Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks..that's exactly what I needed. I had the rears figured out, but the fronts were escaping me. I checked my front shocks today at ride height, they measured 11”. Those are the HQ series, I'm going try and find the RQ units. I have the cross reference numbers.
Thanks again...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Between Soccer, fall ball and birthday parties, I have had zero time to work on the truck. I was able to blast, clean up and get a coat of chassis saver on the the cross members. I've scuffed them and they are ready for top coat whenever I can find a few minutes. I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to get the truck up on jackstands and start disassembly, hopefully...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Progress has been extremely slow. I was able to "dig" out the bed bolts. 3 layers of spray in bed liner. That was fun. I also started on a bed cart for when I remove the bed.

All of the parts and cleaned and painted. All that is left is to start disassembly of the truck. I am hoping this weekend I can find some time to get the bed off and start tearing in to this.

I've got an old YouTube channel that I am going to revive and document the entire process. There is not a lot of information out there about the conversion from leaf to coils. Should be a fun little project.

Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

At least you're making progress. I'm sure digging those bed bolts out is pure fun. :lol:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

It's been painfully slow. Between sports, a 1 year old who is not happy with really anything right now and life, it's hard to find time to work on things. I am hopeful that I can find some time this weekend to really dig in.

The bed bolts took about 3 hours with a drywall blade. It was tedious. The PO took the bed off with the bolts in place. That had to have been a nightmare putting the bed back on. All but one of the bolts where bent, so I'd imagine it was a nightmare. I took my time to minimize the cutting so the new bolts don't look too bad. We shall see what it looks like upon reassembly.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Well, I was able to get the bed off and rear end out this weekend. It ended up being a little father son bonding time with my dad. I made a little video about it as well. This weekend I am going to remove all of the rivets, clean up the frame a bit and start laying out holes for the coil spring crossmember and track bar crossmember.

Thanks!
Nick

https://youtu.be/k1tx_uXx6bw

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Made a little progress this weekend. I was able to remove the exhaust, shock mounts, and some funky brackets someone welded to the frame yesterday. I ran out of time, but it's ready to start putting back together. I'm going to bolt the trailing arms in as well as the axle to approximate locations for the cross members and start measuring and drilling!

I have not removed the leaf spring mounts yet. I'm going to remove them last. I left them on just in case I needed to move the truck for some reason. It's easy to bolt the leaf axle back in. They'll be gone this week.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Good morning all. I was able to spend some time on the truck yesterday. I bolted in the trailing arm brackets and tailing arms and attached the rear end to help verify the location of the shock crossmember and bolt in c-notch.

The shock crossmember is bolted in on the bottom side. I've got to figure out how to transcribe the top bolt holes to the top flange of the frame. The c-notch lines up perfectly. I was using a frame dimensional drawing that I found on the forum (forgive me, I can't for the life of me remember the user who posted this) to locate the crossmembers. I triple checked the shock crossmember center line and went to drilling. Much to my amazement, it lined up perfect!

I ran out of time and had to call it quits, but it's slowly coming along. Next up is finishing the top holes on the shock crossmember, drilling the holes for the frame stiffener and drilling and cutting the notch in. After that, all that is left is locating/bolting in the panhard bar crossmember and installing all of the ridetech parts.

Here is the video I made of what was done this weekend: https://youtu.be/BXHq3jkOqTA



Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Upon further investigation, the frame is far from square from the factory. There is almost a 1/4" variance in the some of the measurements I am getting. I am going to slot the holes in the cross member to get it as close to square and I can with the axle. I had a hell of a time getting the crossmember to center up between the frame rails yesterday so it's about an 1/8" out of center, nothing a couple of slots won't fix.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Nice progress. Removing the bed that way was pretty handy.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks. Slow progress but it’s progress!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

nice work...

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Sigh, progress has been at a snails pace. Between the holidays, sickness coming to my house and ravaging everyone and life, it's been painfully slow.

The shock cross member is in, finally. I started in on the bolt in RideTech c-notches and quickly found that the paper template supplied is more of a suggestion than the answer. The holes were sorta kinda close to where they needed to be. Instead of taking 30 minutes to drill out the holes, it took 2 hours. A lot of measuring, marking, drilling pilot holes to see how close I was. Finally, one of the notches was all drilled an bolted in. I ran out of time on Sunday, but now I have a plan for the other side. The I'll cut the notches in the frame and be done with this debacle.

I not placing blame on RideTech here for the pattern since my truck was not originally a coil truck. The holes are all in "flux" since I am locating the cross member with a 50 year old dimensional drawing on a frame that was never mean to be square. It's more of a throw the dart at the wall kind of locating method.

I put the rear in yet another time to triple and quadruple check that the notch was located where it was supposed to be and all is well. The problem I am having is that I am a Type A, so close enough is really bringing my anxiety up.

One thing I am concerned about is the Ridetech track bar clearing my Moser girdle cover. The cover is quite large and just by quick inspection, it looks like it will interfere. I've got a bit of wiggle room since I get the locate the mount on the frame.

Also, the hardware is just fit-up hardware. It will all be 7/16" GR8 hardware on final assembly.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Forward progress. Started working on the panhard bar cross member. Ran in to a problem that I knew I was going to have. The girdle cover I have sticks out to far. To get the panhard bar to clear the cover, I have to move the cross member back 3.25". This is not going to work with the Boyd tank I have so I am going to have to ditch the girdle cover for now. I may, down the road, fabricockle a new panhard bar that clears the girdle cover, but for now, I am going to use the stock cover and locate the crossmember were it is supposed to be.

The front edge of the blue tape is where the center of the cross member is supposed to be. I installed the shocks to see where the axle will hang at it's lowest, which also happens to be the worst case scenario. It's a bummer, but I'll make it work at a later date.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

My conversion U-joint arrive yesterday. I was out in the shop verifying that it's going to work and I noticed something that may be an interference. When I lift the axle up to approximate ride-height, the drive shaft is really close to the center crossmember hoop. The truck does not have the stock trans crossmember. It was originally a manual truck that somewhere along the line was converted to auto. I believe it has a 73+ trans crossmember that is bolted to the bottom frame lip. My gut is telling me that there may be something funky going on with the trans mount and cross member. I'm going to check it out tomorrow and see what is cooking.

I am hopefull to get the stock diff cover on tomorrow and located the panhard crossmember and be done with the conversion, finally!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

The conversion is complete. I'm going to break it down to touch up paint and clean up the frame. I'm glad to finally be beyond this point. It's been a long process when I'm only working on it an hour at a time. I'm excited to start installing some of the Ridetech and Wilwood goodies!

I am going to clean up the stock diff cover and put a coat of paint on it. I need to get a list of all of the bolts I need to order in GR8 to re-assemble.

Forward Progress!

Here is a link to the most current YouTube video on this build: https://youtu.be/gyM_SIwGh4g

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Made decent progress on the leaf to coil spring conversion today. It back on the ground temporarily. The conversion is complete! I put it on the ground to check driveshaft clearance on the crossmembers. It's clears no problem. I still need to get the truck on the lift to see what is going on with the trans mount. It is sitting off to the drivers side. I broke it all back down to do touchup on the frame paint. I also decided to remove the stock leaf hangers. I ran out of time today, but should be able to work a few nights this week.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

may i ask what you're not too happy about with your radio. i have the hermosa unit and so far i like it. just curious if there are quirks i should look for down the road

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

It is not a bad radio, don't get me wrong. For what it cost, I am not really that impressed. The screen is too dim, even on it's brightest setting, the rotary shafts work fine and then huge jumps (always fun when turning up the volume) and clunky interface. Like I say, for the money, I expect a little more refinement.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

i gotcha...thank you for the reply

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Nice work on the truck. Does ridetech recommend you mount the shocks like that?

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

It seems upside down, but that's how they want them installed. The sleeve inside the shock is a different diam on each end. Only goes on one way.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Ok, it definitley looked odd. But they are the ones who design it and if it only goes on one way, it is what it is. :lol:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

What started out to be an easy day of applying chassis saver for touch up ended up being 4 hours of grinding to remove the previous owners "work". But, it's all cleaned up now and finally ready for paint.

I went ahead and removed the crossmember at the front leaf mounts. I am going to bolt this in for easy removable. I got to thinking, if I had to remove this crossmember with the bed on... what a nightmare! I am going to use it for a little extra rigidity.

The frame, all of the crossmembers, brackets and do dads have been scuffed and are ready for paint. I ran out of time yesterday. Hopefully Wednesday I'll have some time to start painting.

The pace of this project is getting comical now. That's how it goes I suppose.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Getting closer. The frame and loose parts are all top coated. I'm going to let them cure for a couple of days and start final assembly. This has got to be the longest project I've even done. I am a little embarrassed at how long it has taken to get this far. Unfortunately, baseball has started for one of my sons, so I fell like I'm going to have to double down and start working on it nights after the kids have gone to bed.

Here is a YouTube update on the truck: https://youtu.be/fUetpeVKbpk

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

The rear frame is all bolted together and torqued. Started setting up the brakes on the rear end, but ran out of time. Everything went together smooth as silk. Just need to bolt the rear end back into the truck for the final time!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Sure is pretty.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thank you! I know it's been said a thousand times, but this board and it's members are the number one reason I keep tinkering. I really appreciate it!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Nice work looks great

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I uploaded the video of this part of the build.

Check it out if you'd like https://youtu.be/qcyJy8Rrv5g

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Nice video! Clean and new parts are always fun. Looks very good.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

pictures and videos!!! I can't stay off the internet now.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

That they are, thanks!

I know the feeling, thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

It's really looking nice now!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Thanks!

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Spent a couple of hours assembling the rear suspension. I ran out of time, but am about 95% complete in the rear. I'm ready to move on to the front!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8T...78299307993626

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

Nice work. You will like that Streetgrip kit. I drove Ridetech's blue/white truck Saturday and it was amazing. Made me seriously consider it for my driver other than I'd double the value of the truck. :lol:

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I'm really looking forward to it. My truck had heated coils on the front and a cobbled together rear end.

Re: 1972 SWB Build
 

I finally finished up the rear end conversion yesterday. Sitting on the ground was short lived as it's now back up on jack stands. I started tearing down the front end. All of the steering bits are out. Hopefully one night this week I can get back to the shop to remove all of the control arms etc.