3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

I just got this truck back on the road after shortening and dropping it, thought I'd post a few pictures of the build.

As I found it:

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Today short test drive:

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Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

A couple more before and after:

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Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Looks great. What static drop did you use? I'd like a nice driver drop.

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

I call her Square One because as soon as I bought it I accidentally ended up with another that I call Square Two:

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Square Two is actually a nicer truck but they are both great low mileage trucks with great patina and very little rust.

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Square One (I believe) was some kind of work truck up in the Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, four or so hours north of Vancouver where I am now.

She's got the bumps and bruises of a yard truck but lots of obvious maintenance. Everything is greased up and running nice. Nicer now that I've cleaned the heck out of it and gone over everything.

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Ripped the landscape bed off:

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That was actually hard work. I was told the truck had a service truck bed on it but the guy threw it in the dump so that he could build this and landscape his yard.

Gone now anyway...

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

The first thing I did was backdate the grille to the 73-74 style to get the vibe I wanted:

Before:

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Old grille off and orange marker lights added:

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This truck is a 1980 so there was a little change to where the 1973 lower grille bar attaches. I just cut the tabs of the lower grille bar and used some trim tape to install it (pic doesn't show it that well):

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Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Before and after grille backdate:

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Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

It's 2 1/2" drop spindles and 3" lowering springs in the front, and just a flip kit in the back but it now has 1/2 ton leaf springs in the back because short beds have 52" springs and long beds have 56" springs and I wanted stock back bumper brackets.

It also has the 16" wheels so it sits a bit different than a 1/2 ton truck would. I kind of like it. Looks short and tough. The front is about a 1/2 inch higher than the back, which I'm also happy with but it may settle.

The 3/4 ton springs up front are a bit bouncy, I may go to 1/2 ton front springs, but I think it would end up a bit lower.

No rubbing at all, its very practical.

Tires are 225/75R16 so pretty skinny

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Not many people drop and shorten a 3/4 ton but it had very little rust and great patina so I couldn't help myself I had to grab it.

I probably could have done a 1/2 ton conversion all round, but this is what I did.

Frame cuts
 

I did a bit of googling and talking to people this time about the frame cuts and fish plates (I've shortened my '67 too).

I like the thoughts shown in this picture:

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Also the idea of the fish plate welds going different directions than the stressors, like this example:

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So what I settled on this time was rounded ends on my fish plates so that the welds would be in different angles to the stressors, and also not to weld the plates continuously (used skip welds), so the plates actually have ability to flex.

I got quite a bit of advice on this from pro welders.

Frame cuts and fish plates
 

BUT...I also knew that the chance of me getting the zigzag cuts perfect would be near impossible.

The zigzag cuts are the most popular on this site and all over the internet, but that means 6 different cuts ON EACH SIDE. Getting them to match up perfectly would be difficult.

So I settled on nice big strong fishplates, with a good design, along with straight cut frame cuts.

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Basically wrong on the frame cuts and best on the fish plates.

The cuts
 

For the frame cuts I picked somewhere that would leave room for the fish plate to extend past the cut a lot without running into a spring hanger.

My location was a bit close to the cab, which made it a little hard to work in there later, but it was okay. I re-drilled the cab crossmember holes through the fishplate (trying to find a picture of that).

Anyway here are the cuts:

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I removed 14" from the middle and later will remove 5 3/4' from the rear (more on that later).

No turning back
 

And here she is cut:

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Cut and clamped
 

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By the way these jack stands are actually RV jacks, which made it easy to adjust the height precisely.

Fish plate design
 

Here's my fish plate mock up, all done with a grinder:

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That metal is from the 14" piece of the frame that I removed.

Fish plate mock up
 

Bolted the fish plate in place using cab crossmember bolts and some more bolts later (no pics tho):

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Left side fish plate
 

Just realized I have no pictures of the actual frame welding and grinding but here are a couple of the left side fish plate skip welded in place:

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Right side fish plate
 

Moving again after frame weld
 

Here she is moving again after the frame weld:

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All the dirt you see is actually from all the cutting and grinding that went on. My garage will never be the same.!

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Cool, Thanks for the info. I've been thinking about the 5/7 or possibly 4/6 drop.

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Following! :metal:

Saginaw 3-speed swap
 

Some of these pictures are out of order but I swapped in a Saginaw 3-speed manual in place of the (I think) SM465 "bull low" 4-speed.

Adjusted Hurst shifter on the bench beforehand:

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Dropped this old hunk out myself, probably wasn't the wisest idea because it was heavy and almost killed me:

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Compared input shafts and I didn't need a new clutch disc (yay.!).

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Side to side comparison of length and shifter position:

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New trans in
 

Lifted new trans in (with some help). Its always a bit of a wrestle then finally it pops in.

I had to cut a hole for the new shifter location and unfortunately cut it a little too far back. I'll have to patch it up when I do my floor coverings.

Hate wrecking the nice floors and high hump.

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Shifter hole
 

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Shifter
 

Figured I could make a new shifter out of an old 4-speed shifter I picked up. Took a look at a few Hurst shifter models for ideas.

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Crossmember
 

By the way the SM465 4-speed crossmember is different than the TH350 crossmember that would have fit my saginaw perfectly.

I didn't remember to take pictures but was just barely able to get the crossmember moved forward enough to attach my trans mount.

I was too impatient to stop and go find the right crossmember, but that would have been the better way to go.

Next time I'm under the truck I'll get a picture and try to post it in here.

TH350 Crossmember
 

This is what the TH350 crossmember looks like in my other truck (1977 C20). This would fit a saginaw or a muncie 4-speed or T10.

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High hump and shifter boot
 

I had to bend up my shifter boot frame to fit the awkward position at the back of the high hump.

I just went slowly with the vice grips and screwed it in place as I went and it worked out quit nice.

These are actually double layer shift boots, which should be quieter, but I don't know if I have the patience to bend up the second layer and I'm missing the second boot anyway although I have the frame.

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High hump and shifter boot
 

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Driving
 

Driving it today. Shifts nice.

One thing I will say is that this Saginaw was from a 6-cylinder and has a very low first gear. The V8 version with a milder first gear would be a closer ratio and a milder jump.

Also this motor, while strong, has the small 1.72 intake valves, so it doesn't like to rev. The combination makes it a pretty slow speed cruiser.

I'm deciding how much I want to spend on this thing but, if I get into it more, might swap on some small chamber 1.94 heads. Of course then I might think about an overdrive trans like a TKX/TKO600/T56 and on and on it goes....

Here's today's pics

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Dent
 

That dent in the front is bugging me more than it used to. Its right on a crease so it might be hard to get out. Maybe I can find somebody with some actual skills to give it a try.

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Truck is looking good. Unfortunately that dent/wrinkle on the body line will be a doozy to make it look right.

Leaving this as a patina-ish build?

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Fix the front fender, and you'll have to fix the bed crease....fix the bed crease, and then the door ding will need attention, fix that and....;)

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

Yes for sure this is a "patina build"

The reason I couldn't help buying it was because it had great patina and no rust through. It has one cab mount that is in need of attention and I will do that.

It came with no bed so the colour match and patina on the back is "faux".

Re: 3/4 Ton Long to Short & Static Drop Square One
 

You know it.!

C-notch
 

Here is the c-notch I bought from Switch Suspension

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I'm very happy with the guys at Switch Suspension. I bought the full 6/8 drop kit, minus the front spindles which were unavailable from Western Chassis at the time. There were a few hiccups during the install and when I phoned I usually talked to Edgar, and he always knew exactly what I was talking about like C20 differences. There were a few problems with some of the parts but we found work arounds (more on that later).

I was NOT very happy with Western Chassis. I needed the C20 drop spindles and, at the time I was ordering (Dec 2023), Western Chassis were the only ones making them.

I ordered them and they charged my credit card (most places don't charge until parts are shipped) and then I began the wait.

First they were supposed to arrive in January, then February, then in March I was told they had arrived and just needed to be unpacked and sent to me. Then in late March I phoned again and they said I was on the backorder list again. They didn't have enough to fill my order!

Doesn't Western know how many are on backorder and how many were coming in?

c-notch
 

Install of notch went well.

My frame had a perfect alignment hole (which I double checked by measuring from the front spring hanger because the front hanger distance doesn't change vs rear shackles do move).

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I made a paper template then drilled the corners before I started cutting the frame.

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The best feature of the Switch suspension notch is this little pointer to help line up the final fit.

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After many test fits and much grinding to perfection she was in place.

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Flip kit
 

I'll post up the flip kit install next.

Flip kit
 

Here are a few pictures of the flip kit and shock extenders being installed.

The one problem I encountered was that the leaf spring plate came very close to the shock mounts. It was impossible to get a nut on the bolt for the shock extenders.

In the end I just welded the end of the bolt, and will have to grind if off if I ever want to take this apart.

By the way in my case I could have re-used the OEM leaf spring plate by flipping them upside down. That would have created more room. But I had already bolted on the flip kit before I tried to install the shock extenders.

The OEM leaf spring plates have a bump for a pin on 3/4 ton springs, but I used 1/2 ton springs that have no pin.


Flip kit installed right side:
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another pic of right side:
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Next three shots show how close shock mount is to leaf spring plate (not much room for shock extenders):

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