Hey Chris, About Your Truck...

[Blue Goose]

Chris,
I just realized how rare your truck is. Do you have any idea how many of trucks like your Centurian built?

 

[Blue Goose]

One of my questions about your truck is how did they stretch the frame since it started out life as a 117" wheelbase truck?

 

[Skandocious]

Hey Goose. Sorry, somehow I missed this thread before.

I'm not exactly sure how many were made to be honest... But they are pretty hard to find nowadays, especially in real good shape.

Funny you should ask how it's done, someone asked the same thing on FTE last night so I took some pictures. I'll just copy and paste what I wrote:

Ford sent my truck off the line as a reg cab short box, then shipped it to Centurion in MI where they literally sliced the frame and cab, and welded in a section of truck from a crew cab. They cut the cab right about where the rear of the front seats mount to the floor pan. I'll go out and take some pictures of the places where they cut everything. Be back in a few.

EDIT: Got the pics, see if you can spot the evidence of cutting/welding in the first pic before moving onto the others.

 

[blacksnapon]

I'd seen that before, working on dump trucks and such, them stretching them out for the beds. The part I look at, did they use flared fittings, or compression, how did they stretch the driveshaft, is there extra metal added to strengthen the frame, are the wires lengthened with soldered splices or butt connectors, fuel lines repaired with flared fittings, etc.

 

[Skandocious]

Well you can see one the lines in the picture with that coupling, I think thats a brake line... I don't feel like going out to look.

I've never bothered to check on all that stuff Vince but it has held up perfect for 12 years and going, so I'm not worried about it.

 

[blacksnapon]

Well you can see one the lines in the picture with that coupling, I think thats a brake line... I don't feel like going out to look.

I've never bothered to check on all that stuff Vince but it has held up perfect for 12 years and going, so I'm not worried about it.

As long as its holding up, something was done right!

 

[Skandocious]

Yeah well... For an additional $8500 on top of the MSRP (12 years ago, mind you) I should hope that Centurion did a quality job. The sticker (I have the window sticker) price on my truck was $23,202, and the Centurion package was an extra $8500... Thats more than the third of the price of the truck!!

I paid $8000 for her in near mint condish and 92k on the clock, although she had a few mechanical hiccups that I've mostly worked out over the past year

 

[Blue Goose]

Thanks for your reply Chris, I can't tell you how neat I think your truck is.... I wonder if you contacted Centurion they could tell you any production numbers. Many tears ago, a Ford dealer here had four door Broncos. I wonder if those were produced by Centurion or similar company. Obviously they were not Ford...

 

[bowtiehatr]

centurion did many 4 door broncos. every single one of them are collectibles. i had a Bronco Driver magazine back a few months ago and there was a lady who had 3 of them.

 

[Blue Goose]

I'm by no means in the know, but I'll bet Chris's truck falls into that same category......I know it's got my attention...

 

[Blue Goose]

Centurion must have done some pretty neat stuff, checkout this Cummins 6BT powered Econoline:

BTW, it's for sale.... http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/136771/ShowThread.aspx

 

[mrfixit]

When I had my dump truck "built", we took an old international daycab 9700 and stretched/boxed the frame. then for the driveshaft, I went to Joplin Clutch and Driveshaft and got a new mainshaft section added to my existing yokes. You can sometimes luck out and buy one in a wrecking yard that will work/fit, but I needed an extra few inches for a tool bin behind the cab so I just had it made. It costs a lot less than you might think!

 

[Skandocious]

Thanks for your reply Chris, I can't tell you how neat I think your truck is.... I wonder if you contacted Centurion they could tell you any production numbers. Many tears ago, a Ford dealer here had four door Broncos. I wonder if those were produced by Centurion or similar company. Obviously they were not Ford...

I tried to contact Centurion a while back to find something else out about my truck (where my driveshaft came from... it's not a regular f150 driveshaft ) and they were unable to give me ANY information about it because the company had been bought out by a company called Southern Comfort, and all the techs that worked on the Centurion conversions had since left.

www.scomfort.com

As for the 4 door Broncos, also a very cool truck, but even harder to find in good shape. They did some neat stuff with those too such as building them on 1 ton drivetrains and using powerstrokes and such. Theres a forum for guys that have those trucks:

http://www.fourdoorbronco.com/

 

[mrfixit]

I forgot to say; Nice looking truck there, Chris.

 

[Skandocious]

Thanks Tom