So first things first.... I had to do a tear down and fortunately the bed (which can be a *****) was pretty well already off since I couldnt help but drive it for a few days before tear down! Hahah
My helper Chowder!
Pre-surgery.
Cab off and hanging precariously!
Frame marked out to make her a SWB
No turning back now!!!!!
Shortened 12"
A few details for those that are going to do this:
The forward most bed mount that gets removed shares a rivet with the cross member that the trailing arms connect to. I cut the head off the rivet to remove the bed mount because after you have shortened the frame 12" the forward bed mount is no longer needed, and it would also land under the cab now. So OFF it goes!
There are multiple ways to deal with it after that, but I chose to basically "plug weld" a head back onto the rivet.
See pics
You can of course knock the rivet out and bolt it, or if you are swapping the cross member for an after market piece, you will just be removing them anyhow.
Carrying on with the frame modifications I found I had to deal with the cross member that houses all the e-brake stuff.
Once I put the 5 spd in, I found that it rested on the e-brake stuff. I remedied this by notching the cross member and dropping it roughly 5/8".
I also decided to make this cross member a "bolt in" pc because it will make dropping the transmission far easier in the future.
Because this cross member is not a huge player in the structure of the frame, only providing a bit of support to the frame rails, and then just a mounting point for the e-brake stuff, removing the area I did, and bolting it in, shouldn't cause any serious issues structurally.
I had 50 years of grease and Princess Anne Co. dirt to clean off. I wasnt even sure what I was looking at here other than e brake parts.
Other frame modifications I made are a "C-notch" for the cross member to accept the single pc drive shaft I am using.
The drive shaft is from an 86 SWB S10 and was nearly a drop in situation. I was a little bummed to find I only had to shorten the drive shaft 1-1/4".
But because the drive shaft is a 4" dia, and I have lowered the truck, the drive shaft would possibly hit the top of the oval cut out that the original carrier bearing mounts to.
I dont have pictures of this as I just finished it after dark last night.
I think that sums up the frame mods for now.
Removed 12"
modified e-brake cross member to drop it 5/8" to clear trans
modified Trailing arm cross member to allow large dia, single pc drive shaft.