1970 F100 Frame and Powertrain Swap (to 07 CrownVic running gear)

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: I do believe the Holley HP EFI is well on the way to being tuned! Assigned the pinout in the programming for the Idle Air Control (IAC) today, fired thr truck and let the truck get up to temperature to retune, runs great!

From there, I moved on to the MSD Atomic Transmission Control Module (TCM). For some reason the TCM is constantly throwing error codes on the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) side of things. MSD customer service is of zero help, infact I found them to be quite rude (same experience every time I've called in, today was not an isolated event). I find it shocking as they are owned by Holley, but with Holley its been amazing customer service! Today all he kept saying "perhaps you need to buy a new TCM" and after I pointed out it had a total of 1 miles so far, so if it needed replaced it was a warranty, all he could say was "I'm not sure what you want me to do..." Wow, guess he was done for Friday!

I decided to isolate the TCM from the Holley, to do so would require a separate TPS just for it. I decided I'd build a unit just for that purpose. I rounded up a TPS from a 1990 Firebird and set to work. Built a mounting bracket from some 14g stainless.


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I machined a trigger lever from a piece of aluminum I had in the shop.
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Took a little work, but with it all together, I was able to isolate the TCM, and amazingly, while the TPS will still not calibrate completely (still throws two codes) it will read correctly so the truck is now easily driveable! Stomp on the throttle and it'll spin the tires at the shifts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!

90 hours, 1.75 miles, 1 burn out, and ONE power slide!

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: Today I worked towards finishing up as much of the interior as I could. Infact, all that remains to do in the cab is to make a new headliner (until I decide its time to buy AC and tear the whole dash apart again!).



So.. in addition to wrapping up the stereo wiring, I also mounted the 6x9 speakers in the cab corners. I decided to have a friend cut a couple of 12"x12" panels with the appropriate sized cut out in the center. His plasma table made very quick work of it! Brought them home and bent them up in the metal brake.






As I wanted them removable, they were mounted with 1/4" stainless bolts and rubber bonded washers.
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To provide an enclosed space for the speakers, I used a set of speaker tubs.


They worked out great! Wired in the AMP and 10" sub and now the truck has some nice bump to it!




I'll try and get the headliner done tomorrow so that next week I can finally start on the box!

92.5 hours, 1.75 miles, 1 burn out, and ONE power slide!

(oh and I went to the DMV and transferred a set of plates, just waiting on a proof of insurance to arrive)!

[Monkey-1]

You are burning through this project (and tires too it seems). Great work.

[biggurn]

Thanks! Honestly, I had planned to be done by now, but we've had such a busy spring, it just hasn't happened!

Project Floyd: Spent some time this morning and made a new headliner. Bought a 4x8x1/8" sheet of MDF, some black vinyl and a can of 3M Super 77 and set to work. I was fortunate to have most of the original that I could just trace for a pattern. For under $30 I had myself a new headliner and the smell of old nasty headliner is gone from the truck!






To appease the law (one of my little brothers is a state trooper) I even made the truck road legal...pending the bed to be completed.


94 hours, 3 miles, one burn out, one power slide, and now road legal!

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: New hood hinges! The hood opens and closes super smooth now AND stays open all the way. FYI: they label the hinges backward! LH (driver) vs RH (passenger) is when standing in front of the truck, not sitting in the driver's seat as one would expect. I only know this as I ordered from two different eBay sellers and they showed up opposite of what was listed when purchased. I suspect they have the same supplier and the supplier has it backwards... The truck bed is headed into the shop soon (with luck tomorrow sometime)!

94.5 hours

[IN2FORD]

This is a really cool read! Excellent work and detailed info!!

I attempted to make my headliner the same way you did but what I ran into was the board was not flexible enough to work in the corners. It began to break. I wonder if there is two different versions of that board? Got my at Lowes.

Also noticed you mess with old lawn tractors. Years ago my dad and I messed with Wheel Horse lawn tractors but got out of it a few years ago.

Cool build!!

Barry

[biggurn]

Might be that your board was a little heavier? I bought this at Lowes and it was super flexible.

I have around 30 different tractors, starting from small walk behind wheeled and tracked tractors up to 10k lb Caterpillars. We also have Hit&Miss (stationary engines) and all the associated vintage equipment. The truck has been a diversion away from that. Though, the tractor in the background is getting a new engine today so it can attend a show and plow this weekend.

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: Thanks to a little help from a YoungFordKid this morning, the box is in the shop! Next week I'll be able to start the chop!

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: Chop day! Finally had time to make the cut... lots of measuring and double checking. My biggest concerns were 1st: getting the cut aligned so that it would remove the cut out from the saddle tank filler neck and 2nd: getting the back cut aligned such that I didn't have to remove a cross support. Both worked out as planned!


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To increase the strength of the seem I brought a pneumatic flange tool as a simple butt weld is inherently weaker. As the flange tool leaves a 1/2" flange, I subtracted that from my cut. To fit the bed closer to the cab, I cut 14.5", netting a 15" length reduction out of the front.




With a little help from my little brother, we were able to get everything lined up and tacked in place.
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Tomorrow I'll work on getting the whole thing welded together.

100 hours

[IN2FORD]

I am luvn this build!! You are doing a really good job!!

Barry

[biggurn]

Thank you sir!

Project Floyd: The bed is ready to meet the chassis! Today I welded up the chop, ground the welds, added some body filler, sanded (bought a Ridgid orbital, WOW!), and shot some primer.




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With that done, I finished off the day by adding a hole in the center to clearance the suspension.
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I go back to work tomorrow, so it'll be a week or so before I get to test fit and build bed mounts, but almost there!

105 hours

[Manny]

Bed looks good. You got any plans to cut the toolbox down?

[biggurn]

I plan to. The frame rail will run right in front of the opening, so it'll be a small tool box, with luck, the jack will fit!

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: Moved the truck back into the shop this evening to check the fit. Looks like I'll need to take an additional 2" of the front of the opening, not a major issue. I'll also need to trim the back of the frame rails off, but this was already expected.

[biggurn]

Project Floyd: This afternoon I was able to test fit the bed. Everything lines up as planned.
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The 3rd set of mounting holes fall right on top of the chassis cross memeber that I added for the fuel tank, so with a couple of 2" spacers, those mounts will be perfect. I'll have to build the front mount to span the frame.
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The 2nd and back mounts will be accomplished via flanges off of the existing suspension kick-up and the soon to be added rear frame cross member... hopefully by the middle of next week, the box will be wrapped up and I can finally get the truck on the road for some miles.

107.5 hours