power wagon conversion

, while im waiting to figure out what im doing with the town wagon body for body work and paint i picked up a complete 59 truck however i wanted to go 4wd with this one . so i eventually came upon 64 powerwagon frame . the 44 up front and shot so i pulled that out in favor for a dodge ball joint 60 that i cut and rotated c's and well as changing out the c's so the ball joints are on the knuckle not the c. rest of the parts should be in this week to put that all together . Decided there was too much flex in the frame ( may put a cummins in) didn't want it twisting a lot so plated the frame and made new body mounts from scratch

Wow! Beef the frame up really good. Do you plan on putting a roll cage in it?

i dont plan on rock crawling with it , instead i think im going to put the town wagon body i have on it and use it to tow my rock crawler . there will be more beef added to frame as i go , ill be adding tube thru the frame to join the 2 pieces together and once drive train is in as many permanent cross members i can get away with
more progess
took the 30 spline 60 out and put in a sterling 10.25

while i was at the junkyard removed coil buckets off an 07 superduty , drilled some new holes in them so i have 3 positions of height . going 3 link because the leaf springs would have had to been relocated anyway and figured might as well get a little better suspension

drilled the holes in the frame and added tubing then welded them in so the frame wont crush when bolted in

Cool project.

I'll be watching this for sure. I have been kicking around looking for one for a while. It will be interesting to see how you go with this.

as of right now im leaning towards putting the town wagon on this frame and putting the truck body on the lowered frame and using the town wagon for a tow rig with cummins engine

more progress , pulled a nissan steering box at the junkyard and may end up pulling a grand cherokee box as well so i can swap the sector shaft and possibly the input so i can run a different pitman arm . If everything goes as planned ill have a 12v cummins with 149k on it tomorrow afternoon then i can start on the engine mounts and cradle

looks like it should work

cradle and motor mounts almost done

Steering and pan hard done. Transmission mount and frame re enforcement done . now need to make the last of the body mounts , cut out some of the rear frame and weld new stuff back in and figure out where to put a gas tank

well thought i had enough room without having to cut into the firewall but body still needed to go forward about 1-1/2"

body will still come down about 1-1/2"

roughly about where it will sit , 31's are definitely not gonna work haha

Looks killer

Hope my `59 comes out that nice

thanks , still has a lot of body work to be done but ive got the drivetrain fitted and now firewall modified to fit the cummins. then it all comes back apart to have the engine gone thru as well as transmission

here is version 2 of the auto shifter i modified , started out as a montero sport auto shifter like the one in the pic
. pulled the handle off which left a nice piece of round tubing to work with and the threaded rod for the button to shift thru the gate . removed the threaded rod and installed new longer piece along with longer tubing, got some 3/8 rod then threaded it for the shift knob and drilled a hole out for the smaller threaded rod to go thru for the push button . for the trans shifter i tore it down to the bushing , welded on longer piece of tubing then hammered in the 3/8 rod and tapped it for the knob




took the body back off so it would be easier to make new cross members and get the fuel cell mounted . cut one of the stock cross members out and one of the ones i made to make room for the fuel cell , its tight but fuel cell drops pretty easy . did it this way so the cell is close to stock gas tank location which will allow me to use the stock filler
next up is cutting the frame horns off in the back that are mangled and replacing them then possibly install a spare tire carrier

now time to figure out how to stuff the radiator , intercooler and ac condenser in there


got radiator, ac condenser,intercooler and trans cooler on their way , so while im waiting for that moved onto the hydroboost . hydroboost is from a superduty because the hydroboost from a dodge was too long and would have hit . made and adapter plate/stiffner for the booster to bolt to but found out that the oem mounting plate behind the booster is at an angle so it put the mc at about 75 degree angle downward , luckily there is a large nut and snap ring that holds it in place . took it all apart and made up a new plate and worked out pretty good . may end up heating the brake to bend it over to the left a little to make more room for gas pedal

found a radiator that should work out good , pulled from an E250 but ill upgrade to the mishimoto aluminum when it comes time to put everything together. had to modify the frame so that the radiator would drop down and have a place for the studs

once i got the frame fixed , put the front end back on and fitted the intercooler

got the modified fenders on and front bumper , then got the pig turned around to wor o the back

went ahead and made a rear bumper from scratch since the original one was mangled

built the battery trays into the inner fenders, got the fuel lines and trans lines ran in stainless then pulled the engine to get resealed and painted . now just adding some steps and cleaning up the frame so i can get it powdercoated then re-assemble the drivetrain . also installed super short sye kit from jb conversion on the 241 dld

got the body pulled and frame stripped , powder coated and drive train re installed with fuel cell , fuel lines , trans lines and rear brake line
got a set of 5100 for the front but may have to go with a 360/80 valving instead of the 255/70 or whatever off the shelf valving is