Did a Little Black Friday Shopping... Project Cummins F250
 

Yesterday I got up at 3AM to go shopping... but after the shopping was done I went to pick up my new project. I've been wanting a truck for a while, and my friend offered to give me his 66 Ford F250, catch is that it has a hole in the side of the block. I've got a line on a 4BT Cummins, so yesterday we hauled the truck over to my house. Here are some pictures of the movie... not exactly the smoothest operation, nor a fun one, but we were successful.

Here is the Truck sitting where its sat for the last year and a half.
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Had to change out the wheels that wouldn't hold air anymore. (at this point it started to rain)
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Got it chained to my dads Ford ready to move.
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Then thanks to the rain, the road was so muddy my dads truck slid of the edge, and got stuck.
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Chained the truck to my friends suburban and pulled the whole line of trucks out of the mud.
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The 66 is moving!
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Got the Trailer lined up.
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And the truck on the trailer!
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Loaded up and ready to roll... 3 hours later
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There goes the 66 down the free way
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Got the 66 to the house.
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We had a little trouble getting the truck up the driveway because the she doesn't really like to roll after all the years sitting in the mud. but thanks to Justin (iwrock) we got her moving.
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Now the hard work begins
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This'll be a cool project! What a pain though... I can't believe it wasn't fish tailing down the highway when you were pulling it backwards.

Looks pretty straight. How bad is the frame rusted after sitting in the mud for all those years?

Its pretty darn solid. my friend has owned it for 6 years and moved it 3 times since then. so not all the years in the mud, only the last year and a half. There is only minor surface rust on the frame, like on pretty much all trucks of its vintage. my friend said there was some rot in the bed from water pooling. the rot was there before he bought the truck. It had a pop up camper on the back of it that he was in the process of dismantling and taking to the recycler. the floor and the side framing that you see in the pictures is all that's left of the camper. next weekend I'll be cutting up the rest of the camper and taking the last bits off the the recycler. then i'll know how bad it is. The cab is still water tight, so that's a plus.

Personally, I would sell that truck as a collectible, and use the proceeds to put your 4B into a more modern vehicle. You'll have something with modern brakes, suspension, electrics, creature comforts (AC comes to mind) and parts availability.

Nice.

Well at least on a truck you can take the cab and bed off the frame and go through the whole thing.

I'd do that, paint the frame and go through the suspension and brakes. All the rubber is going to be shot, and the brake lines are probably iffy.

No way hattie. Its an old truck that will never be worth much. I'd say at this point it should be cleaned up the best it can and preserved.

You can just call it patina, and enter it in the preservation class in car shows. :D

Preservation is the whole idea. My friend has had it with this truck. its been on his cousins property for the last year and a half and his whole family was telling him to get it gone. He tried to sell it but no one wants an old truck with a hole in the engine. So it was about 2 weeks from going to the wrecker. I've been wanting a diesel powered truck for a while. Looked at a few that I could afford and I kept thinking that "the 66 is in better shape then these things." While talking to another friend he mentioned his brother was trying to sell a 4BT that is still in a running box truck. He said he was going to scrap the box truck but wanted to find a home for the 4BT because he knew they were popular. So, I've taken over the project. I'll be looking at the box truck some time next month, and buying the engine after Christmas.

Won't a 4BT Cummins be a *Bit* heavier than the original motor in that truck?

Well I haven't got numbers on the weight of each engine, but the swap has been done by a few people at 4btswaps.com so I'm reading up on any issues with weight, but haven't come across any.

I wouldn't call the original power train light... it has a big block ford in it, and an all cast iron transmission that i know weights at least 100 lbs. took 4 of us to remove it when we changed the clutch like 5 years ago.

The 4BT will be mated to ether an aluminum 4 speed from the box truck, or if i can find a 5 speed at the pick and pull, I'd rather go that route. The truck is only 2WD so its not going to be hard to get a different transmission. I'm going to need a new drive shaft ether way.

Cool. :D I'd like to have a cummins powered anything! They are a proper, powerful sounding diesel, unlike the PowerJoke and Durafail.

60s Ford trucks were relatively modern in many ways. The twin I beam suspension offered many of the strength benefits of a straight axle, and combined them with the benefits of independent suspension. With or without a load thy were a good handling truck. The F250 shared the same brakes and floating rear axle as its heavier cousin, the F350.
A very drivable truck even on today's roads.
An excellent choice for the cummings diesel.

remember when Ford used a a clip of this for a TV ad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXatUGIi9g&feature=PlayList&p=AD3C914EBD9257C2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=72

the twin I beam loves to eat tires.and with that cummins in there it might get worse.and the frame isn't the rust problem the cab mounts are.the front ones are the worst,the ones right behind the front tires.when they go the cab settles down and it will eat steering couplers like candy.buddy of mine had a beautiful 66 3/4 2wd. put it in the ditch one night and hit a farm driveway.the cab popped right off the truck and landed upside down on the driveway,with him still in it.even though the truck looked rustfree all 4 cab mounts were gone.