my build thread

[sams60gmc]

Originally Posted by creep

Very nice work! Your truck is gonna look wicked!

Thanks man!

[sams60gmc]

Well here's an update since the last one. I brought the frame home, primed and painted it. I've also made my rack and pinion adapter sleeves, drilled out my ball joint taper and pressed in a sleeve, typically when you buy a dropmember kit they tell you to drill your ball joint hole out to 5/8. But it only cleans up about half the hole. I didn't really feel safe like that so I reamed my hole out to 3/4 and pressed in a sleeve to 5/8 and its a really tight fit on the bolt. No slop. I ordered a full poly bushing kit for the front end and getting the old ones out was a huge PITA. I got my 5/8 to 3/4 high missalignment spacers in the mail the other day.
Here are some pics.
Reaming out the hole.

Sleeve pressed in.

Rack and pinion adapter sleeves I made out of 1'' 1045 TGP and 5/8 to 3/4 high misalignment spacers.

Old bushings

Truck as it sits in the garage now.

[creep]

I know this is a little late but I just noticed in your pics there aren't any plates welded the the sides of the frame where it is Z'ed. I have always heard you should weld a plate on each side of the frame rail, overlapping the gussets and tying both sections of the frame together. I think they are called "fish plates" or something like that. Never done a Z so don't know for sure.

[sams60gmc]

Originally Posted by creep

I know this is a little late but I just noticed in your pics there aren't any plates welded the the sides of the frame where it is Z'ed. I have always heard you should weld a plate on each side of the frame rail, overlapping the gussets and tying both sections of the frame together. I think they are called "fish plates" or something like that. Never done a Z so don't know for sure.

I fish plated the outside of the rails with 1/4". Should be plenty. Check out the video.

[creep]

Cool! Are you keeping the 305? Have you test fit it with the Z?

[redneck6]

bad ass truck bro , you are making me wanna z mine front and rear now , only thing stoping me is cost of steel , you could of made a brandnew frame from scratch , look at all the bling toys you got to play with . bad ass see ya on the road some time .

[sams60gmc]

Originally Posted by redneck6

bad ass truck bro , you are making me wanna z mine front and rear now , only thing stoping me is cost of steel , you could of made a brandnew frame from scratch , look at all the bling toys you got to play with . bad ass see ya on the road some time .

Thanks for the kind words bro, I'm very fortunate to have the the knowledge of machining and having that whole shop at my disposal, I'd love to set up a machine shop if I ever bought a house. I know I could have made a complete frame but I felt that was a little over my head when I started. If I get another parking spot I'd love to pick up a registered 1964 but its the 1963 body style Suburban and I'd build a full frame for it.

Come'on man a stick of 2x4 is only 72 bucks, I built my whole back half with 1 stick and then some extra 2x3 for the body drop, pick up a stick and start cuttin!

[sams60gmc]

Originally Posted by creep

Cool! Are you keeping the 305? Have you test fit it with the Z?

I haven't tried to fit any motor in thier yet. I have a 350 for it that I was planning on using. I would imagine that the 305 would fit just about the same. That thing is a monster.

[sams60gmc]

Well today I got my poly bushings in the mail, I figured out they didn't come with the metal sleeves around them and I completely demolished mine removing them. So I decided instead of trying to find some new ones I'll just build new tubeular upper arms. I got a basic sketch drawn up. I'll start building jig off of my stock ones tomorrow. I went over to my good budy Luke's (frenchblue72) house and checked out his Strong Arms to get some ideas. Pretty stoked about it. Gonna have to run inner fender less now!
Bushings

Rough sketch idea.