Category: Fabrication

Posted on by — Leave a comment

For sale,1954 F100 Crew Cab Chassis and body parts.

F100 Crew-Cab project, Frame was repaired, straightened and lengthened 29″ to build a custom crew cab.

Chassis is done, Dakota IFS with Full-size truck rotors, anti-roll bar, Wilwood D52 calipers up front. Centric StopTech and slotted and cryo-treated  rotors, new Timken bearing, new premium MOOG Problem Solver parts, powder coated, Bilstein shocks, new TRW springs, etc. The rear suspension consists of a Ford F100 Camper Special Semi-floater, Truck Dana 60, with upgraded SET20 tapered roller axle bearings, Dutchman axles, Wilwood brakes, new gears and bearings. Power-Lok diff, Ridetech coil overs and Firestone 9000 air bags for load, all on a powder coated four link with panhard rod featuring large polyurethane bushings for comfort and noise isolation without giving up control. . Hydro-boost brakes and new master cylinder. I was building this to be a long distance hauler, something that could easily pull a 20-25′ enclosed trailer.

Included are a set of 5 Wheel Vintique 17″ X 7″ steel Ford style wheels with caps and rings. Wheels are powder coated Navajo White.

If you were to contract someone to design and build an identical frame, it would exceed what I’m asking here.

Body work was started, floors are nearly complete, I have most of the body work and bed, seats, mechanicals, but in poor but fixable shape. I am currently working on the pickup and will be uploading YouTube videos of the build, follow along if your not in the market for a project like this, OR, in the end maybe you could purchase this as it nears completion. 

56 rear doors, shortened a bit. Use stock window mechanisms, keep the vent windows etc. Trying to make this look as much like a factory build as possible. This was a personal project of mine, no expense spared in the workmanship or parts used so far. 

I have an Arizona title in my name for this. And if you don’t haggle me much on this, I even have a pair of 1954 Arizona license plates to throw into the deal 

$9750.00

There are other items I have for this project not included with this sale. Example, I have a modern Cummins turbo diesel four cylinder and an Alison 1000 six speed auto that would be a fantastic power unit, but I realize it’s not everyone’s preference. I will be selling those items separately. I would consider finishing this for you as a project and may make a deal for the powertrain I had reserved for this.

Please use steve@industrialchassisinc.com for communications.

  • Render of the design goal
  • Front suspension as it currently is
  • Current rear suspension
  • Current picture of the body
Posted on by — 1 Comment

Issue found with Heidt’s Mustang II stock spindles

We had a customer complain about one of our Studebaker clips not capable of an alignment recently. With all the shims removed from the adjusting plate, there was still negative camber.

I had to investigate further, and on a chassis we are supplying right now we had the same issue come up. This is brand new for us, so I needed to investigate. This is what I came up with. The upper ball joint bore is moved outboard about 1/2″.

This is causing a few problems, First off is the Camber issue. Second is going to be an issue of scrub radius. This may not cause any driveability issues, but you may notice a bit more wheel kickback on uneven road surfaces.

Short solution is to use a longer control arm, in some cases where the stock slot and T-bolt are used, you may not have much of an alignment issue.

EDIT:

I spoke with a representative from Heidt’s this afternoon. Of course this issue has never come up with them. He informed me they use a 1/4″ longer control arm at 8″ from pivot to ball joint. No reason given as to why. I want to caution everyone that if you are to mix-match parts, you may end up with a front end that you can’t align.

We have used the Heidt’s and CPP dropped spindles without this problem. I have used the stock height spindles from SPC and Kaiser without issue.

 

I want to go further with you as to what these changes will make to the way your front end will drive and handle in a future date. Right now I just needed to get this information out there.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

More new stuff on the website

I have been working on getting the framework done for the new features I want for the website and fixing some of the dumb stuff I had as place holders. Still not done, but happy with some of the progress.

What I received in feed back from customers was navigation on the store, difficulty finding product and such. So my solution is to put multiple paths to find what you are looking for. At the top of the page are categories based on what you have. Not completely finished with them at this point. What I intend is a bit of information, history and links in each and everyone of those by make and year model.

I will also be working on updating and adding new product. So far I’m pretty happy with the new Theme Plugin from www.woothemes.com . Those guys have been more than helpful getting me going after my crash.

Soon we will have some project updates too. We currently have three full on turn-key projects. The 53 GMC is painted. Thank you Cam at Fury in Color! Rick’s 40 Plymouth is making progress, and we took possession of Bob’s 1964 Ford pickup. Look for pictures of that one soon, it’s really eye catching (in a good way!)

Posted on by — Leave a comment

New feature coming soon

 

One of the reasons for doing the redesign is for you the customer to navigate and find products easier.

The other is to add in a new forum that will go live in the next few days (I hope) where you and I can engage in a more technical sense.  I get asked to help people sort their suspension issues on all sorts of vehicles.

I am working to put together a searchable forum where we can get in-depth with the true geometry of what makes your IFS work and why. This will  be a subscription service, Sorry folks but more and more of my time is being taken up by answering questions. For those of you who are customers, you will get access to the forums, but for those of you on the fence, the fee will be minimal. In that forthcoming forum, we can get in-depth to get your ride working the way you want it to.

 

Eventually, I would like to expand the forum to be an offsite, 3rd party tech line for any aftermarket hot rod parts manufacturer. If you would like to participate in some way, PDF files of instruction sheets of kits you have installed would be helpful in growing to that goal.

As always, I appreciate some input.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Ball Joints 2.0

In my last post, covered the Chrysler style screw in ball joints commonly used on Mustang II front ends. Today I want to talk about the Dakota ball joints and some misconceptions being run around the internet. There are a few generations of Dodge Dakotas now, I concentrate on the first two, being 87-90 and 91-96. Both are pretty much the same, the ball joints are exactly the same.

I have run across a few people trying to conflate the 97 up (3rd Gen) Dakota ball joint issues with the earlier First and Second generation trucks. In the 3rd Generation Dodge made quite a few changes to the Dakota’s front suspension. Almost a complete redesign. About the only thing similar is the lower control arm spacing and bushing size (yes, they will fit our kits) and the upper control  arm rear mounting bolt is in the same location. But that’s it. The rack mounting and angles are very different and the upper control arm became symmetrical for cost cutting reasons. The other major changes are in the spindle and ball joints. They bare no resemblance to the 1st and 2nd gen trucks. The ball joints became significantly smaller and the orientation of the lower ball joint changed from tension (pointing up) to compression (pointing down) making dropped spindles pretty much impossible.

 

Have a look at the line up of ball joints here. From Left to right, the 1997 and up Dakota/Durango ball joint, The K772 Ball joint used in most Mustang II type set ups, The K778 joint used in the 87-96 Dakotas (and many other full size cars and trucks) and then on the Right is the K7025 used on the Dakotas and several other full size cars and trucks. Visual confirmation would show you, this is robust stuff. History can confirm that these larger ball joints were not failure prone. Sure, everything wears out, this is why we recommend using premium quality repair parts when building your car or truck. Not only will you see a longer service life, you will get a better ride quality with parts like the MOOG joints and bushings we suggest.

I suppose shocks would be the next topic, stay tuned!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Ball Joint talk

What I wanted to discuss is regarding the screw in MOPAR style ball joint that is very popular with the tubular control arms for the venerable Mustang II suspension.

These two ball joints are very different in how they are supposed to be used

The ball joint pictured at the right is the commonly used K772 MOPAR screw in ball joint used on tubular control arms throughout the industry. If you look up that number you will see it is meant for MOPAR Upper Mid-Sized cars. It is not intended for use as a lower ball joint where it will see tension loads.

The ball joint on the Left is a K719. It has the same threaded body of the K772 but if you notice one very different difference in that body, it encloses much more of the ball stud. This is a true lower ball joint meant for the Mid-Size and larger passenger cars. While it will directly replace your K772 ball joint in the control arm, the stem is larger. This larger stem requires you to machine your spindle to accept it.

While many thousands of cars and trucks are on the road using the K772 as a lower ball joint without failure, we have seen a few. Granted, this is a very robust ball joint, and if you are using a quality joint like the MOOG Problem Solver line, you may never experience a failure. We have, on the other-hand, solved some driveability issues associated with the Mustang II suspension, mainly the nervousness out on the highway but replacing the ball joints with a true lower ball joint. Now don’t take this as the end all-cure all solution to your Mustang II suspension, it’s just something we have experienced. Because the K772 is not meant to be loaded in tension, it can be “sticky” and not let your steering wheel return to center properly.

All of our Mustang II based control arms feature the K719 on the lower, and we machine the spindles to fit. If this seems like an upgrade you would like to make, give us a call and we can take care of you.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

More new product in the store

Recently added are dropped spindles, engine mounts and a few other goodies.

Like this, a bolt-in transmission crossmember for stock Model A frames. Allows you to use ’35 up style transmission mounts and a 48-52 Ford F1 brake and clutch pedal set. 

 

Posted on by — 5 Comments

1955-1959 GM Dakota kits very soon. AND MORE!

Been working on the design for the newest kit to our line. The 1955-1959 GM Truck Dakota kit. We will have this ready by the end of September in two forms. Our standard kit that accepts the stock ’87-’96 Dodge Dakota componentry and this will be our first venture into a tube control arm and coil over front end! Yes, you read that right we are going to offer tube control arms very soon. I have been working on the design and the fixturing to get these to a reasonable cost. So look for an official release of the newest kits very soon.

We have also been working on engine mounts and bolt on anti-roll bar mounts. I have some almost ready to go for Ford and Chevy engines in the 35-56 F100 kits. I need to check fitment on the others before we release them.

 

 

Posted on by — 2 Comments

New information regarding springs and brakes

I do my best to keep up with information on all of our products. I was recently informed that the earlier 1973-1982 Dodge D series rotors for the 3000 pound front axle take a different bearing and are not compatible with the Dakota spindles. I made a quick note on the D-series caliper bracket selection about this change and will soon update all of the information to reflect the correct interchanges.

This morning however, was a question about springs for the Dakota IFS kits with 302 Fords. This is a work in progress and as I gather more information about the spring selections I will add it to the list to help you guys get the most out of your front end. This new information about the spring selection is in the Dakota Tech section.