AutoBahn F-100

[RobNoLimit]

This is a project we've been putting together for a while. Kai from "Street" Magazine in Germany has been hard at work to put this project together and get everyone involved on the right track. They are going to build an F-100 in their magazine, and then take it out to the AutoBahn and the Nurburgring. Of course we were excited and eager to be on board. Here are the basics.
No Limit Big-10 chassis, plumbed. Floater upgrade. Aluminum tank upgrade. Engine truss plate upgrade. Drop out battery box upgrade.
347 stroker Ford W. American Powertrain 6 speed. AFR cyl heads. Comp Cams. Canton oil pan. Edelbrock intake. Probe pistons. Mallory ign.
Chassis add ons include Ride Tech shocks, Flaming River Rack, and Wilwood Brakes.
The truck will have Automete gauges, IDIDIT column, Painless wiring and Russel plumbing.
19" OZ wheels and Dunlop rubber will provide the grip.

[RobNoLimit]

The rear axle is a 9" with floating axles. 31 spline True Track. Rear suspension is standard Big -10 trailing arms, ride Tech coil overs - rocker arms mounted. The rockers are 1.6 ratio, so a 5" stroke coil over yeilds 8" of suspension travel. Panhard rod is below the axle CL, 36" eye to eye. The trailing arms are ported, and the rear brake lines travel inside the arms. The front pivit is an adjustable "Monster Ball". The billit block is a brake distribution block. It has a single feed in from the back side, a bledd port, and two outputs for the rear lines.

[RobNoLimit]

The crusty block is there for two reasons. 1. to make sure everything fits. 2. it helps with the import hassles if there is a 'motor' in it. One tired 302. check. The shifter position is perfect, as long as you set the motor back 2". So the truck will be fitted with a Direct Sheetmetal firewall. Pedals will be Wilwood tandem brake with a balance bar, and a seporate clutch pedal and master. We plumbed the chassisto two #3 brake line fittings, flex lines will connect the master to the chassis plumbing. The plate with the large oval hole in it is for the battery. Our stainless drop out battery box mounts here. The new engine 'Truss' mount adds rigidity and makes future swaps a breeze by only changing the bolt-on reciever. Ford W, Ford C, Lima and Mod (Coyote) all fit the same truss.

[RobNoLimit]

We won't see this all together in mock up. From here it gets crated to ship out to Germany. Ill get Kai to take this thread over and post up build picts.

[Slick68]

Awesome!! This looks like a fun build.

[Tig]

Its a shame all that work has to be covered up.
It looks amazing, great job.

Lookin forward to seeing it updated after it makes its long trip across the pond.

subd

[Josh@Ridetech]

Nice! I can't wait to see this one finished.

[AutoX_a_Truck?]

Cool build! I will be interested to see what it runs at the Nurburgring.

[cornfedbill]

Nice work as always. I really like this one. Lots of nice technical touches.

[Guyt699]

Its a shame all that work has to be covered up.
It looks amazing, great job.

Lookin forward to seeing it updated after it makes its long trip across the pond.

subd

What he said!

[RobNoLimit]

I get a lot of questions about rear brakes on floaters. It's pretty easy. We make the adapter ring, to attach the rotor to the hub, and the weld on caliper mount. We have a two piece bolt together fixture that bolts around the axle housing and holds the caliper mount square during welding. At this point there is no E-brake, this truck will use a spot caliper on the yoke. We have also put secondary caliper mounts on the housings for small mechanical calipers on the rotor. Twin calipers per rotor and turning brakes can be done as well. this set up is a 13" x 1.1" rotor with a Wilwood Superlight caliper with 1.625" pistons. The second two picts show the housing in articulation and you can see the rocker movement.

[bovey]

When you design a chassis, in this case minus the body. How do you figure out the brake package without knowing the final weight, corner weight, etc?a

[RobNoLimit]

I guess the answer is "experience". but really, We keep really good records of vehicle weights, spring rates, sway bar sizing, and brake systems. And, with having built over 100 F-100 in the past 20 yrs, you gain a lot of knowledge. Also, a very smart friend of ours gave me a cool spreadsheat that calculates brake balance vs. caliper/rotor/wt/wheelbase. I'd like to publish the work but I promissed to keep it tight. - property values and all. If you need any help with brake balancing let me know. - our C-10 count is up to 53 already. So we are gaining good info.

[bovey]

Cool. Just curious. I have a feeling that smart friend is the same one who triggered this question from another thread. I'm very busy reading as I'm trying to sort out the next phase of my truck. As you can tell by my profile pic - I'd be curious about the maximum wheelbase on that spreadsheet... I'd also be curious about if you can reco engine set-back.

But enough about chevy's; this is a Ford build thread. Super happy to see this build btw. We need more variety. Cool stuff.

[protouring70]

Awesome build....your workmanship says it ALL!

[tigerracer]

Hey Rob,
I have my "Ring Card" I am offering my services to drive the truck at the Nurbergring.

Dale

[snopro]

Hi Rob, Just a quick question about the truck arm suspension. Have you found that using square tube instead of the stamped steel factory style truck arms help much with handling capabilities of the vehicle and if so would round DOM tubing work well also?

Love all your builds BTW keep it up

Chris

[RobNoLimit]

Hmm, here's what I know about trailing arms. Well, a bit of it anyway. One way or another, there has to be some 'Twist' in the arm, if you want the axle to rotate freely. By that I mean, 'tip' to one side. We want to use sway bars, shocks, springs, and roll centers to control and exploit body roll in a corner. - Not suspension bind. The OE truck arm has a fixed bushing and although it is rubber, it doesn't have much twist. But, the OE style I-beam construction does twist, pretty easily. As far as the OE goes, the twist is OK. Welding the arms, boxing them and adding urethane bushings (all the current hype) may be better for drag racing or high speed open track stuff, but will yield a stiffer ride, and cause the rear suspension to be a little less compliant on the street and short coarse. IMHO, round or square tube trailing arms with fixed urethane bushings may be the worst. No twist in the arm or the bushing. We use a square tube arm to reduce torque flex during acceleration and braking, coupled with a urethane bushed "Monster Ball" adjuster to allow plenty of twist, for full axle rotation. It's the best approach we have come up with.

[snopro]

thanks for the info rob that all makes perfect sense. I noticed that on the TCI C10 it looks like they are doing a truck arm with a torque arm all with heim joints all to reduce torque flex? and would just adding an upper link to a stock truck arm set up help with this?

[Tincup]

Awesome build, is that trailing arm setup something that you would sell?