This article explores the extensive process of converting a Ford Taurus into a lifted off-road truck. From overcoming fabrication challenges to achieving impressive drag strip times, this project showcases ingenuity and perseverance.
The original Ford Taurus before the transformation.
Fabrication and Body Modifications
The initial stages of the conversion focused on significant body modifications. The hood and front grille were the first to be addressed. My dad cut out the middle of the hood and welded in some scrap metal to make it wider. Ugly, but got the job done.
Next up was the rollbar (all dad). I tried some welding, but it is most certainly not something I picked up right away. Dad is not a welder (his words not mine), and he didn’t want to teach us any of his bad habits, so we let him do the heavy lifting. He swore a lot.
The cage was the last major hurdle for the truck. After that it was all downhill.
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Wiring and Components
The electrical system required meticulous attention. We had about 2 miles of wiring to sort through to find and eliminate what we didn’t. My dad told us the key was to go slow, cut something off, then start it up and make sure it still ran.
For windows, we found left over covid spit shields on FB that were nearly perfect! A little thicker than we wanted, but we drilled holes on the perimeter and used ebay sourced hex head bolts, washers, and nuts to old them in place.
The cowl was cut from a piece of scrap plywood my dad had in the garage. We screwed on the universal flares from the Taurus, and my dad welded a couple of brackets on the roll cage supports for the radiator.
To get the water from the engine to the radiator, we used pieces of piping from a tree damaged trampoline along with flexible radiator hoses from ebay. You can also see the jumper cables from Amazon we used for our battery cables. We used steel zip ties to secure the pipes because my dad thought the regular ones might melt.
Cooling System Challenges and Solutions
Initial attempts to refill the radiator system were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, when we tried to refill the radiator system, we could not get it to work. It was not strong enough to push the water from the front all the way to the back and then get back to the front. We kept overheating in about 10 minutes.
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My dad said we needed to add a booster pump, so we purchased one off ebay and it solved our problem immediately!
Safety and Adjustments
Safety was a paramount concern. Rules mandated that we add a shut off to the rear most part of the car since we moved our battery. We used the same T-handle we had from the Taurus, but added an old fiberglass fishing rod to extend it to the rear! My dad welded on a tube to keep the rod from bending.
We took a whole lot of weight off of the rear of the Taurus, so we had to cut a little off of the springs to get the rear lower. At this point, we had a running, complete truck!
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Drag Strip Performance
The transformed truck was put to the test at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Next stop, Bradenton Motorsports Park! It was super busy at the drag strip, we managed 3 runs, 12.1, 12.3, and a 12.4. The truck was getting slower each time and my dad thought the transmission felt like it was going out!
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We were super bummed on the way home, when we suddenly realized we never checked the transmission fluid after relocating the radiator and transmission cooler!!!!!!! Turns out we were 1 qt low, disaster averted :)
Now we knew we had a solid performer, that should do well at the challenge. Just to be safe, we took it the next week to Orlando Speed World Dragway, and she ran a 12.2 and 12.3. We were a little disappointed in the times, but we thought it might be due to the tailgate causing some drag.
| Track | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bradenton Motorsports Park | 12.1 | 12.3 | 12.4 |
| Orlando Speed World Dragway | 12.2 | 12.3 | - |
Finishing Touches: Paint and Tires
With the truck mechanically sound, attention turned to aesthetics. Now that we had our truck 90% it was time for a paint job! We thought seriously about leaving it as it was, my dad and his friends thought it was a cool “rat rod truck”. However, that would not work for our theme at all.
Example of a "rat rod truck".
Oh my is that soooo much nicer. Note the caulking on the tailgate. Now for the stripes!! And so do stickers! We had a really hard time getting them to stick to our “bedliner” paint, so we used caulk to put them on.
Right here we were waiting on our tires to be swapped to new ones. We chose the same Kumho Ecsta V730 as they did really well for us previously. We used our Tire Rack gift certificate from last year towards the new tires.
The truck looks so light in this picture, it’s hard to believe she still weighs 3,200 LBS.
Project Completion and Time Investment
We finally finished. We estimate that there are about 400 hours in the build. Body swaps are def not as easy as they look, at least this one wasn’t.
The completed lifted Ford Taurus truck.