1971 f250 DESERT truck- 10/24 race prep

[67 ford f100s rule]

That console is awesome Ryan. Those ammo cans are also a good idea. I plan on mouting 4 together to use as a tool box.

[robroy]

Hey Ryan! I admire all the interesting custom work you've done to your truck! I like how bold you are with making the truck exactly how you want it.

Robroy

[BradyCouchman]

That console is awesome Ryan. Those ammo cans are also a good idea. I plan on mouting 4 together to use as a tool box.

i agree but ammo can tend to be a bad shape for my tools so this is what i did....



just happen to have the box and it seems to fit just right

[1971ford]

Well we have one more weekend to work now, and that is going to be testing. Soo we are practically done working on the truck until the race in just two weeks!
We have a few little things left but we will be doing those during this week.

work of this weekend..

-Fire extinguisher inside cab, and another on bedcage
-Bought 4 more rims to mount spares on
-Mounted spares, new ratchet straps to hold them in
-re-located battery to the bed, saving weight off the front. Found that the battery that was in the truck was really wimpy, no cranking power. so that is why we have had such a bad starting problem... the battery we put in has much more cranking power, starts alot better.
-fully welded/finished seat mounting, harness mounting and rear bumper extension
-mounted seats and harnesses
-mounted window nets
-dad filled my c02/argon for me so i started welding things..
-Made a fuel cell skid plate and mounted it
-made a video camera mount
-made the GPS mounts
-started welding body to cage
-pulled rearend gears, those will be welded tomorrow and put back in tomorrow hopefully
-Used a video camera bag with lots of pouches and filled it with tons of tools and other things. It is held by buncgee cords onto the rear of the center console.
-grabbed a old soccer bag and packed it full of things (oils, 4x4 block, pry bar, mini-sledge, Gear-wrench set, etc.) it is strapped to the main hoop.
-Bought some autofab coils/spacers from a offroad forum member, those will go in soon


The spares fit perfect. aired to 50 like they did at the tire shop and they dont fit at all. aired to 27 they fit nice and snug.


Fortunately you guys will see the first race! Unfortunately though the camera has problems and will accasionally have lines over the playback but definately better than nothing. You can hear us when were racing... not sure if that is good or bad yet haha


and the view out of it is great with the fisheye lense










we are still waiting to hear back about our race number. We are asking for 871. (class 8, '71 ford).
I now have $293. Entrance is $275. My dad has been spending a whole lot. Still have things to do..
wow. Cutting it close. Going to have to try and sell things to make up for all the money we are putting into this race.

[OldRedFord]

I have always been told you dont get rich racing. No matter what form it is.

[03rangerxlt]

cant wait to see race vid! keep er on all 4 though, unless your jumpin'.

[GSequoia]

I've got two suggestions for you...

First the video camera - Pick up a cleaning cassette for it, when my Mini-DV camera does weird stuff I clean it and it generally stops.

Second - Personally I don't trust that off the shelf battery hold down (the red part...), I've had a couple of them break in half at the welds. You may consider quickly fabbing a bracket.

Third - If you want to go with an Optima battery in the future check this mount out, I have one for my Jeep (sitting on the floor of the garage where it's doing a lot of good!) and it's stout. http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/cat ... 4c83c7072b

[1971ford]

Gsequoia,
We did happen to re-do that mount
And i have tried the cleaning cassete and it doesn't make it any better but after watching the video of testing it seems it barely had any problems!
Oh, and i know they guy that owns RuffStuff

[1971ford]

-rebuilt the battery hold down
-bigger ground cable for the battery
-swapped autofab coils in
-TESTING!
-picked up 4 more 35's, 9in. rearend and 4 5x5.5 rims all donated
-mounted the new-used 35's onto the spares instead of having the 33's as spares, and swapped out the blown tire.
-extended the width of the tire holders after finding that the 35's on 10" wide rims don't fit
-wired the GPS
-cut the rear fender wells bigger, i still need to take the wheels off and beat the fender wells out to clear the tires easily
-ground down the calipers after finding that the spare rims we picked up don't clear them with their backspacing. we had to drive the truck home from testing with a rim grinding on the caliper.
-foamed the fuel cell
-routed the vent tube for the fuel cell
-adjusted shifter so now it goes into the exact gear you chose... adds lots of fun! and we need that for when we get stuck in sand..


Testing:



The second that the rear tire split on the bed




you can see the skid plate now

ahh finally no bumpstop bashing!

So the day after testing i look for a tire and i found a ad on Craigslist for a set of the same size tires i had, for $40. We get there and he says he will donate them to us since we are racers, and gave us some stickers to put on the truck. Then he asks if we need a 9in.... heck yeah! That will go in eventually. And then he said that if i take the 9in. i am going to need these rims!

tires

battery hold down:

vent

i don't think 35's in the rear look too big.

widened spare holders



now we have tons of spare tires!
We are leaving Friday so i will be looking over the truck after school until then. The only things left to do is the driveshaft loop, beat fender-wells out and weld a nut to the jack to be able to use a wrench on it.

[GSequoia]

Oh, and i know they guy that owns RuffStuff

Small world. While I've never met him in person I sorta-know him (Spoken to him on the phone a lot, I used to handle sponsorship stuff for my Jeep club). If you're talking to him tell him that Sequoia from NAXJA says hello

[BradyCouchman]

with the auto fab coils did you get an alignment or new i beams? or just not wory about it?

[1971ford]

yeah i dont know him really well i just checked out his shop one day and we talked for a while. Their shop is pretty close to me. Lots of cool stuff in there. I sold him a set of gauges

THe autofab coils give the truck too much camber for the 4 hour drive to hawthorne on the road but in the dirt it is great. we are going to try adjusting the toe again and see if it helps. I'll be getting bent beams eventually.

[03rangerxlt]

she's lookin good man! As soon as I started looking at these pics, I was wondering if you had enough room for the rear tires to clear, or if they were gonna rub. Then I saw what happened. Do you have any plans to cut out or flare the rear fenders?

[papabug71]

Ryan, how are you doing as far as clearence on the rears? The 35's look a little tight from the pics. Espically when you load the truck down & the springs compress. Are you going to tub the rear wells or do you have plenty of clearence as is ??

[1971ford]

I have cut out the front and rear parts of the fenderwells, because those were the areas that hit. The top tucked fine but today i am going to pull the wheels off and work on flaring out the tops to make sure we dont blow a tire at the race.