'95 Supercab Rehab - Dumb Questions Thread

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You guys are probably right that long arms are worth my time, but if I let it scope creep too much right now, the truck will still be up on jackstands instead of dewinterizing my boat.

I feel like for seating the coils easier, you really need pivot drop too, no? I can push the beams lower than the coils are tall, but the problem is the angle of the perch points the coil outward, away from the bucket. Single cab coils you just kind of fold in half, but the supercab coils don't bend like that.

You don’t need axle pivot drops until you get over about 2” or so, it becomes a ball joint adjustment issue where your ball joint adjustment is maxed out at 2-3”. What rolls the front axle is the stubby radius arms, being short they describe a sharp arc and the bushings don’t allow much movement. My Choptop, since I put long arms on it, I’ve never had a lot of trouble getting coils in or out, it does take a little fiddling and shoving to get the coils seated correctly, but the longer arms make a smoother arc that makes it easier to get everything where it needs to go.

I do understand that scope creep can be a real problem though, I’ve had it happen on projects and I’ve also had where I was trying to keep from expanding the scope and found something that needed fixed and forced scope creep. Guess it’s a vicious cycle if you work on your own stuff.

 

[lowspeedpursuit]

Interesting. Next on the list are bedliner swap, alignment, and body-lifting the cab, and long arms could go in with the latter since they're both welding projects. It's more the frame brackets I'd need to get everything planned out to minimize downtime.

Also not super stoked about punching the rivets to get the stock brackets off, since one of my hands has been jacked up.

With the spacer packs cut down, I've only got maybe 5/8" lift in front now, tops. Weird that the rear ended up so much higher on the old truck. It has junkyard leaves from IIRC an '03 B-Series, and both trucks have 3+1 leaf packs.

EDIT: New springs are definitely "B". Can't remember what the junkyard packs were. Is there a "K"? Are those taller?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

When I did my extended arms for the 88, I bought joints, tube adapters and a prefab mount for the joint. I had to add to the prefab mount and do something about my transmission crossmember but overall it was less work than trying to build my own mounts from scratch like I did on my Choptop. I used Ballistic Fab parts for both builds and 2”x2”x0.250” square tube.

For rivets I like torching the heads off and punch them out hot. If I can’t do that I cut the head off and punch it out. Rivets aren’t much fun though.