Ol John Lee gets a new rear suspension

[Sharps40]

What a great day with bigten (nchuntandfish.com) and his Son on Saturday. I'd posted a trade for help installing a new rear suspension on my 64 C10. bigten offered sportsman to sportsman and I couldn't resist. So, a nice country drive to his shop on Sat AM and 6 hours later (bigten working faster than I could figure out what was going on!) Ol John Lee is riding 2" higher in the rear on new OEM coils and every bushing and bolt has been replaced in the suspension. 16 bolts to get the job done and I'd been previously defeated by 250 ft lb torque rateings and 47 years of rust (only three needed the flame torch and only one needed a bit of heat to release.) So, teh entire job was 2 OEM coils, coil clamps and bolts/washers, truck arm bushings/bolts/nuts/washers, track arm bushings/bolts/nuts/washers, shocks, break cable bolts/nuts/washers, truck arm shackles/nuts/washers and a whole lotta good time!

With the right tools for the job, bigten had the old suspension off in under an hour and was pressing new bushings while I wirebrushed parts for a coat of primer paint. We even put on new shackles for the truck arms since the old ones were worn nearly half way through. Sure am glad to have met this bigten. Took a whole saturday off to help a stranger. As for the ride? Much smoother. Less roll. No squeeks or bangs. Now to get the bed off and replace the rotted wood and spend some time with the wire brush getting the rest of the rear half of the frame into black paint. Although, I think some of the major paint work needs to occur between removing and replacing those 47 year old break lines.

Thanks bigten! Couldn't have done it without you. What a great learning experience, thanks for shareing.