Headway on the new generation of kits. 65-66 F100
Tag: Dakota IFS
1961-1964 F100 Power brake kit
This solves a few problems for hot rodding your 1961-64 F100. The addition of power brakes can be a bit of a pain due to the lack of space on these trucks.
This unit moves the brake booster to the outside by 3.5″ and also moves the brake pedal pad a bit for a more comfortable ergonomic. Steering column placement can be centered up for a better aesthetic also.
Use Ford Ranger boosters from the early 80’s and possibly some of the larger F series trucks of the same years.
Bolts into existing mounting holes on the firewall and dash board. Welding of the old master cylinder hole is required as is drilling the new holes for the new master/booster location.
[product sku=”2030″]
(sorry, no clutch option at this time)
Shop update: 10/04/2013
Been a busy few weeks, lots of jobs in and out and progress made on the more long term jobs. The good news is, as we clear out these jobs, the new Dakota Kits are eminent!
Just wrapped up a Vintage Air install on Ron Shives’ 1957 Chevy Hardtop. Such a nice car, we removed the AirTique unit installed a decade or more ago that never quite worked properly and installed a new Vintage Air sure-fit unit. In went a Vintage Air Front Runner package and radiator relocation to the 6 cylinder position so that we had room for a Volvo 850 two speed cooling fan. We also upgraded to a Borgeson Delphi 600 power steering box, Flaming River steering column and did some routine maintenance for him. Overall the car turned out fantastic, very nice daily driver now.
Dr Marvelus is going to town on Tony’s 60 Bonneville, pretty rusty car in all the structural areas, so look for updates on that soon.
Larry Ivy’s 34 PU is roller status, cab goes on and the controls are going in soon.
More importantly, Bob’s 32 5W chassis will be going together next week in preparation for the Deuce Day show. We are doing the second build out of our “Bolt – In” center X-member! These will be available in the store very soon.
And the news you are waiting for, the Dakota kits are in process as soon as Bob’s 32 frame comes off. First up will be the 65-66 frames and the 53-56 and 57-60’s immediately after.
Bell Tech dropped spindles…
Richard D brought his frame in for us to straighten last weekend. He also asked us to install the crossmember kit (006) and hang all the components. With the parts he brought were a brand new pair of dropped spindles from Bell Tech. It looks as if they did a nice redesign of the old spindle. It wasn’t apparent at first whether they fixed the steering arm location issue or not.
Installation confirmed they have not, if anything has changed it is for the worse.
The steering arm has been raised over an inch over stock and shortened. It also appears they have moved the arm location outboard more but have also changed the angle of the tie rod end boss. The machine work is not up to correct tolerance either. All three tapers are bored too deep into the bosses, note how much thread is exposed on the Bell Tech spindle tie rod end vs the stock spindle. This also raises the tie rod up farther causing more interference with the anti-roll bar and increases bumpsteer.
These spindles are still going to need the tie rod drop I detailed on my Dakota Based IFS Tech page.
Off and running, your Dakota Based kit is ready to go!
It’s official folks, we are back building the Dakota kits. The 61-64 F100 kits are shipping and we are hard at it to bring out the rest of the model years within months.
I have put a ton of hours tweaking the design to make this one of the easiest kits you have ever installed. While it looks similar to the last version of the kit, this one is 100% new. Made from 10 gauge Cold Rolled steel, 3/16 HRPO it uses high quality materials for the structural elements similar in grade to what your original frame is made from where others are using inferior grades of steel and having to make up the loss with thicker plate and tube.
I did a complete redesign of the upper control arm pocket which should make the installation much easier and more adaptable to things like air springs. I am going to be working on a coil over version of this in the coming months that won’t require cutting the frame section away. This means an innovative and cost effective control arm set! In the mean time I heard your desires to ditch the slotted upper control arm adjusters in favor of GM like shims. The hardware and a fistful of shims is included in the kit.
I am still working on the lower control arm bumpstop update, those of you who jumped in early will get the update from a dude in a brown truck in the next week or so!
Still quite a few guys think this kit is expensive, yes it isn’t cheap. Good things are rarely cheap. But stay tuned for updates. As the popularity of the kits increase I will be adding features like the aforementioned tubular control arms, air springs, anti-roll bar kits and such. I am also going to be working on production. Stamping and forming dies will speed up production and I will be passing the savings on to you guys.
Need one now? Click the button, fill out the forms and we will ship one to you right away!
[add_to_cart=794]
Click here to view the instruction sheets
So close you can taste it!
Here we are folks, #2 is installed and this is #3 and the first one to ship.
Installation is much easier than before and the frame stiffness is unmatched. I have been test fitting parts and making small corrections so that you get a high quality part you won’t have to fight to install and will enjoy for years to come.
Making some progress
Just thought I would give you guys a little update
Rendered the frame rails, then placed all the suspension components where I needed them. Some math and a few pot of coffee later I have the basis of the new weld in kit. Enjoy the pictures.
Update: 2/12/2012
Been busy drawing and thinking hard to come up with solutions to manufacturing and user issues. I have tried to simplify the already simple installation to the point where it is idiot proof to install. There are slots and tabs to lock parts in place like a snap-together model car kit, no guess work and a more precise fit. Anyone with moderate welding skills and a 110V MIG welder should be able to pull this off.
Stay tuned?
I have my USPS Carrier Ernie D’s 63 F100 Unibody in the shop and he brought me a ton of goodies to install including a freshly harvested Dodge Dakota front suspension…
Just what do you think I might do 🙂
Weekend update December 17
I have been getting quite a few calls requesting not only the bolt in Dakota based IFS kit, but to bring back the weld-in kit as well.
As you know, the economy is on shaky legs right now and everyone’s finances are in shambles and I am not immune from this. We have a few internal jobs we need to work through to get to these kits. If the response stays strong as it has I will get some motivation to build the fixtures and get this project under way.
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