My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Oh man......this is going to be fun.

Fun to watch I'm sure. Stressful on my end undoubtably. Much to learn. Many problems to overcome.

Originally Posted by lolife99

Congrats on ordering the Porterbuilt stuff!

I never would have thought I'd go that route. I've always been a 4/6 guy. But lately I've realized that 4/6 is now very modest, whereas twenty years ago, instant hero status.

Originally Posted by Hankster

Congrats on ordering PB ! I want to order PB stuff for my 86 one day! Anyways can't wait to see it all together!

Order early. It seems that average wait is 8 weeks or so. I ordered mine from Travis. He orders dropmembers in groups and I just happened to order at a time when he had a 73-87 on order that wasn't spoken for. I told him I'd like to start working on the project first of September. He says that should be doable.

Originally Posted by aggie91

Did you just order the dropmember and plan on using your stock control arms or did you go all out and get their a-arms too?

I did order just the extreme drop member. I'm kind of skeert that it might be a mistake but it's the only option that allows me to run my current stock control arms. The other, more modest drop members, require the added expense of aftermarket arms. I'll be running 27 inch tall front tires and that is short comparatively to modern rollers and I also have 3 inch spindles. My worry is that the spindles combined with extreme drop member and 27 inch tires will just simply be too low. I hope the thing airs up enough so that it doesn't cause problems during usage when I run across an uh-oh situation that needs some lift. If I can hike it back up with the switches to the height that the truck sits now at static drop level, I'm golden. I drive it anyplace now without worry. But if full up is still much lower than current, it will be a headache and I'll have to modify the plan somehow to change that.

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Cool! Will you keep 15" wheels?

Absolutely. I have a trick up my sleeve on that area. Hidden in the store room in the back of my shop. To be disclosed later.

Originally Posted by SCOTI

You know..... assistance is in your hillbilly area as well.

I do appreciate that. I'm sure I'll wear you out with stupid questions.

Originally Posted by tune_1

Looking forward to what you will do on this on. Like the work on the others.

Dwight

I'm thinking this build might take a ghetto turn. I absolutely, number one priority, want to get it completed. That will likely mean much less detail spent on the little stuff. I'm setting myself up a schedule of winter build and on the road by next spring/summer. I will absolutely have to focus on not letting scope creep set in.

[rusty76]

What's life without a little stress?

[bluex]

I couldn't remember if you have bags already or not but pro performance had the dominator 2600 for $72 each today. Just saw it on Facebook...

[Tx Firefighter]

Paul,

Thank you, I did see that on Facebook and I ordered a set of four within minutes of him posting it. The price is good, but the free shipping sealed the deal for me.

I'm expecting to come into a pile of money this week. It should be enough to let me see this build through the winter in a fairly modest fashion. As soon as I get my hands on it I'm going to order my rear kit. I'm not going Porterbuilt on my rear kit simply due to cost.

So far, dropmember and air bags bought. I've made my decisions on the rest of the main components I'll be running. Just as soon as I get paid that money I was talking about....

[Hankster]

Sweet, can't wait to see it laid out!

[Primered_69]

Kevin...would you like a shop hand for the porterbuild/ bags install?

[Tx Firefighter]

Michael, I'm sure we could figure out something.

I'm tentatively shooting for September 1 start date for the work. My goal is to have it back on the road by first swap meet next year (February).

[SCOTI]

Ok.... No PB rear because of budget limitations.

But.... A bagged truck-arm rear set-up is the ticket for ride quality. CPP or PB front T/A x-member & TX Firefighter built rear is my vote

[Tx Firefighter]

Scot,

What does it take to get an ECE trailing member in a 73-87 frame ?

[68Timber]

No chance of LS power? Just curious since you are making the PB leap, now I'm wondering how far this one will go.

[Tx Firefighter]

I can't afford LS power. That's a couple thousand added dollars into the build that I don't have to work with. If I went that route, it would delay the project for months while I accumulated engine and parts and money to put it all together.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Scot,

What does it take to get an ECE trailing member in a 73-87 frame ?

It physically fits between the rails but the problem lies in where the rails kick up on 73-87's vs 6x-72's. it won't allow the x-member to sit in the proper location due to that difference. CPP's & PB's x-members account for that difference & attach to the frame accordingly (underside of frame lips vs. inside of frame lips).

That being the said, the right front x-member w/some OE T/A's will definitely get the job done. I would use them over the CPP or ECE T/A's hands down no questions.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

...That being the said, the right front x-member w/some OE T/A's will definitely get the job done. I would use them over the CPP or ECE T/A's hands down no questions.

I know where there is a nice OE set not being used right now...

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm pretty frustrated with the whole rear suspension deal right now.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I'm pretty frustrated with the whole rear suspension deal right now.

Why is this?

[Tx Firefighter]

Scot, you know me. I can hardly talk in a straight line for very long without veering off on a tangent. Squirrel !

I initially thought about AOL. Simple and cheap. Then I got under my truck and was looking at my leafs. They are 7 leaf packs. I just can't warm up to the idea of thinning the pack out then subjecting it to fairly extreme cycling afterwards. I've seen more than a few leaf springs break over the years and I just keep thinking about what a catastrophe it would be if that old tired main leaf decided that cycling way up and down was just too much.

The best vibe I've gotten so far has been from Ekstensive down in Houston. They sell an all encompassing rear kit for a fair enough price. And their email responses were quick and concise. He said if I'd give him some money, I could drive down in 2-3 weeks and pick up my kit to save shipping.

Their kit is a 2 link. I know the downsides to 2 link configurations, but I'm really not convinced it would be too bad of a deal for me. I probably haven't exceeded 70 miles per hour this year. All my driving is tooling around rural highways at 60 miles per hour. And all my engines are stock. I'm like an old man in my driving habits. If I get a ticket, my chief is liable to take away the keys for my fire truck and stick me working on an ambulance or something. Hence, I drive very conservatively. All I ask of my rear suspension when complete is to go up and down when I work the bags and to spend the rest of its time following the front suspension down the road and maybe move up and down somewhat when I hit a dip or bump in the road.

Stolen pic.....


I like their kit because it's just a slam dunk to install. You drop the bridge onto the frame until it bottoms out and stitch it in place with the welder. Then bolt the link bars to the factory front hangers. From there finish out the details.

Stolen pics...




And I can live with the amount of intrusion into the bed floor.

Stolen pic...


Sure, its a bare bones non flashy setup, but the quick install and low price are attractive. I simply can't let scope creep set in here. Besides from DM install and rear air install, I still have to rebuild my engine and do a bunch of sheetmetal and hopefully paint work over the winter too. I don't want to get bogged down with one aspect of the project. I'm not trying to build a nice truck here. I'm trying to build a budget minded fun truck here that looks somewhat radical.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by TX Firefighter

Then there is CPP. Hell if I know what they sell. I diligently paged through their website and looked at the offerings. I did lots of Google image searching too. Plus, CPP just sucks for customer service. The only way I've ever been comfortable ordering their stuff is through Summit as the middle man. If CPP gets flaky, Summit will make it all better for me. It defies me to find that crossmember anywhere other than in magazine install articles on the web.

Well... I considered the Ekstensive kit but those uber short bars, poly bushings, & solid mounting to the rear end just screams bind to me. I considered using their kit w/some sort of spherical joint up front to regain some measure of articulation but came across a used 4-bar kit for cheaper & went with it.

I peeked @ the install instructions (tech article) for the 73-87 T/A conversion kit from CPP. Looking @ their front x-member, it appears it's just the standard 6x-72 replacment x-member inverted. I don't care for CPP's kit & never did. But.... T/A's in a 73-87 would be a good thing based on direct comparison of my 68 to the 74. But, the core component for the swap is available....

Note the flanges are between the frame rail lips (PB's unit is not like that)
Note the driveshaft hoop is on the bottom (normally on top for 6X-72's)
Note the T/A mounting bolt pivot point is low on the mounting bracket (their aftermarket x-member for 67-72's has it @ the top of the bracket)

[SCOTI]

Compare that x-member to the unit sold for 6x-72's w/5" or more drop (Drop Center x-member)

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/...ck/6372LDL.htm

I think w/some tweaking if necessary, it could be used. You could still utilize the same Ekstensive bridge/notch & Panhard arrangement. Or... tweak the Ekstensive stuff.

[Tx Firefighter]

Wave at it. It's going to live on a farm.



Now I can build the stepside.

[bluex]

From way back when I talked to cpp you could use their kit with factory arms. Porters kit currently DOES NOT work with factory arms. He hasn't made the necessary brackets for the panhard an lower shock bar mounts. One member here that I know of purchased just the trailing arm cross member from cpp but I don't remember if he ever said what it cost. You could go through either company possibly an create your own setup . I went with porter because the quality of his stuff looked do much better. I had planned on using factory arms but he wasn't ready for that yet. With as busy as they are that just might not ever be an option with their stuff. Here's the porterbuilt squarebody trailing arm cross member....

[bluex]

Here it is installed, there picture, not mine. I hope to start my install next week. I'm sure they would sell you the cross member only if you wanted to do the rest on your own.

[Tx Firefighter]

But, to reiterate, that (bad ass) crossmember won't work with stock arms right ?

[bluex]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

But, to reiterate, that (bad ass) crossmember won't work with stock arms right ?

The cross member itself should. The problem lies in mounting the kits lower shock bar an the axle side pan hard mount. Those are welded on to Porters very nice tublar trailing arms.

If you'd like I can dig the factory arms out an make sure they fit in the cross member. I'm sure they will though as the only difference between the tube arms I have with my kit an replacement 67-72 ones are those aforementioned brackets. An his 67-72 arms are direct replacement for stock parts....

[bluex]

This is a picture from the 67-72 stage 2 basic rear kit. See those two c shaped brackets on the far left an right with the tabs welded on them? Those are why the 73-87 kit won't work with factory arms. The pan hard bar uses one set of tabs an the lower shock bar uses the other two.



Nate said the two kits are just different enough that those brackets won't work. Other than that the rest of the kit works with factory arms as far as I know.

[Tx Firefighter]

I guess I'll call Porterbuilt tomorrow and see what they say about selling the crossmember. Pan hard bars and shock mounts aren't any concern to me. That stuff is easy to build.