Well i am almost done with this bell tech rear drop kit for 88-98 Chevy GMC. I bought this truck new in 1994 as a special ordered vehicle. I did a pair of 2" drop shackles, and polyurethane spring eye bushings on it probably 18-19 years ago. Everything was damn near plug n play. I figured i would do the front hangars when i eventually have to replace the fuel pump. Job being much easier drilling out rivets when the bed is lifted up. Well the fuel pump finally died at 160K so now its time.
This front spring hanger kit is probably designed with a regular cab and a shortbed in mind. I say this since i had to modify everything a little bit to make it fit a regular cab long bed truck. If doing this to a RCLB and a total novice i would put this mod at a scale of 10 of 10. With 10 being the hardest. I am a mechanic and a car repair type guy i would put it at a scale of 5 of 10 simply because i had all the tools to do this, at my disposal and had to mod quite a bit to make it fit. I am used to this kind of stuff since i have been messing with cars and fabricating stuff at minimum 35 years.
Stuff a novice may not have at their disposal and would need to get to make this a hell of a lot easier on them would include.
1. Cobalt drills 1/8"
2. Cobalt drills 3/8"
3. Unibit step drills (harbor freight)
4. Air operated high speed grinder w cutoff wheel.
I use a 90° angle grinder. Electric one will work but is bulky as heck
5. A chain hoist or some other device to lift bed up to make it easier. An alternate is to round up about 4-6 of your friends, offer em pizza and beer to come and help you lift the bed completely off and set it on saw horses
6. Impact gun. Not required but it sure makes it easier and faster to assemble
Drilling out the rivets is easy peasy. Use a center punch on the center of the head, and drill into the rivet with an 1/8" drill bit. You only need to go in maybe 1/4" deep. I used cobalt bits. A little more money but they arent going to dull out like HSS bits will. After that switch up to a 3/8 bit and drill into the rivet heads. (Do not drill all the way through) Then using a large flat bottom punch, fit it into the 3/8 hole you partially drilled into the rivet, smack the punch with a mini sledge. About 4 to 5 hits is all it takes for the bucked tail to shoot out from the other side of the frame LOL.
You will also need the high speed cutoff wheel to carefully cut into the OEM drivers side spring hanger your removing to remove the parking brake cables from it. Best time to do this is before you drill the hanger off the frame. Exercize caution at this step to not damage the cables. I made 2 cuts to open the hole to remove the grommeted fully sheathed cable first. After that i carefully cut into the spring hanger just enough in 2 spots to weaken the metal around the clipped in cable to where i could break it out with vise grips and remove the second cable.
For starters with the fitment issues once you drill and hammer out the rivets, the new hanger brackets hit the bed to frame mounts at the hanger location on a RCLB. This required me to use an air operated high speed grinder with a cutoff wheel and trim them back so the hangers fit flush with the frame. After that the mounting holes in the frame required opening up. I used a unibit step drill to open up all 8 frame holes. LH side hanger also hit the tail end of a mounting bolt sticking out of the frame, i just ground it flush with the frame. Viola the front hangers now fit the frame.
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