Joe's Ford

To see some close up technical pics of the new airbag suspension go here

My father bought the truck new in 1977. I was there and I was standing in the seat right next to him when he drove it off the lot. The truck was stock with a 4.9 liter 6 cylinder, although the engine was still running he changed it out at the 275,000 mile mark. One of the things that he done to it was the addition of a small font lift to offset the weight of a hefty new bumper and Warn 8274 winch. He ran 33" tires on it. I learned to drive in this truck at about 9 years old I was shifting (barely), of course I was able to do the steering much sooner than that.

When he passed the truck on to me I ran it for quite a while the way it was mainly cause I was just starting in life and I just wanted to go places. I did have major plans for it while I was in high school (thank god I didn't have the money to do what I wanted to do cause I would have ruined it!). Kids.

I finally go an awesome job and the modifications began. One of the first things that I built was the rear suspension that is still on it today. Then I put in a small block 351W V 8 in place of the little Inline 6. I changed out the gears and I installed ARB lockers in both ends. The front was the hardest to do because I had to drive the truck daily so I pulled the axles and stuffed the tubes with rags and did some work on it every evening and after 4 evenings it was ready. This was the first gear swap I had ever done and I guess I did it right cause I've had no problems with as of yet (2 yrs). After the rear ARB I went to work on the front suspension and took the 5-link design that was being used by dodge and built the brackets and bought the arms and ordered a custom set of coil springs and was surprised to find that it flexes quite well.

I do have further plans which may include airbags for suspension, 60's Fr and Rr, 40" tires, rear winch, ford ranger body, full exo cage, 203/205 doubler T-case, bobbed Fr and Rr ends, and make it lighter, with those mods maybe it'll be ready for the trail (ha-ha). It'll hold its own as it is now, but as you may already know, the Just Empty Every Pocket isn't always a jeep thing.

I didn't mess with any of the stuff written up top but I've done most of the stuff I mentioned. I have on order a Dynatrac Pro-Rock 60 front end. I'm changing the gears to 4:88 as well. I've put an air suspension on it and a 14 Bolt GM rear that is converted to disk brakes, 5 on 5 1/2 wheel bolt pattern and is loaded with a Detroit locker. I went bigger than the 40" tires I mentioned with a set of 44" Swampers. Here are some new pics. A few of them are during testing with the small tires on.

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