1999 E450 Cutaway Cab extension/back help - Diesel Forum

bradxj83 · 07-07-2009, 11:20 AM

Hi,

My name is Brad and I am new to the forum, which is awesome by the way. I bought a 99 powerstroke cutaway van that has a flatbed on it and the previous owners closed in the cab with an old chevy van back (yes it is ugly). I am looking for advice on how best to put a back on that will look and function better than what I have. I found this site

Ford E-Series Cab Backs

that has fiberglass back that bolt to the flange, but it a little pricey.

Here is my truck the way it is right now.

Here is a pic of my photoshop work, using a full size van body section to extend the cab. This would be a lot of fab work.

I got the body section from

Any help would be appreciated. I have also saw a lot of people using semi sleepers but I don't think I want to go that route. If anyone has every done this, your advice would be awesome.

Thanks

Brad

SIC-E · 07-09-2009, 08:35 AM

cant believe you found j-flame. that is who i was gonna refer you to. i researched forever and only found them after someone from there posted on here. u-haul wouldnt even help out. i ended up building my own out of plywood and fiberglassing it. where are you located? i am trying to push ahead on installing my sleeper cab. only seen one other, bolt-on, sleeper. link to some pics if have any. always like to see other creations.

carringb · 07-09-2009, 04:05 PM

SO did you already buy the body section?

If not, might be easier to cut the body aft of the rear doors, and do a full body swap from that point forward. I imagine splice at the B-pillar may be hard on the passenger side due to its structure.

bradxj83 · 07-09-2009, 10:20 PM

Thanks for the replies. I am located in Quincy, IL. I agree that it would be easier to do I full body swap by just chopping the back of the cargo van then swapping bodies, BUT (and yeah, thats a big but), The donor vehicle I am looking at is a E250 and what I have is a E450 with a GVWR of 14050 lbs. The only way I could make it right would be to swap bodies and then swap the vin plate (obviously illegal) and door sticker. Maybe I am missing something on that and if I am please let me know because I would love to just do a full body swap and just close the back end in and be done with it. I have not purchased the donor van for this project yet, I'm still waiting to see if it is the way to go.

Thanks

Brad

scottcj070498 · 01-24-2012, 07:50 PM

Well Brad. If I may say so, m y husband are in the very same situation. We bought an ambulance Front end with just the body frame. The back of the cab is completly open on the chasie. So what we need is to do the same thing and add a cab extension.

We did the semi sleeper on the back. So we need do definetly get the cab closed in. It looks very good and has so much potential. The semi Sleeper on the back looks really intruiging and looks like it blongs there. If you could please get back with me on what why were etc...........On how I can get these
cab extension or how i can go about it. Any information on how I can go about getting the parts I need.