The F Bucket (Ford F100 hotrod)

[puddingwrestler]

Now that the donor kit for this crazy idea has arrived, I'll be muttering about it over here.
First, some muttering about the kit.

It's the 2002 issue of the AMT Flipnose Ford F100, and comes with some fairly useful bits of kit. There are no optional parts, but the parts which are there build a custom, not stock, version.
The engine comes with a nice supercharger with MR Gasket intake hood thingee and Weland heads. The exhausts are of the side pipe sort, which will save me from scratch building side pipes. Some of the suspension parts are chromed, there's a chrome gear shift, and the wheels are rather nice wire spoke types. The front tyres seem to be of a slighlty lower profile than the rears, and the rears are about twice as fat. Nice. The interio is dissapointnig. It is of the old fashioned tub type, and a fairly poor example at that. I'll be slicing the sides off and doing my own upholstry. Seats are buckets, and I'm not sure I want that. I was going for a more old school look, so I think I'll be looking through my stash for a bench seat that fits.
Now to mutter about my plans.
The stock chassis will need heavy modification to fit my plans, or possibly replacement with a scratch built version. I need to move the axel and suspension mounts upwards to allow the body to get closer to the ground. I'll porbably channel the body as well (move it down over the chassis rails). I fully intend to move the body backwards on the chassis to give a longer nosed look; the F100 is a bit stumpy. I also want to convert it to a roadster by lopping the roof off. This will make the interio modifications all the more important because they will be all the more visible.
This is the rough disposition of the components. The hood and front fenders will of course be removed, leaving just the grille shell at the front.


Geezerman over on the Model Cars Magazine Forum is working on an F1 at the moment, which has the sort of stance I am going for. His chassis is scratch built, and I'd rather just modify the existing unit at the moment while I gain confidence in chassis work, so mine will porbably not be as extreme as his.

Anyways, this should be interesting. And messy. And messily interesting.

[puddingwrestler]

I have the chassis modified; both the front and rear chassis portions infront of and behind the cab have been moved upwards, which means the cab rides closer to the ground. The grille shell has been cut away from the flipnose front assembly and in in the porcess of being puttied to within an inch of it's life. I've also removed the roof from the cab and I'm considering chopping the windshield. The crappy interior has to go, and I think I've found a bench seat which will fit. Before I decide to fit it I need to work out how the drive shaft will run; I might need to make the tunnel through the cab bigger.
There's not much to see which makes sense just yet, but there will porbably be something later today.

[arkon]

so ,let me get this straight, your gonna channel it (body drop to you new car types),section it, z the frame AND  lower the under suspension.AND  make it a coupe? ................your gonna be on the pavement,...............kick a$$

[puddingwrestler]

Not coupe, it's already a pickup. I'm turning it into a roadster. And it's not quite as low as it sounds as the original ride hieght was very high for cross country ability I guess. It's low, but driveably low.
Also no sectioning. Can't be bothered.

[puddingwrestler]

Got more done on the F Bucket betwixt completing the cadvette...
I've sectioned the grille shell. Originally I intended the make it lower to fit around a 64 Mecury marauder grille, but I sorta went to far... The Merc grille would need to be narrowed to fit anyway, so I'm going to use the bottom half of a 51 Chevy grille instead. I've roadsterised the cab, and got the basics of the engine built, along with chassis mods. Here's a rough idesa of how it'll look:

[puddingwrestler]

I had a nother flash of inspiraItion with the result that the whole back end of the F Bucket now looks totally different. I'd originally intended open wheels all round, anmd either a shortened bed or exposed fuel tank in the back. Now I'll be using the read fenders moved to butt up against the back of the cab and upwards to accomodate the changes to the suspension alongside a shortened bed. This will mean a more custom than hotrod look. Which will be exagerated by my other plan - total removal of the stock windshield and replacement witha  frameless, very low and sleek roadster unit.

[beowulf]

im liking how this is going together