Intro 1969 GMC LWB Stepside

[NCannon]

Hey guys, I've already gotten tons of help from this forum but haven't posted. I've had this 69 for a couple months, before that I had a 49 willys pickup with a 68 chevy 250 in it, so I've been lurking here for a while getting tips on the engines.

Specs are basically stock 250 with the 4-speed I replaced all the ignition, put in a new carb, and adjusted the valves. I also have an O2 sensor in it for diagnostics and I'm going to keep working to dial in that ol' rochester as best I can (I have a handful of jets from trying to troubleshoot my old truck). It runs great and stays cool even sitting in traffic on 95+ days, it just needs some tweaking. I just picked up the rally's and tires, had to put on a trim piece, and ditched the big truck mirrors. The seat is from a 2000 dodge, and I really like the fold down console arm rest. Everything works in the truck, which is amazing coming from a car where I was happy if the headlights came on. I picked up a new instrument console, and amazingly a gas pedal, from the junk yard yesterday. The truck looks like someone just went and painted the entire thing white, even the interior, I'm not really sure what's up with that, but I'll slowly undo that. I think I'll go satin black body and keep the top white sooner or later.

I intend to chop a coil and drop her a few inches on the cheap while I gather parts for a proper disc swap and ultimately I'm going to shoot for ~4" of drop with a spring under in the rear. I've done a bit of suspension work in my day on 4wd trucks and going spring under seems wrong, but this is just too high where it is. Anyway, thanks again to this forum for being just awesome. I did get GMC Paul weather stripping and freaked a bit since my doors stick out a bit now, but from what everyone says the trim breaks in and the doors will go back to normal after a few months. Hopefully.
-Nate

edit: I forgot to mention, this was originally a Montana truck and has a block heater as well as a fuel heater (as far as I can tell). It looks like the fuel goes into a small heat exchanger with the cooling system. It's pretty rad, but I can't say I intend to drive this much in the winter.

[laplander]

Welcome! Take some more pics and post them, we always enjoy looking at these trucks.

[special-K]

Welcome to (posting on) the site!! Nice truck. We really like GMC Fendersides here...right here > X <

[NCannon]

So I'm looking into dropping it. I was in the junk yard on Saturday and there are a handful of 6 lug disc braked trucks out there, but I've considered a few snags. I've searched and haven't found really quite what I'm looking for.

I want to drop it with spindles, so I might as well just order drop spindles. I want to keep my current lugs consistent, so I'd like to find 7/16 6 lug discs. If I have to buy them, basically I just need calipers to master cylinder components. If I just need calipers, lines, proportioning valve, MC (I don't care about power really, but I guess it would be nice), I suspect that widens the range of trucks I can pull from.

Can I use 4wd truck calipers/lines, etc? Being in Denver, most of the trucks I come across are 4wd, if I BUY the new correct 6 lug rotors, can I use stuff off of chevy vans, or any other vehicles? If I don't get any hits on this I might post a new thread or just search more, but basically, I'm okay buying the drop spindles and disc brakes, but would rather not pony up for the FULL "kit". Any tips?
-Nate

[special-K]

I can't say for sure. You may have better luck asking in the suspension message board. It seems to me there is an alternative to buying the kit by using OEM rotors.

[NCannon]

Thanks, figured I'd probably get better help in another thread/forum.


so the PO painted everything white... Weird. The seat is out of a dodge, the radio is just filling the hole, not connected to anything. All the gauges work. The heater is just sort of ON all the time, and the levers are connected but don't seem to do anything.

-Nate