So, I have a 1992 f150 XLT flareside that I want to resto-mod. With that said I want to do a chassis swap and was originally thinking of using a crown VIC or lincoln town car, but the car isn't long enough and I don't see any way to cut down a flareside and make it look good. if anyone has some great ideas they will be kindly accepted!!

 

Stretch the panther frame.

 

Hack the bed. Modify the flares to accommodate. What is the wheelbase difference?

 

so, my wheelbase is 138.8" and the 2006 ford crown Vic has a 114-120.7" wheelbase. I'm having a hard time with the idea of cutting down the flareside especially since the flares are made of fiberglass.

 

the reason is I want to slightly lower it upgrade the steering and suspension and be able to handle higher speeds without feeling squirrely. currently, as the pickup is when I hit about 90 I can feel it bouncing all over the road. so I had watched some videos and a lot of the older f100's swapped the chassis to get away from those problems and I was thinking it might work for me. If there's a better way I'm definitely open to it!

 

Maybe just swap the front suspension under the truck and upgrade or modernize the rear suspension while keeping the stock frame rails and wheelbase?

 

You can swap the crown vic front suspension onto your frame. It takes a bit of fab work,but doable. Also,the stock I beam can be set up to work really well,I had no issues at 135mph. I was so happy with mine,it was a hard decision to do the CV swap.

 

After all of the research I've been doing I'm kinda leaning towards just doing a suspension swap instead of full chassis for the sake of all of the headaches. thank you for your input!

 

Start here: https://www.theturboforums.com/threads/gen-1-lightning.378494/page-6#post-2019680

 

You might just want to consider rebuilding your factory suspension. You can always get a set of drop I beams if you want to lower it. Most of the times a loose steering condition like you described is caused by excessive pitman arm wear and or a bad alignment. If it was me I would see what parts need to be replaced and the cost and then compare to the cost of doing a cv suspension swap. There is no doubt about the advantages of the swap but like Brian said you can make the stock setup work well also. You should be able to lower the truck a bit without beams an inch or two. My 96 has no speed limiter and it has no wander or shaking when the Speedo is buried.

 

I like my CVPI front end swap. Starts at post 114 https://www.theturboforums.com/threads/1978-f150-coyote-swapped-turbos-coming.383603/page-6
Also in that thread is a mustang IRS. Can be made to fit neatly under the bed. I took 24" out of the bed in that build.

There are at least 4 of these front end swaps on the forum, trucks of different years, @Briansshop lightning is probably the closest to what you are doing.

I am not quite sure you understand the frame design on the car frame. There is a huge hump in the rear you will have to chop your bed for as well. Watch this to see what I am talking about: https://www.motortrend.com/news/crown-hick-hits-road-hot-rod-garage-ep-51/ This is a big job, modifying the fiberglass is the least difficult of the problems (glass is really easy, go to the junkyard, grab a glass fender off of something for practice, EPOXY resin, glass mat and start working!).

The advantage to the CVPI frame swap is you get the modern ford modular engine/trans platform, a very good rear watts link/8.8 setup, a rigid frame that will protect the occupants in case of a side impact collision. In the front you get modern R&P, double wishbone etc. You do lose a lot of payload capacity, but you get great ride quality and handling as a trade.

What do you really want out of the truck? Is this your only vehicle?