To Do It or Not To Do It? Front end rebuild

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by cj847

I'm with pro 299. Have someone else do it.

Unless:
-You really want to learn it.
-You own a cut off wheel, a BFH, and an air chisel, .
-You have another vehicle to drive while working on it (keep in mind you may get mad and quit working on it for a few days - ask me how I know).

These are heavy, rusty, gunk coated parts and is a PITA project.

This is the reason you do it yourself , To get rid of the rusty , gunk coated parts and Know one of the most important systems in your truck is done right using the right parts .

[Rich72C10]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

Buy Moog parts from rockauto and use Dorman 13503 lower U bolts

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c...kit/mtm0/13503

Do this to get the parts, it is exactly what I did, plus I upgraded to a cpp sway bar (upgraded, meaning it was added as I had no sway bar).

I had the parts in my garage for a few weeks, doing all the research, do it myself, drive up to my brothers and doing it in his shop, or have it done.

1. Doing it myself - I didn't want to deal with the rivets nor did I want to buy anything to deal with them.
2. Doing it my brothers - I was 99% sure this would work out okay but if anything went wrong I'd be ~300 miles away from home waiting to sort out with whatever went wrong.
3. Having it done - this is what I did and the shop had my truck from a Wednesday morning drop off and I didn't get it back until the following Tuesday.

Also, while I was at it - I had the front two flex brake lines and the rear flex line replaced, then the whole brake system flushed and checked out. The shop charge was at $1,500. I want to say the parts were 500~600 dollars.

Now, if I needed to do any frontend work on my truck - I could now do it. Though I doubt I need to worry about it.

Lastly, this complete frontend change (minus the coil springs) was the best damn thing I have done to the truck. I have had a few people drive it (and of course the shop) they can't believe it is a 1972 truck it drives so well

[Rich72C10]

Oh, here is my thread / posting on the final

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...0&postcount=35

Originally Posted by Rich72C10

Well, got the truck back to today, though I could have gotten it yesterday if I was in town (three and 1/2 days work). I was in Dallas watching the Stars kick the Red Wings ass at the American Airlines Center in a VIP box (a friend 4 won VIP box tickets).

I bought almost the parts from RockAuto.com, plus front/rear rubber brake lines and the CPP Front sway bar from Summit. The ran into problems, mainly getting things disassembled and then the rear bleeder was all kinds of clogged but none of the rear brake parts needed replacing, was told I don't need to even think about the brakes for a long time/many miles.

My God, the difference is night and day and that is a understatement! Even pulling out of the shop's parking space I notice the difference (nice stiff / non-boating steering). I then noticed the difference on how she drove on the potted crappy road. Then I got to turn about circles and s-turns where before I would take them slow but now plow through them at 30~40 mph (before at or way under 20 mph).

So while they ended up blow past my high cost number, it was actually worth it.

1.5k to install the below (I came into the shop with all the parts below, in hand).

x1 Pitman Arm MOOG K6131
x1 Idler Arm MOOG K6096T
x2 Outer Tie Rod End MOOG ES415RL
x2 Inner Tie Rod End MOOG ES403L
x2 Tie Rod End Adjusting Sleeve MOOG ES2004S
x2 Upper Control Arm Shaft Kit MOOG K6147
x2 Lower Control Arm Shaft Kit MEVOTECH MK6098
x2 Upper Ball Joint MOOG K6124
x2 Lower Ball Joint MOOG K6117T
x1 Brake & Wheel Hub : Brake Hose Front Left RAYBESTOS BH380713
x1 Brake & Wheel Hub : Brake Hose Front Right RAYBESTOS BH380712
x1 Brake & Wheel Hub : Brake Hose Rear; Coil Spring CENTRIC 15066303
x2 Sets of Dorman HELP! U Bolts | MTM 13503
Front & Rear Rubber lines, fully cleaned/bleed lines.
Classic Performance CLP-CPP7423 Saw Bar
Full 4 Wheel alignment (shims completely reset / old ones not reused at all)

Actually, that isn't the parts list - I must of not updated what I got from RockAuto.... I need to fix that!

Edit2: Taken from my Rockauto invoice.... updated parts list

[lks dcvn]

Watch this first - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dTIQ7mfWlg&t=393s

[Bad70sbchevy]

lks dcvn you beat me to it. I'm using that video as well to go through my front end rebuild. I'll throw in as well:

For those huge hex caps on the A-arm bushings, the best way to get those off is to loosen them while they are still on the truck. I used a breaker bar and an 8ft bar of EMT on the handle to break them loose. Don't remove them all the way, but just enough to get that giant nut to turn (there are four on each side, two for each a-arm). I couldn't imagine trying to get that off once off the vehicle.

I'm going to be re-assembling it this weekend (Wilwood front brake kit finally came in) so I can chime in if I come across any other issues.