More progress on Project50th!
Over the past couple of days, Livrat was able to get the additional holes required for the conversion drilled and the frame was ready for the mockup of the suspension.
We were going begin by assembling the front cross member, but had to make a trip to the fittings store first.. I had bought some non-DOT fittings for use during the Mockup, but decided at least for the bags themselves why not install the correct one’s now. So after forking over some green, I had the fittings I needed to get started.
We installed the cross member bare which went pretty quick. Then we mounted the bag to the upper plate, installed the fitting and a short length of air line (for temp filling) and bolted the plate to the cross member.
After repeating those steps to the other side, it looked like this.
Next it was on to the lower control arms, and the lower bag plates. We took a sharpie and marked the outline around the bag after compressing it in place so we could mark the location of lower bag mounting hole. Then we clamped both lower plates together and drilled them at the same time.
After both plates and bags were installed, it was on to installing the McGaughy’s Classic 2.5 inch Drop Spindles. We continued by installing the steering box, linkage, and rotors. I couldn’t wait to see it sitting on he own two feet again, so on with some wheels and Bam!
Next we put the sway bar in, and thanks to a tip from Brad, we moved the front mounts to the inside of the brackets instead of under like the stock setup.
It was time to get started on the rear. We had not removed the exhaust hanger or emergency brake brackets, but decided to do so as they were in the way after all. Besides, with the trailing arms you have the brake cable mount on the arm already.
We centered the rear axle and placed the drop cross member between the frame rails, then we bolted up the trailing arms. After several measurements, it looked like one hole on each side of the frame could be used to locate the cross member. After several more measurements to find the proper wheelbase, we were satisfied that indeed this one hole should work as a locator.
Final progress for the day was to bolt on the rear bags and asses what we needed to do with the rear brackets. Looks like cutting them down and flipping them over should allow for proper bag alignment. More on that once the install is done.
Here are a couple more shots taken along the way. For the rest, you can visit
http://www.2heeldrive.com/zenphoto/project-50th/
