What would be easier?

[sjarrett71]

What would be easier? To remove all the leaf spring stuff on the rear of my frame and install the coil spring stuff or move the body from one frame to the other? Does anyone that has made the swap in rear suspensions have any pics or recommendations?

[1969stepside]

mine was coils but alot of people like leafs though

[Jacfourteen]

I am getting ready to do the leaf to coil swap in mine, I am also converting from 3/4 ton to 1/2 ton while I'm at it. There isn't that much to it as long as you get all the parts off of the donor truck, the hardest part is to drill all of the rivets out of the crossmember. I already got a 3.73 posi rear, ubolts, lower shock mounts, and panhard bar, now I just have to go back to get the trailing arms, trailing arm mount off of the crossmember, and the crossmember that goes just under the bed that mounts the coils, shocks, etc.. I'm not gonna grab the coils because I'm gonna use airbags instead . I didn't even consider doing a frame swap because this was my grandpa's truck and I want to retain as much as possible while changing what I want. Good luck on your swap whatever you decide.

[raycow]

I vote for the body swap. At least you won't have to drill out any rivets that way.

Ray

[sjarrett71]

WOW! I typed that question last night and while the computer was "working" I hit the stop button. I didn't even know this thread posted to the board. Well, now that it's here, does anyone have any pics of the swap they've done?

I've also thought of restoring/building the coil spring frame and switching my body to it after I get the body work done since it will be apart anyway. I think that might be the easiest way to go. I would still like to hear from people that have made the suspension swap though.

[sjarrett71]

WOW! I typed that question last night and while the computer was "working" I hit the stop button. I didn't even know this thread posted to the board. Well, now that it's here, does anyone have any pics of the swap they've done?

I've also thought of restoring/building the coil spring frame and switching my body to it after I get the body work done since it will be apart anyway. I think that might be the easiest way to go. I would still like to hear from people that have made the suspension swap though.

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by raycow

I vote for the body swap. At least you won't have to drill out any rivets that way.

Ray

X2

Not to mention rusted bolts and all of the junk falling on top of you. My brother and I did this a while back, went from a LWB leaf frame to SWB coil. We pulled the cab and clip, rolled the cab on its back on some old tires, cleaned and painted the underside before the install. This way you could blast and paint the coil frame and have it ready to go, then install new bushings when installing the cab!

[powerbench]

I've done it , and it's not super hard ...but measure alot...it's nice to have a reference frame to work off of. Here are a few pics.

[sjarrett71]

Thanks Powerbench. If you had it to do over again, would you? Or would you buy a coild spring frame?

[powerbench]

I'd buy a coil frame. It was a learning experience. I already had the frame , and i thought i was doing this truck cheap, but i spent quite a bit on bolts and nylock washers...and my time(a lot of time). It did give me a chance to sandblast all the brackets(inside and out). I have since put a "C" notch kit in this frame, and notice i was out on my measurement by a 1/8 to a tight 1/4 on the coil saddles. I think if i had to do the same thing again i would have bought my notch kit first and used it for reference for the hole placement

[BHyatt]

Cheap cut-off wheels on a grinder eat right through those rivets.

[powerbench]

I didn't use a grinder much( would have been alot faster) , i didn't want a bunch of "x" marks where all the rivets were...i had to use a grinder a couple of times those