A little help on where to begin...
 

Hello all. I'm new to the forum and purchased my first ever fixer upper. 1968 chevy. I am yellow at this so any and all advice would great! I was curious about a couple of things. The truck has 6 lug drum brakes and I want to install some 2/4 lowering coils. I found some wheels and tires for very cheap ($365) and they are 285/15s 10 inch rims. Would I have any problems with turning or clearance? I do plan on going with drop spindles eventually. I also see people doing disk brake conversions as well. What's the reasoning behind that and how difficult is it? I need to find a windshield and have the rear glass installed as well. I have all of the lenses and front bumper. I bought a 350 sbc and it will be married to a 400 turbo tranny. I paid $2300 for the truck, tranny, and motor install as well. All by the guy I bought the truck from. He also put in all new gaskets and oil pump. I bought a edlebrock aluminum intake and Taylor plug wires along with an hei distributor as well from eBay. This guy has been pretty darn honest and has given me some pretty good tips. Any resources will help. My first thing I really need are the door weather seals along with window seals. I'm excited to be a new member and you guys are all inspiring! Thanks.
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Re: A little help on where to begin...
 

Damian,
First off…welcome to the board! This is a great place to start…you have a new truck and all
the advice (here on the board) that you could ever need!

What you’ve got is one very clean truck there! It seems the hardest to find and the (ultimately)
priciest to deal with, when bad, is the sheet metal, so it looks like you have a very nice starter
truck! And finding a 4x4 that's not all banged up is truly amazing!

I like my disc brakes (a DD C-10 that hauls loads often) …far safer and way easier at brake-job time.
On a 4x4, I don’t know how hard the upgrade is but I’m sure someone will chime in.

Great looking truck and please post more pics (plus info on the wheels and tires you found).



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Re: A little help on where to begin...
 

Hello and welcome to the board.
Anything wider than a 8" front rim and anything wider than a 10" rear rim without mini-tubbing it could potentialy give you problems when you lower it.
If it were my truck I would convert it over to 5-lug w/front disk, the reason why is because they stop better and heat is the enemy of brakes and disk brakes disipate heat better than drum brakes and you won't get as much fading under heavy braking conditions.
The conversion is easy, find the whole steering rack used off of a 1971-72 truck that is being parted out, you change out the ball joints to 1971-72 then it bolts right up, if you dont have power steering buy that as well with the pitman arm and pump, if your truck doesnt have a front sway bar get one off of a 3/4 ton 1-1/8th diameter and BAM it will drive like a completely different truck.
p.s. Borrow the ball joint removal/installation tool from O'Reilly's when you do it.

Re: A little help on where to begin...
 

WELCOME!!!!
The vendors on the Board will have everything you need in the way of weatherstrip etc.Sounds like you have the start of a solid plan though the wheel tire combo may be a bit much as stated above.I would do the running driving part and get the windsheild and all in then drive it.Use it for a few weeks and figure out exactly where you want to go with it.It's much easier and cheaper to do stuff once.Disc brakes,power brakes,power steering ae all worth while upgrades.It's a bit more$$$ to lower with spindles but makes alignment easier.Read thru some threads on each of the mods you're considering(the search function will find you more info on any of them than you will read) and plan accordingly.Good luck and keep us posted on your build.

Re: A little help on where to begin...
 

looks like a nice start you have there
the first thing i would do is make sure the window surrounds are good and get some windows in it too keep the weather out.

i understand sometimes its hard too get a start when theres so many things too do. just take on small things at a time and complete them before starting something else and dont rush. do it right and do it once.

welcome too the site you'll get alot of help here

Re: A little help on where to begin...
 

Thanks guys. I have a question. How can you tell it's a 4x4? Honestly I didn't realize to check. Oops. Also what kind of price range am I looking at for a disk brake swap? Any recommendations for the window and door seals?
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