1964 F100

Starting a thread for my 1964 Ford F100 restomod/pro-touring build. Keeping it patina, I want to build it to be completely reliable when driven to its/my limits. I’d like to do some AutoX and track days as time and money allows. I started this build about 4 years ago. 

This is the truck when my dad owned it and we used it to tow our vintage Shasta camper to a Good Guys show. My dad daily drove it for many years until the 292 began using more oil than gas. It was pretty sketchy to drive, turning and stopping required planning and forethought. He pulled the motor wanting to swap in a newer V8 and it sat for several years. 

Our youngest son bought it from my dad and started working on it, but then he bought a ‘65 F100 that already had a Crown Vic front end swap. I drove his truck and was amazed at how comfortable it was to drive-it drove in a straight line until you moved the steering wheel and stopped on a dime. A vintage truck with power steering, a comfortable ride, four wheel disc brakes and a cool look. I was hooked and bought my dad’s truck from my son. 

We pulled the 292, sold it, and started on the Crown Vic front end swap. I’ve seen a lot of full-chassis Crown Vic/F100 builds but that’s not what I wanted. 

We found a Crown Vic front end and 8.8 rear axle. It was from a P71 model, so the rear axle had a higher spline count than other Crown Vic’s and it also had Traction Lok.

We used a kit that had the weld-in boxes to mate the front end to the frame.
 

We also did a C-notch on the rear frame and moved the springs under the axle to lower the rear. 

My son had a 351w from a mid-90’s Bronco and I bought that from him too. It was a junkyard motor and we had no idea on the mileage or condition. We removed the factory fuel injection and added a Holley Sniper and a mild cam. 

We modified the factory serpentine belt system to work with our set up.
 

We used a M5od five speed transmission, although I knew this would not be the long-term solution for what I wanted to do. 

I’m building this truck to thrash, but it has to look good, to me any way. I think the biggest factor for the look of a performance car is the stance. I wanted the widest tires I could fit. After reading a lot of build threads and asking a lot of questions, I was pretty sure I could fit 305’s with the right wheel offset. The Crown Vic front end is pretty wide so wheel choices are limited. I bought a set of Forgestar wheels, 19”x 11” with 8.2”bs. I put on Kumho Ecsta 305/30 19 tires. This would cause some issues down the road…

In hindsight, one of the best things I did was add sound-deadening material to the entire cab. I did this after replacing both floor pans and cab corners, typical rust spots on these old trucks. 
 

I also scored a set of vintage Mustang seats at a swap meet. These bucket seats were a rare and little-known option on these trucks and a few folks reproduce the OEM bucket seat  mounts, so it was a pretty straightforward swap. I’ll want more support for AutoX and track days but they will be great for daily driving. The gas tank was originally behind the seat/in the cab. I removed it and put a Mustang tank between the rear frame rails. 

The old 351w with the new Sniper fired up on the first try, a unique experience for me. The cam had a great lope to it. 

I ran into issues with the clutch slave cylinder. I used a slave cylinder from a mid-90’s F150, the same model that would have been used with the transmission I was using.  I modified the firewall and the master cylinder mount and I was good to go-until the slave cylinder blew out. I had not taken into account the depth of the pedal stroke and over-pressurized the slave cylinder. Which sits inside the bellhousing. I thought I was close to driving the truck when this happened. 
 

Experienced at failures, I made sure my wife was available to drag me and the truck home, just in case. The OEM hydraulic clutch line was plastic and didn’t fit well so since I needed a new slave cylinder I also got a new master cylinder from Wilwood and used braided steel hose. I added an adjustable stop behind the clutch pedal so I didn’t repeat the same failure. 
 

This might not be in the correct order chronologically, but at some point I realized the massive wheels and tires would not work well in the front. They fit, but the turning radius would be unreasonable. 

FatMan Fabrications is just down the road from me and I got a set of their 1” narrower upper and lower control arms for Crown Vic’s. Also added some Viking coilovers at the same time. 
 

Front end squared away but still running the Crown Vic wheels, and clutch slave cylinder fixed, I was feeling pretty good and took it out for a test drive. It an good and was quick, and I was on cloud nine. My son and I were going to take our trucks to a show in Pigeon Forge in a few weeks and it looked like I was going to make it. I parked the truck in the Shop of Good Intentions and called it a day. Then I noticed the trail of tears in the driveway. 

At first I thought it was transmission fluid. I had just pulled and reinstalled the transmission to fix the slave cylinder and thought I may have overfilled it with fluid. My optimism quickly faded when I determined it was engine oil, coming from behind the bell housing. I pulled the transmission again and saw a significant oil leak coming from the rear main seal. 

The motor had an unknown history and I was concerned that I would constantly be chasing problems. I knew at some point I wanted hi-performance aluminum heads and some other speed goodies. I called my local machine shop and even if I could have afforded a performance rebuild they weren’t taking in any new work for nine months. 

I decided to order a crate motor from Blueprint Engines. A 450hp, 408 stroker motor. It’s based on a 351w, so all my accessories, exhaust, etc. would swap over. I settled in for 6-month wait for my new motor. 

I kept busy while I was waiting for the new motor. I confirmed the tires and wheels would fit in the rear…but not with the Crown Vic 8.8. I got a narrower 8.8 from an Explorer, but in the end it was too narrow and I decided to have my existing 8.8 narrowed at some point down the road and run the Crown Vic wheels until then. 

The motor arrived within the expected timeline, but it didn’t have 450hp. It had 487hp and 515tq. I was a happy camper. 
 

I ordered a few things for the new motor and put them on before dropping it in the truck. 
 

The new motor went in without any issues and I was in business. I was extremely happy and it was pretty quick.  I was able to take it to the show in Pigeon Forge (a year late,) but it was fun. 
 

These old trucks had big steering wheels for leverage (no power steering) and I didn’t care for the instrument panel, so I put in a new steering wheel, which necessitated a new steering column that had to be modified, and started to design a new instrument panel. 
 

I also helped our oldest son pick up a barn-find ‘67 Mustang GT!

These trucks have a reputation for the hood latch failing, and it actually happened to me at low speed, so I put on a set of hood pins. 

I took my dad to the Good Guys show in Raleigh, the first time he’d been to a show in several years after selling his hot rod. They had an AutoX, but the truck wasn’t ready for that yet. 
 

If you don’t know, Sohio was Standard Oil of Ohio, where I was born and my family is from. My dad’s dad, my grandfather was a Sohio distributor in Marysville, OH. I remember riding with him and delivering fuel oil, diesel and kerosene to the farmers in the area.  When my dad owned this truck he added the Sohio emblem to the truck. All his grandkids call him Pop and the 4-digit phone number was the number for my grandfathers Sohio. 

Bit by bit, I was going through all the little things I wanted to do as I broke in the new motor and started driving with a bit more spirit, getting closer to being ready to try and AutoX. I removed the front and rear bumpers and added roll pans and tow hooks. 

I wanted the bigger wheels and tires on before I went to an AutoX, so,I made an appointment to take my truck to a shop so they could measure the rear axle with the wider wheels on and they would know how much to narrow the 8.8. They’d take their measurements and then I’d pull the rear end and take it back to them for narrowing. We went to a great Cars and Coffee at Charlotte Motor Speedway and left there headed for the rear end shop. And then this happened…

The motor died and would not start. I wasn’t driving hard, just leaving a stoplight. I’d had a few issues early on with a bad ground messing with the Sniper, so I thought maybe it was an electrical gremlin. AAA towed me home and we started trying to track down the issue. 

We realized when we cranked the motor and it was turning over, the Sniper display was not registering any RPM’s. We pulled the distributor.

A bore scope showed the cam gear was buggered up as well. 1,700 miles and my engine was toast. 

One consideration for buying a crate motor from Blueprint was their warranty and reputation. Within 24 hours of contacting them and sending pictures to them they sent me information on how to crate the motor for FedEx to pick up. They honored their warranty. Blueprint makes it clear that their roller-cam engines, like my 408, require a melonized steel cam gear on the distributor. Holley assured me that their Hyperspark distributors have melonized steel  gears. 

I sent the motor back to Blueprint. While I was waiting I decided to have the rear axle narrowed and that I might as well put in a 4-link and coilovers.

I spent a lot of time researching the rear suspension. I wanted to use the IRS out of an S550 Mustang and although some people have done that on F100’s I measured an actual IRS and decided it was too wide for my truck. I waffled between a 3-link and a 4-link, and wanted a 3-link, but I was not able to find a 3-link kit I liked and I realized I would never be a good enough driver to tell the difference between the two. I settled on a Fat Bar 4-link with Viking coilovers from No Limit Engineering. Their kit included a Panhard rod. The kit was specific for my truck and had a lot of adjustability. Rob, the owner of No Limit, has a ton of experience getting old trucks to do things they were never designed to do. 
 

I also added some hood vents.

I just received the “new” motor (it was completely rebuilt and re-dynoed by Blueprint) and as soon as I’m done installing the 4-link I’ll put it back in and hit the road. 

That brings the project up to the current status, I’ll try to keep this thread updated in case anyone is interested. I'm hoping run some AutoX's starting in January and take it to the Pro Touring Truck Shootout in April. Fingers crossed!

Sorry to hear about the issues with the first engine, but really glad about the warranty and the ease of the process.

I might be in the minority, but I think those trucks somehow look just right with the black Crown Vic wheels and the hubcap.

Can't wait to read more and don't be shy with taking a lot of photos :)

That was an awesome read! Cool truck. 

Cool build!

I've been out of touch with the hot rod world for a while now.  Has the Crown Vic front end swap become the go-to choice that the Mustang II swap used to be?

In reply to Piguin :

Thanks for your comments. I'll sprinkle in a few other things I learned or fought through along the way. 

In reply to dculberson :

Thanks!

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

I think the CV swap is only popular in the F100 world, the front end is too wide for most cars. I also think the Mustang II front end is still popular in the Hot Rod world, but from what I see at car shows and online, custom chassis or custom front end clips are the most popular setups now, and they can be pretty pricey.  I'm a big-tent guy when I comes to car stuff, but I do struggle to understand how someone can spend many tens of thousands of dollars for a full custom chassis, built motor, etc. and only take it to car shows. I want to play with my toys!

Very cool build!

In reply to TurboFource :

Thanks!

We are always learning, and that has certainly been the case for me with this project. When I swapped in the crate motor for the first time, I had a leak coming from the water neck. I removed it, got a new gasket, used RTV and reinstalled it and let is sit overnight. Per the instructions on the RTV, I needed to let it cure for 24 hours before I added water again (another lesson learned-don't use anti-freeze until you're sure nothing leaks...) I filled the radiator and motor with water again and the water neck leaked again.  Removed the water neck, cleaned off the old gasket, checked the intake (brand new) and the water neck (also new) for flatness and reinstalled and waited another 24 hours. I was at the point where there was nothing else I could do until I got this fixed. Filled the radiator and motor again the next day and and it leaked again.

These leaks were happening without the engine running, so there was not any real water pressure. I read online about more than a few people having issues with the water necks leaking on the model of Edelbrock intake I was using. Before I drained the water and started over again and potentially pulled off the intake, I used my phone to take a video of the back of the water neck that was hard to see area, even with a small mirror. Here is a magnified screenshot from that video:

There was a crack in the water neck. Apparently it was only visible when the part was torqued onto the intake. When I removed it again I still couldn't see the crack. The replacement  water neck I ordered had small burrs on the flange and would have never sealed if I had not inspected it and ground off the burrs. 

Similar situation with a leaking power steering rack and leaking vehicles are not allowed in the Shop of Good Intentions. The rack kept leaking where the pressure hose attached to the rack. It's a whacky fitting, not a typical direct connecting high-pressure fitting. Still stinging from the wasted time with the water neck foolishness, I ordered a new rack ($125). Amazingly the new rack hasn't leaked one drop.