Baby steps

[busterwivell]

I had the same disc brake swap problem with the Heidt's kit on my 56 210. Nothing is a direct bolt in........no matter what they tell you. Your suspension looks great, too. Don't you just love the looks that powdercoating gives to all these parts? We used platinum, cast iron, and gloss and semi gloss black.

[Barn Owl]

Since my tires are currently being bicycled across America and I will not see the until Tuesday, I asked my neighbor if I could use their Burban tires as rollers. It is a 15 inch wheel and I did not think about it when I was turning the truck around but the wheel contacted one of my LCA's and scratched the powder a bit. It is a two stage powder so I think it just rubbed the clear off, But I was too upset to really inspect it.


The Burban tires are 27" tall and mine are going to be 29.5 tall so it will be about 1.5 inches taller than this. But with the little tires in front and the stock height in the back it gives it quite a rake.


About an hour later this is what is left of it. It does help to have a hoist in your garage.

[Barn Owl]

Mock up time. I have been waiting for this day for a while. I had the trailing arms halfway done and could not find the time to get the rest done. So now I need to finish the mock up weld all the brackets on and send it to powder coat hopefully in time to install before my vacation is over.


Found that the best way to adjust pinion angle is to hang it at ride height and swivel the pumpkin to the right angle. Important to remember when this is being done; whatever the front u-joint angle, the rear u-joint is the opposite. 3* down at tranny means 3* up at the rear.


Since I am making my own trailing arms and modifying the rear housing I was able to weld the perches at the right angle so that I did not need to bend my arms. They are going to be straight all the way back with no need for shims or lowering blocks. The coil overs are going to be mounted to a bracket behind the axle along with the pan hard bar. This is why the arm is so long right now, some will be getting trimmed off eventually.

[Chicago5]

Good photos and good explanations of what's being done. This is another project I'm excited to watch and learn from. Later.

[pxwolvie]

2 fast questions, you still planning on shortening the bed up or has that changed some,and is that Fury next door there ,lol.

[busterwivell]

That's some great progress..........hope the vacation lasts long enough.

[Barn Owl]

Today was an absolute bust. Seems like every time I turned around I had to go back to the store. RCD called today with the expected call so I could go pick up my Bilstein coil overs. What was unexpected was when he told me he would not have them in hand until Monday, Which is my wife and my 12 year anniversary, so if I know what is good for me it will be Tuesday before I can get them on. The Yoke on the third member was wrong for my drive shaft so I had to go back to the gear shop and get a custom u-joint. Got back and was going to start welding and discovered my ground adapter was back in my shop at work.
I did get a lot of planning done and I think that i am going to have to put the coil overs in front of the axle. There is just not enough room to fit it behind with the pan hard bar. It would make the bars too long to keep adding brackets to them.

I also started painting the third member a ppg silver. Looks nice so tomorrow will be the clear and then install.

[Barn Owl]

Still planning on shortening but that will be next vacation. I will drive it long and low for a while until I have the time to take the cab off so I can get to the straight part of the frame.

My neighbor is a Mopar nut and those two cars are a Coronet (burgandy) and a Valiant (green).

[Barn Owl]

The axle brackets that I bought for the 9" from early classics were supposed to be designed to weld right on so that they would be at the correct angle for the trailing arms. Well they weren't. So they are skewed from my trailing arm perches. I made the perch wider so I have plenty of meat to bolt to but it is one more thing that I chalk up to "learning the hard way".

[ROYO]

Sounds like fun lol