Truck fell apart

[Blue'72]

I'm getting ready to do that with my truck. Swapping over to a short frame. Feel free to send your little gremlins my way! I wish I could wake up and find my truck at that point..

[shifty]

Seriously? I think, at this point, after doing it three times now, I could probably tear down an entire truck like this in a matter of 4-5 hours, tops, probably by myself

The more and more I get into this truck and tear it down to nothing, the more and more I realize how dang simple they are.

I love the simplicity of it all...gives me more room to stuff complicated crap into it

[gringoloco]

Originally Posted by shifty

And so it went. And went. And went. And went.

Yeah, I've got a little snowball of my own goin'. Glad to see you jumpin' off the deep end!

Bags? Step notch? Dropmember?

[shifty]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Yeah, I've got a little snowball of my own goin'. Glad to see you jumpin' off the deep end!

Bags? Step notch? Dropmember?

you'll see

[69C10@16]

Sweet Im not the only guy with this problem. I sat here the other day thinking "Man, I really would like to put in an overdrive transmission. Well, taking out the cab would make that SOO much easier. Heck it's just four bolts. But since it's comin off it really needs some body work. Takin it out means the front clip has to go too. It could use a LOT of work. And since everything will be so easy to get to why not clean up the whole block. Oh but that means the tank has to come out. Might as well go ahead and put in that underbed tank. But that means taking off the bed too. Well have it worked on too. Since the bed and front clip is off i should go ahead and drop it. But then Im gonna want new wheels. And they'd look really bad without a nice paint job. But if that's all gettin painted then the frame and suspension will look like crap. May as well redo it. And you know since the whole thing is comin out why not go ahead and put in that new wiring harness. And interior. And since the engine will be out you should go ahead and build it all up too. But then that transmission you planned on putting in there in the first place will have to be beefed up to take the engine, not to mention re-doing the rear end. Wait a minute......since when did putting in an overdrive transmission turn into a frame off total restoration?" Worst part is that took you 5 minutes to read but I think it took me about an hour to go through all that in my head that night.

[skokie]

Man I wish I had the garage space to do half of this stuff that you guys are doing

[68Stepbed]

Now you've done it!!

Can't wait to see the finished product now.

[shifty]

Originally Posted by skokie

Man I wish I had the garage space to do half of this stuff that you guys are doing

I have all this stuffed into one side of a garage. We did it all with my wife's car in the other side

[shifty]

Hmmm, something just arrived in the mail today. i wonder if it could be a clue?

[68 short step]

o sweet, is that the new bic non-friction, self lubercating, no skip, writeing pen?????

[killer71]

No Short Step It's The All New Ergonomic Keyboard...duhhh

[shifty]

Originally Posted by Shane

Your's already looks better than mine ... or at least it's taken apart less.

Your paint and body is 1000% better. You're doing one hell of a good job on your cruiser! (I've been watching, if that says anything)

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Yeah, I've got a little snowball of my own goin'. Glad to see you jumpin' off the deep end!

Bags? Step notch? Dropmember?

Bags, yes. Dropmember, no - I'm around $500 lighter in the pocket after an unfortunate deal went south over the weekend. It hurt pretty bad, killed 25% of my budget. Now I'm going to hafta scrape two pennies together to pull this off.

Originally Posted by 68 short step

o sweet, is that the new bic non-friction, self lubercating, no skip, writeing pen?????

CPP Tubular tranny crossmember. This is a much beefier part than I expected. I am upgrading the hardware, but otherwise looks badass! Should have used it from the get-go!

[TravisH]

I have to say I'm confused. You're going to replace the ECE crossmember while the bodies off because the CPP is easier to install while the bodies _on_?

[shifty]

Nah. More than that. I was going to be picking up a new frame, but the frame I was looking at wasn't suitable for my needs and couldn't have worked out without some hackery.

So, I just placed an order in for:

***************** front bag plates @ http://*****************/67-87Fullsiz...pperPlates.php
***************** front bag cups @ http://*****************/67-98Fullsiz...AirbagCups.php
***************** Slam Specialties RE200 7" bags + valves

CPP rear bolt-in notch kit
CPP new upper and lower ball joints

ECE Extreme Drop Center Crossmember
ECE super panhard (+bushings?)
ECE shock relocator kit
New trailing arm bushings

Then I wanted to get sandblasted and powdercoated (silver, same color as that crossmember), but I don't think I can stay within budget if I do both that AND the "drop center" crossmember. We will see.

[TravisH]

hmm your a little too close for comfort to what I've got , slams are a great choice

I was going to tell you not to bother with the ECE crossmember but then I went to their site and saw it at $189. I thought I remembered it at $400 but at $189 its not bad. If you stick with stock crossmember you might have to raise driveshaft loop (I did) and cut holes if you want to run exhaust through it so it depends on your fab skills.

[shifty]

I don't feel like fabbing anything up, so it sounds like I might want to highly consider it Honestly, that crossmember is the only part of my frame that isn't smooth as a baby's butt, so I might as well cut it out, right?

I noticed that CPP also has a similar setup, but the driveshaft hoop doesn't go as high (1.5" on CPP unit vs 3" on ECE unit), the holes are ovular on the CPP unit and totally closed on the framerail side, and the ECE unit has more space to run brake and fuel lines on the framerail side.

I forgot to mention that I plan on shaving any unnecessary holes in the frame. I got one of those magnetic copper plates from Eastwood, so I figure it should be easy to fill some holes now that I have the supplies. (I wanted to think ahead before getting powdercoated so I don't kick myself later)

[shifty]

Ok, order placed.


This is what I ordered, and roughly what I am looking at for cost out-of-pocket

*****************
812-782-3581
1967-1987 Chevy Truck front airbag plates - ~$70/pr (http://*****************/67-87Fullsiz...pperPlates.php)
1967-1987 Chevy Truck front airbag cups - ~$60/pr (http://*****************/67-98Fullsiz...AirbagCups.php)
Slam Specialties RE200 7" bags - ~$300
8-pack of SMC 3/8" Valves (for the bags) - ~$219

Total: $592.45, shipped


Early Classic Enterprises
888-777-0395
ECE super panhard ("trackbar") kit - $109
ECE Extreme Drop Center Crossmember - $189

Total: $345.63, shipped


Classic Performance Products
800-522-5004
CPP 1960-1972 rear notch kit - $99

Total: ~$118, shipped (I believe that's what he said)

================

NOTE:

UPS damaged a box, so I had to return these items - not sure that I'm going to re-order because some members have warned me about fitment problems I might encounter:

CPP 1963-1970 upper & lower ball joints kit - $79
CPP shock relocation kit w/shocks - $169
New poly trailing arm bushings - $24/pr


----------------------------------

Also - note that I didn't get a compressor, tank, water trap, pressure switch, air line, etc. which are probably pretty critical to someone else who is setting up a system like this. I'm just going to slap some valves in mine and manually inflate to install them for now...then the frame is going off for blast and powdercoat.

[gringoloco]

Your shopping list looks eerily familiar...

You chose wisely on the ECE center crossmember. It is definitely the superior piece for the reasons you noted, as well as having the trailing arm perches bolt on instead of welded.

The shock relocators are different. Do a search on them. The angle appears to be off and the bolts interfere with the shock loop. From what I have seen, the ECEs are the better choice there too. I am sure some people have made them work though.

I may just be jaded though- I've had a few bad run-ins with CPP. If I can get something elsewhere, I will...

[Hart_Rod]

I know ECE farms some stuff out (eg, the stainless tanks come from a place in TX), but I'm pretty certain most of their chassiss stuff is done in house.

[shifty]

Well, I'm hoping for the best. I guess if nothing else...$169 seems like chump change compared to what I lost this past weekend on my attempted frame swap. If the CPP relocation kit doesn't work out, I can always turn around and buy from ECE. Only reason I didn't buy ECE is because the CPP tubular tranny xmember piece I got was actually surprisingly very nice, very beefy and well powdercoated...whereas the ECE tranny xmember I bought arrives slightly bent, powdercoat was cracked on one side (and flaking off) and I wasn't satisfied.

It's been hit or miss with me on ECE products. I love the GenIII mount kit I have and will praise it till the day I die. But ... I think it's just one of those things.

[gringoloco]

Forgot about a couple of things you may want to grab if you don't already have 'em:

Drop spindles and raised front sway bar brackets.

Also, don't mean to be all up in your bizznass, but you may want to look at the cheap blue Monroe shocks to match your bags. Most guys here swear by 'em. ART and Porterbuilt both use them with their air suspension setups. One of the ART guys went into a long explanation about how the valving is optimized for the way the air springs react in one of the threads here. Might save you a couple bux over the other stuff too. I think I paid like $17 each for mine...

Just let me know when you want me to shut up

[caminokid]

Well heres my fear. My 69 fleet is rusting away. So I am scared I am going to walk out and find it fallen apart!!!

[shifty]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Forgot about a couple of things you may want to grab if you don't already have 'em:

Drop spindles and raised front sway bar brackets.

I'm running drums. I'm going to chop the cups halfway down to gain the extra drop in front. No swaybar for now

[shifty]

Ok, blessing in disguise - once again UPS sucks butt, they delivered the main package from CPP with a 2" x 3" tear in the side of it - anything could have fallen out, so I refused the entire box.

This is the box that had the shock relocator kit + shocks + trailing arm bushings + upper/lower balljoints. The rear notch was boxed separately, which is good, I wanted to keep that. Normally I would be pissed - UPS damages at least 20-25% of the packages I get every week. CPP was really cool about it, they're refunding shipping AND they're refunding all my $$$'s. Definitely nice to do business with them if everything works out. They were more than polite.

In this case, it's a blessing because I completely changed the direction I'm going - after talking to several members, I decided it's in my best interest to get the beefier front suspension (upper/lower control arms, tie rod ends, center link, spindles and discs) off a '73-'87 truck and use those. Local pull-a-part has several of these trucks in their yard.

So ... Not that anyone is interested, but just an update...and I had to update my shopping list above also to reflect changes.

[Brad]

Sounds like it worked out great for ya Jason! I highly recommend the '73-'87 suspension myself- it's alot more comfortable as long as you use the stock rubber control arm bushings.