Winter Upgrades

[Moarplease]

Then the bed went back on





Once the bed was on it gave me room in the other bay to start painting some front suspension parts.

PB forward lowers, stock sandblasted uppers, and front bumper brackets that were MIA when the truck was purchased.


Then we had a Northester' I had to deal with. Little banking from the town


Then I finished the exhaust tailpipes with the exits and tips behind the wheels.



After the suspension components were dry I installed the cross shafts, ball joints and bump stops.



Installed the control arms


Upgraded the lower's u-bolts to the later larger style


Went to install the spindles and dicovered the ball joint fiasco. Ordered the PB lowers with original 1965 size balljoints. They sit on there fine. Orderd some MOOG 1965 uppers.....nope. They are too thick short. Order some 73-87 and they are identical to the upper balljoints that come on the truck. Well lowers should be 73-87 to match from all that I read. Ordered some of those....nope. Sloppy and to long. So 1965 lower and 73-87 upper ball joints fit my western drop spindles. Shoot me.

These are 1965 upper and lower ball joints


PB lower require a shock stud to mount the lower part of the shock unlike the stock lower control arm that had a through bolt. Bottom eyelet of my new hardly used shocks has a 1/2" eyelet and the PB lower has a 1/2" hole for the shock stud. No such stud made quickly available to fit those needs. Ended up getting the Dorman shock studs


And had the 5/8" shaft turned down to 1/2"

All needed parts now in possession. Should have front together this weekend and hopefully the rack mounted as well.

Adam