Re: Project: Recycle
 

Nate is good at holding himself and the brand accountable.
Production line parts are unfortunately off here n there pretty often,,in my experience.
Ive had several PB parts n pieces with slight misalignment or dimensionally inaccurate fitup and even more so with other brands like RideTech. it happens.
I try to remind myself that nothing is ever as good or as bad as we tend to perceive it to be. its hard to let things go when your creating a masterful work of antique art. 10,000 hours baby,,, back to work..

That is all....

Move along...

6 feet apart please...

Re: Project: Recycle
 

LoL.... All is good. I put one in the press & moved things to the point alignment was better. The end result was a little better as far as effort required to pivot the arm. He offered to take them back & do whatever was needed but I was good w/his explanation/s.

Nate & I met years ago so we go back a bit. He's always been 100% open to my questions, thoughts, & always willing to do what it takes if I wasn't happy. He always was & still is a busy guy so you have to be patient to sometimes get in contact w/him but they responded quickly when I reached out.

I have the drivers side assembled on the truck. I've been waiting on BJ's & a few other pieces to finish verifying my dimensions (I left the other BJ's in the Ridetech arms for re-sale or re-use). I got everything late last week so next step is finishing up the lower brackets & putting a C/O in place.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Scoti,

What are the specs on the front coil over you plan to use?

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Since my mounts are custom, I'm going w/a 5.2" stroke HQ Series shock & will use a 10" coil @ Ridetechs recommended 750lb rate.
Basically it's just a longer version of what's spec'd for their 63-70 C/O conversion kit.

The rear C/O's will match their kit specs using a 5.2" stroke & 12" coil. Their spec calls for a 275lb coil which I'll increase to 325lbs to compensate for the additional rear weight of the gas tank + raised floor sub-frames.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Not much of an update but as we like to say.... progress is progress. I've been playing the waiting game for 'Recycle' parts + research, waiting for G-body parts + research, & doing some home repairs for my GF's house. I have not been idle!

I got the PB narrowed a-arms powder coated. The coating (low gloss black) turned out nice but they got material in the bushing barrels which I had to go back & remove. PITA. But all four arms are now assembled.

The new Moog lower BJ's pressed in no problems. The new QA1 upper 'tall' BJ's bolted in after drilling the PC material out of the holes.

I went to assemble the upper shafts to the arms when I discovered the shafts were steel where I thought they were stainless. There were rust spots starting as a result of moisture & oils from handling. So, I made the decision to get the shafts & modular spindles PC'd focusing on the car/house stuff mentioned. I dropped the shafts/spindles off last week but I guess the guy was not there to get them done. I got a call Wed am & picked them up @ closing on Wednesday. As soon as I got back to the shop & unwrapped the high-temp tape, I was not happy. The parts looked great but they sand-blasted all surfaces including threaded areas. I spent Thurs/Friday trying to polish out the surfaces & running a die over the shaft threads.

Today I drilled the holes through the vertical portion of the upper C/O bracket on the driver side & assembled things for verifying. The vertical portion of the bracket will be tweaked/slimmed-down as the process moves forward. The bottom C/O bracket @ the lower a-arm still needs to be finalized so that I can drill the inner mounting hole (it will bolt in using the existing hole for the air bag on the lower a-arm).

I still need to trim the inner TRE for the reduction in track width. I'm cutting the full 1" difference off @ the inners since there is over twice as much thread to utilize. I originally just purchased the current rack from a local Oreillys for mock-up. I might get a 'better' R&P from an aftermarket source but undecided.

For now, everything moves/pivots up/down nice & smooth. I'll purchase the C/O's next & do a little more homework on other possible tweaks as things progress. I hope to have a front shock in place soon to test up/down travel (to ensure there's no bind). I'm also going to verify the current Bilstein shock will mount to the new PB lower w/o issue & then get the shock + bracket out of the way.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

So you are leaving that upper bag plate there? I am confused..

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Yep. C/O goes through the middle of where the top bag bolted in. It doesn't interfere w/the C/O & allows me to still do bags if wanted @ a later date vs. if the mount is completely removed.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Are the upper bag plate and upper arm hat the same piece ? It looks like a 1st gen DM .. I forget how they were. I was thinkin either way you will need to weld that bag plate back together to ever utilize it.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

The upper a-arm mounting & upper bag mount are a one piece bracket.

A new upper bag plate would be a simple bolt-in that goes under the existing mount just like if you were installing an upper bag mount/plate under a factory C10 front x-member.

I have the template made but have not cut a bracket/plate yet.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Thats what I was thinkin. Thats the DM that still uses the lower cross shafts IIRC.
carry on.

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It's one model later IIRC. It uses 73-87 arms & has independent lower mounting bolts that thread into the x-member.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Nice progress Scoti! As you said, progress is progress!

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TY sir.

I brought the spindles to work w/me today & will complete the Tap & Die 'clean-up' process on them after hours.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Hard to find outside folks, that you need for a job like powdercoating/blasting, that take their work as seriously as you do, or at least consider their job essential to the customers they are working for and that their work reflects on them and their business.

Sucks to hear what they did man. Looks great BTW.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Agreed. But they are convenient to access from my work & nice people to deal with so I'll go back. I plan to make a day trip there @ some point to try & communicate ideas that could be done differently to make it easier on them plus better for the automotive type customer in the end. Not sure if it will make a difference or if they'll be receptive of my input.

If it doesn't, I'll take my business elsewhere.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

The spindles were not as bad as the upper a-arm shafts.

I was able to easily polish out the hubs w/Red Scotch-Brite material. The hub threads were hit w/sand but they didn't feel excessively rough (like the threads on the a-arm shafts). Being such a critical area, I opted to try the castle nuts & see how far they would thread w/some special cutting paste. They threaded on w/o much fuss using the cutting paste & now easily thread on/off w/finger-tip effort. I chased the caliper bracket holes for each & all is good there as well.

Driver side spindle is installed w/the caliper bracket. I purchased new rotors 10yrs ago when this chassis was started. They were painted but the pad surfaces that didn't get paint have surface rust so I'm going to D/A them before installing. The calipers are also new-but-old. I cleaned them up back then of casting flash, D/A'd them smooth, & they got some low gloss black. I might replace them though w/the Wilwood D52 part based on the idle timeline.

Plan is to start on the pass side by end of week if I have the shocks (they indicated they were ready to ship today).

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Slo-Mo progress was made. The constant assemble/dis-assemble/assemble takes time & had to be done multiple times.

I set-up my 2nd 'shock' jig so I could do a better job of locking in trueness of the upper & lower mount positions. With both upper & lower mounts on V.2 solidly locked square in place, the shock should travel w/o bind so I felt it was a better option. It also allowed mounting an angle finder to narrow down shock angle which you need to know when calculating for the springs.

With the new a-arm combo in place, I needed to get the upper C/O mount to fully seat both horizontally & vertically. It kept fighting me. I was trying to leave the vertical portion of the bracket base as tall as possible & then slim it down after it was tacked/welded together but it wouldn't allow the horizontal parts to seat flush. I trimmed it back an 1/8 of an inch. Still not good enough. Did it again.... Still not there. Made the decision to just trim it flush w/the upper a-arm mount which helped.

While alignment there was getting better, I noticed the shock was crowding the original remaining upper bag mount. To remedy this, I then cut that same vertical bracket base into 2 separate pieces. This allowed the upper shock mount to move 1/4" farther out which yields 1/4" more clearance for front a-arm shaft stud.

This all took the better part of 8hrs yesterday w/the marking, dis-assembly, cut, grind smooth, re-assemble.... Rinse, wash, repeat process. In the end, the upper bracket now is fitting flush on the horizontal & vertical portions on the bracket base & I have a 12° shock angle for calcs.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Been doing some of that rinse/repeat myself, the wrenching wears me out.
Did you cut an inch out of the rack studs or more than ?

Re: Project: Recycle
 

I did cut 1" off of the drivers side. I haven't moved beyond that point as another 'project' took over my time. The 1" prob could have been absorbed by the PB supplied TRE adapter after cutting but I wouldn't know 100% until its compressed, weighted, & Toe adjusted.

I purchased a few items to build a new tool (the above mentioned project) for the shop (and the parking lot, a buddys place, work, etc.). I got it mostly wrapped up on Saturday & making plans for it's testing pretty soon.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

What.... A gantry ?

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Yes sir. Poor-Boy special. Using stuff already in the shop/my posession. Priced them from $500 up to 5k w/a hoist..... Sitting @ less than 2-bills for mine. Should make lifting beds a one-man job from here on out.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Causally look for a used 2-post lift to add to your tool list....it's amazing how "creative" you can get with one........trust me, I have photos :lol:

Re: Project: Recycle
 

One of them is on my radar as well (but only after the 64 is in one piece). With only 1000sqft of actual working space, a lift would occupy too much real-estate. w/the 2 trucks, work table, bed cart, sheet metal pieces, tool boxes, etc.... It's cramped.

The gantry set-up can be disassembled easily or stored straddling over a vehicle & will be needed/used this year for sure.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

I recommend a 4 post w/2 sliding jacks. A 2 post lift tweaked my lwb frame. I dont trust them seeing how a c10 frame, long or short, in stock form is flimsy af...

Lets see this dern crane.

Re: Project: Recycle
 

Thats what I want (4-post/sliding jack). Pricy though.

I did a test run on the lift & it worked. I had to neanderthal it w/ratchet straps because I didn't have the hardware for the bed frame pieces. I'll get some pics posted in the AM w/o the straps.