51 Rock Crawler Build Build Thread

[C.R.D]

Hey everyone, So I have been building my 51 Ford rock crawler for a few years now. This past January there was some significant changes in my personnel life that have allowed me to spend more time building this project. So here is a run down of what I have done and where this is going.

The cab is a 51 Ford F4 pick up truck cab, the frame is a 01 GMC Serria along with the 5.3 LS that came in that truck, and the box came off of a 51 International Pickup. Before I get to far into this, I am pretty sure I started this build thread on here years ago, however I can not find or remember what my name was etc. for that account.

My goal for this build is a capable rock crawler, that is street legal, safe, and a head turner.

IF you want to see what I am working with, what my thought process is, and where I am to date here is a link to the YT channel.

 

[C.R.D]

Good Morning Everyone


So I am slowly plugging away on some sheet metal work that I will post some pictures of later this weekend, however I am quickly approaching the finish line for that and then will be moving onto the front Dana 60 swap. Which is going to be interesting..... So for the front coil overs I am obviously going to need some sort of support for that and to try and keep the price down I want to use some 1.750x.188 D.O.M. My initial thought was to use some TMR Customs shock tower brackets however the width of these push out past the frame rail. Also in a effort to make things easier I would like to do one large hoop that goes from the side of the rad (to act as a rad support) up to the fire wall which will tie in the engine cage as well as the roll cage. My issue is that where the shock hoop/engine cage bracket intersects with the fire wall it is where the break master cylinder will live.

I reached out to my friend Steve who owns D3 Offroad and we where chatting about not running a booster, his recommendation is to run a booster so that I can make this street legal. So my question to you guys is this. What break booster can or should I run that is small enough to stop a 1/2 ton truck on 40's?

 

[Provience]

Booster shouldn't keep you from being street legal in any way, but consider hydro boost or dual diaphragm ro playing with pushrod design to get things into different spots. You can always go super complex and run a master off the pedal to a slave for the remote master and booster mounted anywhere else

 

[FordFascist]

Hydroboost or electric booster are the go-to around this neck of the woods.

And Chevy in a Ford is gay.

 

[C.R.D]

So this first image shows the distance from the new fire wall to the back of the dash, And from the bottom of my dash bar to the floor board. Where you see the two grade 8 bolts behind there there is a 1.750"x.188 chunk of D.O.M. My plan is to have a stand off on each side of the cab that goes forward and allows me to bolt the engine cage and the roll cage together.

This just shows the idea I have in my head for tubing. I will be designing the firewall in Fusion and then doing all the cage design in Bend Tech. While I am thinking about it does anyone know where I can get a good model of a 5.3LS?

And this is just a front view of the same thing.

I know I can go crazy with this but I really would like to try and keep it as simple as possible. The tube work I want and need it to hang everything off of, and I do mean everything. If I have a issue on the trail I want to be able to undo a few Zeus clips and a few bolts and have the whole front clip come off while still being able to run the truck.

let me know your thoughts guys, good or bad I want to hear it.


Cheers
Chris

 

[C.R.D]

Hydroboost or electric booster are the go-to around this neck of the woods.

And Chevy in a Ford is gay.

The ONLY fuckin reason I went this way was the Chevy truck was given to me and my wife was on my ass to get rid of the dead trucks in the yard or finally build something. Trust me I would sooner have put a coyote in this thing. But when free is the price its hard to beat.

Who makes a electric hydrobooster, and what are they usually used in?

 

[Gumbybronco]

Read up on the electric booster here:

iBooster Electric Brake Booster

I didn't see anything on irate about the iBooster so wanted to start a thread about it now that I have some evidence of it being good for crawling. This is meant to give information and add options when it comes to braking, not to say it's better or worse than other options. Summary: I...

irate4x4.com

 

[C.R.D]

Read up on the electric booster here:

iBooster Electric Brake Booster

I didn't see anything on irate about the iBooster so wanted to start a thread about it now that I have some evidence of it being good for crawling. This is meant to give information and add options when it comes to braking, not to say it's better or worse than other options. Summary: I...

irate4x4.com

Cheers, Thank you

 

[Will Scarlet]

The ONLY fuckin reason I went this way was the Chevy truck was given to me and my wife was on my ass to get rid of the dead trucks in the yard or finally build something. Trust me I would sooner have put a coyote in this thing. But when free is the price its hard to beat.

Relax dude, it's just good fun, so get used to it as it happens all the time here. Besides, it's your build and you really don't need to justify why unless you want to show you're pussy whipped. "My wife made me", really...

Looking forward to seeing this finished...

 

[C.R.D]

Relax dude, it's just good fun, so get used to it as it happens all the time here. Besides, it's your build and you really don't need to justify why unless you want to show you're pussy whipped. "My wife made me", really...

Looking forward to seeing this finished...

Oh dude, after my time in the army if someone can offend me I will more then likely be impressed instead of pissed. And as for the wife comment, I think she said it to get me out of the house and out of her hair more then anything lol, if only she knew then how much this build would cost lol.

At the end of the day as long as I can get out have fun and come home, I am happy. Same goes for other peoples builds.

Cheers Gents

 

[C.R.D]

So it is safe to say that sometimes I make life more difficult for myself then it needs to be, and most times it comes from just wanting to make things simpler... if that makes any sense.


So yesterday I was in the shop having a few adult beverages, and was trying to figure out how to make the engine cage work. Then out of no where I remembered something that I seen Nate Pickle ( @dirtlifestyle on YouTube ) do on almost every build he has done to date. He plots out almost everything on the ground and rig with a "Laser". So I broke out my laser level, jerry rigged it to my tripod that I use for YT and started laying out and plotting points. I then took all that information brought it into Bendtech, then brought it over to Fusion 360 dropped in a LS3 model that I have had kicking around on my desk top for god knows how long, and now have a clear-ish vision moving forward.


All of this was done with out the front clip on, as well as not having a break booster and master cylinder to test fit. However I have been reading and re-reading the post and information that Gumbybronco posted here and I am going to see if I can make the JK8 hydro booster and master cylinder work.

I also need to say thank you to Wisconsinite on here, him and I have where chatting a few weeks ago now and I have read his build thread on his goat built jeep he has on the go. My plan is to have my tanks etc on top of the motor behind the protective D lol. I am going to be ordering material this week and then hopefully cutting and bending come end of next week. Until then I will be

• scanning the inside of the cab,
• starting to design the cage,
• as well as wrap up the tin work for the trans tunnel and dog house.

 

[C.R.D]

So I made some progress on this yesterday. I decided to spend some time playing with the lidar scanner on my phone and as you can see scanned the cab. It turned out ok, however I am un able to use it because when I bring it into Fusion 360, weather its as a mesh or solid I can not get it to scale properly, and I am not about to spend hours guessing back and forth on what percentage to scale it to. So if anyof you gents can help me out with that it would be greatly appretiated.

After that I went back out and just took a ton of measurements so I could plot points in Bend Tech and this is what I came up with. I only wanted to plan and mark out the 1.750" tubes for now. From the windsheild down I am planning on doing some sort of plate work, similar to what you would see on a TJ. As well as on the roof.

As always guys I look forward to your input.

Cheers
Chris Reader
CRD

 

[C.R.D]

So... finally have gotten over a month and a bit of being in the hospital and bed ridden. Not sure wtf my kids brought home from school but it really took it out of me. Anyway today I finally got back into the shop and made some progress on the crawler. I started off by building a plate for the passangers side shock tower to mount. This was notched from factory to allow easy removal of the AC pump. Since I will be pulling out the IFS This week, access from the top will be a moot point. I decided to use some 2"x3"x.188 tubing and made the plate from there.

It took a bit of messaging with a hammer and C clamp. But its in ther and fits how I want it. After that I cut. cleaned and layed out the 1.75"x.188 D.O.M for the hoops. After that I have been caled back into the house for dinner. Hopefully I will be back at it later tonight.

 

[Provience]

dang, glad you are feeling better!

 

[C.R.D]

Alright Gents,

Today was not as productive as I would have liked but I did manage to get some work done on this rig. I carried on from yesterday with bending the shock hoops. However this did not go as planned as you will see.

So as you can see this was how I had intended for my shock hoop to turn out. My plan was to trim the front tube so that I can get the spread that I am looking for ( 19.250" ) however the start locations for both of the bends was just to close and they overlapped each other. This is a perfect example of why I hate using bend tech. I have never got the results that I wanted from this program, and yes. I have tried recalibrating this thing a few times. Anyway, what I ended up doing was doing two full extensions on my rouge fab bender and that gave me the exact spread I was looking for ( 19.250" )

The fit and finish was exactly how I planned on it turning out. However it did take longer then I liked to set the hoops up in the saw. But it was time well spent and I am happy with how both coups turned out. I am calling it a day here as my vertigo is kicking in. I am thinking of welding these in with a 5 degree lean. Once I get some more D.O.M tubing I will be building a bridge as well as tying it into the roll cage.

Cheers Gents let me know your thoughts.

 

[LScout800]

Don't know if you have figured out scaling but here is some info. When you import an STL it reads the units as a number, meaning it does not have inches or millimeters it is just a value. If the scanner and computer are on different units they will scale differently. Most of the time the scanner will make the mesh in millimeters, and if you have Fusion set to freedom units it will automatically scale the mesh up 25.4 times the actual size, so just input 1/25.4 into the scale value and it will work. (1in = 25.4 mm).

 

[Winchested]

What's the plan for axles? 3/4 Link?

 

[C.R.D]

Don't know if you have figured out scaling but here is some info. When you import an STL it reads the units as a number, meaning it does not have inches or millimeters it is just a value. If the scanner and computer are on different units they will scale differently. Most of the time the scanner will make the mesh in millimeters, and if you have Fusion set to freedom units it will automatically scale the mesh up 25.4 times the actual size, so just input 1/25.4 into the scale value and it will work. (1in = 25.4 mm).

I will give that a go and make note of that thank you.

 

[C.R.D]

What's the plan for axles? 3/4 Link?

I am running a 14 Bolt full float out back and a 05+ Ford F350 Dana 60 up front . Rear is a TMR Customs triangulated 4 link, and the front is a TMR 3 link, and both axles are being dressed in a full truss kit.

14 bolt has been shaved as well.

 

[C.R.D]

Alright gents a bit of an update here,


so I recently wrapped up my Christmas Vacation, And I was able to have my oldest boy join us this year for it. Which him and I where stoked for. When we first walked in to the house from the airport, he just walked right into the shop to check out the truck, which I thught was fucking great. And then over the week we got a little bit or work done.

So we kicked off our build starting to make the drivers side part of the tunnel. I had the joy of teaching him what clecos where and how they worked, how to make a buck. All in all it was a great day.

Once we had the part bent and test fitted it I let Lawson start doing some problem solving as to why the part was not going where we had wanted it, Come to find out it was the fuellines that needed to be removed and pushed over. This is not a big deal at this point because I need to bend run and install all new fuel lines anyway.

Once we had it all moved over the fit was perfect. But I did make a goof on the back panel, and need to remake it. Which is fine because I can use the metal from that for the filler panel on the drivers side part of the tunnel.

At this point we where needing to wrap things up and start packing because we where leaving early the next morning for the airport to drop him off to his mother on the other end of the country. But he wanted to still keep plugging away. so we quickly took out the remaining glass in the cab and called it a day there.

 

[Provience]

that's pretty dang awesome

 

[C.R.D]

So today I was locked in the shop, and was able to shoot some content for the YT channel but also make some good headway on they truck. Yesterday I had started to strip down the Dana 60, but broke my snap ring pliers, and realized I didn't have a wrench or socket big enough for the lower ball joints.

So I moved onto the rear fenders.

I really want this to have that old school flat fender feel, and I think between these custom rear fenders and the amount that I am anticipating on trimming off the front I think I am going to be able to pull it off.

The main part of the fenders which you can see here is made from .125 Steel along with a .125 rear mounting plate. This is so that when these fenders meet a tree or rock , they hopefully don't rip right off and can take some abuse, But if they do then it will be back to the drawing board.

The pool noodles are there so that my kids wont loose a eye when they are running around the shop.

To skin these I will be using some 18 gauge steel and bead rolling it to try and make it look like they belong on here. I also am thinking about adding a .250 solid round bar to the edges to add in the strength as well as fit and finish.



But we will see when the time comes, until then gents

Cheers

 

[Provience]

do you have the space/material to just fold and roll the 18 gauge for the smooth edge? leaves a nice finish that way and i'm not convinced the 1/4" bar inside gets any more strength gain. Rather, both options bend the same along the rocks and conform as needed without issue.

just a thought digging the way you are headed with the fender design

 

[C.R.D]

do you have the space/material to just fold and roll the 18 gauge for the smooth edge? leaves a nice finish that way and i'm not convinced the 1/4" bar inside gets any more strength gain. Rather, both options bend the same along the rocks and conform as needed without issue.

just a thought digging the way you are headed with the fender design

And this right here is the comment that has helped me justify buying a shrinker and stretcher... Thank you for that lol.

I am not going to lie. The vision I now have for these fenders has taken a 180 from yesterday. But I like where its going.

 

[C.R.D]

Evening gents,

So... mother nature has me locked in my shop and not opening the doors mainly because the weather this week has been minus 30 to minus 50 this evening... and it not supposed to warm up until early next week. I am taking this time to try and plan out as best as I can how I am going to plumb the truck do body work etc. Essentially all the things that have been bugging me and keeping me up at night.

If anyone knows of a good thread to read, or someone to talk to about fuel delivery, please tag them. Because between that and the electrical, those are the two things that I am worried about doing something simple, yet horribly wrong and burning my rig to the ground.



Cheers
Chris

 

[Provience]

Project midnight panic

Amphibious hemmt

Both in general 4x4


Rattlesnake 2wd to 4wd thread

Mercury adhd

Both in ford

Just stuff from the front page.



Fuel is pretty straight forward, below is a fuel cell thread. I'd wager more fires are due to transmission or steering or oil leaks rather than fuel. Those get less considered.

Fuel Cell Tech

If you came expecting tech, think again :flipoff2: Trying to rethink/redo some shit on my wheeling rig so i can at least drive it again, starting with the fuel system. What I currently have: 1991 Ranger, carb'd 351w, when I did the engine swap, I used a bypass regulator to regulate from the...

irate4x4.com

Are you chopping up your own junkyard harness or buying a swap engine harness, or are you working on body wiring?

 

[C.R.D]

Project midnight panic

Amphibious hemmt

Both in general 4x4


Rattlesnake 2wd to 4wd thread

Mercury adhd

Both in ford

Just stuff from the front page.



Fuel is pretty straight forward, below is a fuel cell thread. I'd wager more fires are due to transmission or steering or oil leaks rather than fuel. Those get less considered.

Fuel Cell Tech

If you came expecting tech, think again :flipoff2: Trying to rethink/redo some shit on my wheeling rig so i can at least drive it again, starting with the fuel system. What I currently have: 1991 Ranger, carb'd 351w, when I did the engine swap, I used a bypass regulator to regulate from the...

irate4x4.com

Are you chopping up your own junkyard harness or buying a swap engine harness, or are you working on body wiring?

Thank you, I will dive into these this weekend

 

[C.R.D]

Ok, So.....

Lets update you cats on what progress I have made this past week/weekend. So once again trying to make some progress on this thing while it is still minus wtf outside and not smoke myself out of the shop, and or freeze myself out of the shop. So Tube work on the tailgate is what it started on. This started out as a really simple task, that I thought I was going to get little to no enjoyment out of, and then Snowballed into something that I now ONLY want to work on. I think I might have the add, oh well lets chase the dopamine.

This is the basic tube structure for this unit. I made it out of 1.5x1.5x.125 Square tubing and 2 small sections of 1.25x1.25x.125 angle. This needs to do a few things for me.

1 - it needs to hold the sheet metal ... obvious I know.

2- it also needs to hold the spare tire and not want to yeet itself off a cliff while I am on the trail, or better yet not off a round about when I am trying to get onto the highway at 120km/hr.

3- and finally, this is a project for down the road, it needs to support a RTT.

This really scratched the itch, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Still have a lot of finish work that I need to do on this but, for the time being its good to go.

Once I moved on to sheet metal, this i where I really started to re-think my life choices. I know it should be straight forward, and it was as long as I was taking my time, slowed down and looked at wtf I was doing. This one panel I made 3 times. This is the first one that fits and to be honest I am not loving it. Fitment wise I like it and it passes my expectations. But its the right corner that gets me. Its a sharp 90 degree bend and I feel like it needs to be a radius now that I am looking at it... I am going to move on to skinning the tailgate as well as mounting the latch for now and come back to this at a later date once I have had some time to chew on it.

Let me know your thoughts,


Cheers
Chris

 

[Provience]

you've got all kinds of swoopy shape options with the couple inches the top sticks out. How far back are you looking to run the fender?

Might be best to leave it as it is now, then come back to it once the fender is mostly sorted. That'll give you an idea of how active that space is going to be fender may well draw enough attention that the square rear corner is fine

 

[C.R.D]

you've got all kinds of swoopy shape options with the couple inches the top sticks out. How far back are you looking to run the fender?

Might be best to leave it as it is now, then come back to it once the fender is mostly sorted. That'll give you an idea of how active that space is going to be fender may well draw enough attention that the square rear corner is fine

This is actually a really good idea.