Calling all f100/f250 Prerunners

[papabug71]

Hey Tycho, Welcome to FORDification. I have a feeling you & 1971ford are going to become great friends. He has one of the only pre-runner bumps on the site. If I remember correctly, he has custom fabbed alot of his stuff

I'll let him holler at you. I dont know heads or tails about pre runners. We just call them 2 wheel drives.

Have a good one.

[Tycho]

Hey Tycho, Welcome to FORDification. I have a feeling you & 1971ford are going to become great friends. He has one of the only pre-runner bumps on the site. If I remember correctly, he has custom fabbed alot of his stuff

I'll let him holler at you. I dont know heads or tails about pre runners. We just call them 2 wheel drives.

Have a good one.

Yeah his truck is not only nice, it's pretty much exactly what im shooting for. I had already sent him a PM before I made this thread.
I see a lot of F100s in magazines and whatnot, but none list who did the fab work or where you can find any sort of information on work for these trucks.

[1971ford]

This shall be the official prerunner thread, that i can link people to. So ill start stuffing information in here.

Here's mine,
project thread: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... &start=315


Only thing missing in this picture of the interior is the Baja 540c GPS. And its a bad picture.

September 5th, 2009. First race


Currently, but not for long, it is sitting on autofab coils up front and stock leaf packs in the rear with 2 leaves pulled out of each pack.
However it is now off-season and we plan on swapping the rear springs out for Deaver race packs, 16" smooth body shocks mounted to bed cage, and up front we will be adding a shock hoop for my 10" resevoir single bypass shocks. Many other plans of course, including tranny swap, coolers, engine rebuild, all that fun stuff.
The truck rides better than i expected with the current suspension. The only problem is that without a good set of shocks up front, once the front end starts bouncing.... it bounces.. and doesn't like to stop.
The rear leaf's are OK with a 32 gallon fuel cell and two spares on top. It was bottoming out however because we did not test with a full cell.

I could go on and on about my truck, let me know what you want to know about it and i'd be glad to help out.

I have TONS of pictures of old ford prerunners, i have collected them for a very long time. It'd be hard to post them all.
Here are a few build threads you should check out.
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=77541
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthre ... 287&page=3
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=83702
http://www.off-roadweb.com/features/050 ... to_01.html
http://www.desertrides.com/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56135
http://autofab.com/F100%20Prerunner.htm
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthr ... 194&page=2
there's some

Also check out this magazine Keith scanned
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... hp?t=31472

[1971ford]

I'm not sure what John recommends for that kit, I'd ask him for the best advice on how many shocks per wheel, what travel and what kind. I guess if you were re-using your old buckets then you would only use one shock, possibly two per wheel and they would just be a stock-replacement type (since the shock configuration on the front of our trucks is a peg on the top).

There are definately some good off-road fab shops in AZ, that can set you up with a nice simple bedcage.
I'd build you one if you one for cost of materials if you were local. I'm guessing for a simple bedcage it would be about $75-150 in materials, but it totally depends on what you use. You can get away with mild steel, or DOM (better mild steel) or you could use Chromoly (overkill for a non-race beast).
Take a look at this.
http://www.desertrides.com/reference/bedcage.php

Other things to concider into your bedcage...
You'll want a spare with you, and you will want it attached to the bedcage for it to be secure, so do a simple tire holder. But you may want two, because once you blow your first tire, the fun is over and you must take it easy. But with two, you can blow two tires and still drive home. Totally up to you, many prerunners run a single spare.
Other thing is if you want your bed to still be function, i have seen many clean bedcages that still allow 90% of beduse.

[Tycho]

Quick question. What type of lift do I need for 35s? Might just do that first, and then figure out the cage and all that eventually. Take a more gradual... less wallet shocking approach

[1971ford]

the tires i have on my truck right now, are 34 1/4 or something. Not quite 35's.
It depends on how much cutting you want to do but I'd say get 4" lift springs or something, and cut your fenders appropriately (i have autofab fiberglass).
However you will have camber issues because of the liftage. My springs are progressive autofab springs but they have got to be something like 5-6" of lift, which gives the truck quite a bit of camber. We toed it out quite a bit so it tends to take away some of the camber when moving, and the truck rides perfect, including highway. It doesn't wander, sway, nothing. I drive mine with the camber like it is, it just weard tires faster and looks funny. Im bending the beams soon though.
To correct the camber you will need to bend the beams (autofab, or if you can find someone that can do it) or you could use drop brackets but you want to avoid that.
For the rear, well i actually pulled two leaves out of each pack and still stuffed my "35's" in there with fender cutting (that you see in the pictures). You could do the same. Note your gearing will be different and your speedo will no longer be accurate. And you need to watch you rim offset, and how wide your rims are.

Overall, really all you need to get are some lift coils, and do some fender trimming and you can stuff 35's on.

Let's see some pictures of your truck

[Tycho]

Bought the truck. pics coming tomorrow.

72 F100 Longbed 4x2 with AC, Power (disc) brakes, power steering

Engine is a 351 Windsor. Possibly out of a Torino. 3 speed AT

Very nice lady sold it to me and did a lot of the work herself. The body is in great shape!

[Brix542]

Can someone explain to me just what a prerunner is? New to here so just asking

[1971ford]

Bought the truck. pics coming tomorrow.

72 F100 Longbed 4x2 with AC, Power (disc) brakes, power steering

Engine is a 351 Windsor. Possibly out of a Torino. 3 speed AT

Very nice lady sold it to me and did a lot of the work herself. The body is in great shape!

Nice! Longbed power! Can't wait for some pics.

Can someone explain to me just what a prerunner is? New to here so just asking

A prerunner is really a off-road truck that is used to pre-run desert races (You may of heard of the Baja 1000), but the name prerunner has expanded quite a bit, now a off-road racing truck of anykind is often referred to as a prerunner, instead of saying "desert race truck".

[Tycho]

Can someone explain to me just what a prerunner is? New to here so just asking

I would say, generally speaking, it is a truck or vehicle that has suspension that has more travel (that is the up and down range of motion for the wheels) rather than articulation (the total flexability of the axles and wheels) Often times these trucks have a wider track in the front than their stock counterparts and hence have to have flared fenders. The object of prerunning is to maintain stability over uneven terrain (desert) at high speeds. The object in say, a trail rig, is to just manage to get through the damn trail. Prerunners are more weight conscious than other off road rigs, including weight distribution. That is why you see guys with spares in the back, and fiberglass all around.

Nowadays people play fast and loose with the term prerunner. They could be talking about their truck which has a body lift and 33s on it, or a fully caged truck with long travel suspension. It really just depends. The act of 'prerunning' itself comes from the term where you go down an off road course ahead of the race to map all the features and whatnot. Hence, running before the race (pre-running) It's sort of a generic term now to describe any type of lifted truck that focuses on travel rather than just lift height.

[Tycho]

Pictures... Ill update this when I take some of my own with a better camera.





Anyone know where that steering column and wheel is from? Mechanic friend guessed Torino.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



NEED HELP IDENTIFYING THIS REAR END:



Problems:
- Brakes suck. They dont squeal or anything, and stop the truck, they are just weak. Too much play in the pedal, and the pedal is way too far forward. If I was 5'1 it'd be cool but I'm 6ft. Gotta fix it
- Broken shackle on the back left spring pack. Not a big deal since they will be replaced, but explained partially why the truck handled like a marshmellow
- Left turn signal is fried, turn signals overall are weak and slow to blink
- Carter carb linkage is not ideal, but works as its rigged
- Bed sits slightly off kilter, with the left side being higher than the right. Not sure what the deal is with this one.
- Steering Wheel.... ! Thats all I have to say. First thing to go. It doesnt telescope so it sits on your chest.

[1971ford]

Looks like a good start,
The steering column looks stock, the wheel i have no idea though. Torino sounds like a good guess
And is that a bent leaf on the drivers side? Interesting it has small lift blocks
The brake pedal is always way far forward on these trucks. My dad is 6'10" and i am 6'5" and it is really hard to lift from the gas to the brake, especially in a fire suit. I am going to make a new pedal arm soon. I might make them a easy swap and sell them, not sure.
Rearend looks to be a 9in. to me.
I'd look over your leaf springs really good since a shackle is broken and it looks like there is a bent leaf in the pics. Once you fix your leaf spring problems your bed might sit right.

[Tycho]

Actually, you could go to the junkyard and just pick up another set of leaf packs and swap them in...
But if it was me i would take advantage of the need of new leaf springs and grab a set of Chevy 1500 64" leaf springs...
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=90876

Will any Ford truck be a viable donor vehicle?

And can I use the truck on the street with the chevy springs installed or will the trucks ass be a mile high in the air? Not
sure what you meant by nonoperational.

[1971ford]

Actually, you could go to the junkyard and just pick up another set of leaf packs and swap them in...
But if it was me i would take advantage of the need of new leaf springs and grab a set of Chevy 1500 64" leaf springs...
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=90876

Will any Ford truck be a viable donor vehicle?

And can I use the truck on the street with the chevy springs installed or will the trucks ass be a mile high in the air? Not
sure what you meant by nonoperational.

Any 1967-1972 F100 springs should swap in.

You can definitely use the chevy springs on the street, and for the ranger guys it is only giving about an inch or two of lift, depending on what shackle is used.
I meant un-operational as in the time it takes you to pull your old springs off, relocate your hangers and install the new springs. During that time you wouldn't be able to drive it is all.

[Tycho]

Actually, you could go to the junkyard and just pick up another set of leaf packs and swap them in...
But if it was me i would take advantage of the need of new leaf springs and grab a set of Chevy 1500 64" leaf springs...
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=90876

Will any Ford truck be a viable donor vehicle?

And can I use the truck on the street with the chevy springs installed or will the trucks ass be a mile high in the air? Not
sure what you meant by nonoperational.

Any 1967-1972 F100 springs should swap in.

You can definitely use the chevy springs on the street, and for the ranger guys it is only giving about an inch or two of lift, depending on what shackle is used.
I meant un-operational as in the time it takes you to pull your old springs off, relocate your hangers and install the new springs. During that time you wouldn't be able to drive it is all.

ahh truck doesnt ever move for now, so thats not an issue.

Im getting conflicting reports of what fits with or without trimming the fender. I don't mind hacking the fender up as long as you help me

I was quoted 1200ish for the entire front clip from the fender flares place for the F100. Just can't afford to drop that much on fiberglass right now.

Need to know what size tires I can fit with the stock suspension with just trimming.

Truck desperately needs new tires to even really be street-able.