My old dump run truck filled in on the show circuit for one full season and part of another while I was tearing the Hulk to bits, winning a number of trophies including “Best of Show” at a Mustang show! It really is a beautiful beast and draws lots of stares and comments wherever it goes, but me being me, I just had to kick it up another notch as that truck is one of my “keepers”.
So, what do you do with a show-winning truck to make it even better? Even that comes in stages as the thought process evolves, so to start with I was just going to pull the 390, reseal all the drippy bits, doll it up with some chrome valve covers, add Petronix electronic ignition, new plug wires, rebuild the carb and back it up with a NV4500 5-speed, plus upgrade the sound system from the current non-working factory AM radio. Make it a bit more pretty under the hood and upgrade a few items like the tranny was about all I had in mind, so I got the goodies to do that and… of course my mind got to going around in circles thinking about all sorts of “what if” scenarios, since the engine was going to be out, anyway… A dangerous game, but par for the course for me, so I went out to the shop one day, crawled around under it a bit and decided that this truck simply had bigger and better things in its future.
Even though the 390 ran like a top, always started and had never once failed me, I’d been thinking about a 12V Cummins swap for years. One day an ad popped up for a 12V with rebuilt NV5600 transmission that was being pulled from a Cummins-swapped highboy, so I couldn’t pass that up – and it was already painted Ford Blue with white accents, just perfect for my truck.
So of course with all the weight of a Cummins, the next step would be upgrading to a Dana 60 high pinion front axle. No doubt the replacement Dana 44 I’d rebuilt and installed in Phase I would have worked, given the little bit I drive the truck, but hey, “while I’m at it”… Now then, the direct bolt-in version of this axle was only offered as an option from 1977.5-1979 as a “Snowfighter” option for use with a plow, and is rare as hens teeth and doesn’t come cheap. Oddly enough, one popped up just across the border in BC and the guy also had a D60 rear axle, both of which had been rebuilt, installed in a Bronco which promptly was totalled by a moose, after which they were yanked and sat for years. Within the course of a couple of weeks I’d scored on both the Cummins and a set of rebuilt axles, so obviously these upgrades were all part of the truck’s destiny.
But, since I can’t leave anything alone and I had the boys at High Performance Customs cheering me on with new and innovative ways to throw money at the project, some more upgrades were due – conversion brackets for newer Super Duty front springs, upgraded power steering box, crossover high steer kit, disc brake conversion kit for the rear axle, and of course better replace those 60 year-old brake lines and oh, how about a new master cylinder and proportioning valve while we’re at it?
When I was crawling around under the truck, I noticed the wiring was kinda shoddy, and since I’d already put LED tail lights in and was upgrading to LED headlights and the new stereo system, best replace all the old wiring, especially since I’d be putting in Dakota Digital gauges and a Vintage Air package. Oh, and power windows. And since the doors would be apart anyway for installing the new regulators and motors, better swap out the door glass, and why not the rear glass and windshield. Oh, and some nice, shiny NOS stainless trim for around the windshield? And while we’re at it, since we’ll be installing a fully new wiring harness from American Autowire, why not make this a tow rig with a frame-mounted hitch, trailer brake controller and wiring? Yea, that’s the ticket.
We certainly don’t want to leave the interior as the only untouched part of the truck – now in Phase I I’d had the seat and headliner redone, plus new paint and steering wheel repair, but since I’m in full overkill mode now, how about some factory style bucket seats (Ranger package used Mustang buckets in 65/66), adapter brackets, remove the in-cab gas tank (more on that later), some custom door and headliner panels in bead-rolled aluminum from MisFit Fab in Kentucky, new carpet and a TMI dash pad – and of course the full Dakota Digital gauge package, Vintage Air controls, digital stereo with a few more speakers, some sort of console cuz a guy’s gotta have cup holders, and… well, that’s still a work in progress.
Getting back to the gas tank, we reckoned it would be a lot easier to do all the required work without fighting with the cab and bed in the way, so those were yanked, only to find some more hidden rust on the core support, cab mount area and under the bed. Guess we should have yanked it further apart in Phase I, but there ya go. All new mounts, new core support, etc., patch the fill hole in the cab, move to a in-frame rear-mount gas tank and modern fill hatch further back in the bed, and that frame… just not gonna cut it with the diesel’s torque, so box in the frame from front to rear, reinforce some cross members, new tranny support for the NV5600 and the list goes on and on.
And did I mention torque from the Cummins? It’s just a 1997 12V, how much torque can it possibly have? Well, with an upgraded P-pump, hotrod lift pump, upgraded injectors and valve springs, and of course compound turbos, stainless piping, a bunch of billet bling, serpentine belt assembly, 4” down pipe split to 2*3” dual exhaust, and and and… so gunning for 500 HP and a LOT of torque – you know, for that time or two I decide to pull something with it. Or drag race. Or do tractor pulls or go mud bogging….
I’m sure I left a detail or two out, but I’ll be doing blog updates as this project rolls along.
