressor dealer who was interested in it, it could have paid for the whole truck and trip, but after I sent him pictures of the tag he decided it wasn't worth it to him...

On the bright side though it helped make some other aspects clear, not to mention I didn't have to try to remove that compressor or bed by myself, especially with no place to put it!

56 on steriods! keep up the good work!! wonder how the ride quality`s going to be? i know when i did conversions and installed grain boxes on 3 ton & up trucks trucks, picked up a few of them myself, without a box in the back (longer frame) it was like riding a bronko!!!

lol thanks ^_^

Yeah I have no idea how it's actually going to ride, thats a whole lot of spring in the back. Truthfully I didn't get to drive it much before doing this and as long as I'm in the drivers seat and have the wheel to hold onto I don't mind the bucking bronco lol.

Still need to do some things to it before I can drive it regularly. I'm hoping my brakes not kicking in till the last 1" of the pedal is because they needed to be bleed. I'll probably re-attach the line to the back today, I'm seriously hoping I just had air in the lines (it was converted to air brakes at one point, then put back to this, I'm guessing they didn't bleed it out and just did it as a temp job)

Still need to replace the fuel pump, it leaks like a civ right now. I'm also hoping thats where my oil leak is at, bad seal around that.

Need to do the points, not sure if I need a new distributor or not, but at least the lines as one of them just falls right off the spark plug!


Later on I plan on doing a power steering conversion. I was thinking that this would have to wait till after I swapped out the axle with a 4x4 one, but after talking to a guy doing something similar, it seems I maybe able to just use the toyota box now and still have it work later. There is no way I can drive it daily with the steering as is. I literally pulled the muscles in my back trying to get the truck into the spot its at now, I thought I was opening a rusted water main or something. I'd really like to keep the original steering column in it if I could, just has a look to it that you only see in pre-60s. If I swap to an auto transmission later it be nice to have the shift on the column rather than the floor, I'm all for having the floor nice and clean looking.

Been sick and raining the past couple weeks (and is about to start raining again, 60mph rain, not like happy rain) so I haven't managed to get much done, when I started to get sick I started to burn out and thats a big no-no to me on builds I'm doing for fun.


Today I got the driveshaft in. I used the driveshaft that was attached to the transmission, it turns out the end of it that attached to the second driveshaft in the middle had the same yoke as the at the axle. You may recall it was just slightly too long, after taking a good look at it and how much of the removable part was actually on the driveshaft, I was able to remove about 1/2" and make everything work perfectly. Well, I won't say perfectly because it's a very very tight fit and I probably should have removed a little more, it was one of those things that once I put on I wondered how I would get it off cause there is a lip where it attaches to the transmission.

Oh well, thats a whole different adventure, whoops. Till then the driveshaft is on ^_^

This had a rubber housing around it that connected to the bracket of the support for the meeting of the two. Thankfully since I didn't really change anything I didn't have to pay someone to do it since it would need a balancing if it was made longer or whatever. And it also allows me to keep the second driveshaft uncut.



Does anyone know how the e-brake goes together here? Mine is all apart. I'm assuming the hook goes though the holes but I'd like to see one together properly before I try that.







I have the brakes to do, mainly attaching the back and bleeding them (which hopefully will fix my 'brakes only work in the last inch of the pedal' problem). I still need to attach the bed but I'm looking to do a few things first, it might raise things a little but it would allow me to put as much weight in the bed as I would like and be able to switch to a flat bed if I ever have the need... then switch back cause a step-side on this is too awesome not have.

And then fuel pump, points, check some wiring and if she works like I'm hoping then, I'll be on the road ^_^

Yeah the handle is inside the cab sticking up next to the shifter. The linkage looks direct but it's hard to see way down in there..

I just checked on FTE and it seems I'm missing a bolt that runs through it all. Should be an easy fix. Makes sense, be difficult to make it where it all went on the hook...

update: yep just a bolt, works now.

Also re-keyed the passanger door, so now I can lock it up (didn't have the key for it)

Been busy working on this and that, and fixing up my Mustang as well.

Got the truck really running for the first time yesterday, it's never really run much, I haven't driven it more than maybe 50 yards myself. Needed a new fuel pump (it POURED gas) and new spark plugs and cables, it still had all the original stuff. I'm amazed it ran off it, but that really says something if you ask me, heck its 54 years old!

I have a little bit of lag sometimes with the pedal, I'll be working on that today. Might just be something sticking. This video is basically the second time I ran it, so it could still maybe just need to run a bit more.





Also, my battery light stays on, it always has. Battery is new. There is a wire that is part of the positive terminal that's been cut, was this the line the battery light works off of? I'm guessing so, I'm thinking since it's not connected the light figures it's dead.

lol no money and no help but I do have ingenuity and that helps considerably, ha.

I think I lucked out with my truck being so complete, and what it was missing was custom so all of that can just made to work, rather than going concour.

This isn't the real build, this is more of me just getting to where I can use it before I go back and really do things.

Nice looking project! I like the look and the theory.

I only have one question about how you did the rear fenders. The wheel arch and slope of the fender seems to argue with the front.

Yeah I love her coupe! Glad it's red, makes the name work better with my truck being red too, lol.

I took it for a test drive today. I had to re-bleed the brakes, installed a mechanical brake light switch (I didn't like that lights didn't kick on till the pedal was all the way on), put in an alternator and did a whole bunch of wiring to get everything on this to work again.

Drove like a champ, it's something that feels normal to drive. It turns easy, stops easy, goes easy. I was afraid when I first drove it before working on it (it was in low gear, which is around 8.**, high is 5.83 for the rear end) that it would be hard to drive normally, but I can take off like anything else in this and cruise real easy.

I'll have to better attach the bed, only two bolts in it now (just wanted to go for a drive, lol). I did find that if you hit a bump hard enough, which isn't hard with 2.5 ton suspension, that you can open both doors at the same time, lol. You feel every bump, but it feels like driving a truck, not a jackhammer or something. I've always been one for the "yee-harr!"ing








So that's pretty much it for this stage. It's not done, far from it. All of this was just to get it to drive around town. Once I have some real money I'll go back and cherry everything. This is my business truck, not a show truck, so I'll have to do things differently in some areas. It REALLY turns heads though, very helpful to have a truck everyone loves and can't help but look at when you're running your own business as a Blacksmith Artist


Thanks for the help ^_^

Haven't posted anything in forever I know, but we're getting close to Stage 2 of this build; making it a daily drivable 4x4.

Currently I'm shopping for a new drivetrain (from engine to the axles), I may have a donor from a newer truck, we'll sorta have to see what works out in the end. Really need this to be something that can handle bad snow, and ironically I will probably be doing most of my work in the freezing snow, lol.

Pictures and all of that jazz to come, probably be about a month or more till it really gets going though.

Hi Steven,
Go diesel if you can on that drive train. If you can find an olde IDI 7.3 it would be the easiest. The newer diesels are all computerized and a real nightmare to install in a truck like yours. There is a lot of stuff out there on juicing up the old IDI 7.3s but to do it right you need to do a complete rebuild as some of the internals don't stand up well to a turbocharger. I think you will find that a stock IDI 7.3, circa 1993 will perform pretty well in that truck and it's an easy conversion. Every once in a while I see one of those go for around $500.00 in a rusted out truck. Rebuild kits for the old 7.3s are not too bad price wise. If you find one that runs decent just clean it up and use it. I have a nice manual tranny and transfer case that would work well in that thing.

Later Man...

Had several people mention diesels, particularly a 89-93 Dodge Cummins.

Still waiting on parts till I can do anymore. I'm looking into 2.5 ton front axles like the f106. Dana 60s are about $1000 around here (A D44 is too small, would break under hard use with the wheels I want), but there seems to be some large axles for sale rather cheaply (demand I suppose), just need to find one with the same gear ratio as the rear.

Plan on putting dump truck super singles on it. My only problem with duallys has always been the way the fronts look, just too thin, but super singles fix that. Shouldn't be a problem with any rubbing on the inside but I may need to adjust the wheel openings. We'll see. I thought about using F900 fenders up front, but I just can't get past how silly they sorta look when it's that wide. Kinda like a chipmunk with a mouth full of walnuts.

I'll be sure to post more when I can get back to work on it, I sorta need to do everything at once, axles, wheels, tires, powertrain, ect.

Haven't posted in forever because I haven't done anything in forever, lol.

The main rear seal went out yesterday on my 272, so it's a good excuse to swap it with something with a lot more power and ease of driving. My hope is to find a strong running V8 (351w, 390, 428, 460, dunno) and get things set up with a divorced transfer case. If at all possible find a set of axles as well, I'd like to go 4x4 with it and I need a Dana 60 or more up front. Unfourtantly a Dana 60 is more than 4 times as expensive as a Dana 44, which are all over the place here. So we kind have to wait to see what I come across... and then have to find a place to do it all, lol.

More power is good. The truck looks great!

Thanks

I'm currently looking for something like a 5.9 Cummins or a Powerstroke. I'm thinking the better mpg and torque are worth the money... if I can find money for one and then find one, lol.

But, I'm at least looking to get some work done again finally. I'll be sure to update once I start having parts.