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Rep builds a bunch of old Fords

Thanks. Actually no, but all I've done thus far is weld the channels down and that one pass on one gusset. I had each rail clamped down in 4 places and didn't remove the clamps until I was done. I'm assuming it didn't pull because I welded both sides of the channels to the bed frame so it probably cancelled itself out.

I'm figuring tomorrow before I start welding the gussets down I'll clamp the rails together so they can't pull towards the gussets, and I'll jump around welding them. It's pretty wild how the AL soaks up the heat; compared to steel it seems like the heat radius in the base metal is twice the size.
 
Frame rails and gussets are now fully welded:
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I did some practice and dialed in my settings a bit beforehand; i think im getting a handle on AL mig welding
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I had 9' leftover from my 25' stick, so i made 2 crossmembers
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First one is getting fit up at the front, to tie the frame rails to the headache rack
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...and all done
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I dont know the location of the second one yet. I want to put that one where the hinges will bolt to the bed, but i need to take measurements since this is a 9' bed. So i think the best way to do this will be to just pull the F250 into the driveway and yank the original bed off so i can mock this one up properly. So this week's plan will be to get the red bed off, and get this one sitting on my frame so i can figure out where the hinges will bolt up. From there i can get it welded in place, and start working on building a beefy crossmember for the scissor to connect to.
 
Lost some time troubleshooting a drivability issue in the '90 Bronco. Started running rich but no codes. Took me a longer than im willing to admit, to figure out the ECU had failed.

In addition to the usual capacitor failure, we also had a resistor blow
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A buddy ordered parts and fixed the ECU for me, but im my troubleshooting i replaced the injectors, assuming i had a sticky one. After reinstalling the ECU the bronco ran just as bad if not worse; some more troubleshooting revealed that one of the reman injectors had failed and was stuck open, just dumping fuel down the intake. So back apart she came:
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I ended up putting the original injectors back in (the ones i had rebuilt myself about a year ago) and now its back to running just fine again! The moral of the story is, troubleshoot better, and dont assume the ECU in a 33 year old vehicle is still good!
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This unfortunately cost me a lot of time in mis-diagnosis, which has oled to a big delay on working on the F250. However, progress has still been made!
 
This update has been slow in the making.

First up, the bed had to come off:
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Located safely in the toolbox is my water/methanol injection pump & tank, which also had to come out:
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Bumper, taillights & associated wiring removed:
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..and off the bed came!
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I set it down on the back of the donor Superduty
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...and the successfully scabbed it onto the frame!
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I had to put a couple notches in & make a couple simple spacers, at which point i simply drilled new holes in the bed floor and bolted it down to the trucks frame! Whipped up a simple license plate bracket, and then sold the truck for $1k, which is almost half of what i originally paid for it.

With that done, it was time to bring the F250 back into the driveway and start prepping the frame for its new bed...
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I have an ECU from an 87/88 Bronco I am not using. Not sure if it's the same one but shoot me a PM if interested and i'll get you photos and the numbers off it.
 
I have a spare one now, but thanks :smokin:


These things are known for the capacitors failing, but aside from that nothing else on the board ever really fails, unless you get water inside them. I lost about a week waiting for components to come in the mail and then a buddy from work replaced them for me.

One of the failed caps before replacement, you can see where the electrolyte stained the board:

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Rewind to 2018, and you have the hinges i first built for the dump conversion
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Now, those hinges and have been joined together, with a piece of 4x.5" plate fully welded to both:
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I wanted to remove the rear tank, but that necessitated the removal of the trailer hitch, so off it came!
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Tank removed. This one wont be going back in, as i have a larger tank to swap in once the bed swap is done
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Looking at this side of the frame rail, we have some rust to deal with
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With the hangar off, you can see how rough the frame is
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So for step one of the repair i made a backing plate that fit inside the frame rail. Its bolted in at the corners, and i transferred the 4 holes for the helper spring pad, so i could cut the bad section out without having to worry about getting the pad back in the correct place later, or the frame bowing when i cut the bad section out:
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I cut the bad section out of the frame, and made a patch to fill the void. I didnt make it a square due to concerns of the corners being a stress point, and i left the root open because i wanted to fully weld the back plate to the frame, on both sides
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Vertical section welded and ground, tacking in the top section now
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All done welding, ground and painted
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the back plate is now fully welded into the frame as well
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Part 2 (i hit the pic cap)

Moving on from there, i grabbed one of the old frame rails i cut off the aluminum bed, to try to get an idea of how the bed is going to fit onto the frame
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All this really showed me though, is that i could do all the mockups i want, but really i just need to bring the bed outside and get it sitting on the frame. So, outside it went!
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On its way down
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...and onto the frame it goes!
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For now its just sitting there, with the bed rails c-clamped to the hinge so it doesnt move. The next step is going to be to get the rear crossmember built so the bed can actually be bolted to the hinge...
 
Looks good on the truck, new thread title is confusing :flipoff2: didn't know you could change that once you've made the thread
 
Next up i had to finish the hinge. So i started by welding in that second xmember i made a while back, along with a piece of 4"x.250" plate underneath the whole frame, to give myself a place to bolt the bed to the hinge. In this pic its just clamped in place:
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With that sorted, i drilled holes for four bolts (the previous dump conversion only used two), and i then added two gussets to it, to stiffen the area up:
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So this means, with the use of the gantry, i can now tilt the bed!
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So now theres two more issues to deal with. #1 is the front bed support:
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Currently i just have it sitting on a piece of 2x2 box. Im probably going to use a longer piece, and then make tabs to bolt it to the frame + make guides to align the front of the bed. It doesnt necessarily need guides but will make it more stable when loaded.

The second is dealing with the mount for the scissor. Looking closely you can see it almost lines up with the existing xmembers in the bed:
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Im planning on building a new one to fit the bed better, but it gave me an idea. So i grabbed one of the old frame rails i cut off, and made two more xmembers out of it:
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...and welded in! They line up with two of the small i-beams that support the bed floor, so theyre welded into the frame rails, and those beams, which should stiffen up the middle section of the bed significantly:
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My next move is going to be to build a new frame for the scissor that will bolt to those two xmembers, and then the bed will go up and down by itself again!
 
Jealous, I need one for my 85 in the next few years as well. I might just suck it up and pay a stupid price for one just to end the suspense.
 
I knew a guy locally with a SBF ZF5 he couldn't give away :homer: I knew I should have scooped it up
 
posford said:
I knew a guy locally with a SBF ZF5 he couldn't give away :homer: I knew I should have scooped it up
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If he's anything like the type of people I know who say that shit he probably thought that asking $2k a piece was a screaming deal. :laughing:


I don't think there was ever a time SBF ZF5s were not in short supply. Between the scrappers and the guys with fancy 400hp engines blowing M5ODs out of their F150s and the work trucks going through them as a result of work truck shit they've always been a hot commodity at least as far back as the late 00s.
 
arse_sidewards said:
If he's anything like the type of people I know who say that shit he probably thought that asking $2k a piece was a screaming deal. :laughing:


I don't think there was ever a time SBF ZF5s were not in short supply. Between the scrappers and the guys with fancy 400hp engines blowing M5ODs out of their F150s and the work trucks going through them as a result of work truck shit they've always been a hot commodity at least as far back as the late 00s.
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$900 with pedals and all the shit the manual swap
 
If that included the trans xmember then it was a pretty decent deal IMO. Im gonna have to find one for mine, or modify the E4OD xmember.
 
I never got the crossmember or driveshafts with my diesel ZF5 for my 7.3 IDI, everyone's told me the E4OD crossmember works fine. Is that not the case? I keep holding off due to not wanting to spend the $$$ on new rear driveshaft, front I can just shorten.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, the E4OD xmember will work but you have to drill new holes to move it forward, whereas the M5OD/ZF5 xmember just bolts in. Plan is to swap the trans some time over the winter, so I'll find out for sure soon enough :laughing:
 
posford said:
everyone's told me the E4OD crossmember works fine. Is that not the case?
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It does. You might have to drill new holes.

If you get the ZF crossmember it's a bolt in swap. But if you're capable of installing a hitch receiver you don't need that.

The E4OD crossmember has more clearance than any of them. You need to move it forward and drill new holes (whereas the ZF one lines up with existing holes) Might have to shim the mount or something to get the angle dead nuts on.
 
Built some parts:
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...and now this happens!
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Also, in case you cant tell, i broke the lens on my camera :shaking:

Plan for this week is to start either modifying the old bumper or build a new one, get the bed lights wired up, and see if i can get my phone fixed :shaking:
 
reptillikus said:
I made all new gussets for every i-beam just like the bed originally had, made some spacers out of 1/8" plate, and started welding. I bought the spool gun for my machine, and after tinkering a bit started welding. I think ive got it dialed in ok? First time mig welding aluminum, i think the welds look good?

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ll done as well). Im not sure about the verticals yet, so im gonna have to set some scraps up and practice that a bit before i start welding on the bed.
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Way better than what I've tried so far. I got a Miller 211 and spool set up just for alum. Going to have to call and find out what I'm doing wrong.
What size wire/tip you using?
 
.030 w/straight argon. Somewhere around 21.8v, 380 IPM w/ 14 L/min on the regulator. It varied a little bit up or down from there depending on position. Technique was completely different than how I run steel. Aluminum flows weird and I was definitely moving around more to get it to burn in evenly.

Welder is nothing special, just a 220v Eastwood multi-process altho I think the mig runs pretty smooth.
 
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