Project "Popeye"

[LEEVON]

Found a perfect bumper sticker

[OrrieG]

I'm a fan of "Keep Honking, I Am Reloading"

[50-MO]

Looking good Leevon, I've decided that I am going to go the same route with the trailing arms so I am sure that I may have some questions for you. Heck, maybe you can come out to the house and share your expertise if you have the time. My brother in law works for Hendrick Motorsports and I am trying to see if he will score me a set of NASCAR truck arms first and now I am on the hunt for a crossmember.

[LEEVON]

Good plan, easy as pie. Come on over and take a look.

[LEEVON]

I drug the bed out of a barn in pieces this weekend and will be mocking it up right away, so I can set the rear wheel center line for good. I have a new front panel, 2 crossmembers and 1 rear stake pocket which is rotten where the tailgate and crossmember attach. Pics soon.

[NewType72]

So subbed been checking out all three of the projects of yours tonight and I gotta say I'm digging all of them keep up the great progress man!

[LEEVON]

Originally Posted by NewType72

So subbed been checking out all three of the projects of yours tonight and I gotta say I'm digging all of them keep up the great progress man!

Thanks! Great Progress is a generous description, but I'm trying!

[LEEVON]

I drug the bed out of the barn a couple of weeks ago and put it together yesterday. I had to use a replacement front panel, front support and rear stake pocket. I also rebuilt the rear support and stitched up several tears in the fenders and bedsides. I'm not going for pretty of course, just need good and solid. I plug welded the rear pocket, turned out pretty nice after some tweaking. I enjoy this kind of work, it was hard not to get carried away...remember PATINA is part of the deal!

If I can get a hand this afternoon I'll throw it on the frame.

[LEEVON]

Bed is on...digging the look.

[Chevette]

Looks real good, LEEVON. Very nice.

[LEEVON]

I forgot to add this pic sometime back:

[LEEVON]

Thanks Ya'll!

[99 to Life]

I'm in luuuuv with this patina. and the the set up too

[NewType72]

man that last shot of the bed on looks awesome!!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks great with the bed on..

[67cheby]

bed looks great

[SCOTI]

Bumping this for Leevon. Per my message in my PM, we're looking for the dimension/height of the rail @ this point on the frame directly above where the rear axle tube would be positioned (circled in the pic). Just the rail height only (top lip to botton lip).

And for the 2nd pic, are you bottomed out in your c-notch?

[LEEVON]

The frame rail depth over the axle was approximately 3.75". This isn't exact of course, since I have the notch now but it should be close. With the notch, the top of my frame rail is now 2.5" from the top of the axle at full dump. The pumpkin is in to the bed about 1". I'll probably just move shim the bed floor up that amount. It's not a big deal, just need to relocate the side rails and add the same amount to the cross rails. I might just go even simpler and cut a small hole though.

In the second picture above the frame notch is resting on the axle (full dump). Reading into your question about the bed floor a bit, I think I have gone the lowest possible with the least impact. My running boards are about 2.5" off the ground but if I wanted to lay completely out, in order to raise the axle another 2.5" higher, I'd have to do a bridge/notch and would lose much more of the bed. Here are a couple more pictures for reference.

[SCOTI]

Excellent.... The info w/pics provided will help my buddy & his son make some educated decisions.

We've been discussing chassis options for his youngest boys truck. They were looking into the S10 chassis swap but it's debatable if there's that much benefit depending on 1) how much you get w/the donor truck; B) what kind of shape it's in; C) how much the donor costs. This led to discussions about what it would take to just utilize the OE frame w/an IFS front set-up & new rear suspension.

The key factor is the budget. 2 blossoming hot-rodders + their projects while trying to teach them to do as much as possible in the driveway.... We know the front will be pretty low but the rear was an unknown (Which would be required, the c-notch or step notch?). The pics/visual info should help them get an idea of how low they can go w/the typical frame c-notch.

Thanks for the help!

[99 to Life]

I can't get over the patina on this truck. I just luuuuv it.

If money is of any concern and you want to lower or bag it, I'd say the s-10 is
always going to be your safest bet. You can get a rolling chassis for 100 bucks usually, say even 200 thats nothing and the foundation and geometry is already there. Just my opinion. I'm all in favor of both but man just forking out the cash for an IFS and then a bag set up is pricey.

[LEEVON]

Another dimension to the chassis question...if you have a nicer chassis where the parts are still serviceable and the kid would just be putting around town and to school then I wouldn't hesitate to go with a drop axle, disc brake conversion and drop leafs/blocks out back. If I was building this for my son and he was close to driving that's probably the way we'd go, considering time and money first (mostly time).

[focusedontheprize]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

Another dimension to the chassis question...if you have a nicer chassis where the parts are still serviceable and the kid would just be putting around town and to school then I wouldn't hesitate to go with a drop axle, disc brake conversion and drop leafs/blocks out back. If I was building this for my son and he was close to driving that's probably the way we'd go, considering time and money first (mostly time).

Really enjoying your build boss. Truck looks great. Excited to see when you get the dog house on.

@99tolife: As for the dropped axles, I believe there is more people doing it here on the board than you think. I know Coach and myself have gone that route and I have a few friends that also went that route that aren't on the board. In the end, if time is of the essence (which here in my case it was), the dropped axle was the easier route.

[99 to Life]

I've waived every option and plan to do all of them eventually. The narrow front track is such a minor issue. Wheel spacers are usually required in back and whats another $70 bucks for fronts, plus you have more control on your wheel tuck. The s-10 frame is way stronger, if you plan on having some serious horse power. I agree I'd rather sell a truck with a nice IFS and original frame, personally doing one of those. I've also weighed the drop axle and like the more old school route of lowering these. But for 400 plus on a a drop axle and disc brake conversion, all new kingpins etc etc. I quickly made my mind up on going with and IFS for that build, and the resale value would be better IMO. Either way the s-10 route is def cheaper and a quick way to get on the road. As far as bagging and s-10 there are just a lot of prefabbed and easy routes to do that, bagging is just not cheap regardless but the geometry and info on baggin s-10s are sooo plentiful, I feel it would be cheaper to do the s-10 as well.

I started a thread on dropped axles and not many people replied, so that is def a route that seems to not have many people on board.

[stepside83]

this is a cool truck, hope to seee more of it

[CHIZZLER]

hey leevon truck is looking great.