Crushing Gumby 71 Shortbed Patina build

[VDOG]

Nice suspension build. So you have ECE Rear Suspension parts, and CPP front Suspension parts. How does it ride? I thought about using ECE for my truck so im curious.

[Rusbuilt]

Awesome friend! Turned out great!

[BB72CHEVKT]

looks good

[Zoomin]

Truck is looking good! I've never seen a two tone done like that before, that's a cool difference.

[lolife99]

Man,... your truck looks great.

Are you sure those are 8's and 10's?
Those tire sizes would be really stretched on those rim sizes.

They look more like 15x6's and 15x8.5's to me.

[jasonvw]

Wow, I totally slipped! I was thinking about the wheels on the old 74. Yep these are 15x6 front and 15x8.5 rear! They fit really well with this drop. As for ride quality, it's actually pretty good. I will say, the KYB shocks are a bit too soft for my taste and I have stiffer ones on the way for the front. The rear is actually perfect so I'm not changing anything there. I will be posting up a pictorial on the alignment I had the other day that you guys may find interesting! Stay tuned. Also today a huge box showed up full of interior goodies, so I'm going to be busy this weekend!
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[lolife99]

I didn't see a sway bar.
What do you have planned for that?

(I love this build!!!)

[truknut]

Looks great. Can't wait to drop mine!!

[jasonvw]

Thanks guys! I am loving it for sure. As for a sway bar, I think I am going to add some CPP sway bars in the near future but for right now, my focus is on the interior. I will be posting up some new stuff later today so stick around. Thanks for the comments everyone.

[sourkraut]

Very nice build
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[67cheby]

nice

[jasonvw]

Thanks thanks thanks guys! Im as into the build as you guys are! So as promised, here is some more content. I don't know about you guys, but as far as alignment is concerned, for me it has always been as case of me dropping off my car or truck and coming back when it was all done. I really had no clue how they got everything lined back up after slamming the suspension way down below what stock was. I decided that this time I would stick around and ask questions, take photos and really get a good understanding for how it works. In the past I have used a shop about 30 miles from my house that was quick, and cheap... and over time I figured out that this was not the key to getting a good job. This time I called around and came across North Coast Alignment and lucky me, they were 5 minutes from the house! During my first phone call I talked to Sean, the owner and found out that he is also a C10 owner and when I mentioned that my truck was really low, he answered, no problem! That sold me. Im sure we have all been to an alignment place with our lowered trucks and got nothing but dirty looks and a very high estimate on the job. I was determined not to go through that again and Sean said they could dial Gumby in for me so off I went.

When we first finished the truck at Teds, we had done a basic plumb-bob alignment to get it close so I could drive it home and get it aligned shortly after. I honestly felt like we were close as it tracked fairly straight, steering wheel was only slightly off etc. When I got to North Coast I had Sean come take a look and we talked shop for a while.

I asked Sean if I could hang out in the back and take photos and basically bother his tech Brock while he worked on Gumby so I could see what goes into a "real" alignment and he said, no problem. Awesome! So off we went to the rack and Brock got my truck loaded.

Brock and I had a conversation about the parts on the truck and the process of getting the truck to really go straight. Brock is a wealth of knowledge about alignments and he has been doing it for more than 7 years so I felt really comfortable letting him take on the job. First order of business was to get the laser boards on the wheels once the truck was up in the air on the lift

There is one board per wheel and these bounce back the laser light that is flashed from the machine mounted to the wall. Its a really trick piece of machinery and watching it work was really interesting.

[jasonvw]

Once the reflectors were in place Brock got up and turned the wheels back and forth to get the truck squared up on the lift.

The computer matched the movements of the truck and when it was happy that the laser was showing it was square we were able to get the current setting of the camber/caster/toe

And once the wheels were straight, these are the readings we came up with.

Now thats a lot of red... not that it was horrible but some issues were obvious right away that to you or me, with a tape measure we would never be able to fully get perfect. Brock pointed out the obvious difference in camber from driver to passenger side. The toe was also off and the rear end was sitting off to the passenger side too far causing the truck to dog track slightly. Again, from my seat of the pants driving the truck up to this point, I had not really felt it was far off of spec. Now seeing this, I realized it was not really even close.

[jasonvw]

So now that we had a baseline of where the truck was to start with, Brock started to get the Camber setting correct. To do that he grabbed his shim box. There are tons of different size and thickness shims in here. He uses these to make big or small changes to the distance between the upper A arm and the frame and this in turn changes the camber setting of the truck on that side.

Brock then loosened up the Drivers side Upper A arm and slowly let it move out away from the frame, watching the computer the whole time. With each turn of the bolt the camber setting got better and so when we got into neutral territory he started to add shims.

Check this photo out compared to the screen shot when we started and you will see the front camber is now in the right place.

And just to confirm, we squared up the truck again and we saw the same green zone. Looks like we are good on Camber now. On to the rest!

[jasonvw]

The next step was to take care of the Toe issue we had going on in the front. Brock loosened up the tie rods so we could adjust them.

And with one Eye on the computer he was able to adjust each side until it moved into the green on the computer and everything was where it belonged.


This is the same thing we have all done when doing a tape measure alignment in our garages. The difference here is that this is squaring up the whole truck first and that ensures that once you set Camber, you can set the toe and the laser keeps its eye on all the other settings in case your new toe settings alters any of the others. Trust me, this is why you spend the cash on a pro shop to do this job.

Now that we had this toe dialed in, we locked down the upper A arms with the new shims since the Camber stayed right where it was supposed to. Time to move to the back of the truck.

[shawno72]

Looking good.

[lolife99]

Thanks for the detailed data on the front end alignment.
Again,... great job on your truck!

[Slammed66]

Love this build!!!!

Great write ups as well
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[mooseknuckles]

thats some good info right there...

[jasonvw]

Right on guys! I thought it would be useful to let everyone see a step by step of each job Im going to do on this truck. Im sure there are plenty of guys out there that have never tried to lower their truck before and maybe seeing this build will help them out. I should be back on Gumby this weekend with new photos coming soon.

[shawno72]

Awesome!! Can't wait. What's next?
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[lolife99]

Everything about this truck is perfect,... but those side mirrors have to go!
How about a 71-72 Sport mirror install thread?

[jasonvw]

Its funny you mention the mirrors... Aside from the rear bumper, they were the first thing I planned to replace when I got the truck. I don't really like the sport mirrors myself as they look a little too 70's passenger car to me. I actually have a set of 67-69 mirrors ready to go on the truck. I think those fit the basic utilitarian look just right. Im with you buddy, I hate those mirrors on there too.

[lolife99]

Glad you were thinking about replacing them.
I just like the 71-72 sport mirrors on a 71 or 72 truck,... because that is what is correct for the truck.
My last '71 swb was as bare bones as you could get,... and it had sport mirrors.

I'm kinda weird about year correct items.
(kinda like buddy bucket seats only belong in 67-68 trucks)
Ha.
Here's the sport mirror dimensions if you change your mind,...

[jasonvw]

Cool, thanks for that. I would agree with you that keeping the truck year specific is a good idea and I typically feel the same way on the trucks I do, but the mirror thing has always bugged me. I think the 67-69 mirrors are just so much more simple. I think they match the look of the truck Im building. I totally agree on the Buddy buckets Yesterday was a real blur, I had a photo shoot with another car so no time to put into Gumby, and today my neck is throbbing so Im going to take it easy. I will be back on it Monday though so stay tuned!