Refreshing my daily driver

[Tx Firefighter]

It's been awhile since I did a build thread here so I figured I'd snap some pictures and show everyone what I'm up to on my daily driver truck.

Years ago I'd have built a much nicer truck and done it much quicker. Nowadays, all of my cash goes into my business so it's pretty normal for me to have empty pockets. It's only a temporary stage in life though, I hope.

A few years ago I picked up this little short bed pickup in trade. It's kind of cool in that it's a well optioned 350/ 5 speed Silverado. The previous owner had done some things I had to fix before I could even drive it though. He'd gutted the exhaust down to having a 2 chamber Flowmaster right under the cab and nothing else. I had to drop some coin for an entirely new system from engine back. I went with Magnaflow everything including high flow converter. I also had to remove the 5 percent window tint off the side windows to get it inspected.



I noticed the truck always looked a little lowered but it didn't have any obvious lowering stuff under it. The rear leaf springs were bent in a 90 degree kink at the rear shackle. So, new Belltech 4 inch lowered leaf springs (Amazon 260 delivered) and DJM front springs along with Belltech shocks (all from Summit) got that squared away. I also powdercoated a set of 8 inch rally wheels for it.



Problem is, it sits like sh1t now. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate trucks that sit too low in the butt. I'm not from Cali and I don't wear flat bill caps, yo.

Here is where the slow part of the build comes in. I set a very strict budget for my parts and only bought what I could afford when I had cash in hand. This took 6 months unfortunately to get everything ordered and assembled.

Van rallys for the front (to be powdercoated shortly)


Shorter front tires


Every single wear part needed for the front end, all top of the line Moog Problem Solver stuff. Stainless brake hoses too. There's a lot of money sitting here.



The truck already has 2 inch springs in the front. So I got spindles to bring it down more.


Rear springs are Belltech 4 inch drop leafs, so I got this stuff to go lower.




I've lowered a ton of these trucks with the usual 4/6 stuff but this will be the first time I've ever used dropped leafs and shackles to arrive at the rear 6 inch drop. What could go wrong right ?

I have taken all next week off work so I'll be giving it hell on this thing soon. The weather forecast looks promising. Game plan is to powdercoat the wheels and spindles and then do a full redo of everything at once with the new parts.

[jb1016]

I'm subbed for this one. I like your truck -- those rallies look perfect without the rings, IMHO. Do you get camber wear on the front tires with just the springs?

[Tx Firefighter]

No camber wear. The camber still runs nice and vertical. I did have to adjust the toe though. It was off by 1/8 inch after installing the springs.

[cochino12]

Nice truck, been thinking of trading my 84 for a newer shorty like that.

[Tx Firefighter]

I've had a bunch of them starting with a new one in 1994. Unfortunately, they've been getting shabbier as time goes on and I buy them used. I've had every type of GM truck from 63-97 and these are by far my favorites. They just fit me (I'm freakishly big) and they have the comforts that make them comfortable to drive day in day out.

[Primered_69]

I have some supremes we can throw on that
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[75ChevyGuy]

The second picture, the trucks looks to be sitting about level. I don't see where its lower in the ass end. Looks like a solid truck too!

[Tx Firefighter]

It sits so level that depending on how it's parked, it looks butt low.



That crap stops this week.

This was one of the first of these trucks I owned. I was the first guy in this area to run 17 inch wheels. I'm going for a similar stance on this current truck.

Sorry, a picture of a picture (pre digital photo)

[bloertcher]

THANK YOU,lol.I had an 88 longbed that eventually turned shortbed,that was stock in front,leaf pulled in the rear.I wore out 3 tape meaures,it was 1" higher in the rear,but ALWAYS looker like it sagged in the ass.Glad I'm not the only one that feels that these trucks MUST have some rake to them.

[Tx Firefighter]

I only had a little time today because I had to finish a large job and ship it out. So, I only got to do the wheels. Tomorrow is wide open though so there should be good progress then.

The wheels are a cool deal to me. I reached out to another board member that live locally about finding a set. He's a hard core junkyard crawler. It took him about an hour to fix me up with some.



Sandblasted and powdercoated silver with Clear Vision topcoat.







They're true 6.5 inch wide van wheels and not the 7 inch truck wheels so many guys use.

[Tx Firefighter]

I had an extra half an hour this afternoon to start working.









It's pretty much all trash. I'll be riding my motorcycle up to the parts store tomorrow for a pretty decent batch of brake parts for this turd.

[Tx Firefighter]

I started off today by installing the ball joints.

First step is to clean the control arm so there's no goop in there to make the press fit of the ball joint any tighter than it already is.



Screw them in...



Always put something into the ball joint and turn the spindle of it so the cotter pin holes are front to rear. That saves a lot of hassle trying to get the cotter pin in a weird direction later.



This is where so many guys mess up. I bet I've seen it literally a hundred times on this board. No one ever listens when I point it out either. The upper ball joint bolts have to be installed from the bottom. If you don't, the exposed threads will cut into the rubber boot down the road.



I got a couple of valve stems at the parts store and spooned the tires onto the wheels. I'll have them balanced once I get the entire project complete. No sense paying someone to put the tires on the wheels though.





Comparison of the old 275/60s on 8 inch wheel to the new 245/60s on 6.5 inch wheel.

[Tx Firefighter]

This is why I'm so militant about using top of the line Moog parts. Compare the old idler arm to the Moog one. Massive difference in size and construction.





Front is finished except for setting the alignment. It looks like I might wind up just dropping the rear one more inch rather than two. The shackles have both sets of bolt holes so that is an option. I care more about stance than absolute lowness.





Next up is doing the rear end. I'm not looking forward to that part of the job. I don't have a magnetic drill or a plasma cutter either one so putting the Belltech notches in will be a beating.

[75ChevyGuy]

Glad to see your taking the time to really make this truck right!

[flashed]

Tx Firefighter ,I love your truck .What kind of mileage do you get with that combo ? I may be looking for another daily driver soon as my 72 Chevy truck that was supposed to be my daily driver is in bodyshop prison and will be for quite a while. I drive a long bed version of that truck for work but rarely ever get out of 2nd gear as I rarely ever leave the university campus and a tank of gas lasts over a month so it wont give me an accurate measure of mpg.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by 75ChevyGuy

Glad to see your taking the time to really make this truck right!

Thank you. I've been plugging away with the rear suspension today. Those Belltech c-notches are a pain to install. Lots and lots of drilling holes in the frame.

Originally Posted by flashed

Tx Firefighter ,I love your truck .What kind of mileage do you get with that combo ? I may be looking for another daily driver soon as my 72 Chevy truck that was supposed to be my daily driver is in bodyshop prison and will be for quite a while. I drive a long bed version of that truck for work but rarely ever get out of 2nd gear as I rarely ever leave the university campus and a tank of gas lasts over a month so it wont give me an accurate measure of mpg.

I treat the truck very gentle when I drive it. It's a 350/5 speed with 3.08 gears. On the highway, I get 19 miles per gallon. I have to stipulate though that the engine is hurt and it's wore out. The truck burns a quart of oil every 300 miles or so and uses a gallon of coolant per tank of fuel. Yes, it's that bad. The previous owner overheated it badly and collapsed the rings and apparently blew the head gaskets somewhat. It's somewhere between a 6 and a 7 cylinder engine depending on what day it is. As soon as I get this suspension work done this week I'm going to tear down an extra 350 core engine I have in the shop and start the rebuild process. The prices on crate engines have gone high enough that I'll build rather than replace.

[grayharville]

sweet truck, Ive always wanted a scsb with a 5 speed. I have the same 6.5 inch rallys on the front of the swb, I like the difference in tire height. looks perfect.

[Tx Firefighter]

All my buddies are gonna be at the giant Pate Swap Meet for the next 5 days. I've sent them on a mission to find me a cheap set of 454ss wheels if they can. These rallys are okay but I really want the chrome SS wheels. I just use rallys because I have stacks of them all over the place.

[grayharville]

Funny, I had a set of them on my swb when I bought them and i wanted 8 and 6.5 rallys, I sold them for 100$

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm slowing down a lot as I get older. I worked about 5 hours today on the back of the truck.

-Belltech C sections installed
-DJM lowering shackles installed
-Belltech shock extenders installed.

It's low.







I still need to work on it some more tomorrow. It feels like I need to bleed the front brakes some more. I also need to trim the gutters on the lower control arms because they're rubbing the wheels under hard turning. It also sounds like the rear shackles are thumping the bed a little. It's all in the details.

[collins10672]

i like it,i like it alot.nice looking truck.

[Tx Firefighter]

Just got off the phone with my buddy. He's gonna run it up on the rack and align it Friday.

[JWall]

Very nice lookin truck!


The blue reminds me of my old 94... so does the pic of your old truck. I remember when I put 17s on my 94 many years ago they had to special order the tires because they didnt stock tires for "big wheels"... funny! How times have changed.

Also, yes the SS wheels are hard to beat. Ive been happy with the look of them on my 98.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by JWall

Very nice lookin truck!


The blue reminds me of my old 94... so does the pic of your old truck. I remember when I put 17s on my 94 many years ago they had to special order the tires because they didnt stock tires for "big wheels"... funny! How times have changed.

Also, yes the SS wheels are hard to beat. Ive been happy with the look of them on my 98.

1994, I ordered a set of 17 inch tires at the local Discount Tire store. When I went to pick them up the employees treated me like I was the governor or something. They were stunned that I was such a pimp as the run those big old wheels on a truck. All the guys came outside to check it out when we got them mounted. The entire store cleaned out to see it. I was strutting like John Travolta until other folks caught up with the trend.

[Tx Firefighter]

And Justin, if you think back a bit, I had PMd you about your truck a few months ago when I was collecting parts to do this. I was full of questions about tires and stuff. I sure appreciate your input.