Back on February 2, I blogged about my brother-in-law's plan to restore and swap a used crane body onto his new Ford F-550 four-wheel drive chassis cab.  He figured this plan would save him a bunch of money, due to a new complete truck running just a hair under $100,000.  Well, as you can see, the work is progressing nicely and the truck should be finished in a couple of weeks.      

  This is what he started with.  He purchased this two-wheel drive '00 F-550 just to get the crane body. 

  This is what the rig looks like now.  My brother-in-law says the swap was a lot of work, but there were no big surprises.  The crane body has been sandblasted and painted and set on the new F-550's chassis.  Notice the new stainless steel on the front of the crane body.  This will help protect the finish from wear and tear.  

  He made templates using the mounting holes from the old '00 Super Duty frame and then used them as a guide to drill the mounting points on the new F-550.  The most obvious change from the old chassis cab Super Duty to the new chassis cab Super Duty is that the new rig has a double frame.  Even the 8,000 pound crane got sandblasted and painted.

  Because the '00 Super Duty was two-wheel drive and his new truck is a four-wheel drive, he had to get a different PTO and pump to operate the crane and 40 cfm air compressor.  He is in the process of adding LED running lamps, and soon his new chrome wheels will arrive.

Work trucks are sooo cool.