Belafonte Reboot....Ambulance to 4x4 Camper Conversion

patoz

Expedition Leader
If you did cut it and wanted to finish the edge somehow, you could use some automobile door rubber seal material like this...

1-150326110412K5.png


http://www.rubberedgetrims.net/automobile-door-rubber-seals.html

Quick, cheap, and looks fairly good too.
 

tgreening

Expedition Leader
It's alive!


6AE617B8-CA90-40D7-A87B-6502B5668172_zpskk2e8rgk.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]


Got the brakes bled with some help and took her for a spin. Drives like crap! Hehe. That's because the front end is all kinds of wonky and in serious need of about a doz. different kinds of alignment. I tried eyeballing the toe-in while it was in the garage but I couldn't get far enough away to get a good look-see, and everything else is so far out it probably wouldn't matter anyway. Camber is WAY out there and different on each side to boot. Anyway, I managed to keep it between the lines and took it to get some fuel. It's a slug. I had my doubts the 4.10s were going to cut it with the 37s and it seems I was right. I'm thinking 4.56 or 4.88. Might wait and see a bit before I pull the trigger on that, but I'm expecting a gear change.

I decided to leave the rear wheel wells as is, except I pulled the flairs and I don't think they'll be going back on. All yours Pat.



Nosed up to my stock F-450. Makes it look tiny. :)


C240D184-D286-4D66-AD99-D4C630F56697_zps4knurj6o.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]


Now I have to come up with some kind of paint scheme. I'd rather keep the white base and work something off that, so I don't have to repaint the entire rig. Can't imagine how far I'd have to bend over to get that done. Any photo shop gurus out there want to work some magic?
 

patoz

Expedition Leader
I decided to leave the rear wheel wells as is, except I pulled the flairs and I don't think they'll be going back on. All yours Pat.

woohoo.gif
Tom, I'll PM you in the next couple of days to see what I need to do. I wish I'd known you would need a front bumper because mine was in good shape, but it went to the scrap yard with the cab.

It looks good, and I think you made the right decision on the wheel wells. You can always cut later if you decide that's what you want to do, but you can't uncut it if you didn't like the way it came out.

As far as a paint job goes, have you thought about some kind of wrap? They can design that up on a computer and you can see what it would look like, and it can be changed later on if you want something else. I have no idea what the cost would be, but it might be worth checking into.
 

tgreening

Expedition Leader
It's a slug! Man those 37s killed it. Prety sure 4.10s are whats in it and I'm thinking 4.56/4.88.

Drove it to the alignment shop which was scary as hog snot. Thing was WAY out of whack. Not as scary as after the alignment shop though. Seemed great till I hit the first good bump at about 45 mph and then death wobble that almost had me in the ditch. BAD. Second worst I've ever experienced. I know they set the toe at essentially nuetral which is what they say factory specs call for on that model year F-350(what the axle came from) but I just heard back from Chris that he recommends .125 total toe. I took it back and had them hook up the track bar. I didnt do that myself because I could have swore I read in the instructions, or saw in the videos, that you should drive it just a bit and then install it. Might have screwed the pooch on that one. Anyway, I had them install it, they said it wouldnt fix it and I needed a steering stabilizer. I didnt argue that a stabilizer only masks a problem, at best, but they couldnt do it away because I cut off the factory mount during the install process. I run a Jeep CJ on 37 MTRs and have never had a stabilizer on that. No death wobble ever.

So they installed the track bar and so far its golden. I white knuckled my way across some pot holes here and there and no wobble. I'm still going to go back and have them readjust that toe, but so far seems the track bar did the trick.

Next up is some gears, but I need to get some experienced advice on which ratio.
 

frig84

Observer
When I am trying to figure out what gear I need, this is the formula I use.
(New Tire Height/Old Tire Height) × (Old Gear Ratio). Example 37/31 × 3.73= 4.46
The closest thing is 4.56:1 gear. Or in this case a 4.30:1 gear might be okay.
 

Bikersmurf

Expedition Leader
'Randy's Ring & Pinion' has good RPM calculators on their site. Along with recommendations on RPM ranges.

They're also good to deal with if your need parts. :D
 

tgreening

Expedition Leader
So my photoshop(clone) skills are lacking, but you get the idea. Something like this appeals because it's a minimal repaint. Con is that it's still not too far removed from that ambulance look, if at all. I'm really hoping to avoid a total repaint. One is the cost and effort. Cant imagine what the bill would be to just drop it off and pick it up. I could do a decent enough paint job on my own (with help) but I just don't want to spend the time to do all the prep required, and on top of that I don't really know how/what to paint it. Color OR style. I'm thinking do something like below because it's quick, fairly easy, and I might be able to bluff my way out of being an ambulance, and then I could always experiment around with that whole plasti-dip thing. Plus there is if I don't like the result do-overs are a whole lot easier than with paint.

I'm open to suggestions, and especially visually represented ones! Bust out your mad photoshop skills and show me. :)


MyAmboPaint1_zpsolngiqvy.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]


I know theres a way of doing this so the surface looks repainted, instead of just painted over like my looks, but I'll be danged if I know how to do it. The only thing I think I know is that being white makes it a pain in the ******** to change to a different color. Or something like that.
 

rlrenz

Explorer
When I bought mine, one of the items on my list (toward the bottom...) was paint. I knew painting anything this size would run into a buncha bucks, so the financial impact of repainting something that was maybe fluorescent green was always a concern, plus darker colors were officially discouraged by the GSA when they set up ambulance standards to minimize air conditioning load. Long story short, the one I found was white with a blue reflective stripe - all I'm planning to do is maybe add my planned "Fambulance" logo.

DSCN4307.JPG

DSCN4308.JPG

AMB logo.jpg
 

EXPO365

Adventurer
When I bought mine, one of the items on my list (toward the bottom...) was paint. I knew painting anything this size would run into a buncha bucks, so the financial impact of repainting something that was maybe fluorescent green was always a concern, plus darker colors were officially discouraged by the GSA when they set up ambulance standards to minimize air conditioning load. Long story short, the one I found was white with a blue reflective stripe - all I'm planning to do is maybe add my planned "Fambulance" logo.

View attachment 285364

View attachment 285369

View attachment 285366

We're still trying to come up with a good name for ours, it's a lot tougher than we thought lol
 

tgreening

Expedition Leader
I'm not crazy about Belafonte. Doesn't "speak" to me. Since SHTF stuff is all the rage these days I'm thinking BTLWGN, or ZEDSLD maybe. Hehe.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
186,159
Messages
2,882,639
Members
225,984
Latest member
taunger
Top