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New Moebius Ford Pick-ups 1971 Ranger XLT AND 1969 Custom SWB


SteveG

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Thanks

Continuing on the what if thoughts, the bed from the 53, 55 or 56 kits could be used for a stepside with these kits correct? I understand there was little to no change in the bed from the 50s to the 70s.

Aaron,

If I am not mistaken, the stepside bed was the same from 1955 through 1979. When they went to the squared body in 1980 Ford redesigned the stepside to reflect the new body style.

I think the only change from the fifties style bed was that the top rail was flattened out at some point instead of having the angled rail from the fifties model. But this article in Hemmings seems to suggest that the angled rails were still used in 1971.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/01/28/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1971-ford-f-250/

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For 1953-1979 the bed is essentially the same, with some actually rather important differences that probably won't show up in scale. Once into the '73 restyle, the bed started getting a little bit taller and a little bit wider. For instance, a tailgate from a 73+ bed won't fit on, say, a 56 bed. I believe that for the 1980 restyle, the rails were flattened and the fenders changed (finally). This bed was used from 80-87 (87 had one-year-only fenders). Stepside beds were dropped from 88-91, reappeared again for 92-09 and now here we are without them again... :(

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We have announced the first of Our Ford Pick-up truck releases at Toledo over the week end. That truck will be a 1971 8 ft bed Ranger XLT - Big Block automatic 2 wheel drive.

What we didn't show at Toledo is the second kit. This will be a Model King Exclusive. it will be a 1969 Custom Cab short Bed six cylinder stick 2 wheel drive.

Mock-ups for both kits are being done now. I hope to have them in my hands before Thanksgiving. Once we have reviewed mock-ups and made any corrections needed I'd like to hope that tooling will be under way by Christmas.

If all goes well we could have first test shots by mid February next year. Our hopes are to have kits on store shelves before the end of the second quarter of 2013

Wish I had a pile of great photos, but these kits are only 3d computer files at this time.

As soon as the Mock-ups get here I promise that I'll put photos up..

Thanks,

Dave

Sign me up for one each. It's nice to be working again, even if only part-time, so I can do that.

Believe me, I WILL find uses for each of those kits.

Charlie Larkin

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Ref: TTB appeared in 1980 mentioned a couple of places on P. 5.

What is/a TTB?

Charlie Larkin

Some sort of Ford truck suspension, I presume...they had Twin I-Beam...TTB is probably Twin Torque Beam or Twin Truck Beam?

Edit 'TTB' is Twin Traction Beam according to the Wikipedia entry on the F-series.

Edited by Rob Hall
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Twin Traction Beam is correct, sir. Basically Ford took the Twin I-Beam suspension and integrated a drive axle into it. Improves ride quality and still offers off-road capability. Although most serious off-roaders replace it with a solid axle.

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The twin I beam suspension came out in 65 for the two wheel drive trucks but the 4x4 trucks still used a solid front axle until 80 when the Twin Traction Beam or TTB front end was designed. Basically they took a Dana 44 center section and stuck it one of the I beams and then ran a drive shaft out of each end to the front wheels.

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Neither suspension was really very good. Poor handling, exessive camber loss through the suspension travel arc, exessive tire wear, pus premature wearout problems in the radius arm bushings, center pivots, and balljoint issues.. Putting wide tires on aggrivates the problems. About the only real positive about it was that it's dirt simple and very strong. But on the other hand, from a mechanics point of veiw, good money can be made servicing either one, but especially the TTB.

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I had an 89 F-150 4x4 with TTB and it was really bad. It was impossible to align and burned through tires every five to ten thousand miles. Everything on the front end needed to be replaced but by the time I owned it that would have pretty much totalled the truck.

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Neither suspension was really very good. Poor handling, exessive camber loss through the suspension travel arc, exessive tire wear, pus premature wearout problems in the radius arm bushings, center pivots, and balljoint issues.. Putting wide tires on aggrivates the problems. About the only real positive about it was that it's dirt simple and very strong. But on the other hand, from a mechanics point of veiw, good money can be made servicing either one, but especially the TTB.

I'm sure the Twin I-Beam will be adequate for 1:25th scale though...:)

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Neither suspension was really very good. Poor handling, exessive camber loss through the suspension travel arc, exessive tire wear, pus premature wearout problems in the radius arm bushings, center pivots, and balljoint issues.. Putting wide tires on aggrivates the problems. About the only real positive about it was that it's dirt simple and very strong. But on the other hand, from a mechanics point of veiw, good money can be made servicing either one, but especially the TTB.

I guess the sales pitch for it was that it was a heavy duty design, and could carry more weight than a typical coil-spring or torsion bar IFS. As to why having a heavier duty front suspension on the FRONT of a 2WD truck would be needed, never sure on that...

I've never had any issues with the TIB setups I've had except for on my current truck- but then again it's a year shy of being eligible for an Antique Vehicle plate, so it's bound to need some work by now. I've always had worse luck with those rear shackles rusting out.

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Bout time one of the most popular vehicles was modeled. Hard to believe so few F series pu's were put out in model form. For that matter pick ups in general and where are all the diesel pu's to haul car trailers. Another homerun for Moebius!

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Bout time one of the most popular vehicles was modeled. Hard to believe so few F series pu's were put out in model form. For that matter pick ups in general and where are all the diesel pu's to haul car trailers. Another homerun for Moebius!

I was just thinking about it- once these kits come out, every generation of F-series truck will have been available as a plastic kit at some point, with the exception of the most recent two generations of the F-150 (2004-2008 and 2009-Present). You'll still need to go with resin for certain model years, but the Bumpsides are the last ones from the early years to be kitted.

I'm hoping for a repeat of the '90's- an upswing in popularity of light truck subjects. Maybe then we'll finally get a Super Duty Diesel, Dodge 2500 Power Wagon, and maybe even a GM HD Duramax or two. Fingers crossed!

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I bought an '83 F100 used a year after I graduated high school. It only had a tick over 4000 miles on it. In the 278,000 miles that I drove it, it only needed one front end alignment and it was done with only 10,000 on it. Toughest old pickup I ever owned. I would still have it had it not been for a moron hitting me head on to avoid rear ending another car. :angry: Only salvageable pieces left were the bed and drivetrain. I bought a '95 150 new and never had the front end aligned in the 170,000 miles that I drove it before I sold it.

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I've had or driven 2 different '71 F100s in my time and they both had 6 cylinder 240ci - but a friend of mine had one with a 351 (Windsor I think...) not sure if that was stock or not as he was prone to swap engines. ;)

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Don't know how many of you guys have seen this, but about fifteen years ago the boys at sae put together a Ford truck model history.

http://www.fordifica...php?f=2&t=37394

Great reference.

As far as the short flareside boxes go, the design used on the sixties trucks ran from 53-72. Ford actually dropped the short flareside from 73-75 as they had widened the rear axle and frame in 73 and it no longer fit. They continued to use the eight foot flareside, though, which was wider and taller. For '76, they decided to issue a shortened version of this box. This turned out to be for one year only as the tall sides with the flared top were kind of out of proportion to the length so for 77 the box side tops were flattened out. This is the design that ran through the eighties, with only a change to the squared off fenders from the rounded ones in 80. Therefore, to build a short pre-73 flareside, the boxes from revells 56, monograms 55 and amts 53 can be used. The boxes from monograms 80-up shortbox and the revell night rider truck could be used to build an accurate 77-79 flareside with just a change of fenders.

The big block engines used from 68-72 were either the 360 or the 390. They never came with 428s stock unfortunately.

mike

Edited by mk11
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  • 3 weeks later...

71 ford f100 what big block did they have in them my buddy has a 79 bronco with the 400mod im thinking that is a 390 or 428 its still cool to have.

I saw a few with 429 engines not stock. The biggest stock engine for F100 at that time was a 390 I believe. My Pop had a F100 LWB it had a 302 with a 3 speed MT column shift. Edited by my80malibu
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