How to: Ruin a perfectly good Blazer...

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Spray-Bomb

I dunno, they may be very unique but he built more than one so it's not so custom anymore

If every one had something different about it, then it would be custom

You mean like 2 trucks that are different from each other?. My truck will get a modified version of Porters Dropmember..... so it's custom .

[BACKYARD88]

Custom or not the Dropmember is hands-down the most well designed piece of engineering you can buy for these trucks.

[Spray-Bomb]

Originally Posted by BACKYARD88

Custom or not the Dropmember is hands-down the most well designed piece of engineering you can buy for these trucks.

[PBFAB.COM]

Originally Posted by Spray-Bomb

I dunno, they may be very unique but he built more than one so it's not so custom anymore

If every one had something different about it, then it would be custom

If you want yours different it's easy enough to cut something "custom" in the rack mount plate!

[5150]

yeah, he can spray paint it purple

[BACKYARD88]

Don't lube the ball joints and you can have the "noisy" version

[XXL]

Originally Posted by BACKYARD88

Don't lube the ball joints and you can have the "noisy" version

Don't USE ball joints and you can have the "stiff suspension" version.

[5150]

No offense guys, but only the people at Norwood got that joke about the Ball Joints. Actually, people in Alabama could hear the noise in spray bombs ball joints. That sounded dirty.

Sorry for the hijack. Looking great gringo, wish I had the money and more important the patience to wait to do that kind of stuff to my roadster. Too antsy to get it on the road.

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by 5150

yeah, he can spray paint it purple

Originally Posted by BACKYARD88

Don't lube the ball joints and you can have the "noisy" version

Wow! With friends like these...

Originally Posted by SCOTI

My truck will get a modified version of Porters Dropmember..... so it's custom .

Did you finally come up with a manual rack solution you can live with?

Originally Posted by 5150

wish I had the money and more important the patience to wait to do that kind of stuff to my roadster. Too antsy to get it on the road.

I know the feeling. Too much at once can be overwhelming and you end up losing motivation. There will be plenty of time later to tear a perfectly good truck to pieces.

[Spray-Bomb]

Hey guys, don't give me any ideas lol

Any updates Gringo ???

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by Spray-Bomb

Any updates Gringo ???

Prolly not for a few days. Family is comin' in tomorrow and apparently there's something important happening Tuesday. I dunno...

I did, however, sneak out to the garage for a few minutes today to mock up the DM to get measurements for the rack notch. Let me just say, this thing is going to look killer Sorry- no pics

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

.....Did you finally come up with a manual rack solution you can live with?

Yep. Offset manual fox body R&P for the C4-DM. Nate loved it so much he decided mine will be the only one.

That's not the mod I was talking about though. The C10-DM for my 68 is getting the shock mounts Porter supplies tweaked to work w/the C-10 Bilsteins I bought for this project. I already have mounts fabbed, but since the DM raises the C/L of the lower a-arm pivots, the upper shock bracket will need to be higher vs. where I have it currently set-up to keep the shock @ the center of travel @ ride-height (lower a-arms parrallel to the ground).

[5150]

Prolly not for a few days. Family is comin' in tomorrow and apparently there's something important happening Tuesday. I dunno...

I understand. I told my wife we should have Christmas at our house, I can't stand my in-laws, but if it was at my house I could always go down to the garage and start installing new parts.

So everybody start breaking away when they get truck parts for Christmas. How many times do you think these words will be spoken by guys on this board on Tuesday---"Let me go see what this looks like"

[killer71]

Gringo, don't know where i've been... but I'm all caught up now....WOW that is sweeet!

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by killer71

Gringo, don't know where i've been... but I'm all caught up now....WOW that is sweeet!

Thanks! I'll have to let you see it in person when(if) it gets on the road again. Your truck build contributed some ideas to this one, can't wait to see what you've got brewin' now...

Now that the holiday rush is over, I can get some garage time in I got the DM mocked-up(again). The first time was quick, pre powder, just to see how it fit. This time, I'm going a little more in depth and actually bolting some parts to it. I originally just wanted to get it in place to measure for the rack notches, but once it was in there, I couldn't resist seeing it on the ground.

I only ran into a few little bumps:

1) I am having a small clearance problem at the driver's UCA when it pivots down(truck lifted). I temporarily remedied it with alignment shims. On the new(well, rebuilt) UCAs I will use offset shafts that should give me the needed clearance and use fewer(if any) alignment shims.

2) I don't think my "shortened" steering column mod is gonna work anymore. I will likely have to move it back into the cab a few inches to give UCA clearance for the steering linkage. No biggie it's gotta come out anyway.

3) I will definitely have to clearance the inner portion of the fenders. I was half way planning on having to do it anyway, so no big surprise. I have seen trucks tuck the tire inside without trimming, but they must be running extreme backspacing to do that. I like how it looks now, and it will turn without rubbing, so I will trim the inners to lay.

Other than that, the DM just fell right together. I am very impressed with the quality, ease of install, and most of all- the look of it.

[gringoloco]

Here you can see the tire/inner interference. I figure I would need at least another inch of BS to even come close to clearing.

Also, the obligatory beer can shot. This was taken with the tires resting on the inners; I am amazed at how much clearance there is under there now. No more dragging A-arms on everything! I switched to Mexican beer after the last embarrassment

Third one is near ride height with the wheel perfectly centered in the wheelwell. The frame is at ~5.5" off the ground with the LCA parallel to the ground. The rear section of the frame is about 6.5" at ride height, so I've got just a little rake. Perfect.

Yeah, I'm happy with this mod. Now to tear it all apart again and clean/paint everything...

[5150]

Looks awesome gringo!!!!!!!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks killer wheres the smashed can

[Frizzle Fry]

Wish I could get my inners done sooner so you could see if that's the way you want to go, but my plate is full with the rear mods and exhaust re-do...

[PBFAB.COM]

Nice to see it coming together!

[babyblueoval]

Looking good

I'm glad you're doing yours before I do mine. It'll be nice to see some of the problems I'm gonna encounter before I get there.

[72BlckButy]

Man that thing is coming together nicely.... great work gringoloco!!

[gringoloco]

Thanks everyone for the props! I feel like I'm getting closer, but I know there's still a LOT left to be done...

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Looks killer wheres the smashed can

Gotta do a little trimmin', then drink the beer

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Wish I could get my inners done sooner so you could see if that's the way you want to go, but my plate is full with the rear mods and exhaust re-do...

That's still a ways off. Inners will be a 'finishing' detail. In the mean time, let's see how those headers fit. I've got a 427 sittin' on the stand and I think it would look good between the framerails of ol' blue...

Here's what I played with tonite. I blame Frizzle entirely for this mod

[toplesskayfiver]

lookin good! what are you using for the rear disc conversion?

[Tony@AirRideTech]

CrazyWhiteBoy...... It looks killer man!