Project: Blank Slate

[72BlckButy]

While under my truck cleaning, I ran across something that completely blew me away. I dropped the sparetire carrier and was amazed how nice the original spare tire was. After some cleaning on the wheel tire, it ended up looking like this:







After picking up an original Phillip's 66 metal tire display from Ebay, this will be going on display in the garage. I tried rolling it into the livingroom, but my wife reminded me of my limits.

[72BlckButy]

One thing that was stressed to me, and something I wanted to pass onto those that read this build thread is....

Measure, Measure, Measure!!!

For instance, say you order a lowering kit, and you didn't take any measurements. What if the truck doesn't look low enough according to the pieces you installed, what next? Also, this becomes very important when you go to ensuring your rearend is centered for the truck.

Here are the measurements we started with:

Driver's Side Front: 33 1/2"
Driver's Side Rear: 33"
Passenger Sde Front: 33 1/4"
Passenger Side Rear: 32 7/8"

And the last pictures taken of the trucks initial view:









As for now, I'm going to leave you hanging; more on the install to come.

[oldblue1968chevy]

aww come on show us more hurry up and start installing those parts!!!

[Skirkpat]

The best part of owning Vintage steel is you get too make it your own, If they all were stock it would look like a used car dealersip lot out there... I say drop it,raise it, lower it,cut it up and make a clown car out of it, but make it yours, and be proud of it. That's what I love about old cars...and the people with the balls to drive them. I am sure that it will be nice. I look forward to seeing it soon in person. Keep up the good work. OHHH More pics please?

[crimespree]

this is an amazing platform to start with. must have been still wrapped in plastic all these years.

[n2billet]

That truck is beyond clean........did you know that you can get 6 lug Vintec's

[gcburdic]

Looking good Nate.....props to lolife for his help!!!....If no pics are posted soon, I'll have to do the untinkable....don't make me do it...LOL

[lolife99]

Thanks for the Props.
I'm just glad I got to help Nate work on this sweet truck of his.

[big_al_71]

Nate great posts, great info. I am also looking forward to seeing which route this truck takes....Good Luck
I will be tearing into mine next week

[my67chevytruck]

Nate, stop slacking and post some pictures...... looking great!

[72BlckButy]

Okay guys, back to the build!

A few weeks ago I received some reinforcement from lolife99 that I needed to get this done asap, as we have a truck show to attend this fall, and this had better be ready to go.

I had a few things I need to remove from the truck before we could start working on the lowering kit installation so I rolled the truck out of the garage and started to remove the spare tire carrier.

[72BlckButy]

With that out of the way it was time to turn over to the two bar (receiver). I don't think this thing will be towing to much now....

I will say that whichever owner added the tow bar and trailer wiring harness definitely did it right. There wasn't any hack job here as they used a plug in harness to complete the install.









Ahhhh..... look at the clean rear end!!!!

[72BlckButy]

As mentioned previously....

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

Measure, Measure, Measure!!!

It's important to have the beginning measurements before you begin working on your truck so you have something to refer back too.

Now with everything cleared out of the way on the rear of the truck, it was time to start installing the 6" drop kit from ECE. Just a few shots of the rear of the truck prior to the transformation:





Side note, I'm actually glad the PO marked the tires Rear L, Rear R....

Everything that had to go:
Rear Springs
Rear Shock
Upper Shock Mounts (grind factory rivets out)
Lower Shock Mounts
Stock Panhard Bar (incl. trailing arm mount and differential bolt)
Rear Bump Stops

So we started by getting the truck supported by jack stands in front of the rear wheels, and proceeded to remove the rear wheels. With the truck now on jack stands we broke out the sawsall and went to work on the exhaust; followed by the rear shocks.

[big_al_71]

Come on Nate, Al is anxiously waiting to see the lowering kit installed....Just to think I will be doing this next wednesday...

[72BlckButy]

At this time we supported the rear-end with the jack and proceeded to remove the removed the stock panhard bar, mount and differential bolt. Once the panhard bar was removed we supported the rear-end with jack stands as after we remove the springs it would only be attached to the trailing arms. Next we removed the rear springs so lolife99 could make his way up to the upper shock mounts to remove the factory rivets. Let me tell you, I learned from lolife99 one of the easiest ways to remove factory rivets (if you don't have air tools).

Items needed:
4 1/2" Grinder
Cutting Wheel
Grinding Wheel
Punch
Hammer (a BFH )

The process:
Step 1: Take your grinder with a cutting wheel and "X" the rivet itself, and try to get the majority of the excess cut away
Step 2: Take your grinder with a grinding wheel and grind the remaining portion of the rivet down flush with the frame. (At this point you will begin to see the stud part of the rivet in the frame)
Step 3: Once you can visually see the rivet stud, grab your punch and hammer. Place the punch in the center of the stud, and proceed with hammering the opposite end of the punch. After a few good whacks, the rivet will pop out and you can move onto the next one.



Once you get good at this, it will only take a minute or two to remove a rivet.

Now for a lot of what the following pictures don’t show. After the rear-end was free from the truck (aside from the trailing arms), we needed to break the U-bolts free. Out of everything on this truck, this was one the roughest patches we ran into during the entire install. After banging, prying, and a little elbow grease, we were able to break the trailing arms/rear-end/U-bolts free.

Once we had everything blaster apart, we could begin installing the pieces. We started by putting the lower shock relocator brackets in place, along with the new Super-Trac bar mount on the passenger side trailing arm. With this now in placed we grabbed the U-bolts that were supplied to us by ECE. Now, as see ten mentioned in one of his posts, out of all the parts ECE supplied us with this was only 1 of 2 we ran into issues with. Regardless of the U-bolts being different lengths (hardly noticeable), one U-bolt was narrower than the other. Now for most guys’ this is not a big deal, for me… it is. See I didn’t have a vise to stick the U-bolt in and pry on, so it was off to a shop down the road that would end up paying off in the long run. (Thank you for great neighbors!) Not only were we able to pry the U-bolt wide enough to reinstall, but I also had to borrow an 1 1/16” (IIRC) deep well socket used to tighten down the U-bolts. One other thing to mention at this point are the recommendations of torquing the U-bolts to 215 ft. lbs. Use an impact and you should be good to go… (The cheapest torque wrench I found that went from 25-250 ft. lbs was $119 at Sear’s.)

After we got the U-bolts mounted up, we installed the new upper shock relocator brackets, and then installed the springs. After getting the springs mounted up, we moved onto the new KYB gas shocks. Now at this point, it’s time to refer back to the measurements I took a week prior to the install and begin to install the Super Trac bar. After referring to the past measurements, and using a ratchet strap to get the rear-end centered, we cranked everything down and she was about ready to set her back down on the tires.







Nothing like seeing a nice pile of parts sitting in the garage, but generally when there’s old parts in a pile, something had to of taken their place.... but what?????

[tcb-1]

ohhhhh I can't take this suspense!!

would you have enough clearance if you reinstalled the spare? just curious.

[sjarrett71]

So when you gonna post parts for sale??

[72BlckButy]

It only took me 4 years, 3 monthys, 15 days, two different trucks, and 15,000 posts to get my truck to this point; and I wouldn’t change a thing!

Now on my 15,000th post, I would have loved to of had the truck on all fours (and technically it is), but I’ve got to get this thing documented. We have a lot more to cover though…

Anyone like the gasser look? Or ridin’ Cali? (An "NO" it's not the box lowering it down. )











And with this being my 15,000th post...

Thank you 67-72chevytrucks.com!!!

Thank you to all the members on the site that have helped me in the past; I only hope I can return the favor to you in the future.

Thank you to my fellow Mod's, Admin, and Liz & Josh, for giving us an online community to enjoy our favorite hobby.

This place is the best!

[72BlckButy]

Originally Posted by big_al_71

Come on Nate, Al is anxiously waiting to see the lowering kit installed....Just to think I will be doing this next wednesday...

Al, I just noticed on your build thread that you are going to go with the 4/6 kit from ECE, and I think you made a wise choice my friend. These parts are awesome!!!

I'll try to get everything posted in time to give you a heads up on what your truck will look like.

PM sent....

Originally Posted by tcb-1

ohhhhh I can't take this suspense!!

would you have enough clearance if you reinstalled the spare? just curious.

I'm not sure, but I'm considering finding out.... I will let you know.

Originally Posted by sjarrett71

So when you gonna post parts for sale??

Hopefully not to much longer.

Let me get through this week, and weekend cruise and I'll try to get some stuf posted.

[VA72C10]

Looks great! Just an awesome truck!!!

[big_al_71]

Nate it is going to look beyond awesome, how funny that we both are doing the same exact install within days of each other


Would you mind sharing the difference it made from the wheel opening to the floor from stock to the lowered version...???

thanks

[clos69]

Looking good Nate...can't wait to see the finished masterpiece.

[88JRFAN]

This truck is one of the reason's i'm looking forward to the truck nationals. Truck is looking better with every post. Keep the pics coming, you know how we all love pics!!

[gcburdic]

Great work Nate and lolife!!!....That gasser look is awesome, but looking forward to seeing the final change in altitude!!!

[Bruce88]

You have a very nice truck there to start with and it’s nice to see that there are still some pristine trucks out there. Your posts are very informative in the real world experience of making the modifications. Between your write ups and pictures it’s put together very nice and understandable, thank you for taking the time and effort. Ill be keeping an eye on this build. Keep up the good work