Radical change of plans...maybe

A big part of the process is the planning. I like musing over possiblities in my mind, anticipating problems, formulating solutions, etc. To me that is part of the fun, really. Don't cost anything to change things in my mind. Nonetheless, I like to have a pretty solid plan in place before I even begin a project; have all the steps figured out, all the parts sourced, and costs estimated. I have about 6 solid pages of notes already for this project. It is disruptive and costly to make big changes in mid-stream. Even worse, a project can lose it's way, and become a jumble of half-baked, unrelated ideas and themes. Of course, this is balanced by the need to be flexible and open to new ideas as they present themselves.

I had originally intended to pull the gas motor from the truck, install the electrical components, and that would basically be it. Done. Truck.

But: I have already planned to replace the bed with a fabricated aluminum box to hold the batteries. A 1-piece fiberglass front end would actually be easier to install (and lighter) then to rebuild the front end sheet metal. The trans I hoped to keep in it doesn't look like a good candidate. I want to do a power disc front brake rebuild, so most of the front suspension would not be reused. The rearend is useable, but is 50+ years old, and has the funky (stock) 5 x 5-1/2" bolt pattern hubs. The wheels and tires, which I love, because they are totally period-perfect, are probably too wide and will have a lot of rolling resistance, which is not good.

I am sourcing an S-10 or Ranger for a manual trans to use. Might as well swap in the newer rearend as well. And driveshaft. Somehow using the newer front suspension would be an easy way to get discs and a matching wheel bolt pattern.

So what does all this mean? I am considering doing a full frame swap. WAY more radical than I planned: Get an S-10, rebuild the chassis. Keep the S-10 manual trans, driveshaft, and rearend. Put the F100 cab on it. Install fiberglass front end, and aluminum bed/battery box. New lighter wheels and skinnier tires.

The downside is I would be really only using the cab of the F100, and for what it cost, that seems like a wasteful thing to do. But if I parted out the remainder of the F100, I could probably make back most of the purchase price. These parts are in NICE shape, and hard to find up here.

The good side is that the truck will be much more purpose-built; it would be a better EV. I would probably be time and money ahead in the long run. I have to find some dimensions of S-10 frames and think more about this.
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photo: Ford Motor Co.