Finally got my eight 3/8" thick traction bar tabs 1/2" drilled holes filled in and ground/sanded smooth. Managed to cover my entire garage in black steel dust, put a couple of slag holes in my foot (yes - I was wearing leather shoes) and catch my bench top on fire in the process.
Also received my custom sized 3 x 6 x 3/8" steel plates I ordered from
www.onlinemetals.com. Two day turn around - decent price - awesome!
Planned to get the 7/16" inch grade 8 bolt holes drilled this week but realized my traction bar frame mounts would come close to the transmission cross member which is mounted by large round head rivets.
So I decided I needed to mount my rear end first to be sure of the frame mount location. To do this I had to buy a couple of cinder blocks from Lowes because my jack stand were maxed out on height. Unfortunately, I discovered I was missing one U-bolt mount bracket (official LMC name is a U-bolt spacer) so this is on hold until my new set arrives from LMC.
To keep it rolling I shifted to the front end. The first challenge was when I discovered the front spring bushings come with two different size eye bolt sleeves. I had no idea. As luck would have it I installed identical sleeves on the same spring instead of 1 and 1 as it was intended so the bolt diameter would fit through the smaller front spring rear shackle hole. Luckily I used plenty of lube and the bushings popped back out. The second challenge was when I realized the front spring eye bushing would not fit inside my already mounted spring shackle. 30 mins later problem was solved after grinding the bushings 1/8" thinner and bolt sleeves and 1/8" shorter.
Third challenge was when I shifted to the rear eye of the front spring. Following the old adage "Measure twice and cut once" I double checked my measurement, compared against photos of other K10s then drilled out the front upper shackle hanger hole with a 1 1/2" hole saw.
In the event you aren't aware, my truck is a converted C10 4x4. When I got it taken apart to the bare frame there were numerous irregular holes 'butchered' in my frame with a torch so I filled these in and started from scratch.
Everything was great until I went to mount the front upper shackle hanger in the hole and realized it was supposed to be flush with the bottom part of the frame so it can be bolted to the frame. Oops!
Oh well. . .nothing my Lincoln MIG 180 and a sanding wheel can't fix.