1995 F150 4x4 Big Bird Tribute
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Junior
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After we spent a while fabbing custom mounts for the vaccum bottle, air cleaner and fuse block Wyatt went to work mounting the glass. All we need is for it to hang good enough. If the doors and hood open and close, we are good. Jorge will make it look tight at the paint shop. Then it was full tilt to get the grille and lights mounted. We couldn't wait to see the look...
Junior
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Next up we need to work on the transfer case. This bad boy came with a Borg Warner 1356 which is a solid unit but has a slip yoke mated to a solid drive shaft. These systems are a bummer. If you have rear drive shaft issues, you can't simply remove the shaft and run front wheel drive to get home since all the fluid will run out. When there is a fixed yoke system, the driveline bolts up and the driveline is two piece with a slip joint of its own. Mucho better. We should probably go through the transfer case anyway since the truck has almost 300k miles so modifying it to a fixed yoke setup is the way we will go.
First we had an awesome friend kick in the fixed yoke main drive shaft and rear case which are crucial elements of the swap. Then my oldest son Jake took the helm and made the swap using a rebuild kit from Bronco Graveyard ensuring it was fresh with a new oil pump etc when we were done. Having a mechanical engineer in the family is pretty handy!
First we had an awesome friend kick in the fixed yoke main drive shaft and rear case which are crucial elements of the swap. Then my oldest son Jake took the helm and made the swap using a rebuild kit from Bronco Graveyard ensuring it was fresh with a new oil pump etc when we were done. Having a mechanical engineer in the family is pretty handy!
Junior
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Top tip... all of these transfer cases have a problem regarding a wear point inside at the oil pump. Be sure and search the internets to become aware of the issue and fix it while you are in there. Another reason why we wanted to make the move to a fixed yoke rear drive is to allow for the VSS system. Remember, we removed the OEM 8.8 in favor of the bad azz 9 incher losing the speed sensor system that was in the 8.8. In order to get the trans to shift property, the VSS needs to be relocated at the rear of the trans and this can't be installed with a slip joint style yoke.
Junior
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Got the Transfer case installed as well as the VSS system, on to paint. Wyatt decided to paint the truck artic white. The hood and roof were a serious challenge due to dents but the fiberglass fenders were a special deal. We needed to open up the wheel wheels some more due to how we located the front beams. Typically, we just trim away but Jorge wanted to section them to retain the stock front lip. The guy is a master and did an amazing job. 
Junior
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You may have noticed in the image above that we moved to different wheels. Wyatt invested in some 17x10 APPs which we wrapped with 37 inch BFG KO2s perfect for this truck. In order to utilize the new wheels however, we needed to get some machine work done. The wheels not only needed to be drilled for those monster 11/16th wheel studs but they needed to be "spot face machined" to provide clearance for the monster flanged wheel nuts. Manny at CnC machine in Yuma did a great job for us.
Junior
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While all of this was going on, we took the console down to Charros audio and had the guys there wrap it in carpet and install a Giant 12 inch JL sub woofer. Turned out great and matched the carpet kit we installed great. We had installed four Kicker speakers in the OEM locations which run on an alpine amp, this Sub has its own 500 watt JL audio amp. Since the console holds the sub and the amps are under the seat, the Stereo absolutely ROCKS without taking up ANY interior space. Console has double din Stereo Head Unit, trans temp gauge, rpm gauge, power ports for USB and lighter plug and two drink holders. All gauges and even the drink holders are lit with Green LEDs. Same green LED lights were installed in doors and cab light.
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Junior
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Jorge surprised us with some amazing metal work on the tailgate. He took the old school early 80's tailgate we were running and fabbed a wing like you see an newer trucks these days. Looks killer. The perfect touch. This Father and son build took us over three years. But the result speaks for itself. The sweetest OBS Ford ever now dubbed "WHOOP SCISSORS"
