This 1979 Ford F350 4x4 Supercab May be the BEST Ever Built!

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]A Ford Power Stroke with an empty trailer. But what's going on it? Stay tuned for this episode of Densside Depot because we're going to unveil a project that we've been secretly working on for about 5 years. And it's going to be one of the best Densside Ford trucks ever built. Here it is. Surprise. It's another X36 truck. What a surprise.

[00:00:18]Deadside Depot with another X36 build.

[00:00:21]Now, I have my best buddy Steve here.

[00:00:23]We've been working on this truck together for a long time. It is his truck. It is his build. But I've been a top key adviser on this truck. Uh, and we're really proud to be getting to the home stretch here with this truck. So, Steve, take it away. We're going to go over everything. Let's talk about the body first. What color combo do we have here?

[00:00:40]>> Uh, this was a uh a Lexus color. I think it's called an uh like an icon or iconic silver, I think it was. Going to walk around here. It looks absolutely unbelievable. Just picked it up from the painters today and my goodness, what a great looking paint job on this super rare X36 Super Cab. This one's a Lariat, right?

[00:01:01]>> Yes.

[00:01:02]>> It is a real deal Lariat truck. 354 Lariats built uh in 1979 for the X36 F350 4x4s. Now, if you're new to the channel, an X36 4x4, that is talking about Super Cab trucks that came factory with the Dana 60 Kingpin front axle.

[00:01:18]Only year for these and only year for those, the regular cab F3504x4s.

[00:01:23]Now, tell us about the hood, Steve, because this is a little strange looking. What's going on here?

[00:01:28]>> Oh, yeah. Always thought the hood needed something a little more like a scoop of some sort. So, that is a Toyota 4Erunner scoop that we grafted into a factory hood. That looks pretty awesome. So, let's do this. Let's go around. Let's talk a little bit about the chassis and then we'll open up the hood and see what we got going on for the powertrain. So, something we want to definitely look at today is uh Ride Tech and Fox. What do we got going on here with the front shocks?

[00:01:54]>> Okay. They were uh Fox custom made shocks. Uh I called uh actually them in California and we measured the dimensions for them and they made them just for this truck. That's pretty awesome. So, when you think about Fox and you think about Ride Tech, you probably think about muscle cars or lowered vehicles, but Fox also makes shocks for off-road applications as well. And that's what we have here. And it's a Is this a 4 in lift leaf pack in the front or?

[00:02:20]>> Yes, it's not quite 4 in. It's probably right around I would say three.

[00:02:24]>> Yeah.

[00:02:24]>> Three and a half at the tops. Um, one of the biggest things with these shocks is you can get them, but the problem is they usually have an, you know, an open hole down here, an eye, and they have your regular shaft up here. So, what they did with for me, these trucks have they're both >> stem stem >> stem stem to stem. So, that was one of the things. So, they custom made these for me >> and we have a set on the back that we're going to look at, too. But you can see how awesome this frame looks. It's been totally powder coated. No, these are not the final wheels. We just rolled it off the trailer. Literally, we're wrapping the trailer up right now. There will be definitely cooler wheels on this truck once it is done. Done. So, now let's take a look at the rear. Uh, and you can see pretty much the same thing. Uh, are these Fox shocks custom made or are they just offtheshelf? They're off the shelf ones for the rear cuz I think they're similar to other other years. But >> so these are a stem top and then they're a regular eye on the bottom.

[00:03:17]>> Okay. And tell us about the rear axle cuz this is not a factory rear axle or at least not factory to this particular truck.

[00:03:24]>> So and what you could do is an F350 that was a two- wheelel drive truck um came with a Dana 70, but only the super cabs and the I think the super uh what was it? The super camper special ones. Yep.

[00:03:37]>> They were also Theta 70s. So, what we did with this one is we cut the flanges off and I have a friend that has a CNC machine and we made a flange that'll adapt a 2000 F350 Superduty axle uh so you can put the rear brakes on.

[00:03:55]>> Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

[00:03:56]>> Yeah, they're three they're F350 uh rear disc brakes.

[00:04:00]>> That's pretty awesome. So, I would >> on an old on an old 1970 >> old 1979.

[00:04:06]out of me.

[00:04:07]>> So, I would say next, let's uh let's pop the hood and see what this beast is hiding underneath.

[00:04:12]>> So, what do you think it is, ladies and gentlemen? A Godzilla, a Coyote, an LS, >> or none of the above?

[00:04:18]>> Or none of the above?

[00:04:19]>> Oldfashioned 460.

[00:04:21]>> Yep. Tell us about the 460, Steve, cuz I know you're really proud of this build.

[00:04:25]>> Okay. This was uh in 1969, my grandfather bought a uh 69 Lincoln, brand new. So this was and my father was in Vietnam. So we came home from Kansas and I actually came home in that Lincoln. So they scrapped the Lincoln but I kept the engine. So this is the 460 that is out of that. We've uh it's stroked. It's about 512 cubic inches.

[00:04:44]Multiport fuel injection system on it.

[00:04:47]Uh so far I mean it's just idled pretty much. We haven't really I mean it's been doed. It made over 550 horse. Um makes almost 600 over 600 foot pounds of torque also. And uh so but it it runs good, but it's only really basically been idling around. We haven't really it's not ready to run yet. So >> totally custom exhaust, every line bent to perfection, dual snorkel, uh OBS, Ford factory front drive system. There's your big super camper special or camper special uh radiator as we say here in Philadelphia. Um pretty awesome. But I think we need to talk about the transmission cuz that's also pretty special.

[00:05:25]>> Transmission is pretty unique. It's a uh an E4D.

[00:05:29]They uh they made those to fit behind the 460 um back in I guess in the uh mid90s. So, what's nice about that is uh you have your overdrive transmission to where you know when you're going down the highway, you can have your 410s and you can lock up the converter also, which is nice. It uses a um uh a USA shift and you can use that uh to, you know, go through the paces with the transmission and lock the converter off.

[00:05:56]>> That's pretty awesome. And what about our transfer case?

[00:05:58]>> Transfer case is a uh NP271 uh regular out of like a 90s, you know, and in the mid90s uh Superduty. Um what's amazing how this is with the Super Cabs, they fit completely perfectly. like there's no modifications other than a rear crossmember you have to make, but um they fit them. They make it past the floor with the super cabs because they have a hump in it that's it's made it looks like it's meant to be in there the way it's done with not a lot of modifications. And guys, just for everyone at home, just so you know, this is not going to work in a regular cab or crew cab configuration without possibly a body lift or getting out the big old hammer and making some room because the Super Cabs do have a different floor, more similar to the Bronco that allows for that extra space. So, just be aware of that if this is a swap that you're looking to do on your Densside Ford truck as well. Now, we forgot to mention this is a Dana 60 Kingpin front axle uh from the factory and this housing is as good as it gets. It's built to absolute perfection. And with our Dana 60 Kingpin, there's something special going on with the front brakes as well. And I think I'm going to have to swing around to the other side to really see this.

[00:07:05]So, Steve, tell us what's going on with these brakes on this truck.

[00:07:08]>> So, uh I have a friend of mine that is a fabricator. And uh what he did was he took a uh 1997 F250 350 caliber and he retrofitted it to the Dana 60 Kingpin rear. So, it's a So, it's completely upgraded with brakes. They, you know, it has the full floating calibers on the uh older style Dana 60.

[00:07:30]>> That's awesome. And I have the Dodge brakes on mine. Uh but this is definitely a really cool combo. And no one sells these brackets for this particular setup. Correct.

[00:07:38]>> No, they're oneoff.

[00:07:38]>> They're oneoff. So, unfortunately, you can't get those. But if this is an upgrade you're looking to do, check out the Cumins swap truck because we have those upgraded brackets on that particular build. Uh and that pretty much wraps up our powertrain discussion.

[00:07:51]Now, the interior is not in it, but let's open up a door and let's just talk about what is going to be in the interior.

[00:07:58]Interior is basically going to be stock.

[00:08:00]Um, we're going to go with the uh Dakota Da uh digital gauges. We're going to put that in there. But, however, I have a custom bucket seats that we're going to put in it and they are power and they're going to be out of a Denali pickup truck. Correct. Denali seats. You can see uh these seat brackets have obviously been heavily modified on this super cab floor. And this is what we were talking about previously is the other trucks do not have this uh big hump here in the rear that allows for that extra space for the transfer case or the transmission and whatever else you're doing. Uh but totally custom build here that really makes this truck just look totally freaking awesome. I mean literally we have done every detail that could possibly be done on this truck. Steve has really gone the extra mile on everything to make it absolutely as perfect as it can be. Uh trailer special and camper special going on this truck and it's just absolutely the creme de la creme in my opinion. If you were going to build a factory truck in 1979 uh using all the parts that we now have today, this is as true and correct as you could possibly make it to be the best truck that it could possibly be.

[00:09:09]So, if this is a truck that you're interested in, uh, we are going to be doing I guess we have a little bit more cut and buff work and alignment work.

[00:09:18]>> Yeah, just a little bit of everything to get them completely 100%.

[00:09:21]>> And then really once the paint work and everything is ready to go, then final assembly will start. We were talking about just now when the badge is going to go on because that's always our favorite part. Um, but this is going to be, I would say, one of the 10 best densides in the world when it's done in my opinion.

[00:09:39]uh just so much time and work into this truck. So, if this is something that you're interested in, don't worry.

[00:09:44]There's definitely going to be another video of this truck. We will take it out on the road. Maybe we'll feather the gas pedal a little bit when we take it out.

[00:09:51]>> We'll take it easy like usual. And you'll see the full completed build on this truck maybe later this year.

[00:09:57]>> Yes, hopefully.

[00:09:58]>> Hopefully later this year. So, remember uh to like and subscribe, stay tuned, and keep restoring those classic trucks.