I understand removing the hood, but why the fenders and headlight/grille assembly with bumper? Avoid damage?

I've only seen engine swaps done so, that type of thing is uncharted territory, lol.

 

I want to keep the chassis sitting at its current height so I can slide the axles underneath to take measurements for getting them shortened.

My crane will not go high enough to clear the core support.

Also, I'm shaving the firewall and tubbing the inner fenders, like you see on lowriders.

 

Ah, I see. Makes sense.

 

Before I did the coilovers and brought mine down some it had about an inch of clearance with a 7 foot door so yeah I can see the concern with that. I was worried about that when I first did mine.

 

subbed

 

I'm overdue for an update. Progress slowed on the truck while the wife and I tackled other projects, plus I bought an 88 Ranger 2wd that will be my beater daily, so I've been working on getting running.


Anywho, the powertrain is out, motor is sold, and I can finally get to the fun stuff.

First step will be making final measurements on my axle width. I believe I've found a shop that will be able to cut them down, but the final bit of research is what length axle shafts exist so I could avoid getting custom ones made.

Once the axles are cut down and welded I will start designing my front and rear truss. We can cut and bend .25" steel where I work, and I can model the truss up in my free time. I don't have any CAD at home, but at work we use SolidEdge.

Once the axle is cut, welded, trussed, then I can mock it up for link and bag plate mounts.

That should take me through the remainder of the summer, which will give my the fall and winter to work on the motor. I'm going to mock it up with stock motor mounts, but I'll have to take measurements on how it needs to change so I can avoid the body lift route.

Here are the most recent pics of the truck, and a shot my 88 when I brought it home.

 

any updates? any plans on modding the 88