1972 SWB Build

[Low Elco]

What would the proper crimpers be? Weatherpak? I've done some audio stuff, but I'm no one's electrical genius.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

What would the proper crimpers be? Weatherpak? I've done some audio stuff, but I'm no one's electrical genius.

https://www.americanautowire.com/pro...rimping-tools/

You can rent them from AAW or purhase a Delphi Packard crimper. They make really nice crimps. I borrowed the pair from a buddy.

[beaterku]

Got to spend a little time on the truck today. I was able to finish up cleaning the truck arms and some brackets. The cross members wouldn't fit in the blast cabinet. I'll have to drop them off to be blasted. Coated the parts in Chassis Saver. Most likely going to put a top coat of roll bar paint to give it flat look.

[beaterku]

Parts are staring to arrive

[beaterku]

More parts arrived today. I am starting to get pumped for the winters project!

[BugzC10]

Originally Posted by beaterku

Ride Quality and so that can install the Streetgrip kit.

What will be your ride height end up being with the Streegrip kit?

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by BugzC10

What will be your ride height end up being with the Streegrip kit?

I think I read somewhere it is like a 4/5 drop, but don't quote me on that.

[Jason7121]

Nice work so far. You cant go wrong with red and white with a 6.0 swap.

[Advanced Design]

Looks fun, I'll be tagging along.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Jason7121

Nice work so far. You cant go wrong with red and white with a 6.0 swap.

Thanks! Good looking truck you have there!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looks fun, I'll be tagging along.

Thanks! It's a slow process. I have two kids that keep me busy, so it's about an hour at a time.

[Camaroguy]

Cool truck, and I like the direction you're headed with it.

[Low Elco]

Mmmmm, yummy parts. We'll need a report on those shocks.

[beaterku]

Thanks!

[BugzC10]

Originally Posted by beaterku

More parts arrived today. I am starting to get pumped for the winters project!

Beater...what's the part number on the ridetech shocks?

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by BugzC10

Beater...what's the part number on the ridetech shocks?

Front: 22139841
rear: 22189841

This is what I found online. The part number on the shocks doesn't seem to jive with anything on Ridetechs site.

[BugzC10]

Originally Posted by beaterku

Front: 22139841
rear: 22189841

This is what I found online. The part number on the shocks doesn't seem to jive with anything on Ridetechs site.

Thanks..that's exactly what I needed. I had the rears figured out, but the fronts were escaping me. I checked my front shocks today at ride height, they measured 11”. Those are the HQ series, I'm going try and find the RQ units. I have the cross reference numbers.
Thanks again...

[beaterku]

Between Soccer, fall ball and birthday parties, I have had zero time to work on the truck. I was able to blast, clean up and get a coat of chassis saver on the the cross members. I've scuffed them and they are ready for top coat whenever I can find a few minutes. I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to get the truck up on jackstands and start disassembly, hopefully...

[beaterku]

Progress has been extremely slow. I was able to "dig" out the bed bolts. 3 layers of spray in bed liner. That was fun. I also started on a bed cart for when I remove the bed.

All of the parts and cleaned and painted. All that is left is to start disassembly of the truck. I am hoping this weekend I can find some time to get the bed off and start tearing in to this.

I've got an old YouTube channel that I am going to revive and document the entire process. There is not a lot of information out there about the conversion from leaf to coils. Should be a fun little project.

Thanks!

[Dieselwrencher]

At least you're making progress. I'm sure digging those bed bolts out is pure fun.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

At least you're making progress. I'm sure digging those bed bolts out is pure fun.

It's been painfully slow. Between sports, a 1 year old who is not happy with really anything right now and life, it's hard to find time to work on things. I am hopeful that I can find some time this weekend to really dig in.

The bed bolts took about 3 hours with a drywall blade. It was tedious. The PO took the bed off with the bolts in place. That had to have been a nightmare putting the bed back on. All but one of the bolts where bent, so I'd imagine it was a nightmare. I took my time to minimize the cutting so the new bolts don't look too bad. We shall see what it looks like upon reassembly.

[beaterku]

Well, I was able to get the bed off and rear end out this weekend. It ended up being a little father son bonding time with my dad. I made a little video about it as well. This weekend I am going to remove all of the rivets, clean up the frame a bit and start laying out holes for the coil spring crossmember and track bar crossmember.

Thanks!
Nick

https://youtu.be/k1tx_uXx6bw

[beaterku]

Made a little progress this weekend. I was able to remove the exhaust, shock mounts, and some funky brackets someone welded to the frame yesterday. I ran out of time, but it's ready to start putting back together. I'm going to bolt the trailing arms in as well as the axle to approximate locations for the cross members and start measuring and drilling!

I have not removed the leaf spring mounts yet. I'm going to remove them last. I left them on just in case I needed to move the truck for some reason. It's easy to bolt the leaf axle back in. They'll be gone this week.

[beaterku]

Good morning all. I was able to spend some time on the truck yesterday. I bolted in the trailing arm brackets and tailing arms and attached the rear end to help verify the location of the shock crossmember and bolt in c-notch.

The shock crossmember is bolted in on the bottom side. I've got to figure out how to transcribe the top bolt holes to the top flange of the frame. The c-notch lines up perfectly. I was using a frame dimensional drawing that I found on the forum (forgive me, I can't for the life of me remember the user who posted this) to locate the crossmembers. I triple checked the shock crossmember center line and went to drilling. Much to my amazement, it lined up perfect!

I ran out of time and had to call it quits, but it's slowly coming along. Next up is finishing the top holes on the shock crossmember, drilling the holes for the frame stiffener and drilling and cutting the notch in. After that, all that is left is locating/bolting in the panhard bar crossmember and installing all of the ridetech parts.

Here is the video I made of what was done this weekend: https://youtu.be/BXHq3jkOqTA



Thanks!

[beaterku]

Upon further investigation, the frame is far from square from the factory. There is almost a 1/4" variance in the some of the measurements I am getting. I am going to slot the holes in the cross member to get it as close to square and I can with the axle. I had a hell of a time getting the crossmember to center up between the frame rails yesterday so it's about an 1/8" out of center, nothing a couple of slots won't fix.

[Advanced Design]

Nice progress. Removing the bed that way was pretty handy.