Build on a budget R120


The place to put your L, R and S "Build Off" story.

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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:40 am

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Post Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:46 am

Re: Build on a budget R120

pkfj
There is some discussion on seats here- viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10085&p=76558&hilit=van+seat#p76558 Many of the newer seats with built-in seat belts are thick. That may put you closer to the steering wheel than you want to be. Since you're going with power steering and a different column, you'll probably have a smaller wheel, though. You didn't say whether you were looking for buckets or a bench.

Dean
Lifelong Kansan
Grew up with red paint
Moved off the farm 33 years ago.

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Pile of Parts

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Post Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:51 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

Been a while since I've posted as I'm still doing my daily grind then out to the shop for the rest of the night. If all goes to plan I'll be cruzing down to Iola carshow and swap meet in her this year! We've got most of the major mods figured out but as I go more questions arise. The old girl is turning into a "Franken-Binder" but it's all coming together. We cut 2'' out of the center firewall and extended floorboards to be able to fit my classic "POWERED BY FORD" valve covers I had to have, The 8 is buried pretty far down and back to get the shift tower behind the cab support (the Ford bell-housing is about 4'' shorter than IH)... like the crank pulley is almost in line with the front axle lol. I got an electric fan off a friends wrecked 01 Impala. I ground 4 small slits into original fan shroud and tacked a couple supports to the side holding the 2 together. It fit perfectly! With paint you can bairly tell it didn't come that way lol. I used a clutch/break pedal cluster from a 68 Bronco my friend had for parts, with the break booster, master, and clutch master from a 90 Silverado with the Ford style external slave on the side of the bell-housing. I used Binder rear springs with spring perches carefully relocated on my 9'' to line up then got some new U bolts bent to match the original square over spring style so I could put shocks back on hassle free. For now I have the rear seat from an 80 Bronco that’s only a couple inches narrower then the IH bench. It has lap belts built in AND it folds down and flips up for easy storage solutions. As for the front axle... My dilemma continues. I dug through some parts piles of friends and here's what I found... Ranger hubs are a bit too small, Tried a late 40's Ford truck hub... way too small, what I DID find that actually fit was *drumroll please* the REAR hubs from a late 60's Olds Toronato of all things!!! Both IH bearings fit squarely into the races and the length is spot on! This however leaves me with 2 problems. First it's the wrong bolt spread for me (very common GM 5x5 but not my Ford 5x5.5 to match the rear. The second is that hub is **** near a 100% positive offset which cam be compensated for with the right selection of rims but I don't think it will look very good with 10'' dished rims in the rear. I still want to try an F-150 hub yet but am hesitant to buy one for $50 "just to see" A couple local parts stores have them in stock so I COULD just measure in store but with the Rona going strong they're all on lockdown here yet. That's all I can think of for the build, I have questions about how to use the origonal gauge cluster too yet. Will the oil pressure gauge handle the difference from the old SD to a lightly tuned 302? Water temp work with a swap? If I'm thinking correctly it shouldn’t affect amp gauge as it only measures draw with no concern for voltage, but I absolutely could be wrong, and then the fuel gauge. I don't have a good tank and I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of fabbing a new one to fit where the factory one did when I can weld up a simple box to fit between rear frame rails. I thought about ingratiating original sending unit and making my tank depth to match the IH one so in theory with a voltage reducer in line it SHOULD function the same... I hope. Does someone make after-market gauges that will fit into IH housing? Any advice is appreciated!
Custom jobs require custom solutions

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Pile of Parts

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Post Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:54 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

I tried posting build pics but they're too big?
Custom jobs require custom solutions

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Post Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:55 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

Get Lloyd to help you move your thread over to the LRS build off. This section is for introductions.
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Thinking risks being controversial and possibly being offensive

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Post Tue Apr 28, 2020 11:08 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

Done
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Location: Plano, TX

Post Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:44 am

Re: Build on a budget R120

Welcome to the site. I'm looking forward to following a new build. It's been kind of quiet around here in the build section.

Go check out a couple of the other build threads, plenty of good (and bad) ideas to learn from and to get inspiration.

What kind of seats are you looking for. These procar seats have worked out great for me, and they were cheap catalog seats from Speedway

Image54 IHC by isu_phi, on Flickr
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

Posts: 1887

Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:40 am

Location: Wichita, Kansas

Post Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:25 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

54R120PoweredByFord wrote:I tried posting build pics but they're too big?


Max pic size is 512K, I think. You can resize in Paint or a number of picture editing programs. Around 40% usually works.

Dean
Lifelong Kansan
Grew up with red paint
Moved off the farm 33 years ago.
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

Posts: 343

Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:57 pm

Location: Plano, TX

Post Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:08 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

54R120PoweredByFord wrote:I tried posting build pics but they're too big?



create a free flickr.com account. Works great.
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Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 10:45 am

Location: Central Florida

Post Sat May 02, 2020 8:09 am

Re: Build on a budget R120

The seat solution I came up with came from an auto recycling yard in the form of bucket seats from a 2002 BMW 330i. I, too, originally was looking for seat(s) with built-in seat belts. I’m nowhere close to 6’ tall, but both my sons are over 6’. Anyway, what I found during my searching is that the domestic seats - Ford/GM, etc. tend to measure fairly long front to back and if I had put them in my truck, there would have been very little room to swing my legs past the door post to get in/out. My wife had already said the seat needed to have lumbar support, so I was starting the search with a strict set of requirements. My search was not being productive until we measured the BMW seats, but they didn’t have built-in seat belts. So I had to compromise by installing a bracket for the top mount of the three-point belt arrangement. I just could not find a way to have my cake and eat it too. I did replace the original steering column with an after market unit due to the engine swap/column interference issue already mentioned by others. So, since you’re not swapping out the steering column, you’re over 6’ tall, I’d suggest, if you don’t need to replace that original seat, reupholster it, adapt seat belts to work with it or like I did, find a seat(s) that will get you the best arrangement to meet all criteria. My BMW seats were $80 each from the recycler, are 8 way adjustable, but I can’t us all 8 ways because even at my height, the seats are back as far as they will go. But, I can swing my legs to get past the door post and the seats have lumbar support! When installing the seats we did need to put in some metal to raise the seats 1 1/2” for best visibility/position. We removed the head rests to prevent blocking the rear window, too.

Just like any modification, once you make one change, the snowball starts rolling toward the next change to compensate. If you can live with that old seat reupholstered, that might be your best option.
L110 owner since 1974, finally rebuilt 2014.

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 6:32 am

Location: Minnesota

Post Sat May 02, 2020 3:25 pm

Re: Build on a budget R120

Ran into a guy with a "L" 100 he used a S10 bench seat. He was tall dude, I'm 6'-2" had to look up.
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