Over-family-landing composite F-550 build

ben_j_c

Active member
Our family has been growing, so this summer was planned to be the last with our Grandby slide in on a Crew cab F-250 long bed 4x4.

We were originally going to be camping most of the summer, but since social distancing is impossible with toddlers, we have decided to accelerate our custom overlanding rig build. We like the builds done by the Everlanders and Turtle V, and are largely using those as inspiration, however none of those were designed to haul the family, just a couple (and maybe a dog)!

We bought a 1999 F-550 Crew Cab XLT with a Buckstop SRW conversion and aluminum flat bed late in 2019 for this project (daughter for scale).

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Then we bought six SIP insulated panels off craigslist. They are 79 x 218 x 2.5 inches each! Both sides are smooth gel coat finished, tan on one side and white on the other, fully waterproof (no need for paint). They ~2 inches have a fire retardant, structural urethane foam core, then a laminated a ¼” layer of Nida-Core Honeycomb on each side, then a layer of 17 oz. Woven Roving laminated with Vinyl-Ester Resin, followed by a 1 1/2 oz. layer of mat for a hide-out veil, then a smooth, shiny 15 mil. Coating of Gel Coat on each side. Each panel has a R-15 insulation rating. The downside to these panels is the outer 2.5 inches are plywood to allow for the mounting techniques of the original maker. I plan to cut all of this plywood out in our build, making the panels 5 inches shorter in x and y dimensions.

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My plans say I only need 5 panels, so the sixth is for when I eventually cut something incorrectly...

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We then removed the bed to get started on the frame preparations

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The design is very early still, but should look something like this:
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As it gets further along I will share some more actual CAD for those who might want to do something similar!

Up next is more CAD work to figure out the exoskeleton design (so many planes!), prepping the frame for paint (POR-15) and replacing the fuel tank with a stainless steel option that does not shed the lining (known issue with these trucks, no evidence of it on this one yet.)
 

ITTOG

Well-known member
Looking forward to following along. All the different shapes/angles will be a blessing and burden. I like the shapes as it will make it very unique and as a side effect maybe a bit less wind resistance. If lucky, you might notice it in reduced wind noise and improved mpg's. Good luck with the build.
 

ben_j_c

Active member
Well plans changed and we ended up doing a bunch of camping in our Four Wheel Grandby this summer continuing on into the fall/winter, which meant not much happened on this in 2020.

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With 2021 comes a renewed focus and new years resolutions and we are progressing!

First task was to clean up the shop, so we bought a container to store the other projects while we work on this one.


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A flurry of work has been happening on the truck. First lots of grinding, needle scaling and scraping to remove the rust, dirt, rocks and trail grime free from the truck frame. With the help of some excellent rust spotters.

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While I continued on that for what seemed like endless evenings with the wire wheel over my head under the truck the girls helped my wife put down some more sound insulation on the truck!

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ben_j_c

Active member
After the loose rust and dirt was removed, it was time to really clean it up, so we rolled the truck out of the shop and started degreasing.

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Then after it was all degreased it was time to acid etch with POR-15 Metal Prep, this stuff is nasty make sure to wash it off immediately if you get any on you. Even with good PPE I still had some light burning on some exposed skin.


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All washed up and looking pretty good!


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The girls kept busy planning adventures for us.

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Now to get it back in the shop and over into the heated/insulated side. I tried to use the worlds smallest F-550 fuel tank made from a spaghetti sauce jar, but I forgot I had stolen the batteries out of this truck for my other one and my brother in law was borrowing it.


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So we used the tractor to push it inside.

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We turned on the dehumidifier and heater and used compressed air to blow off all the standing water and closed it up for the night to dry off.

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Ready for paint! The kids even decided they were short enough to get under the truck and help paint using the creeper, but they went to hang out with the grandparents for this messy job instead.

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ben_j_c

Active member
So painting did not involve many pictures, it was 14 hours of prep then painting, POR-15 is super sticky and I was completely covered in it. Thankfully I had read lots of horror stories and used a tyvek suit, hair cover and taped my gloves to my suit. So I just threw it all away at the end. I am very happy with the results, the rear diff you can even see reflections in!

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I have also started collecting materials for the bumper, at 164 lbs it might be overkill. The design is heavily borrowed from the @Everlanders

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And the spare tire carrier (CAD not done yet)

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If you are looking for encouragement in your own build, I recommend a Kanban board. I don't know why, but it is super satisfying moving a post-it note into the done column!

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ben_j_c

Active member
Cool! Subscribed! Where did you find the truck?

I found the truck on the classifieds here. It was a great price ($25k CAD), so I flew up to Canada and drove it home taking the ferry back. It was quite the drive as the blend door was stuck to full heat!

On the ferry:
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Importing it from Canada was not too bad, I had to get a letter from Ford stating it was built to US emissions standards, which they sent for free but took about 2 weeks. Just make sure you have all the forms filled out, also global entry helps you skip to the front of the line!
 

jtcym1149

Member
Fellow f550 7.3 owner and I'm subscribed. Looks to be a good build. I remember seeing it for sale in the classifieds.
 

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