leaf to coil springs

[ggtsvnv]

HI all I posted this in the suspension section and have had no response so I thought I would try here being as you guys are in the spacific year that I am looking at. Ok here is the deal I have been looking for a 69 or 70 chevy 1/2 ton to restore for quite sometime ( the last one I had was stolen a few years ago and never recovered) and I found one that has my interest. It is a two owner 70 and the second owner has had it since it had about 6,000 miles on it. It has all the orginal paperwork, window sticker warranty card, owners manual ect. It has the 402 big block and is a CST/10 and a rebuilt turbo 400 ( the orgional). It runs very well but needs some body work but it is dents not rust. Now the one thing I don't like about the truck is it has rear leaf springs and the 8 lug rear end, I prefer the coil springs and 5 lug. Is it possiable to switch over the leaf to coils and how hard would it be? Thanks

[gonebad2]

If it has an eight lug rear end, it should be a C/20 3/4 Ton. A C/10 would be 6 lug. You can switch it over. You need to find a frame that came with coils. Remove ALL of the frame mounts that the trailing arms attached to(drill out the rivets and don't forget the panhard bar mount or the trailing arms ). If you want a 5 lug rear end, you need to find one out of a '71 or '72 That came with coil springs. The diff housing has the provision for mounting the panhard bar. I would imagine you would also want 5 lug discs up front? If it is a 3/4 ton, you can't get them. Front discs on 3/4 tons are all 8 lug. I suppose you could change out the entire front suspension. About the only thing you could re-use would be the steering box (but you will need a new pitman arm) and the sway bar if so equipped. Man, you have alot of work ahead of you. Oh yeah, when installing the trailing arm brackets...be sure to use high quality grade eight bolts....Same on the front end.

[gr8scott51]

I bought one of the first trucks I looked at and found out it was a lot worse than it appeared. If it needs that much work to be the truck you want, the truck you want is out there someplace else. It sounds like a perfect truck for CPNE.

Good luck.
Scott

[ggtsvnv]

Thanks for your help, I did call the seller last night and he told me that the rear end is not orginal, it was taken out of a 3/4 ton as he wanted the 4:10 posi for pulling and towing so thats why the rear end is 8 lug and the front 6. He said he was not sure what gear ratio was in the 1/2 ton rear end but that this set up had a lot more low end torque. Maybe I will just leave it as a leaf spring rear end, I really like the truck other then that so maybe I should just live with it. Other then A/C it's pretty loaded , factory bucket seats, factory tach, power breaks, big block, turbo 400, P/S, CST model, tinted glass, it even has the orginal radio still, although I would change it out. And compared to most that I have seen it's got a good body as it has just some very minor serface rust, other than a few dents which all look fixable. And the owner is only asking $1000.00 for it, and most of the ones I see around here go for a lot more or all beat to he** or rusted out.
Thanks again

[Solver]

Parts alone are worth more than the asking price. Buy It!!