Project: BootyFab

[silver98z71]

Alright, well it dropped the front of my truck 1". So, if the spirngs give 4" of "lift" the brackets with the factory shackle give 1". When I got to school today I made some saddles for the u-bolt on the housing to sit and have full contact throuhout the radius of the bolt. At 10:30 I pulled my truck in the shop and started taking the IFS out.

Right before lunch:

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Got back, pulled the steering nonsense out, put the Superlift 1104 arm onto the steering box and cinched the box back to the frame. I then started bolting the springs to the hangers and found that I (for the third time) needed to drop the springs down some more away from the tow hook; I just ground the tow hook a little it didn't take much.

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Then came time to hang the axle, tah dah.

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[silver98z71]

Finally here are some random pictures of it out of the shop 9hrs later. The axle is pushed pretty far forward, the tires clear the firewall by a good bit at ride height and full lock; I might bring it back an inch but I'm not 100% sure.

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THE ***** IS SKINNY AGAIN!!!!

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[silver98z71]

Shackle angle.

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Pinion angle.

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Enjoy.

 

[silver98z71]

Then took it for its maiden voyage. For the ***** to be on unballanced bias tires, no alignment, no shocks or swaybar it is riding suprisingly well; 200x's better than the IFS setup, even factory. Got it back to the shop and started fooling around with another 1/4" spacer for the driver side, just to keep everything square. After I put that on I monkeyed around with the tierod to set the toe. With the flattop knuckles and a late model tierod (hollow (1985+)) it was toed out about 1 1/4". I took the tierod out and cut about 3/8" off both sides, it works great now. Ate some lunch, then came back to center the steering wheel, the LH tube adapter was a ***** to get the DLE threaded in all the way; I ended up breaking a pair of channel locks trying to shorten the draglink then went and got a 24" pipe wrench, now it's too short, needs to go back the other way a little. Finally I cut off the "impact struts" off my trans x-member, took some poseur flex shots and now am waiting on shocks to see if I want to put a swaybar on it.

Semi-glossy color-photos:

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[silver98z71]

Here's my spread sheet, the numbers aren't exact but they are close.


Front Axle
Front Chevrolet 10bolt Axle $100
Longfield spindle bushing $40
Axle rebuild w/ brakes and lug bolts $400
Gears and install kit $275
Driveshaft Ujoint $15

$830

Rear Axle
Rear Chevrolet 14bolt Semifloat Axle $200
Detroit TruTrac $440
Gears and install kit $320
Axle rebuild w/ brakes $300
Crossover u-joint $35

$1,295

Front Suspension
Bentley BootyFab Brackets $250
Stock 52" springs $50
Bushings $50
Hardware $15
Drill bits $25
1" Zero Rate $40
U-bolts $55

$485

Rear Suspension
Bentley BootyFab Shackle Flip $100
1" Zero Rate $40
U-bolts $60

$200

Steering
Tierod and Draglink ends $50
Superlift 1104 Pitman Arm $60
WFO Concepts D44 Steering Arm $130
Flattop Knuckles $200

$440

Tires
Interco Bogger 37/1300 $1,520

Shocks
********* **** Shocks 11" travel $450

Grand Total
$5,255

 

[silver98z71]

After this was all said and done I went and tried it out. IT WORKS!!!! I found that these front springs are FLEXY and the rear still has some in it. The springs went into a negative arc and ended up meeting the frame where I notched the lower control arm crossmember. It's all good, I doubt I'll get that twisted up often. I need to build a driveshaft with about 12" of slip to be safe, that'll come in a few months. My draglink looks like it is contacting the spring at full droop in one of the pictures, it’s not there is ~1/2” between the two. In the pictures the post that the tire is on is roughly 36" off the ground directly below it, I dont see much of a problem getting onto somebody's tire that is 35" tall. All in all, I am 90% satisfied at the moment.

Photos:

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[silver98z71]

Here are some pictors from when I got home after the mud bog Saturday night. I just tooled around in 2wd, nothing too nasty.

My friend noticed something the other day when he came over, he said, "all the mud is on the front of your axles, there isn't much on the back sides". I guess that means my ***** just kept going forward wherever I pointed it.

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You can see here where my tire was pushing against the inner fender.

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Windows down for the lose, but I did have my AC rockin.

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[squeaky3]

man i love your truck....every time i see it, it makes me want a sas so bad

 

[Butch]

Thats one sexy *****, I can't wait till I SAS

 

[silver98z71]

Thanks guys. I should have a small update here soon.