Newbe wants to do this on my own.. I want to drop the ride height on my 64C10 it has a 6cyd, if that helps. I want to heat the springs and do it that way. No $$ to play with just the need to do it. What is the best way to set the ride height? Front and rear...... Thanks, Mark NC
heating the springs will make your springs go from this: l to this: ). Not good and super unsafe. A 78 to 87 suspension section from a 2wd chevy truck will bolt right in and then you have disc brakes and pwoer steering if you want. Drop spindles are WAAAAYYYYY cheaper and so are the springs. Then all you ahve to worry about is tire/wheel well clearance. then you can just cut them out abd bag it like you probably will end up doing out later on anyways. cool truck though. pm me if you have any other questions, i did this before.
Looks like your truck is pretty low already.....heating coils is not the way to do it...dropped coils are only around a 100 bucks a pair, and a lot safer. I have removed one coil from the front springs without problems, typically drops the front by 2" or so. It will affect your spring rate however. Also if you drop the rear by more than 3-4" you'll need to relocate your shock mounts and shorten the panhard bar as well. if you don't your shock angles will be way off, and the rearend will "uncenter" because the panhard bar angle has changed in relationship to the axle and frame, which will cause some unpredictable handling issues.
I'd go with what Oldskoolguy said. YOu can get away with cutting a coil on the front without a lot of hassles but the correct lowering springs are a lot better. Especially when it appears that your truck may have already been lowered. On the rear, again l'd go with custom coils but they do make lowering blocks to go between the axle and truck bars. Heated coils will keep on sagging as you drive the truck and at some time or other they almost always break.
Please dont heat the coils. The others are right,drop coils are inexpensive BUT a truck of the age you have,and possibly not knowing what has been done to get the stance already,you may get a 2" drop coil and it may actually lift the truck. Drop spindles are available from places like Mcgaughys to actually retain the drums if you still have them,and/or even have discs while having a 6 lug bolt pattern. Like others have stated,removing some of the current coil will work,and is free,BUT consider this.......the upper a frames can only go out so far to re-gain correct camber/caster settings.......some install longer then stock upper control arm bolts for more shims to keep the truck in alignment. If I rememebr correctly,the trucks your year up to 87 had a coil that was pigtailed up top and normal on the bottom,so to trim the coils right you would need to trimm off the bottom,and leave the top alone. Generally speaking,trimming more than one full round wont effect too much on the ride or alignment and usually nets 2" drop,and trimming more than 1 full coil starts to make the ride suffer as well as alignment specs being obtainable.Again this all depends on what your current set up is already. My 72 chevy swb has 3" coils with 2.5 drop spindles,and 6" rear coils with 2" rear blocks.
The truck has been lowered before I got it. The coils and spindals sounds like the way to go. What company would carry theses? I would like to use the vendors from H.A.M.B. as a new member Do I need to replace the shocks when replacing the coils & lowering blocks in the rear? I'm not a teck guy, I dont trust myself with tools but the site has inspired me to "jump in". Are there any things I should look for while doing this, out side of buddy?? I have only basic tools, no power or air tools....Home Grown.. Thanks for the info...
Did this affect the ride, my truck can bottom out now when I hit a hole. I try to miss but sometimes, I think the spindels and coils are the way. Will I need to get re allined?
My 65 c-10 had broken front coil spirngs when I bought it. I put new coils in and ran it across the alignment pit here at work. The new coils were tall enough, we couldn't get the camber right. I took the new springs, cut one full round off the bottom, lined up easily. I've driven it 200,000 miles since that surgery. It corners like a scared cat. You can lower the rear by making spacers to go between the housing and trailing arms, requiring longer u-bolts. Or you can shit rig a set like I did using cut car front springs and homemade buckets.
One more thing to consider. If you travel any rougher roads, like the National Forest roads my truck has traveled many times, you'll find yourself having to repair the inner bushing area of the lower control arms. I've ruined two sets of stock lower arms, bottoming out. The '73 and later stuff works a little better, full crossmember changout is the way to go if you want front disc brakes.
We have some bad roads in NC but not that Bad. I'll keep an eye on all this, I need to photoshop my truck I like theway it looks but something diffrent would be fun..
I just cut a full coil off the bottom of my front springs in my 68'... i'm pretty satisfied with it, it gave me about a 2'' drop. You most likely will need to get an alignment, even if you don't mess with the tie rods. i found on my truck that it was easier to pull the shocks off and pull it apart at the upper ball joint; the lower one was far more difficult. Just something to keep in mind. I am going the route of blocks in the back, the upper spring mount was pretty rusted and i didn't want to mess with it, cutting and replacing u-bolts seems easier to me. try www.brotherstrucks.com they have a lot of stuff for these trucks as well as www.lmctruck.com and some others that people have already mentioned.
In alot of cases the frt lower control arm bumpstop brackets that are welded in place need to be modified or removed totally,especially with a 2" or more drop coil........since drop spindles dont effect control arm positions the bumpstop brackets can sometimes be kept. General rule is to get the vehicle aligned after any real suspension part swap......it will save your tires as long as your alignment guy is worth his title.
indeed. and alignments are generally chaper than 2 new front tires... side note, those bumpstop brackets are HUGE!
A real close friend of mine on here has a 62 chevy long bed on a 73-87 chevy 2wd chassis with a full on air ride kkit and dropped spindles his name is Fletcher62.You should check it out.Also those years of trucks are pretty plentiful around here and can be picked up for a little bit of nothing and the body fits damn near perfect on the frame with out modification.That leaves you with more options on suspension parts also.
You can drill out the spotwelds on the bumpstop brackets, remove them, reinforce the arm for new bump stops all the way down one the control arm. I haven't done that on the arms for MY truck, but it works. Just remembered something very important. Chevy pickups use u-bolts to hold the lower control arm shafts to the crossmember. The 64 generation had the smallest u-bolts in that location with control arm shafts same as up to 1987 1 ton trucks. I've broken two of those u-bolts. Luckily it happened in my own zip code of the 300k journey of that truck in my name. Get a set of C/A u-bolts for an 86 C30 truck, take out the lower C/A's, drill out the holes, put in larger u-bolts. TRUST ME. I bet you could find some rough roads like I have. Somebody sprinkled rock seeds in NC too! Hmmmm, lowered 2wd 65 Chevy with street tires way the hell back here. Is he lost? Squeal dammit!
useing lowering blocks on the rear of your year truck with those small wheels may not work, if after you put the 2" blocks in the bolts that hold the trailing arms on would drag if you get a flat then its not legal, plus it sucks if you cant move your truck off the road when you do get a flat.
my old one had a coil cut up front and mid 70's monte carlo springs in the rear with a 3" block....pretty low buck ...
My POS. Don't look like much, but depended on for almost 20 years as a daily driver. Some years had a daily 80 mile round trip on a snakey ass road. This old truck has been rode hard and put up wet many times. Chassis work, engine and transmission work, tires and beer. It's been seen in Columbia SC, Charlotte, Indy, and more. Lots of fun with a truck bought for $1100 when I was a 19 year old dumb shit.
Get somebody to help you that has had the front end apart before.Coil springs can fly out and mess you up bad.
Correct on car front ends. Not these old trucks. Coil spring compressors are not needed with these critters.
Here is a pic of my truck. I went with 2" drop spindles, lowering coils and shocks. The truck rides smooth. I got all the goodies at Classic Performance Parts (CPP). Check out their website for prices.
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