Another long term project....GFP

[blackdragon]

Hi guys, figured I might share my current long term project (GFP glutton for punishment)
My shorty is still going well but am now concentrating on my daily driver work ute. I picked up my Ford Courier 2006 PH 2WD work ute few years back, single cab with one of them beaut XL service bodies on the back. I was pretty happy with it and had already done many mods and whilst returning home from Alice Springs one weekend, the plastic tanks on the radiator let go and dumped most of the coolant, end result one buggered motor and a day long wait in the middle of summer in the middle of nowhere. Good mate rescued me later that night and we trailered the ute home.

Ive never been a huge fan of those bloody plastic radiators and by all accounts they should be replaced around the ten year period otherwise you face risk of losing a good motor which in hindsight I found out. Long story short, it was put on the back burner for couple years during which time I started sourcing the never ending list of parts to rebuild it. First purchase (it took some finding) was a proper copper/brass radiator lol. Looked at many options for the motor replacement and even picked up a PE courier XLT 4x4 dualcab from a local as a donor vehicle. Sadly the engine in that wasnt great as they had tinkered (sic) with it. But it wasnt a total loss as I scored a safari snorkle and many extras like electric windows etc which will turn the standard GL ute into XLT.

Was doing some think tanking one day as started to consider changing the original 2WD to the 4x4 chassis (donor vehicle) which I much preferred. Naturally I wanted to keep the awesome service body and single cab so needed to firstly find out if that could be achieved onto a 4x4 dual cab chassis. One thing I learned about fords they thankfully kept a lot of things unchanged and after finally tracking down the factory line drawings I discovered that yes indeed I could do the conversion as the cab mounts and body mounts were basically identical, with a few mods as expected.

First step was stripping out the dual cab 4x4 and removing the cab and body, engine, trans...everything, right back to bare chassis. At this point I made some chassis stands to support it in the workshop. Did some final checking of dimensions and confirmed it could be done. Removed the rearmost cab mounts and left the six front mounts as is, the single cab will drop on perfectly. Thankfully all other considerations were spot on also, gear shifters etc match up identically so the cab conversion side will be easy. even the electrics have no issues, it appears they basically used universal looms. I might add, doing a major project such as this is so much easier when you start off with a bare chassis, so easy to work on.

Then I did the same with the original ute, stripped it down, cab and body off and onto castor mounted stands. Carefully removed the two front pairs of body mounts as these got welded to the 4x4 chassis so as to keep it 100% factory. Whilst the 4x4 chassis is bare I will basically go right over it, new suspension bushings, heavier torsion bars, upgrade rear springs with 40mm lift, boss air bags, shockies, the works! Will add some more tomorrow which will take me up to current status and include lot of pics....catch you then!

[Nab]

Sounds like a cracker of a project, can't wait to see the pics!

[blackdragon]

As far as the engine goes I knew the head was history and was confident the bottom half should be ok. Bought a brand new head and stripped the engine down. The bottom end wasnt too bad and still had good honing marks which I expected from an engine that had 200,000 clicks. My only concern was a few minor heat marks from the rings on the bores but considering the cost I plan on going over the bottom end regardless. End of the day, set rings and bearings and it will be a pretty good engine. Once overhauled It will get new injectors, glowies and an upgraded turbo not forgetting a nice paint job. Then once its in chassis and before the cab goes back, I will be building a new custom exhaust, full on 3" dump pipe and split system culminating each side into polished stainless drop boxes under the service body, in front of the rear wheels. Should look sick and sound cool. For now the engine goes on the back burner as there is a huge list of other works that need doing first. Few pics showing the cab and body on stands, the frame i made for safely lifting them and couple of engine.

[blackdragon]

I carefully removed the rearmost dualcab cab mount and front body mount, then removed the two front pairs body mounts from the 2wd chassis and after making a jig based on the line drawings, I was able to reweld the body mounts onto the 4x4 chassis. Its now setup to accept the single cab and service body and still retain factory mounts. When I first got the ute I fitted a set of 50mm lift blocks under the service body which helped get it to a better height for access (ole back needs looking after) With the 4x4 conversion I went one huge step better. I wanted to be able to add extra mods under the body so I decided on building a subframe as a platform firstly to secure extras such as water tanks, air tanks and extra fuel tank. The frame also doubles extra support to the chassis as Im fitting Boss airbags which are a great thing but have a history of damaging chassis as they introduce a pressure point that was never allowed for in the first place. The frame was originally going to be 50mm but i figured what the heck, whats another inch, so body gets 75mm lift.

[blackdragon]

more pics

[blackdragon]

Ok getting the hang of this, picture size was too big, make em smaller
The big planned mod was my custom rear step bumper/ rear body frame/towbar/twin swing out tyre carrier and jerry can rack. Obviously a structure that will have some weight in it but as it has a multitude of purposes I had to be clever on the engineering side and build it to purpose whilst still retaining strength and staying in the lower confines of weight. Primary importance was the need to have a stable base for this to hang from so I incorporated fish plates under the rear of the subframe that ties in both the subframe and end of chassis and spread the load as good as possible, terminating at the rear spring hangers/40mm lift.

Then it was onto the rear step bumper that served the base of the rest of the rear frame/towbar etc. One of my favorite means of keeping weight down and still retain strength is drilling hole saw holes where largely unseen. You would be surprised how this lowers weight. Once its finished I will use 50mm plastic plugs to fill the holes. The whole concept of this bumper and rear frame will enable 100% concealment of all electrical wiring which creates a really neat professional job. And if you need to ask, yes it was a painfully slow job drilling those holes (ive lost count) but on serious note, its not that hard, use plenty of coolant and you breeze thru them. I think I used two holesaws which isnt too bad. For those that dont know, Im a boilermaker/motor body builder by trade and enjoy challenges like this custom work.

[blackdragon]

You should be getting the idea where this frame is going, it matches and protects the rear of the service body and is all encompassing as its a solid rear bumper (capable of hilift jacking points) twin swing out tyre carriers, towbar/recovery points (including recessed small/large trailer plugs, anderson plug, 12v acc socket and water outlet. As always, I do like my lights and there will be standard LED tail lights across the bumper plus duplicated on the top frame with high level strobing stop lights, LED reverse lights, full width slim line LED light bars at top (work lights) plus extra small red LED marker lights up both sides of the vertical posts. Provision of course for number plate in the middle. Where poss they are all recessed and protected, again, all wiring 100% concealed.

[blackdragon]

At this point I needed to mount the service body and then align it all with the stepbumper frame and get it tacked in position, dry fit so to speak. Made the drop down side plates and attached with small jigging bolts, these will eventually be 16mm HT bolts. Mounted the stepbumper frame and corrected alignment as required, tacked in position and ran few welds to maintain position. Once its all nutted out, it will be removed for full welding. Again, holesaw holes to keep weight down. Once I was happy position was secure, continued on with the spare wheel mount towers and other framework required to mount the brackets that will house the four 10 litre jerrycans. I went with 10 litre jerries as much easier to lift up and empty as well. Added benifit, if one leaks, you only lose 10 litres, not 20.

[blackdragon]

The pics give you some idea of how great those LED tail lights fit in. Also one showing the low profile plastic plugs filling the holesaw hole...neat hey.

[blackdragon]

More pics, showing the primary over centre latches for the tyre carriers which will be supplemented with secondary latches above the two tower posts, even thou the swing outs are solid enough and pivot on those awesome stub axles, you still get movement, vibrations etc, so i like to add secondary anchor to minimise that. You may have noticed the two recessed holes on the main bumper, these are again support points for the swing arms as there are coned shape urthene bumpstops that mate into the holes when the arms swing closed.

[blackdragon]

That about wraps it up for now, last pics show one of the awesome new wheels on the carrier, will be running these sweet 15x8" with 31x10.5 tyres. Also some idea of where the four 10ltr jerries will sit, brackets to hold them still getting made. As you can appreciate a build such as this is all about time and money and sadly theres never enough of both

But I will achieve what I set out to do, its coming together bit by bit. Will keep this updated, cheers

[Scooby]

Awesome job, love your work.
I am building horse shelters at the moment, good thing only horses will be looking at the welding.
How do you go with registration with the chassis change from dual cab to single cab?

[blackdragon]

Thanks mate. We're pretty fortunate here in the top end where as the vehicle has already been registered here I could simply get the new roadworthy and reregister it but as its a matter of courtesy I will run it by the inspectors so change of chassis/vin can be recorded. It doesn't involve any major changes so no need for engineering report.

[blackdragon]

Back with an update. Been busy work wise, leading up to end of year break but have been chipping away with the project. Lots of fiddly time hungry tasks but happy to see some serious progress. Briefly on the motor side, initial basic measurements show its pretty healthy as far as bearings, pistons etc and once i get confirmation with accurate numbers, I should be looking at all standard bearings and rings. Had suspected the previous owner (insert A#$@hole) hadnt been running coolant and just prior to passing off the vehicle to me most likely encounted a head gasket leak, at which he shoved something like bars plus some new coolant to make it look good...consequently with a block and head full of rust and scale it lead to the primary overheating on cylinder two/three and subsequent distruction of the radiator tanks. Thankfully I took the oil cooler off the side of the block, was not nice, fully choked up with crap. Once I get it all cleaned and derusted it should be good. Firstly I decided with the new bumper/rear frame, there was bit of a gap under the rear body along the sides and after some think tanking settled on making some side skirt extensions to tie both together. Worked out nicely as they also incorporated the new inner guards. more.jpg more 1.jpg more 3.jpg more 2.jpg

[blackdragon]

Then the next big addition was the framework/brackets to hold the four 10ltr jerrycans. Again lots holesaw holes to keep weight down (looks great too!) Then there was the mirade of last minute jobs such as enclosing a couple of cavities as small toolboxes, predrilling/threading all the attachment holes for lighting plus holes to ensure full enclosure of all wiring. Nutted out the junction box on the rear for all the wires to meet and give me a headache! Added a nice aluminium checkerplate bashplate to protect the junction box etc. and minimise buildup of debri. Included two heavy duty pipe sockets as points for high lift jack (with adaptor pin on jack) as this makes using a hilift as safe as possible. Then hours of generally cleaning and sanding and prepaint prep. Onto a tempory frame and finally got the primer on today. The top coat goes on tomorrow.Then the fun starts...Bling time! more 4.jpg more 5.jpg more 7.jpg more 6.jpg