The "Blue Ox" build

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Although I've done quite a bit to it since I got it, since the intended purpose was to simply use it as a work truck and I wasn't doing any crazy build stuff to it, I didn't see much of a point in putting together a build thread.....

But, then again, I didn't plan on hitting a deer doing around 50 mph and having insurance hand me a check....

Not that I really wanted to be bothered fixing it myself, I have so much else to do right now that I don't really have the time. As things went though, it's probably for the better in the long run.

So without further delay....

Four years ago as of February, I bought a 1995 F-150 xl, 4.9L, 4x4, 5-speed, manual T-case, auto hubs, 3.08 gears, supposedly 69k on the clock. It needed new rear leaf spring hangers and there was a cracked leaf on the drivers side. The tires were usable, but not the best. Other than that, it seemed in pretty decent shape. The previous owner admitted to clipping a pole with the passenger door and said that someone he knew had a bodyshop and "fixed" it for him. Looking back, I probably should have asked what bodyshop.... Either the bodyshop or the previous owner put a bedside patch panel on the drivers side and the passenger side was getting bubbly.

Little did I know what I was in for....

But anyway, here is how she looked when I brought her home...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It didn't take long to start finding other problems... Of course I can't find the whole list right now, for whatever reason it disappeared from my computer. But like I said, the spring hangers were in bad shape....

I also quickly discovered that the aftermarket Pioneer CD player often failed to work correctly. It had some random problems that didn't make sense until I got around to yanking it out of the dash to look at the wiring...

Some surprise, right? So I fixed it....

Of course, when I replaced the spring hangers, I banged a wrench against the "new" rear gas tank seam by accident and got to watch gas start leaking out... And replacing the rear tank with a plastic one I discovered a wet spot on the front tank... so that had to become a plastic tank too....

And I had the clutch go out less than a week before I was supposed to move my brother down to Virginia for work.... While working on that with my one neighbor's help we discovered the front shocks were shot and the radius arm brackets were in bad shape...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Browsing through CL, I found someone selling a set of Alcoa alloys for an F-150, IIRC they were listed for $100 and I figured they were probably long gone (the ad was like two weeks old), but I contacted the guy anyway. His response to the question as to if he still had them for sale was "Yea, I'm tired of tripping over the fawking things in my garage, gimme like $40 and they're yours." Needless to say, I was in the truck and down the road in a big hurry!

I also promptly put some 5% tint on the back window in the cab. With no factory privacy glass, it didn't take long before I started hating that clear window back there. I also needed a ladder rack and found a deal on one. Of course, it required a few modifications....

I also discovered the auto front hubs were junk... by getting stuck in the yard and having to have mom use her Explorer to pull me out. So I took a trip up to the junkyard to snag a set of manual Warns.

The front bumper was looking pretty rusty so I shot it with a coat of bedliner too. And by the end of 2009, I had a toolbox mounted. I also had traded the plastic toolbox for someone to sandblast and epoxy primer my ladder rack, which I then painted with an oil based equipment paint.

January of 2010 saw new tires on my new-to-me rims...

 

[Schnot]

Not a bad truck. Even though you're having some rust issues its not a concern to dump some money in to it. That drive train I pretty much bulletproof and should outlast the body. Take a look at your spring towers in the from if you haven't already. They're usually bad too if you're rear shackles are bad.


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

All cleaned up at the beginning of 2011!

I upgraded the speakers because all four decided to turn to crackling junk at nearly the same time. Despite fixing the wiring for the HU, it still would act kind of funny now and then so while I was at it, I upgraded to a new HU - a Pioneer with a USB input and MP3 capabilities. Speakers were Rockford Fosgate. I also ran new speaker wiring, 18 gauge. Go big or go home, right?

Somewhere around that time I managed to rip the plastic door handle off the drivers side. A trip to the local junkyard was in order and while I was seeking a replacement plastic handle I came across an older F-150 with chrome handles. The yard told me they wouldn't fit, but after careful examination, I decided they would. I also stopped at a family friend's place and managed to get a set of chrome window cranks out of a Ranger. Nice to have a little bling on the door.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Not a bad truck. Even though you're having some rust issues its not a concern to dump some money in to it. That drive train I pretty much bulletproof and should outlast the body. Take a look at your spring towers in the from if you haven't already. They're usually bad too if you're rear shackles are bad.


Sent from my iPhone.

Yea, I was a little disappointed at first since the only fullsize trucks I had driven to that point both had 460 motors which naturally made for a little more giddiup, but it didn't take long to fall in love with this truck. Sometimes I still wish I would have got the 94 F-150 supercab 4x4 with an 8' box and a 7.3L that I was considering when I got this, but....

And I'm getting to the coil towers.... they were in ok shape at first, but not so ok now. The body has gotten worse too from rot, but that is soon to be resolved.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Naturally, since it's supposed to be a work truck, it has to work right?

Also did a little to the interior...

And after installing a lock-right in the rear axle I couldn't resist a grin...

No pictures of it, but I did upgrade the springs front and rear. Bought some heavy duty coils for the front and for the rear I picked up a set of leaf springs out of an F-250 and added a couple leafs to the pack to build a nice custom set.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Started work on cobbling together a plow mount. The frame brackets are from a Fisher plow frame, the top hoop and headlight assembly seems to be a home-fab version of a Meyers Classic mount, and the rest got fabbed by me to accept a Meyers ST-7.5 plow. I had to do some customization because the previous owner of the plow had some hacked-together mount that was all twisted up so I used what I could and got what I could make work for the rest. It worked, but I'm thinking of making a custom setup for it, hopefully in time for next winter here.

The previous owner of the plow didn't have a control wand or touchpad, just a pair of toggles on a home-fab bracket that he screwed right to the dash. I wanted a neater look to things (I kind of wanted a control wand, but after seeing the prices on them, decided to stick with the toggles). A little bit of looking and I had an idea....

And last year I got to put the plow to good use a couple times, no pictures of it in actual use though. Maybe this coming winter though...

 

[88_Eddie]

sweet

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Couple weeks ago I clobbered a deer. It was just a yearling, probably only around 100 lbs live. I was cooking along doing around 50 mph on a local road (the speed limit), came around a bend and there it was in the middle of my lane. I tried to swing wide but it turned and took a leap... I cursed a blue streak, got turned around and came back, hoping to get some meat out of the deal, but alas. Clobbering that small of a deer at that speed with all that steel for the plow mount hanging off the front.... there wasn't much of anything left aside from a 40' long blood streak on the road and the mutilated remains of a deer. A real shame. The truck looked relatively ok in the dark, so I went home. A closer look the next day proved that my core support got jacked up pretty good and the plastic fender liner got destroyed. I also found that my alignment is out of whack and it steers funny going down the road.

Since I have more than enough other stuff to keep me busy, I figured I'd just turn it in to insurance and let a body shop deal with it. My insurance insisted that the best way to handle it would be to take it to their "approved" body shop that had an in-house insurance adjuster. I set the date a week or so ahead of when I turned it in since I needed the truck for a few days and needed a little more cash. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but I got an ad from the Chevy dealer that I was supposed to take the truck to a couple days after I called my insurance company and set things up saying that I was pre-approved for a loan of up to something like 30K on a new or used vehicle.

When I took the truck up there and some of the first words out of the adjuster's mouth was that they would probably just total the truck, I was not a happy camper. After a back-and-forth on the whole thing, they finally decided that it wasn't totaled but the cost of repairs would be $1,900-ish, minus my deductible. Then they went on to tell me that anything that got broken outside of what was considered damaged by hitting the deer would be an extra charge to me and that my front end looked really rusty and that they would probably break stuff trying to get it aligned and that wouldn't be covered and blah, blah, blah.

One minor problem. All four ball joints were replaced and adjustable alignment bushings used, the radius arm brackets were replaced, the bushings replaced, the coils replaced, the shocks replaced, etc. All in the past couple years (and most of it is still shiny new looking). To tell me that it's badly rusted and stuff will have to be fixed to align it is, well, yea... I'll take my truck back and just give me a check to cover the cost of repairs, thank you very much. I really didn't want to have to fix it myself. I have enough other things to do.

But the good news is the money will buy me new coil buckets, new front fenders, new patch panel for the bedside, and new paint among other things. Trying to work out exactly where I'll get the parts from right now, but probably in a week or so it's going to get a major overhaul bodywise (since everything else has been done already, lol). While I have the front end tore apart I'm thinking I'll do a water pump, upgrade my alternator, and I'm considering the possibility of putting a set of headers on (not sure if they're really worth it or not though).

Headers

I'm also thinking of swapping to a chrome grille and getting new light assemblies. Just not sure if I want to go with the all clear ones or get the smoke ones.

 

[Schnot]

Header*

Straight six only has one


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Header*

Straight six only has one


Sent from my iPhone.

True, although I have seen some of the headers and exhaust manifolds for them as one-piece and some as two-piece.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well... most of the parts have been ordered now. Still need to make some decisions on the last few items (like the header and what kind of headlights to go with) and get them ordered. I'll also need to pick out a paint, not sure if I should go with a single stage or two-stage. Summit has what looks like some pretty decent paints in both types.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Picked up my new coil buckets yesterday and got the call that my body panels are in and awaiting pickup but I probably will not be able to get up there to pick them up till sometime next week. Planning on a full work week next week since I'll need the F-150 for a couple days, try to knock out some extra work that I need the truck for real quick like and make a couple hundred extra in case I run into any issues while it's down. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and yank the plow mount off tomorrow in prep for tearing the rest of it apart and start emptying my toolbox out since I'll have to take the ladder rack off when I'm ready for paint.

This weekend I'm going to pick up a new water pump (not sure mine is bad but it's got over 110k on it and I hope not to have this much access to things in the front for a LONG time) and I'll probably upgrade my alternator while I'm in there since my factory one doesn't really like my plow pump.

Anyone know if it's worth putting a header on a 4.9L? Am I going to see any real gains?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, the header question has been answered. Picked up all the sheet metal today. Still need to make up my mind about headlights and what kind of paint to get. Also need to get the new bushings for the core support but I want to order the paint at the same time. Besides, I'm going to have a bit of time before I'm ready to put it all back together again, lol.