This 1988 Bricknose Ford was my first ever vehicle. About three years ago, I decided to build it into my dream truck. The F150 drivetrain was starting to give me issues and I knew I was going to have to do something. After weighing our options, we chose to go with the iconic 7.3L diesel. We started by building an F350 chassis knowing this would have to be a completely new build from the ground up. The original plan was to build the chassis with a simple six-inch leaf spring lift, however, the front axle is not centered in the wheel well with leafs. They actually push the axle a little forward. I chose to go with 38×15.5 Nitto mudd grappler tires. With the axle being pushed toward, we were concerned about my tire grabbing my bumper. So, I sat and pondered, what do we do next.

We started to plan out a custom fabricated coil over lift with front 4 link. We’ve built a few 4 link set ups and other custom fabrication but have never done something like this before. It took a lot of time, trial and error, and patience among many other things. The lift came out to be about an 8-10”. It drives beautifully.

The engine swap was the root of this all. After doing the suspension, we knew the engine bay had to match. It has custom stainless piping, batteries mounted on the firewall and a standalone harness. Our main objective was to keep the engine bay clean and simple. Not only does it look good, it runs just as good too! I am extremely happy with how this came out and feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been able to do this. There was a lot of helping hands in this project and I certainly could not have done it by myself. There may still be a few things to button up, but it seems that’s how they all go!