67-72 OE Shock Relocators
 

Lot's of times when guys drop their 67-72 coil spring trucks they opt for relocating the mounting points of the shocks to gain precious travel back. Since you must remove the original shock brackets, with just a little effort, drill, angle grinder w/a cutting/grinding disc, & a press or vise, you can modify your originals.

Uppers first: You want to relocate the hole higher & slightly over vs. OE....

Re: OE Shock Relocators
 

Mark the bracket vertically @ the C/L of the OE hole using a square. Scribe a horizontal line again 1.5" higher vs. the C/L of the OE hole. Scribe another line .750" over on the new horizontal line.....

Re: OE Shock Relocators
 

Drill the 'new' higher shock bolt hole. I prefer a drill press to keep things square. Since many guys don't have one, I did these w/a typical 1/2" hand drill.

I drill a smaller pilot hole on each side. Then drill thru one side w/a .500" bit & use the pilot hole on the opposite side to help keep the drill bit as square as possible. Deburr the edges when done.

Then, I made a template of the outside circumference of the shock bushing. I used that to dictate where I needed to trim off the excess material that will hit the shock body @ the now higher mounting location. Once I have the 'corner' marked. I use a larger diameter washer to scribe a hard line for where to cut.

Cut the extra material off & finish grind the bracket. These took about 1hr to do both brackets.

Re: OE Shock Relocators
 

Lowers next: The lowers can be tweaked using a torch & BFH, a BF-vise, or a press. The press is the quickest & time was a factor for me so it's what I used for this set.

Remove the brackets from their original locations. You'll flip the drivers upside down & over to the pass side; the pass to the drivers. When you do this, there's about a 5/16" lip that will prevent the bracket from sitting flush.

I install the flipped bracket & mark the area the lip will contact w/a Sharpie. The lip beyond this point will need to be flattened by your method of choice.

Re: OE Shock Relocators
 

I just keep pressing the lip flat a little @ a time until it's just that..... FLAT! Once your done, they simply bolt back up. If you don't flatten them far enough, you can grind a little off the truck arm for clearance but don't take off too much.

I do not recommend cutting the lip off. I feel it can cause a stress crack that could potentially shear @ some point should your shock ever bottom out (which lowered trucks do occassionally).

The rears took about 20mins start to finish on the press. A little longer if you add in the time spent marking them for the correct areas to clearance.

Re: OE Shock Relocators
 

Net gain?

3" of shock travel for about 1-1.5hrs of effort. Cost... zero.