Lowly the 70 shortbed convert v2.0

[zicc1835]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I agree SCOTI, it is a bit counterintuitive to raise the front rails after going all in on the QA-1 setup. Thing is, I never feel like I can get low enough! Funny story, I emailed QA-1 and asked if they had a photo of a truck with this suspension adjusted to it's lowest height. The reply I got was, Why would you want to see that?! They did say that if you run 15" wheels you might not be able to adjust the coilovers to their lowest setting. All this had me worried I wouldn't reach the drop I wanted so I decided I will raise the front rails, if at the very least I don't have to run the coilovers all the way down. I am going to Z the frame right at the firewall. I am already dropping the horns 1" for the body drop, so what's one more inch there as well. In the rear I am still doing the 4.5" raised rails like I did on Bluey, so this frame is going to be down (bumper), up (front suspension), down (cab), up (rear suspension), down (bumper), all with a body drop for an extra 1" overall!

looking forward to see the progress .... first we need to stay warm

[hewittca]

I ended up getting a 60k BTU propane heater for the garage, which is enough to just take the edge off so that I can get out in the garage and get some work done. With the help of my longtime friend Nick we were able to knock out the remainder of the rust repair panels on the cab. The right side was fairly easy after the lessons I learned on the left side.





Once all the pieces were welded in I was able to remove the cab from the frame. Aside from a mistake in one of my measurements, the cart works well. My kids also helped me a bit while we rearranged components in the garage.







The next order of business is to get the frame disassembled so I can drop it off to get blasted. My goal is to have the frame work completely done and the suspension assembled by summer.

[hewittca]

Things are progressing nicely on the build lately. I've had endless motivation and I'm using that to my advantage to catch up to where I wanted to be on this build by this point. I've made enough progress on the body panels for now and I wanted to move on to the chassis and suspension. This frame will be a revision on how I did things on the last two trucks. I started by getting the frame broken down and blasted. About one week at Carolina Finishing and I had a completely clean frame. They also treated it with iron phosphate which is supposed to prevent rusting and act as an adhesion promoter.







On my first truck I shortened the frame and raised the rear rails 2.5". On the second truck I raised the rails 4". On this truck I shortened the frame and raised the rails 4.5". This is about as far as I would want to go with this technique. I made a quick sketch of how I would make my cuts and align the frame. After some brainstorming, I decided that I would make wooden supports to hold the frame secure while I cut it apart. On my previous trucks I supported the frame under the cab while the rear was able to hang under its own weight. In both cases, I had issues with the bed being low in the rear. For this truck, I started by supporting the frame at the suspension points front and rear so it would be suspended naturally between these two points. Then I added the middle two supports such that they were just touching the frame but not supporting the weight. I'm hoping this approach results in better alignment of the bed.





After plotting the lines on the frame, it didn't take long with the grinder to end up with a frame in two pieces. I made a 4.5" riser to add to the rear frame support and pulled the frame forward to shorten it by the standard 12" and tacked it in place to replicate the diagram. This method resulted in acceptable tolerances on all measurements and an exact 4.5" raise.







From this point the focus was welding the joints front and back, as well as adding filler pieces to close up the gaps. The overlap between frame pieces is 8", plenty considering the frame section height is 6". Regardless, I will still add a fish plate to the inside of the frame. I like this method better than boxing the frame because the box plate makes it hard to run lines along the frame.

[zicc1835]

sonic booms in the sky by your garage ....fast moving objects ...all kidding aside very nice progress

[hewittca]

Shifting gears a bit, I'm going to drop in an update on the rearend since I need this ready to install when the frame is done. I wanted this truck to be a step up in every regard compared to my last truck. I decided to ditch the stock 12 bolt with 3.08 gears and replace it with a Ford 9". This rearend is a kit from Currie designed to fit standard GM truck arms for C10s. It comes with their Twin Track helicoil posi and gearing of your choice. I went with a 3.50 since I wanted something a little more aggressive but still with relatively good highway manners like my 3.08 gears. I also chose the narrower rear end at 62 1/8" flange to flange. Overall the build quality is superb. It was nice to be able to just drop in the third member straight out of the box. I've heard 9" gears can be noisy, so I'm curious to see if that's the case with this setup.







For brakes I needed something that would fit inside a 15" wheel. This was an area that I could also improve over my last truck which was drums in the rear. I've always liked Wilwood so I ended up with one of their kits that fit the Ford rears. It is PN 140-7140 with a 4 piston Dynalite caliper with integrated parking brake drum and 12" rotors. It's tight but it does indeed fit. This is testing with my 15x7 front wheel since the rears are still on backorder.







I had the 225/70r15 front tires mounted on the 15x7s and assembled the rear arms to mock everything up. Once my rear wheels come in these will be replaced with 295/55r15 tires on 15x10 wheels. Shout out to Gassin' Supply Co. for the rear drop blocks. This is a new company started by the UBT crew and the quality on the several parts I've purchased is excellent.





Before I bolted the front tires on the rear I threw them behind the front fender for another inspirational mockup. If everything lines up as I've planned this is where the wheel should land.

[SCOTI]

Nice updates.

[Bodied67]

Killer

[nicklear36]

Killer work!
Random question, what resolution are your photo uploads?

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

Killer work!
Random question, what resolution are your photo uploads?

thank you!

I use Flickr instead of attaching my photos directly to the post. They are 1024x768 and I just use my phone to take the pics. I like using Flickr because I can choose the size, place them directly in my post, and include more than 5 photos. The negative side is if Flickr ever goes down or becomes a paid subscription all my photos go away or get watermarked. This happened on my first build thread.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by hewittca

thank you!

I use Flickr instead of attaching my photos directly to the post. They are 1024x768 and I just use my phone to take the pics. I like using Flickr because I can choose the size, place them directly in my post, and include more than 5 photos. The negative side is if Flickr ever goes down or becomes a paid subscription all my photos go away or get watermarked. This happened on my first build thread.

I shrink mine down to 750x560 & load them to the site/post for this exact reason (to keep the images w/the info).

[hewittca]

Continuing on with the frame modifications. The next step was to remove the front clip so I could raise it 1". Lots of work involved here for one additional inch of drop, but in the end it is worth it. I picked a location to section and within minutes the cuts were complete. I didn't want a harsh transition from one section to the next so I decided to slice and bend the mating top/bottom flanges of the frame. This resulted in several little filler pieces that needed to be made. In order to strengthen this section of frame, I added a fish plate to the backside. Still lots of finish metal work to go but you get the basic idea.









With the front clip up 1" I have to come back down 1" with the nose. But wait, there's more! I actually have to come back down 2" because of the additional one inch body drop. On my last truck I made this cut directly behind the core support mounts. This resulted in a few fitment oddities with the radiator, core support, and steering box. On this truck I decided to move this cut back several inches. Doing this absolutely requires a rack/pinion, which I have already committed to. The concept was the same for this section, except I had to make up the 2" difference. I decided it was better to cut into both sides of the adjoining flanges and force them to meet in the middle. I was able to utilize the original bend in the frame to make this transition seem more natural. Next up, many more hours of cutting, welding, and grinding to make this seam disappear. I will update with the final product at a later date.

[hewittca]

Moving on to a few other little modifications required to make this frame work for me. First is getting rid of the flanges that hang down under the cab. I tried to figure out what these are for but came up empty handed. On my last few trucks they were just a nuisance and were the sole source of interference with speed bumps on Bluey! Therefore, they must go. A few quick cuts and they were gone. I filled the void with a few pieces cut from the spare frame pieces I conveniently had lying around from shortening the truck.







Onto the rear of the frame. I decided to keep the rails raised all the way to the rear because this allows me to mount the bed in the stock fashion. It also tucks my gas tank way up under the bed, which I really liked on Bluey. The only thing I have to address is the bumper mounts. I've done this three different ways on three different trucks. They all look goofy, but I like this method the best so far. I used a piece of C-channel frame to duplicate the same mounting method as stock, just dropped 5.5". If you're keeping up, thats's 4.5" to account for the raised rear rails, plus one more inch for the body drop. Cut, weld, grind, cut, weld, grind, done.





At this point the frame is in a spot where it is structurally sound again. Although I still have HOURS of finish work left to do, I feel it is a good point to stop and mock everything up. I have made quite a few tweaks to all suspension dimensions, so I need to see if everything lines up like I calculated. So from here I will install the suspension and all body panels to make sure everything fits, and also to provide a massive dose of motivation.





This will also allow me to consolidate the mess that is currently consuming my entire garage so that we can drag my son's truck back inside. In the background of all these pics, maybe you noticed the unassuming i6 on the engine stand. We have been making slow but consistent progress on getting this motor rehabilitated to drop in his truck. It is just about time to make that happen and this is a good opportunity to pry my attention away from my truck and put some back on his.

[SCOTI]

A bunch-O-work right there. I did my 'bumper drop' frame brackets the same as well.

[Bodied67]

love seeing the updates on this thing. Keep it up