Its just a little pick-up truck. 1998 F800 Cummins

[maddog]

I'm new around here, nice place.
It was suggested I do a build thread on my truck.
Not too much to the "build" but I will run you through the project.
I guess it might be useful to someone to see it.
If there is anything specific you might want to see, let me know.

I suppose the pictures will tell the story but I started with a big long ex culligan water truck that had been converted to haul tractors.

I bought it to pull the motor for another project, but after driving it home I decided to look into keeping it even though I didn't really need it. It was then that I realized that I could shorten it and put a pick up bed on it.

I was instantly hooked! It made me smile. Just about completely useless as a pickup truck didnt matter, I love it.

It was a complete mess. Filthy dirty with a few good oil leaks. everything rattled but it seemed to run and drive reasonably well.

Of course I had to park my tractor on it at least once, after all, it did have ramps. LOL

I found a bed on Craigslist and brought it to the shop on my ranger. Looked kinda funny dont ya think?

 

[maddog]

Next came stripping both beds off. The original remainder of the Culligan water truck and the new tractor hauling heavy metal bed that had been scabbed on top of it. It was a mess. Took me 3 days of nibbling at it with a cutting torch and a big plasma cutter. Of course the scrap guys were right there to take it away and I even made $100!

Next came cutting the frame.
When the truck was new, the frame was dropped to make way for the Culligan water truck bed. Now I had to remove all that steel and get back to something that resembled a stock frame.

The original modifiers cut the frame just behind the cab, again just in front of the rear springs and again just after the rear springs.

My plan was simple, cut out all the lowered stuff, line it up, and stick it back together. What could go wrong? LOL

It was a royal pain in the rear.

 

[maddog]

It wasnt as easy as I thought it would be to move the rear section forward and line it up with the front section. I ended up, after getting it close, putting a piece of plastic with oil on it under each rear tire and sliding it around with a crowbar making final minor alignment adjustments.

Next came a piece of 3"x6" rectangular tube cut from the original dropped frame to match the underneath faces of the front and rear frame sections. That worked pretty good and final adjustments to alignment were completed.

A couple pieces cut to fill the gap and it was all tacked together.

The front frame was a double frame and the rear had a plate used to connect the dropped frame together. I used a piece of 1/4" plate to equal out the outside edges and it needed to go under the front spring shackle and end as it reached the forward douple frame. Then I added another plate to span the joint just behind the cab. The thing is so overbuilt I think it could still carry the load of a 26,000 gvw truck.

 

[maddog]

Eventually the frame got finished. I still have a little welding I want to do, but I catch that when I have the welder out in the driveway next time.

I will post more soon but here is one of where I am at now (except for the new front tires on Alcoa wheels)

 

[1970Custom]

What's under the hood, 7.3?

Not bad for an old beverage truck, hence the dropped frame rails...

 

[maddog]

5.9 Cummins

 

[Austin]

Me like. Very nice.

 

[fatherdoug]

Way Cool! It looks very nice with the pickup bed on it.

 

[Beach66Bum]

Way Cool! It looks very nice with the pickup bed on it.

X2

 

[m78]

This is going to be a neat project to watch. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Dirky]

Interesting project. Good work!

 

[slmann]

very cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[maddog]

I eventually got the frame back together.
There is one more 1/4 plate that I added to span the joint just at the back of the cab but I couldnt find that picture.

Driveshaft was easy. Measured the length and took both driveshafts to the local driveshaft shop. Either shaft was long enough but one end from the other had to be added and it needed to be shortened a few inches. $75, no sweat.

At this point I also connected the brake line and the Hydro-max line to the emergency brake.

PICTURES DIDNT UPLOAD!!
It seems I have reached the limit of pics I can up load. Too bad. I have never run into this on a forum before. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Austin]

I usually host my pictures on photobucket, so there's no issue with how much space I use on FTF's servers.

 

[tjcustomranger]

i've always wanted to do this with an old f600 like a late 60s early 70s. with a big 4wd. but i also saw somebody who just put a front clip from one on his f150 and it looks pretty sweet so i might just do that..

great build i like the look of it.

 

[tjcustomranger]

like this

heres the truck.. i'm sure some people on here have already seen this one