Looking for Lowering Info/Bags/Floor mods, etc

[Ipaintgrt]

Hello, I have a 91, s-10 with a 4.3, and an auto 2wd. My son and I fixed it up for him to drive to high school. We painted it and lowered it, by cutting a coil and then putting on some 2 inch dropped spindles. It has some 18 inch chrome Irocs on it and it is a pretty cool truck. Well it was too low and it rubbed pretty bad so we put the stock spindles back on and it didn't rub. but it didn't look as cool as my son would like, so he put them back on and removed the inner fender wells. Needless to say he was pulling into a driveway and the wheel broke out the fan, and heater box housing.
I'm looking for some info on what S-10 guys are doing to lower these trucks so they look cool and are still useable/driveable. It will need a floor cut out, I think, and what do you do for the fender wells in the engine compartment? Also with an airbag mod on the front what do you do with the shock? I'm thinking that you just mount it to the side of the bottom A arm. Thanks for any info.
S

[BarryB]

I'll tell you what I did to mine, I did it on a budget. Mine is also a V6 with a 3 3 drop on it. Blocks in the rear, drop spindles up front, BUT I used stock springs from a 4 cylinder truck, once the they settled in the are perfect, drives real good up front.

[Damien]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I'll tell you what I did to mine, I did it on a budget. Mine is also a V6 with a 3 3 drop on it. Blocks in the rear, drop spindles up front, BUT I used stock springs from a 4 cylinder truck, once the they settled in the are perfect, drives real good up front.

How much did your front end settle with the 4 cyl. coils? I put a 4.3 in my 4 cyl. truck and just put spindles on. The front sits a little higher then the front, but I'm redoing some stuff and haven't driven it at all yet.


There are a lot of guys running trailer fenders for inner fenders. I have 16" IROCs on my truck with 235/50r16. About 26" tall. I still have about a 3" fender gap. You could put bump stops in so the tires will not hit the A/C box. You could also get an after market A/C setup and shave the firewall or just get rid of it all together.

[Ipaintgrt]

Thanks for the reply, I'm really thinking that some airbags up front would be the ticket, then you can adjust them as you need, and keep the drop spindles. I think also just raising is an inch or so is what I'm going to have to do. I don't want to get an aftermarket airconditioning set up, thats way too much money to get into this truck. I'm already waaayyy over budget on this little truck. I'm not seeing anyone on here who puts little tubs in for the wheels so they dont rub on the front floor pan, or any radical builds on here. I think if there were some inner fender wells in there the heater parts woulldn't be as suseptable to being damaged.

[Damien]

I meant the full size truck guys are using trailer fenders on the fronts. There really are not that many mini trucks on here.

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by Damien

How much did your front end settle with the 4 cyl. coils? I put a 4.3 in my 4 cyl. truck and just put spindles on. The front sits a little higher then the front, but I'm redoing some stuff and haven't driven it at all yet.

Alright let me tell alittle more of the story. When I bought my truck it had a 33 drop already on it, with the rear blocks, and cut front springs, rode like crap. So I found a set of used spindles, and the 4 cylinder springs. After swapping the spindles and springs the front now actually sets a tad lower than it did with the cut springs, but with the spindles and regular springs I not afraid to hit a pebble in the road. Yeah it was that bad. hit a bump and it would sound like the frame was coming thru the floorboard.

[lolife99]

My '91 4.3/auto daily driver in the summer months.
5"/6" drop.
2" spindles, 3" springs, 3" drop leaf springs, 3" blocks.
I have really short front tires.
(165/15's on 15x5" ralleys, and 255/60-15's on 15x8" ralleys)
You need to remove all bumpstops and c-notch the rear.
I've put almost 50k miles on this setup.

[independentcustoms]

I would bag it. Call up suicide doors, order a kit for an S-10 and be done. If the tires are hitting the firewall, you can tub the firewall to clear them. Then just cutout trailer fenders to fit as your inner fender.