63 Short Wrong-Full Crown Vic Swap

[HawaiiKid]

Its great to see you enjoying it... I am amazed how well the full Crown Vic chassis works and drives.. Especially when it can be done so cheaply ....

I totally agree-this is the cheapest way to end up with basically a full custom frame under your F100. You end up with IFS, 4 wheel disk brakes, power steering, fuel injection on a mod motor, modern 4 speed trans, 8.8 rear end with infinite gear possibilities, 4 link rear end, huge amount of wheel options on the 5x114.3 pattern and a really nice fully boxed frame. I love it and am so happy I went this route!



Got a few things done yesterday. Plugged the rest of the holes in the firewall so it is air and water tight first, the moved on to installing the carpet. It fits alright-only real issue is that on the transmission hump there is a bunch of extra carpet in an oddball box shape. At first I thought they had screwed something up but it was really just where some of the SRS/airbag stuff went. Oh well, Ill need to build a console to go there anyways...











I love the seats in her and the carpet is great too. It is all just roughed in right now clearly-I need to go back and trim the step areas, trim around the back of the cab and secure it to the floor in a number of spots.


Spent today making my doors rattle free...

The first door took me a couple hours but the second one was way easier knowing what I needed to remove and what went where.

Just waiting on my paperwork to come back so I can get her tagged and rolling this week!

[HawaiiKid]

MASSIVE day for me yesterday...got my registration and my new Texas plates and am 100% legal! Funny part is that she is more legal than my Lightning right now hahaha.

Took her for a cruise through downtown without a single worry about getting pulled over, got all sorts of looks from people and loved every minute of it! This truck is so much fun...I can't get over how good it drives and how many looks it gets every where I go

[HawaiiKid]

Got the new exhaust on this past weekend but things did not go quite as planned. The original plan was to run a true dual side exit set up out of a pair of Borla S-Type mufflers and 4 inch slash cut tips. Long story short-four inch tips don't really fit on this truck coming out the side under the frame haha. In order to make this work we would have needed to put a major notch in the frame and done a lot of fabbing just to make the tip sit a couple inches higher and I didn't want to do that. We ended up putting the Borlas behind the stock Vic H and just running them into 90 degree bends towards the front of the rear wheels-essentially the same exhaust we were going to run but tucked up higher (still the lowest part of the truck by far) and tipless. Kinda bummed I can't run my true side exhaust but I'll have to save it for the next build I guess. System sounds pretty good-really too quiet right now but since I am driving it to Austin for the Texas Heatwave show in a few weeks I figured quiet isn't a real bad thing. Once we get back I'll probably pull the front of the system off and either gut the cats or remove them entirely.


Been driving her for a week or so to try and work out any bugs and so far so good! The AC compressor seems to be making more noise than it should be so I am planning on replacing it before heading to Austin for the Texas Heatwave show. I've also reached out to ADTR ( http://www.adtr.net/ ), a great Panther platform resource, and ordered a new set of Bilstein shocks and a brand new set of Heinous Billet upper and lower four link control arms for the back! The truck needs shocks (I've known that since I first drove the Vic the first time) and these Bilsteins should make it comfortable but sporty too and the control arms should make it feel lighter and make it a little more stable in the corners.

[HawaiiKid]

Shocks and four link bars have been shipped and I am looking forward to installing them but there are plenty of other small projects to do still!

One thing that I've needed to do since installing the seats and carpet was to cut it down around the steps and make it stay in one spot. We ran to Lowes at lunch and picked up a length of 90 degree carpet transition that worked out perfect for this. I've only done the two inner step pieces (wanted to make sure I have enough to do them first) so far but will come back and add the two end caps.



Also spent part of the evening blacking out my "under hood" areas. Since I don't plan on putting a hood on her any time soon I wanted to make it look like I really meant for the motor to be exposed. This is going to mean a number of small project nights, but for now blacking out the inner fenders, core support, cowl, top portion of the grille panel and the top of the fenders has made a major difference.

Before....


And after tonight...


Amazing what some time, tape and spray paint can do! Up next will be making a box that will cover most of the wires that come out on the left side of the firewall, finishing up the interior, swapping shocks/four link control arms, changing out the AC compressor and accessory belt and a bunch of other small projects.

[HawaiiKid]

Spent the day yesterday changing out the shocks front and back and swapping out the four link control arms and it did make a major difference! The rear shocks were not in horrible shape but the fronts were pretty well blown and the Bilsteins make a major difference in the corners. The four link control arms really did make a major difference in the way the rear handles-feels much more powerful off the line and going around corners it stays much more planted. I also got a bunch of the wires on the left side tucked up under a box we mounted to the firewall and cleaned up some painting on the rear end.

A couple shots of the four link bars...


And installed!


Love the way they look under truck-subtle but badass

Up next is going to be painting our logo on both doors and blacking out the inside of the bed, finishing up the transitions on the interior, and getting the right interior vent closed off.

[HawaiiKid]

Major night tonight! After much back and forth, redesigns and fine tuning-here is the official Farm Truck Racing TX 1963 F100 shop truck!!!

After hanging it on the doors and bagging/masking the truck...


Getting shot....


The final look!!


Along side of Dennis's with his "Southern Comfort" 72 F100/03 Crown Vic on new 18x8/18x10 Bullitts







Also while we had it in the booth we went ahead and blacked out the inside of the bed...



I love the way the shop truck logo came out! Super thrilled to be rocking it as a company vehicle now, and am excited for the next step! We are having a local guy come and pinstripe the red letters with a black outline to clean them up a bit (I pulled the spray mask while the paint was wet but it still left a couple rough edges when you are up real close) but even as is I am suppppppppper stoked right now

[390fastback]

Thats it! I'm doing my Uni over again! After watching all the builds here, I'm less than impressed with mine.....

Very nice!! Love the door stenciles!

[390fastback]

Maybe its the late night beer....but I was just thinking, your truck and mine are like photo negatives of each other. Yours white with red gril, mine red with white grill....Just an observation!

[HawaiiKid]

Thats it! I'm doing my Uni over again! After watching all the builds here, I'm less than impressed with mine.....

Hahaha, we are never happy-it is a sickness!!


Very nice!! Love the door stenciles!

Maybe its the late night beer....but I was just thinking, your truck and mine are like photo negatives of each other. Yours white with red gril, mine red with white grill....Just an observation!

I honestly think they are evil twins of each other hahahaha.


Haven't been posting but we have been super busy with both of our trucks, not to mention I also got engaged two weeks ago!! All of this was part of our big build up to the Texas Heatwave show in Austin, Texas on July 25-28...check out what we got done

After we had the lettering done on the truck we had a friend that does pinstripping go around all of the letters in black by hand-came out looking awesome!


Our next move on my truck was to swap out the odd Crown Vic steering wheel for a black leather Cobra wheel we had in our shop from a previous build. We also added the steering column covers (top and bottom)-both of these things made a huge difference in the interior and the wheel feels much better in my hands.


Also added seat belts because it seemed like a good idea


The biggest change I made was the day before the show I decided to change things up with the wheels. I'd been thinking about going down in wheel size because 19s just seemed to pick up the truck too much, so I took the plunge 36 hours before we were supposed to hit the road! I called our friend Landon at Late Model Restoration in Waco, Texas (awesome guy, great company!) and ordered a set of 17x9 Saleen SC replica wheels, along with a pair of 1/4 inch spacers to run on the front. They arrived less than 24 hours later and I ran over to Discount Tire and had them mount a set of 245/45R17 Potenzas on em-this resulted in a two inch smaller wheel/tire diameter and a one inch drop all around which was just what the truck needed!



After swapping the wheels over we then dropped the back of the truck a half inch or so and it now sits perfect! No pictures of it until we got to Austin and set up fro the show because we were already cutting it close!

Here we are at Texas Heatwave, an awesome and super fun event...


And here she is after taking third place in the "Under Construction-Truck, Van and SUV" class! Believe it or not this was a REALLY competitive class and we were both thrilled I took third (some seriously high end builds were there-over 1300 trucks and cars showed up)


Our cofounders truck also took the Ford Fullsize classic truck class third place!




Over all it was a kickass event and we can't wait for next year! After seeing a huge amount of bagged trucks rolling an inch off the ground I am definitely going to go that direction next-I have the fast side of things with my Lightning and the Procharged 2014 F150, now I want to lay the rockers out!

[HawaiiKid]

Hahaha, guess no one around here likes my third place trophy as much as I did Oh well, more work being done on her as we speak. Going all out and blowing the back on a RideTech bagged set up. Shockwaves up front, bags out back, AirPod w/5 gal tank and twin compressors to fill it up and a RidePro e3 digital managment system to control it all.

[6ftdwn57]

Nice. Looking forward to seeing the air ride progress!

[MadMaxetc]

Congrats on 3rd!

I like the truck, looks sweet. Thanks for sharing!

[6ftdwn57]

this thread needs updated! I wanna see the bags lol

[therealjoeshmoe]

wheres your hood???

[Shiloh100]

What happened to all the pics of the project?

[Red Sledz]

Cannot see any pictures of this build

[sloth71]

I sure do wish I would have been able to read through this entire thread with all of the pictures. Awesome build though! How about some updates?

[HawaiiKid]

Bringing this back from the dead! For those of you who didn't see the build pictures on here-sorry, they were posted to Facebook and I have subsequently made that "private". Some of the pictures are still floating around out there as they were reposted by other people, but if you have a specific question I am happy to help! To do this build, with the floor swap, plan on spending a LOT of time and quite a bit of fab skills. The frame swap its self is now one that we've done 5 times for other customers, and we are currently doing a 68 F100 on a 02 Lighting, with a full floor swap (no firewall this time!) and all of the drivetrain and wiring.

I've been busy buying a house and getting married, but worry not-the Wrongbed is safe and sound in the garage on her full custom air ride set up! Here are a few pics...








The truck has gone through a few different sets of wheels, and the bed is now a little different! We widened it 6 inches over all in the back to be able to fit the 18x10.5 Rovos Durban wheels and 275/35R18s under her. We have 18x9s stuffed under the front currently, but I am in the process of trying to fit a set of 10.5s up front too....

[HawaiiKid]

Another day of big changes coming for her tomorrow...hoping it all works out

[foodstick]

Big changes in the future? You aren't going to put the V12 from the Mustang in it are you?