4x4 SAS 5.0 dump truck build

[Aeroflex]

Thinking ahead a little I am looking for recommendations for the drive shaft situation. Should I stick with the single cardan drive shaft currently installed or use a double cardan drive shaft from my 1979 f150 donor vehicle? I am leaning towards the C. V. double cardan drive shaft but I still need to check some measurements to see if there is a better logical choice. I know the pinion angle is different depending on the setup so I’m just thinking out loud and looking for recommendations if there is a reason to go one way or another.

 

[Aeroflex]

I mocked up the the rear end installation. I installed a lift shackle and the ~3” blocks that came with the 9 inch to see how much lift I could get. Shown here is a set of 35s I had on hand. Ultimately I am trying to clear 39” super swampers for mudding and 37s for daily driving. I’ll test fit the super swampers later this week and if everything checks out then I’ll set the pinion angle and weld the spring perches.

 

[Aeroflex]

When I last left off I was mocking things up to get as much height as I could. I ended up installing an add a leaf because I wanted every inch I could easily attain. I ended up having to cut the exhaust off because the tips were blocking the 39 inch swampers. In the future I’ll most likely install them back slightly further forward.
I ended up going with a combination U joint to attach the drive shaft to the 9 inch rear end. I’m not familiar with the stock drive shaft in a 98 ranger but I imagine the I have is from something else since I have a 5.0/C6 installed. It also looked a little beefier too. I used calipers to measure the old u joints from the 9 inch and the drive shaft and looked through moogs catalog until I found a combination (two different sizes) u joint that was the correct sizes (Part number 448).

I finished up the rear end install today. Perches welded, fresh U bolts installed.

 

[Aeroflex]

For me, this truck has been about learning about a topic such as welding, body work, suspension and steering setup etc... and then having a vehicle to apply it to.

Currently, I have the Dana 44 in my garage getting striped down to be shorted and rebuild parts on the way.

I am still researching the different options for cross over steering (OTK vs UTK, heim vs TRE).

So in the mean time I took a shot at some body work. I had a bad dent on the roof of the truck and no dent puller. I found a YouTube video of someone using a T they welded together out of small rod and then welded the T to the dent and pulled on it. I gave it a try and it worked surprisingly well! I still used bondo afterwards to fill in the low spots but pulling it with the T definitely helped.

Here is the dent with the paint sanded off.

This is the T I made and tac welded it to the dent.

I cut the T off and rewelded to a few locations to get the majority of the dent pulled.

After bondo and glaze putty...

And after primer...

Pretty happy with the results for my first time trying any of this.

 

[Aeroflex]

Continuing with the body work I addressed a few other small cosmetic issues with bondo. Then I sanded the whole vehicle with 80 grit because there was already some type of primer covering it but I didn’t know it’s history of when it was applied. So after sanding I masked everything off and reprimed it with spray can primer and then sprayed the truck with a satin black from a spray gun.

I’m a little frustrated with the texture that I ended up with. Its blotchy and has orange peel. It’s my fault for using a 20 gal compressor that couldn’t keep up with the spray gun and adjusting my paint gun settings as I went tried to correct for the orange peel. But I wanted to see what kind of results I could get with the equipment I had. On a few panels I got a consistent orange peel effect and it looked like bed liner up close and not so noticeable from a distance. I might try to re spray the truck like that. I’m waiting to see what the paint does in the next few days as far as blotchiness before I decide what I will do going forward.

it doesn’t look bad here but up close it’s like bed liner in some spots

 

[strugbus]

Super cool build!

 

[Naddanme]

Don’t make it too pretty you won’t want to take it out and beat on it. Lol and that’s where all your hard work will really shine. Looking good.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Thinking ahead a little I am looking for recommendations for the drive shaft situation. Should I stick with the single cardan drive shaft currently installed or use a double cardan drive shaft from my 1979 f150 donor vehicle? I am leaning towards the C. V. double cardan drive shaft but I still need to check some measurements to see if there is a better logical choice. I know the pinion angle is different depending on the setup so I’m just thinking out loud and looking for recommendations if there is a reason to go one way or another.

I had a the 2 piece driveshaft stock and did the one piece drive shaft conversion. It feels much better.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Just an FYI, the wiper arms come off with just prying on a little tab once they're up like that, Ford makes it easy on the front wipers... no tools necessary, I usually use my fingernail...

Looks good

 

[Aeroflex]

Just an FYI, the wiper arms come off with just prying on a little tab once they're up like that, Ford makes it easy on the front wipers... no tools necessary, I usually use my fingernail...

Looks good

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Aeroflex]

I put this together and might try respraying the truck with multiple compressors hooked up.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Are you trying to use 3 pancake compressors or something? That's quite the regulator setup!

It's been a while but we painted one of my sheds with a harbor freight sprayer and the $150 compressor, it did fine. I set up a regulator with a male and female quick connect on it to regulate at the tool, leaves you with a higher volume of high pressure air for a more even experience but I don't know how much of a difference that makes...

 

[sgtsandman]

I'm interested to see what you did to mount the piston for the bed to get it to work. I've been toying with the idea of installing one on my utility trailer for it's tilt bed so that the tilt can be controlled instead of being at the mercy of gravity and where the weight on the bed is at the time. I want to make it a manual pump system instead of a powered system though. So, I'm more interested in the piston setup than the pump and tank.

 

[Aeroflex]

Are you trying to use 3 pancake compressors or something? That's quite the regulator setup!

It's been a while but we painted one of my sheds with a harbor freight sprayer and the $150 compressor, it did fine. I set up a regulator with a male and female quick connect on it to regulate at the tool, leaves you with a higher volume of high pressure air for a more even experience but I don't know how much of a difference that makes...

I used a 20 gal 1.3 HP the first time around. I’ll get some more pictures of the orange peel that I was left with. I had a regulator at the spray gun to keep it at the desired 23 psi the gun calls for. When spraying it was dipping down to 10ish psi halfway through spraying a panel.

I am going to add in a 12 gal 1 HP and a 15 gal 2 HP to the original set up for a total of 47 gal and 4.3 HP. I did a few tests with holding the spray gun wide open and it maintains the 23 psi much longer. I am also going to try adding a little reducer into the paint mix for smaller particles. From what I read thicker paints can also cause orange peel.

 

[MikeG]

Might need to plug at least one of them into different circuits depending on power draw, just a thought. 3.3 HP would be (in theory) right at 20 amps if I calculated it right, and electric motors can draw more than rated (briefly) as they start up.