Changing your mind mid build?

[berserk]

I'm curious how others who spend a lot of time, money and work on there build deal with this?

I have spent a year working on my truck and a lot of money and now that it is together I realize I want to change the set up some. No problem right, well I would have to re buy several expensive parts(2-3000$ possibly). Then hope I can sell my new parts I don't have but 100 miles on and likely take a $ loss.

If this something you guys have experienced I would like to hear what route you ended up taking. Did you just keep the setup you don't love, or did you change it up and resell/hoard the parts for later?

[VileZambonie]

Can you tell us specifically what you did and are looking to change? And YES my 74 I went custom build on it, roll pan, shaved tailgate, caddy taillights, slammed to the ground and if there was an undo button in life, I pressed it on that truck. Is it a ton more time and money, yes but I love the truck and it's worth it to me.

[JohnnyPopper]

VZ-Before and after pics please?

[berserk]

Can you tell us specifically what you did and are looking to change? And YES my 74 I went custom build on it, roll pan, shaved tailgate, caddy taillights, slammed to the ground and if there was an undo button in life, I pressed it on that truck. Is it a ton more time and money, yes but I love the truck and it's worth it to me.

I REALLY wanted a single cab dually K30, when I began this process. But I found in the Oklahoma area they are very rare. A lot in Texas but I didn't have a tow rig or trailer plus the truck purchase would have bit into my budget.

I have a K10 I put together 5+ years ago and been in the family since 93 and it has a solid engine and trans. So I decided to Dually swap it In the rear a D60 the front.

But I could NOT find a Dana 70 for the rear and happened upon a very good deal on a single wheel 14 bolt.  So I decided to run that in the rear and D60 the front. The truck is great but I can not stop thinking about the dually set up I originally wanted.

 I actually found a parts truck 40 miles away with a Dana 70 and it's everything I can do not to buy it for the rear and spend another 1500 + on the diff and full rebuild. Rebuild the dually front hubs and buy steelies and new tires.

If I do that not only is there the extra cost but brand new 33" tires, new USA steel wheels and new Dana 60 single wheel hubs just laying around or being sold for a loss more than likely .
Either way I'm very pleased with the truck,  but I feel like this is why we always have yards full of trucks and five or six projects at once. And I JUST got ride of two Old work trucks I had to cut down on the hoard just sitting in the yard. 🙄

[Mike81K10]

Personally I am rebuilding my truck because I like it and I have owned my 81 K10 since 1986. I originally bought it to pull a boat and hunt in Colorado. It has been all over the U.S.A. with me and my daughter went 4 wheeling up a mountain with me as a baby in Colorado. Just many memories! Some times you spend money you know you will not get back if you like your truck enough.

Then again a new truck cost between 50K and 70K. So the money I have spent is putting my truck in good condition and it will probably last longer than a new one would and it will be more dependable because new vehicles break down more often and are much harder to work on.

Guess, the bottom line is, they money is a sunken cost you don't get back and if you have spare parts that you don't need, sell them for what you can get. Then enjoy your truck and fix it up the way you want it. My time is short and you cannot take it with you when you go. Perhaps a family member will enjoy it one day and remember you with a smile on their face.

[jeremy.farlow]

Why bother trying to find a Dana 70 when Dana 80's are plentiful??? They're underneath pretty much every 1-ton Dodge and Ford made since 1990.

Spring perches and shock mounts will be different, but 1-ton Ford trucks are plentiful every place I've surveyed.

Find a 1-ton OBS Ford.

The 8-lug bolt pattern was all the same until Ford changed stuff... as Ford will. Even a modern 1-ton Dodge will have the 80 with the same bolt pattern as the squarebody.

Fenders would be way harder to find... except the community already came up with that one.

Obviously you'll need an additional pair of wheels and tires. They'll cost. But I don't see $3k to stick a DRW under any squarebody K30.

[berserk]

Why bother trying to find a Dana 70 when Dana 80's are plentiful??? They're underneath pretty much every 1-ton Dodge and Ford made since 1990.

Spring perches and shock mounts will be different, but 1-ton Ford trucks are plentiful every place I've surveyed.

Find a 1-ton OBS Ford.

The 8-lug bolt pattern was all the same until Ford changed stuff... as Ford will. Even a modern 1-ton Dodge will have the 80 with the same bolt pattern as the squarebody.

Fenders would be way harder to find... except the community already came up with that one.

Obviously you'll need an additional pair of wheels and tires. They'll cost. But I don't see $3k to stick a DRW under any squarebody K30.

So the 3000$ mark is because I rebuilt my 14 bolt completely, Detroit tru trac, AAM gears to match the 60 and had a shop set up the gear mesh. 6 brand new tires, and 7 wheels(one for a spare).

The 80 I actually had no idea and assumed it was a different bolt pattern. As well, they often go for 1000+ in area. At the time I got the 14 bolt ff for 280$. But that is a great option and I'll start keeping an eye out.

[berserk]

Personally I am rebuilding my truck because I like it and I have owned my 81 K10 since 1986. I originally bought it to pull a boat and hunt in Colorado. It has been all over the U.S.A. with me and my daughter went 4 wheeling up a mountain with me as a baby in Colorado. Just many memories! Some times you spend money you know you will not get back if you like your truck enough.

Then again a new truck cost between 50K and 70K. So the money I have spent is putting my truck in good condition and it will probably last longer than a new one would and it will be more dependable because new vehicles break down more often and are much harder to work on.

Guess, the bottom line is, they money is a sunken cost you don't get back and if you have spare parts that you don't need, sell them for what you can get. Then enjoy your truck and fix it up the way you want it. My time is short and you cannot take it with you when you go. Perhaps a family member will enjoy it one day and remember you with a smile on their face.

I have the same perspective as you. Its only that basically ALL my spare cash has gone to the truck this last year plus a truck fund I had saved for around 16,000 at this point. The only thing keeping me from continuing is other goals I could use the money for.

And then I feel like I'm wasting money when I have to sell essentially new parts for a loss when the truck looks and functions great already. But.....isn't exactly as I want it.

I'm going to have to think on it some more , I appreciate your feedback. I don't have any local car guys to talk to other than my dad and he hasn't had a cool car since 1969

[jeremy.farlow]

$1k sounds crazy high to me... seeing how relatively plentiful those axles are. My local truck junkyard was gonna sell me two late-model Dana 60's for an OBS-Ford project. Granted I would have had to do a fair amount of work to stick them under a truck from two generations prior. What killed that project was the swap Ford made in lug-pattern. I didn't want to have to run late-model, BIG wheels.

Another option might be something like the Sterling axle out of a medium-duty Ford Econoline. I built another OBS Ford into a flatbed for my girlfriend a few years back. The truck was originally a 2WD dually, but someone had swapped the SRW Dana 60 I have spare into it.

In any event the Sterling axle pulled from a 2000-something E-450 ambulance practically jumped into place. The only modification I had to make was the spring perches. Shock mounts were in the same place.

Rear axles (and maybe seats) are the only Ford items I would ever advocate swapping into a GM product. Even more so with recent memory of servicing brakes and wheel bearings on a GM corporate floater vs. the Ford/Dana 60 floater. Yeah... they're similar... but you can service the Dana brakes without completely disassembling the hub. The GM axle has the brake drums mounted to the INSIDE of the unit-hub, so axles have to be removed, then the hubs, to FINALLY get the brake drum off. It's a lot more work.

Back to the Sterling axle, it's my opinion that anything with a 6.0L Powerstroke... or a 6.4L is likely to be almost free. Those engines were hot garbage, most of them are broken and they're just taking up space. And there are plenty of non-diesel, 1-ton OBS Fords with tired Ford small blocks going for practically free. At least in the southeast.

Here's the flatbed with the Sterling rear:







Be Safe




Jeremy

[berserk]

$1k sounds crazy high to me... seeing how relatively plentiful those axles are. My local truck junkyard was gonna sell me two late-model Dana 60's for an OBS-Ford project. Granted I would have had to do a fair amount of work to stick them under a truck from two generations prior. What killed that project was the swap Ford made in lug-pattern. I didn't want to have to run late-model, BIG wheels.

Another option might be something like the Sterling axle out of a medium-duty Ford Econoline. I built another OBS Ford into a flatbed for my girlfriend a few years back. The truck was originally a 2WD dually, but someone had swapped the SRW Dana 60 I have spare into it.

In any event the Sterling axle pulled from a 2000-something E-450 ambulance practically jumped into place. The only modification I had to make was the spring perches. Shock mounts were in the same place.

Rear axles (and maybe seats) are the only Ford items I would ever advocate swapping into a GM product. Even more so with recent memory of servicing brakes and wheel bearings on a GM corporate floater vs. the Ford/Dana 60 floater. Yeah... they're similar... but you can service the Dana brakes without completely disassembling the hub. The GM axle has the brake drums mounted to the INSIDE of the unit-hub, so axles have to be removed, then the hubs, to FINALLY get the brake drum off. It's a lot more work.

Back to the Sterling axle, it's my opinion that anything with a 6.0L Powerstroke... or a 6.4L is likely to be almost free. Those engines were hot garbage, most of them are broken and they're just taking up space. And there are plenty of non-diesel, 1-ton OBS Fords with tired Ford small blocks going for practically free. At least in the southeast.

Here's the flatbed with the Sterling rear:







Be Safe




Jeremy

Hey, love that Ford, but why is the bed built that way though? Not sure I have seen a flat bed with the tires exposed like that.

We actually have a parts truck with a Sterling but when I measured, it was to narrow to fit under my K10. I'll keep an eye out for a Dana 80, although I drove my truck for a few days last week and I'm liking the single wheel more and more.

[jeremy.farlow]

The flatbed Ford is my missus horsey-hauler. Pretty much all of that trucks work gets done with a trailer hitched up. So the design was to facilitate that. Because the bed rails sit almost flush with the tops of the tires you can reach everything necessary to hitch up from one side or the other, no bed to climb into and the side rails are close enough it isn't a stretch.

Also style-points. Always style points. That truck has a bit of a following in her horsing community.

That's interesting that the Sterling you looked at is too narrow. Whatever year Sterling is under the flatbed is four inches WIDER than the comparable Dana. Which wound up looking really good with no fenders to reference it to. I call that Ford the "mini-Freightliner". Without the trailer hitched up it's got proportions that look semi-truck-ish. You see a lot of axle, a lot of lights and only a little bit of body.

For a driver... a driver without a specific job, like towing a trailer, I don't think I would take on the extra work to do a dually-swap. The dually doesn't turn as well as a SRW, it's harder to park, there's a penalty to your fuel economy, etc.

[fitz]

Have you thought about using a cab & chassis 14 bolt and tucking the dual rear wheels under a fleetside bed?

[zieg85]

Have you thought about using a cab & chassis 14 bolt and tucking the dual rear wheels under a fleetside bed?

I like your thinking