70 gmc DIY build

[Ben IV]

Originally Posted by 69Tom

Definitely looks like they do really nice work. I shot them a PM on Facebook for an estimate.

honestly the frame was the easy part. A kit isn't really necessary but you could buy the brothers kit get everything bolted up then find someone who does on site welding to come to your house and weld it up.

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

Bumper looks good!!!

Which color of blue is that???

Thanks, it's medium blue.

Originally Posted by hewittca

Very awesome work on the shortbed conversion, definitely learned some things that I could have done different/better if I were to go back and do another.

With the caps and white lines, your truck looks a lot like my new one! You are beating me to the drop, so I'm following along for inspiration! Keep up the good work (and keep us posted).

Thanks, I did a lot of research here and other places to decide how I wanted to do it. If I were to do another I'd probably change a few things.

Been waiting for this for a while I'm ready to lose the nose bleed stance.

[Ben IV]

Picked up a good used blast cabinet in preparation for doing my front suspension. Definitely money well spent and sure beats blasting over a tarp in the yard.

[Orange71shorty]

What did you do with the extra mirror holes?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Ben IV

honestly the frame was the easy part. A kit isn't really necessary but you could buy the brothers kit get everything bolted up then find someone who does on site welding to come to your house and weld it up.

He makes a bolt-in frame insert as well that helps w/alignment concerns & then is a frame reinforcement.

[Ben IV]

Originally Posted by Orange71shorty

What did you do with the extra mirror holes?

They're still there

Originally Posted by SCOTI

He makes a bolt-in frame insert as well that helps w/alignment concerns & then is a frame reinforcement.

True, there are a few others as well. I think the brothers kit is the only one that lays out the cuts, holes and everything.

[Ben IV]

Continuing with the front end rebuild. Got everything blasted and in etching primer. I decided to leave the stock crossmember in place rather than cleaning and installing the doner crossmember. Trying to keep things from snowballing too much.

[68 C10 Driver]

That looks really well done! I am still working (slowly) on my 68 C10 Stepside, I am hoping to post some pics this weekend.

Keep up the excellent work!

Cheers-

[Ben IV]

Bit behind on my updates. Things are going slowly with other things getting in the way but I'll get there eventually. Got everything painted and installed the balljoints and shafts. Bought a press to do the control arms and had to get a bit creative to get things pressed in. Should have stuck with the stock arms and I wouldn't have needed a press but I'm sure I'll use it again.

[Ben IV]

Only took a few hours to tear the front end down. Definitely not going back together as quickly. I got a couple new air tools that helped with cleaning the frame that and an electric grinder with a wire wheel on it.

[cornerstone]

I like the part of tearing down and cleaning components. How do you like the pneumatic needle scaler... was it worth the money and effort? Did it produce good results for ya? I've been eyeballing one for a while.

[Ben IV]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

I like the part of tearing down and cleaning components. How do you like the pneumatic needle scaler... was it worth the money and effort? Did it produce good results for ya? I've been eyeballing one for a while.

It works great especially in tight spots you can't get a wire wheel in. It's just a cheap one from harbor freight. Not one of those tools you need every day but handy when you need it.

[Ben IV]

Bit behind on updating my progress which has been going slowly with work and other things going on. I got the frame painted and attached the brake lines. I used the hard lines and proportioning valve off of the squarebody frame clip. There are already holes in the frame for the brake hoses. They aren't angled down like on the 73+ frames but won't be a problem since I'm lowering the front 4.5". Also got the quick ratio redhead steering box bolted on.

[SCOTI]

Progress.

[Ben IV]

Got the front end assembled but ran into a problem. 63-72 upper arms use a concave washer that matches a convex area around the uca studs to allow for alignment. 73-87 uca's use a half moon washer flat side goes against the crossmember curved side matches the control arm shaft. So you can't use the 73+ washers on the earlier crossmember. So I decided to try running both washers to make things work but upon setting the truck down I could tell I already had positive camber with no alignment shims. At the suggestion of SCOTI in another thread I smoothed off the raised areas on the control arm shafts to work with the earlier washers. You could probably just rotate the shafts to put the flat side against the washers but I'm using the Moog "camber correction" shafts so that wasn't an option. But I got everything back together including an ECE sway bar I had laying around. So at least one of my aftermarket suspension parts is made in America. And here's a tip always turn your cotter pin holes back to front. If you don't you might not be able to get them out once your brake hoses is in the way. Ask me how I know...

[Ben IV]

With the front end finished up it was time to start on the rear. Rather than buy a flip kit I bought new saddles spring plates and U bolts for $88 shipped. I had bought cpp notches but decided to make my own since I moved the axle back one inch to better center it in the wheel well. Spring plates had 3 holes on 1" spacing which is why I went with 1" but looks just right to the naked eye. Once I got the axle flipped it became obvious that the shock mounts on the axle weren't going to work so I took a chance and bought shock extenders for a squarebody but they weren't even close to working so I decided to just make my own. I used the extenders to guesstimate how to make my template and made sure not to go past my scrub radius. I put new studs up top in the extra set of holes in the factory mount to keep the shock more vertical and used the stock length shocks. I also replaced the leaf spring and shackle bushings. I was worried the rear would end up lower than the front but it came out dead level.

[Ben IV]

Few more. Dayton part # for leaf bushings Moog was for the shackles.