Need help with body alignment!

[1969guy]

Hey there all, been working on my 71 C20 as of late and need some tips on body alignment and frame leveling.

So far I attempted to level the frame but failed. Not only do I have mismatched wheels and tires, but no level surface either. I started by leveling the front(in front of the cab) by jacking it up and putting blocks underneath the front rails, so the wheels were hanging and set the level centered over the non used engine stand holes (for v8) on the frame rail. So at this point the front was level side to side in the front. Then next using two seperate jacks I raised up the rear underneath the trailing arms (may have been my problem but not sure) and leveled it front to back on both rails. After that the front was not level anymore and the rear was no where near either.

Is there any order to which leveling would be easier? Side to side in the front and rear first, then front to back? Or reverse that? Right now the bed and cab are on it and have bolt set in place for rough positioning.

Next with the body, the bed after putting new 3/4 ton bushings under the cab, sits about 3/8 to 3/4 of an inch lower(estimation). So I know that I will need to either raise up the bed or cut down the cab mounts for better alignment. What is easier aligning the bed to the cab or cab to the bed. I plan on using this truck after its done so I'd rather not raise the bed.

Anyone have a good order of sequence for body? Bed, cab, then front clip? Or cab, front clip, then bed?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Evan

[1969guy]

Where would be a good place to jack it up? Under the cab or at front and rear?

[drfloyd]

I have my bare frame on jack stands right now doing a full suspension. I supported the four corners and used different thicknesses of sheetmetal shims to level. Once you get it up and roughed in you have to go to the individual corners and shim it in. It's a process and complicated more with the cab and bed on it. But one thing is for sure, you can't make any structural changes without being level.

[Wide Open]

Originally Posted by drfloyd

I have my bare frame on jack stands right now doing a full suspension. I supported the four corners and used different thicknesses of sheetmetal shims to level. Once you get it up and roughed in you have to go to the individual corners and shim it in. It's a process and complicated more with the cab and bed on it. But one thing is for sure, you can't make any structural changes without being level.

I'm just starting tear down of my truck and will be doing the same thing.

Where and how do you take the level measurements? Are there any special tricks to this or just place a level on various spots of the frame and adjust until it is level?

[1969guy]

Well I managed to get mine level side to side in the front and back with the bed and cab on it and I'm happy with that. Managed to find all 4 jacks we had to independently change each corner. I'm just going to level the bed to the frame by matching the bubbles on each side from front to back. Then I'll use a straight edge to match the cab to the bed and then the front. Right now have the poly cab mounts and I think that's why my cab sits so much higher than the bed. Probably going to order the real rubber mounts and hopefully it won't be so high. Right now the front of the bed sits lower in the front so I'll raise it up some with fire hose shims and add 1 to each back corner for no metal to metal contact.

Not really making any structural changes to my frame other than possibly adding some supports to the trailing arms and frame under the bed. Also going to put the C30 disc spindles on the front so I can run duals.

Thanks