1972 C20 long bed to short bed conversion question

[Dalton8688]

Ok so long story short I’ve seen all the threads on this but back in the 80’s someone cut the rear shackles for my truck and I want to be able to find a set that I can put on. It came with the G50( heavy rear spring ) option and still has them. The person also took off the trailing arms and jacked it all up. What I guess I’m needing is an idea on would it be easier to find a set of stock shackles and bolt them back up and find some lowering springs or what. I’ll take a pic of the madness someone did on it. I’ve raced it many many times and would like a nice street/strip setup that looks factory but lower
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[Boog]

Welcome aboard Dalton. Trailing arms and shackles too? Yeah you need to load up some pics and we should be able to offer some help.

[Dalton8688]

Originally Posted by Boog

Welcome aboard Dalton. Trailing arms and shackles too? Yeah you need to load up some pics and we should be able to offer some help.

Well the brackets for the leaf springs were cut and flipped I have a lot of work cut out for me but it would be nice to find the parts without having to search everywhere. I’m trying to find them online and I know for sure I need the leaf spring bracket on both ends and hardware so if anyone has a link or something send it here or shoot me a message. Dad owned this truck for over 32 years and in its short life span before he got it someone jacked it up by cheaply lowering it.
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[Dalton8688]

Bump

[Dalton8688]

Guess no one has any ideas;(

[Warrens69GMC]

Before you dismiss the idea that we don't know, take some pictures and give us a few days. We all have busy lives and rome wasn't built in a day. You will find your answer here, as we all love these trucks.

[clay68c10]

Yep, shoot a pic on here and we will help you out

[Ol Blue K20]

Pics would really help. I've never seen a truck with leafs and swing arms. I'm a bit confused.

[Warrens69GMC]

Maybe he is thinking the overload spring for trailing arm trucks..............maybe.........

[Dalton8688]

Haven’t been able to get the pic yet but it has the g50 option and you can see where some moron cut the trailing arm mounts off the crossmember with a torch and then relocated the shock from the inside of frame out to inside the frame. Trust me it’s all weird to me cause I’m not used to seeing this side of it. I’ve always stayed more towards the motor end 😂

[rjs53]

Ok so are the control arms gone? Mines a coil over with an overload spring. If it helps ill take a picture of it so you can see what it should look like. If you originally had a leaf spring set up, I'm no help.

[Dalton8688]

Yeah send a pic of yours

[rjs53]

Hope this helps

[Ol Blue K20]

Is your truck leafs or coil springs? They didn't come with both. Maybe they converted a coil spring diff. to a leaf spring set up. Pics would help us help you.

[Boog]

There is some misused terminology happening here. The trucks either had coil springs on trailing arms or they had leaf springs and no trailing arms. Although the overload option is a single leaf mounted behind the axle on each side to help support the weight when the truck is heavily loaded.
Just to be clear.
The coil spring pictured is just that, a coil spring with a separate shock absorber.
A "coil over" is a coil spring and shock absorber combo as one unit.
To be of more help to Dalton he has to provide pics of his current suspension to get a clear answer to what he has and what he needs to put it back correct.

[Dalton8688]

Hey guys I’m going tomorrow to get the pics of it. It’s been raining cats and dogs out here. On the carrier crossmember you can see the studs where the rivers have been cut off that went to the trailing arms. All I know is the added leaf spring option brackets from the factory are no longer recognizeable except the two rear ones that someone didn’t take from the original spot and mangle in to a half a way of lowering the truck. I went and looked at a 71 short bed today and it had the coil on trailing arms. I’m pretty sure Boog is right mine had the trailing arm and still retains the factory shock brackets someone has just made their own shock support brackets and I believe removed the trailing arms, coils, shocks and the single leaf and went with a 6 leaf setup and lowered it as cheap as possible

[Dalton8688]

Here’s the pics. You can see on the axle where they’ve cut off a bracket and then on the carrier housing they torched the bolts off of the rivets for trailing arms. Also look at the front bracket for the leaf they’ve cut it and added a 6 leaf setup. Seems it won’t post them. I’ll see if I can message someone them and they can add them for me.

[Dalton8688]

Here’s the pics

[rjs53]

Looks like someone turned a half ton into a three quarter ton. If you want to go back to coil springs it might be easier to buy an aftermarket cross member. Then again it might be easier to find a half ton frame and put your stuff in that. Might find someone on here that has changed out control arms for aftermarket and get a good deal on original parts, and then you could bolt in place. Nothing’s impossible, just depends on what you want to do

[Dalton8688]

Yes it’s strange. I’m gonna go to aftermarket carriers crossmember and coils. Why they took the single overload springs off and cobbled it like that is beyond me but it didn’t make the ride smoother just lower. To be honest I’m not looking to keep it all original I mean on the outside maybe but underneath I don’t care. I’m going to do the long/shortbed conversion and try and find me a decent setup for street/cruise/strip. Funny part is the guy with the fast Farm Truck on the drag racing show came up with farm truck after ours was already a drag racing and cruiser truck it was definitely a killer 1/4 mile truck even as fat and heavy as it was

[Boog]

Well I see you managed to get your pics loaded. Good deal.
I'm not real familiar with 3/4 ton suspension. I know they were available in leaf or coil spring configuration. I'm not sure about 3/4 ton lowering kits.
I may be wrong but those spring hangers look more like later model hangers, maybe 73 to 87. If that's the case those should be easier to find. Or cut the welds loose on your existing hangers and move them up on the frame to lower it some. Keep in mind the rearend center section's closeness to the bed floor and shocks bottoming out is possible.

[Dalton8688]

I think I’m just going to cut the old hangers off and like you said they do look more modern but the strange part is they have the factory rivets. I don’t honestly care if it’s lowered at this point I just want the frame shortened and I want away from the leaf spring suspension. I’m going to try and nab that aftermarket carrier crossmember or see if I can rob that one of that truck in the salvage yard. If the guy at that you pick it place was more helpful I was going to buy as many parts as I could off that truck if he would have helped me moved it to my trailer

[rjs53]

So you dont have to move the cross member, measure 4" from the rear cab mount, make a mark. Measure a foot from that mark and cut that section out. There are different ways to make the cut, but I did a straight cut and used Chanel to sleeve the inside of the frame. Then measure a foot back from the original cab mount location and that's where your rear cab mounts will go. Youtube full of different ways to cut the bed sides.

[Ol Blue K20]

Holy cow....that has been cobbled together. I'm not sure what the easiest fix wold be. I'm just going to let others with some ideas that can really help you chime in.

[Dalton8688]

It really was. Dad bought it back in the mid 80’s and by that time someone had already messed it up like that. He bought it from some Hispanic gentleman I believe in Oklahoma and when dad got it he ripped out the shag carpet the guy had put in it and a new seat cover and drove it back and forth to work until about 1995 then my older brother and sister used it to go back and forth to school and then my twin brother and I got it and it was dads dream for us two twins and him to make it a short bed and make it as factory looking as possible. Sad part is I don’t think dad ever did look under that thing to see what a mess someone made. To him it was just a truck but to my brother and I it was our way of showing what a work in progress looks like. So we built a 400 small block and beefed up the trans and off we’d go 16 year olds to car shoes and burnout contests and drag races with the truck we built. In the end everyone has a story to tell about their trucks but this one seems to just keep going and going.