Australian '69 F350 - work in progress

[montyF350]

Hi guys, thought I'd post up some pics now I'm doing some proper work on my truck..
The day I bought her: (using it to remove a cab from a dentside in my yard)


Has been a wrecker pretty much all its life as far as I know. Was originally a longbed that they shortened to a 'slightly shorter than short' bed..
Has a 240ci six in it, and a granny 1st 4spd. Dana 70 rear with duallys..


the cab when i picked it up:


the white didn't last for long:




took it to the local annual 'All Ford Day' just after the new paint was applied



(thats my white 72 falcon coupe next to it in the pic below)

[montyF350]

replaced the house carpet in the cab with some basic black carpet from another car. Picked up a later dash from an F-truck spares place:
original:


replacement:


removed the towing gear as its mounts were rusted almost through, and I had no real use for it, but the flat tray was handy:


Also recently upgraded to the disc brake front end from a 74 F350, unbelievable difference!

[montyF350]

all along, my plan has been to build an old school ramp truck for carrying my falcon to the drags.. The short wheelbase was never going to be any good for that
so using part of the chassis from the 74 that donated the disc front end, i got to work..

[montyF350]

[montyF350]

and thats where i'm up to at this minute. The tray came off saturday afternoon, diff came out and chassis cut sunday, new chassis welded up today (monday).
Tomorrow i'll be adding the fishplates, more crossmembers, and measuring up the tailshafts. Hopefully tomorrow night i can get in to work (have the week off )
and make up the new shafts.
After i have made the body, I'll be fitting a 351c and C6 auto. My nearest drag strip is 10hrs drive away in another state, so the truck will be a comfortable cruiser. I also use it to travel to work everyday

hopefully it will eventually resemble this (although my wheelbase is a bit longer, to reduce the overhang at the rear)




thanks for looking

Phil.

[Tank]

It looks like your dog is guarding that paint well, I guess its better than a "wet paint, Don't touch" sign.

[ezernut9mm]

cool project. and you move fast. i'd take me two months to do all that.

[montyF350]

thanks, I need to get 'er done so i can drive it to work next week

[rjewkes]

Looks factory monty.

[fordman]

how many inches did you give it?

[montyF350]

Thanks rjewkes!
fordman, I've added 900mm (35.4"). It's now 2.4m (94.5") from the rear of the cab to the centre of the rear axle. The ramp-body will be 181" long, and the overall length of the truck will be 287". I've yet to check what the actual wheelbase is now.

[montyF350]

just had a look at the factory diagrams on the main site, from there I've worked out my wheelbase is now 168.8" / 4.28m

[Ranchero50]

Looks really good. Do they do roll backs over there? I did one for a friends '83 Chevy Crew cab, added a one ton frame behind the cab and then a roll back frame and decl from another truck. It's horribly long, but will haul anything with room for six up front.

Jamie

PS, that truck would look good with some CNC stuff in the cab.

[rjewkes]

yup thats what i wanna do with an f600 from the 70's either rollback or sling and wheel lift combo. that C2A (cab to axle measurement) would be just about a normal wheelift sling hoist tow here. 95.8" is the min measurew for the newer holmes 440 classic bed. any longer and they add tool boxes infront of it to take up the gap. any shorter and the suggest something else.

[montyF350]

Yeah we have rollbacks here Jamie. Quite expensive to build. I'd love a bumpside crewcab ramptruck, but it's impossible to find a cab here. I'm not even sure if you were able to buy crewcabs from the dealers here until the 80's?
And yeas, the cab is certainly due for attentino inside. Will be going bucket seats soon and removing the in-cab fuel tank.











and as a comparison..


Waiting for the paint to dry before the wiring and lights go on.