Introduction, nostalgia, and '68 build, oh my

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by hewittca

....I also noticed that my truck has entered the stage of the project where it begins to be absorbed by it's surroundings and become a place for additional storage in the garage. At least it's still getting used as a truck I suppose...





And lastly, some fitment motivation. While the truck's up on stands, I somewhat mocked up where the rear will be once I finally add in the drop blocks. Even with only 4" backspace on the 9" wide rears, I still think they are tucked a little too deep. I'd really love to throw the wider rear end in there with the 6 lugs from '69, but for the meantime I am going to put in some longer studs (Moser 7/16-20 x 2 7/8") and 1/2" spacers. I ran spacers for years on my Malibu, and with the Moser studs I think I'll be alright. I don't beat on this truck anywhere near what I did to my Malibu.



Next up is getting the transmission reassembled and installed. I hope to have that done within the next month. Then maybe I can actually get back to painting the bed.

Nice investigative work on the motor. Prob extended it's life significantly because eventually there would have been a brief starvation issue that likely would have taken out a bearing or two.

As for the rear wheel being too far in, it looks good from the pic posted (and I am picky about it). It could be the angle but again, looks right to me. On the 'wider' 69/later 6-lug housing... Seemed the change to the wider housing happened sometime in 70. That's where there were 2 different length 6-lug housings. Measure the distance between the backing plate & T/A perch on your current housing to ensure you're getting a longer one if you go shopping around.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

As for the rear wheel being too far in, it looks good from the pic posted (and I am picky about it). It could be the angle but again, looks right to me. On the 'wider' 69/later 6-lug housing... Seemed the change to the wider housing happened sometime in 70. That's where there were 2 different length 6-lug housings. Measure the distance between the backing plate & T/A perch on your current housing to ensure you're getting a longer one if you go shopping around.

Great, thanks for the correct year to look for. I knew it was sometime during the 69/70 model years. You're right, from the photos I posted it really doesn't look off at all, but I like to have the rear wheels as tight as I can get them. I have about 1 1/8" on each side and I'd like to get it down to at most 1/2". Any more than that and at certain angles the rear wheels just don't look right to me.