Finally Lower

[rudey737]

I finally lowered my 84 longbed this past weekend after collecting parts and waiting for garage time the past six months. It's a McGaughy's 4.5/6 drop with stock shocks up front and shock extenders with stock shocks in the rear. I love the way it looks, and I can get used to the way it rides. Here's a pic I took with my phone last night at the gas station on the way home. New tires and an alignment are in the very near future.



Here are a few things I learned and/or I think are worth mentioning:

Penetrating oil is your friend. When you think you're going to start lubricating 30 year old nuts and bolts early enough before you start working to loosen them, you aren't. Start it about three days before you think you need to. I started three days before we started working and it wasn't enough.

Buy new u bolts for the lower control arms No one had them in stock locally this past weekend, so we didn't cut the old ones off that didn't want to budge. Therefore, I didn't get to rebuild my control arms. I'm planning on that when I rebuild the steering in a month or two.

Don't question TX Firefighter about tire size with your drop The 235/75/15 front tires on my truck rub pretty bad when going over big bumps on the highway. Tire rub on the front of your truck at 65-70 mph on the highway is a little scary the first time it happens.

Wheel size does matter. I have 15x8 ralley wheels on my truck, and the McGaughy's classic 2.5 drop spindles rubbed the inner lip and the wheel weights when we first dropped the front end. We were going to grind the spindle, but I read on here that the 15x8 ralleys had the wrong backspacing for drop spindles, but that the 15x7 truck ralleys would work because they had 4.25" of backspace. I'm running a temporary 5/16" spacer on the front wheels until I can find some 15x7 ralleys.

I'm sure there is more I could post about lowering the truck this past weekend and that there's more I'll learn while driving the truck over the next few weeks. I just wanted to share a picture of how my truck sits now, and reiterate how helpful this site and its members are when someone is working on something for the first time.