Sheetmetal / Body Parts Interchange Checklist

[rjewkes]

Great idea Keith. You are great man.

[4x4x4crewcab]

Core supports for trucks originally equipped with a 6-cylinder engine have a smaller radiator opening vs. the V8 trucks. A 6-cylinder core support can be modified to fit a V8 radiator.

My on the radiator saddle info
The parts book reads
67-72 F100/250 4x2 w/o super cooling ==C7TZ.16138.A
or
67-72 F100/250 4x4, or all F350 the same as
67-72 F100/250 4x2 with super cooling== C7TZ.16138.B
it doesn't mention 6cyl or 8cyl. Hope this helps?
P.S. ---Great addition Keith

[mk]

Keith, the fenders from 67-9 and 70-72 would be different on the front edge. The early grills had three bolts on each side due to the extra height resulting from the parklight housing being incorporated into the grill. The upper two holes work when bolting a 70-2 grill on the older fenders. Also, there is a mention of the F100 flareside boxes being the same from 57-79. Actually, the run was from 53-72. The F100 boxes from 73-79 were wider, following the increase in frame rail width. And I'm not even positive a flareside shortbox was offered in 73-4. Anybody else know? The eight and nine foot boxes are wider as the heavier trucks had wider frames, therefore the tailgates from these are too wide for the F100 boxes.

mike

[68F250]

Hi mike! How ya doing?

I don't see a listing for shortbed flairsides from '73-'76, all 8 footers. '77 and up have both 6 1/2 and 8 foot flairsides.

[FORDification]

Actually, the 6½-foot boxes were introduced in '76, according to the Standard Catalog of Light-Duty Ford Trucks. An interesting sidenote, it also mentions that earlier boxes had 40% flareboards, and later in the model year that changed to 90% flareboards. Also, according to this source, there were 8-ft flareside boxes available for all '73-'79 trucks.

I guess I'd never really given much though to using '73-up boxes on our trucks, so I'm not really that knowledgeable about them. Just so I have everything understood and listed on the page correctly, '73-up boxes ARE a little bit longer, correct? This would preclude them from being easily used on our trucks. Not only would the 2WD boxes have to be modifed to fit our narrower frame (the 4WD boxes up through '77½ should have the same mounting points due to similar frame widths), but the additional length would mean that the rear wheels would sit farther forward in the wheelwell, right?

Thanks for the update on the flareside box useage, Mike. I'll add that to the page. Also, I believe I have a '70 fender at the shop, I'll have to take some comparison pictures of the leading edge comparing them to the '67 fenders I have. Until then, do I understand it correctly that an additional hole will need to be drilled on that leading edge for the grille assembly?

[trukcrazy]

Great project Keith. It will be a nice addition to the site.

[mk]

Hey Barry, not doing bad. Keith, a few years ago I measured up a 67-72 truck and a 73-9 truck to see where they differed. I was going to use the measurements to convert a 77 AMT Ford truck kit to a pre 72. Still trying to get around to it I discovered that where Ford added the two inches to the 73 wheelbase was behind the doors in the cab itself. The boxes are the same length as the 67-72's but the frame width may have an effect on the mounting bolts. I had a 68 Merc shortbox flareside a while back and always thought the original box made the rear look kind of pinched. If a guy was to use the 73 up rear axle and the newer box, I think it would look better. I still like the 40 degree flare top better than the newer flat top though. As for the grill/fender thing, I went out to look at a 71 grill and 67 fender I have sitting around and discovered the 70 up grills have three bolts on each side too but obviously the bottom bolt is higher up on the newer grills.

mike

[mebruce]

It says that 73-79 inner fenderwells are interchangable with tweaking. It might be a good idea to post a tutorial on that because I'm sure a lot of guys out there will be interested. Including me, but I'll post my question directly in the body/paint area. Thanks, Keith.....this is a great site!