'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[Sbeck09]

I'm feeling pretty accomplished after this weekend. Still plenty to do, but my measurements seem to be getting pretty accurate lately.

I didn't get any photos, but ended up having the perfect spacers for the steering arms so I got those ground smooth and bolted up. I actually need longer bump steer correction adapters now. Funny enough, that small problem makes me super happy. Only thing left to do on the steering now is to move the rack up. That will actually be fairly simple.

My old abrasive chop saw was having the worst time cutting in the last week and I suspect it is dying. With roll cage fab coming up fast I made the decision to buy a new one that should last a while. For those of you who haven't used one of these carbide metal chop saws....do yourself a favor and try it. I could cut .250 wall square tube in about 3-5 seconds. My abrasive saw was struggling to even start that cut. And you can see how much bigger the new saw looks even though they are both 14" blades.



If you have questions about this, feel free to PM me.

Next up was finishing the fuel cell mount. I just had to add the tabs for the cell to bolt onto and then box it all in. It wasn't a difficult job, but it is one of those tasks that just eats up time. The end product was exactly what I wanted and it all fits very snug. I feel safe with how this is mounted.



You can also see that I tied the heavy lower frame of the mount into the rest of the frame with a couple tubes on each side. I figure this will add just a bit more rigity to the frame overall since there isn't a lot of structure behind the cab anyway. I doubt this frame will flex at all when I'm done, which is what I want.



After that I made a cardboard template of the square I needed to cut out of the bed and took careful measurements. Then based on the mounting hole positions I marked it out. It was a perfectly straight and rust free bed so I needed to cut it up. Haha.





Then I could use my engine crane to pick the entire bed up and roll it over the frame. This is the same method I always use, but I finally remembered to take a photo to share. I need to whip up some kind of boom extension for this thing. I could always use a bit more reach with lighter stuff like this.



Somehow it all just slipped together. No fighting, no prying, and not even an F-bomb or crushed finger. Aside from about 1/2" of trimming needed around the holes for the shock mounts, it fits flawlessly.



Fuel cell pokes into the bed by exactly 4" which is how I planned this all along. I feel this slight penalty of weight being higher than mounting it low behind the suspension is worth the benefits of having this load in front of the rear suspension. It will be about 190lbs when full of fuel and I don't want that swinging out back. Beyond this, I only need to cut out holes for the rear cage bars by the shock mounts and make some kind of mounting point for the wing uprights by the back. Then the bed is done other than paint.



I kept thinking I would need to modify the wheel tubs or roll the lip (still gonna do that) to make 10" wide wheels fit. Nope, these 18x10 wheels look TINY under here. So I can get pretty aggressive with tire fit if I want. 315s will be no problem at all which is what I've designed the entire truck around.



I did get the battery tray mounted too, but it was getting late so I didn't remember to snap any photos. There is a lot happening pretty fast now so each update should be juicy.