1990 B2200 Ground Up

Thanks guys. I had planned on building another truck for the last decade and just did not get around to it. Then after a while I did not want to. But I finally got a situation where I can do it.

I have been making some drawings in CAD. I am preparing with ideas ahead of time.

Welcome back! Remember your last truck like it was yesterday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The main reason I am building this truck is I regret not finishing the Sled. I also regretted not finishing the truck I had in the late 80s. It was a 66 F-100 with a Torino frame clip static dropped long before bags.

It had a step notched rear frame long before I ever heard the term step notch. The front bumper was 2&1/4" off the ground all the time. It had a built 460/C-6 and 2:75 highway gears in the rearend. It was in primer and had the roof cut off. It also had a tilt front end. It was a long bed and we cut the bed and the frame down. I never finished it and I was going to do another one.

Then my youngest son Casey got interested in old trucks and bought a 66 F-100 all by himself. It's just like the one I had except stock. We plan to shorten the bed and build a tube frame. He wants to big block it also. So I guess I get to help build that one and make up for the one I never finished.

So basically we are doing two trucks at once. So we had to get the shop in order first. I made the steel table, the bed cart and the cab cart. The next step was to be the frame table. I got the material for that today. 3-24' sticks of 2"square tube, 1/4" wall.



My dad asked me why I made the top braces on this bed rack so high. This is why right here. Hauling thick heavy steel on a 1" square tube rack. The rack is made with 11 gauge though. But the frames of the Mazda and the 66 will be made from 2"x4" and 2"x3" so I needed the rack to be strong.

Yes it makes the shop truck lean. I plan to make the frame table at least 10 ft long. Trying to decide that tonight so I can start on it in the morning. I already have the casters (4 swivel and 2 straight) and some 1" threaded rod and some 1" nuts. I plan to make jacks on all 4 corners to level it. I will take pics as I go tomorrow.

I also got an overhead electric winch with remote control and a trolley to run it along a beam. Not sure if I want to make an A frame for it or just incorporate it into the shop outside. I will decide that over the weekend after I take some measurements. We sure could have used that thing a couple weeks ago when we pulled the cab off the 66.

I also have to finish about 40 feet of wood fence I started a while back. I put in the last post last weekend. I told myself not to put off the fence and finish it before starting on the frame table. I have everything to finish the fence except a pair of hinges and a latch for the gate. I make about 4 or 5 trips a week to Home Depot for supplies for my business so I will get that stuff asap.

More to come tomorrow evening.

Why only 10' long for the frame table? Shouldn't the table be almost twice that?
I ask stupid questions I know.

It should be 10' at the shortest. I may go 12' but I do not have a lot of room. Although this table can and probably will double as a table for my furniture business. I could use it when I am clear coating table or rack pieces.

Most frame tables are about 10' to 12' long. You don't need the table to be as long as the vehicle your building. Only as long as the center section is plenty. Now I could add some bolt on extensions. I used to have a frame table that we were making 2' extensions for. That would be good for doing most of the work I plan on doing.

Generally speaking when building a chassis one already has at least a basic design in mind, in a sketch or has a drawing already done. I generally will have ideas going over and over in my head long before I make a sketch or drawing.

I have a program called Solidworks DWG editor on my Home PC, another PC I don't use and an old laptop. It's a great program for drawing out pieces you need cut on a CNC table. You can also make technical drawings with dimensions and output them as a PDF file. You can also make them into a picture.

On this project I have not decided on what front suspension to use on this truck yet and probably won't until I get a look at the suspension on the Sportage. I will see what the geometry is like first then decide. I will not be using the frame clip of either one but more the dimensions and locations of the control arm mounts, steering box/rack mount and the drag link mounts. This will be so that I have no steering issues when completed.

Generally speaking when designing a chassis for a truck you already have this in mind and use the width of the front of the chassis as a guide then the middle of the chassis is more based on the locations of the factory cab mounts and the rear is based on the factory bed mount locations. I will not have to use these guidelines as I will not have any cab mounts or bed mounts. This will be a rigid chassis like under a race car or truck with a roll cage integrated into the chassis. I will not have roll bars above the cabin but at least integrated into the sides.

I will decide on what front suspension to copy before building the frame of my truck. My son's truck will use factory cab mount locations and bed mount locations so we will be building his chassis to the width of the factory Ford chassis. as of right now we plan to use Crown Vic front suspension in the front. From what I understand it is the same width as the factory Ford frame on the 66. That is yet to be verified by me but I did see it on an episode of Fast n Loud. I do not watch the show but heard they did one like that so I watched that episode.

So as of this morning I still have not decided on the width of the frame table. I think it should be at least as wide as the standard truck chassis of 34" even though a pickup has a wider chassis. Runners and outriggers can be added as necessary to help with whatever you are building.

Many times people confuse a frame table with a chassis table. There is a difference at least as far as what I have seen. A chassis table is generally a flat piece of steel with legs and casters where you can build anything. A frame table is basically for building just frames. In my case the frame table will be built just to make these two frames and then used for other uses as we see fit. It may get used to build more chassis later on though. This is the reason we chose to use 2" square tube with a 1/4" wall. So that the table can be used for other purposes.

Building the table with square tube instead of a steel sheet costs much less and is also much much lighter and easier to move. These are a plus in our small space. At least until we have our shop build out back. Our house is on 2.25 acres so we have about 220 feet of length in our backyard and about half that in width. We also have a 200 ft zipline in the backyard lol.

This morning I will be measuring the factory Mazda frame and the Ford frame and doing some thinking over some coffee deciding what width to make the frame table. Once that is decided I will start cutting the pieces.

The frame/chassis table in these pics I made when I worked for a company that built custom vehicles. We had been asked by the International Truck plant to stretch a 4 door cab to seat 9 people. These were prototypes for the Canadian army. We were to use nothing but available International truck parts and build a prototype that they could assemble on their existing Garland assembly plant.







This table was made from two pieces of stock class 8 truck frames. We made legs with screw jacks to level it then added a track along the top using the same rollers you would find on a heavy rolling gate. Then we made trolleys for both 4 door cabs. We then cut the front out of one and the back out of the other.







Then we were able to roll the pieces together and apart to get all around the cabs.





We could lock them down in place. We knew the table may be used in a production environment to build lots of these. The truck plant in Garland also built the Maxxpro MRAP trucks that saved many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were instrumental in the ramp up of some of the parts for these trucks. For example we were given 30 days to come up with a solution to a standard truck hood that could be fitted to the Maxxpro. We did it in 10 days and this along with other things allowed Navistar Defense to get the production up a month ahead of schedule and get trucks to soldiers that many days ahead. This 100% for sure saved lives.

I will have more on this sometime today.

Ok, just measured the Mazda frame and the F-100 frame. The Mazda is about 42.5" somewhere in there at the back. I know the front is narrower. The F-100 is 34" which as I said above is the standard truck frame width. Like say on class 8 heavy road trucks (18 wheelers)

So I think I will go with 34" wide. I will probably add some extensions at certain points down the length. These will stick out probably 6" on each side. I will also make front and back extension pieces if I need to. But the footprint of the table will be 34" wide. Now to decide on length. The square tube comes in 24' lengths so 12' seems like a good length but I still need to see if that works with the space we have.

Plus I need to see if either of these trucks will have a section of the frame that is that long in the middle. As long as we can make the longest sections of the frame on the table what hangs over does not matter much. Extensions at the front or back or moving the frame forward or backward on the table will solve that. More to come.

Ok, sorry for all the multiple posts and rambling on. Maybe some of this thinking in text helps someone else at one time or another.

It looks like 10' is the magic number. Even the longest section of frame on the F-100 is only 7' so it looks like we don not need anything more than 10' except every now and then. The extensions will provide that length when needed. but 10' is almost too long for the area we have available right now so it's settled. 10' long and 34" wide and 36" high will work best.

Now to draw it in CAD so I can make a cut list of the pieces. More to come.

Ok, I drew this in CAD. This is 10' long and 36" high. The corner posts go down to 2" from the ground so I can add the jacks there. The jacks will be made with 1" threaded rod. There will be some diagonal pieces made from 1" square with an 11 gauge wall.



I will take pics as I build this today. I have a regular workday's workload to do also so it will probably take all day and maybe into tomorrow to get this thing done. And by done I mean looking like a table. I doubt I will get the jacks and everything on it today. Certainly not any extensions made or anything like that. More to come.

ok, What you say makes perfect sense now. I have never actually built one.

Ok, spent some of my Saturday building this frame table. As I may have said before it's 2" square tube with a 1/4" wall. We started by making the cut list from the drawing above. If I do not make a cut list I will screw it up every time. So I get it all cut and check it all for length.



I then layed it out made sure I had everything right.



Then I clamped two pieces down on the flat steel table, checked it for square and started welding.





So I get one side built and it looks like this.



I get the other side made the same and then stand both pieces on the table and clamp them down. I added cross pieces and clamp them down. It was then that my buddy Mike says "is it square?" so I cross measure and it's dead on.



No that's not trash to the left it's wood shavings from the planer in the wood shop. Hoping we don't have to get the water hose out or worse use a fire extinguisher. Them things are expensive to re charge.



I get all the cross braces in and start laying out the casters. These are 5" diameter foot locking 330lb casters. I like them because the locks can be done with your foot. Old F ers like me don't have to bend down to do them. The casters are swivel at both ends of the table and straight in the middle.



So then we turn it over and finish the top welds. And it is flat and straight.





Next step is to add some screw levelers. I have some 1" threaded rod and some nuts but no plates to mount them off of. Looks like a project for next weekend. The adjusters will mount to these legs where they go down next to the casters.



So I think I will add two more cross pieces along the top. As we start to build frames on here I am sure we will add some places to hang clamps and flanges for whatever. But the basic table is done.

$250 worth of steel and another $100 in casters so far. Not bad if we have it for years. We ended up making it 34" wide and 36" high.

Next weekend or the one after that we start on one of the frames. More to come.