[99 to Life]

12-30 Thanks guys, glad you appreciate the small details too. I know seeing a lot of explanation on here sometimes gets the "lemme skim through this" effect. Last two days have been beyond annoying. This leafspring conversion is taking way longer than I expected. So for starters and the main reason I went with a modern leaf spring (I had a pair off my 98' s10 sitting there). So I order up some prothane bushings from Summit, I find out on Monday my leaf springs have a bigger eye in the back. Took forever to figure it out because the only other size I could find was 2.5 inch and I'm measuring the ID not OD.

So you know how that goes, finding the right part. Well I call summit back, order the right ones, which in my case are def more rare, musta came off a blazer at some point because 2 and 4wd use same 1.5" bushings. the bushings were suppose to be here today, well....they shipped them to my Pittsburgh address. So I call back, another 30 min convo and I should have what I need tomorrow. So I been moching this all up with the rear spring not having a bushing (well I got some filler in there but its not perfect) so tomorrow I'm really hoping to have the leafs on, atleast tacked up so I can get wheels under em.

I'v been measuring for days and the rear through me for a big loop today. I got to thinking, I was moching up the leafs directly under the frame rails. Well it dawned on me, the frame kicks two different ways. So I start measuring out the ace, got the lazer out, blah blah. getting all kinds of funny numbers. So tomorrow, I'm going to put the stock shackes back on and lazer up the difference, which I think is about .5 inch offset. I doubt this is a huge deal, but I want the leafs to be as parallel as possible. I'm sure putting directly under the frame rail would be fine. So that hiccup has effected me on finalizing the front bracket.

The rear, you can see, the bottom of the frame rail is wider than the top, I trimmed it, squared it up and put a "THICK" plate here, since the shackle bushing will go through this portion. I will eventually box the whole back of frame with thinner plate. Had to remove rear xmember too, which I would most likely have done anyway for fuel tank, hoping to reuse the xmember.

Once I get all the numbers good, I'll prolly make up a diagram and some measurements on how I did it. Which will exclude how I came up with the numbers cause its confusing. Overall the leafs should be about 3" higher up than the stock ones, so I'm hoping that will allow it to sit lower, then if I have to use lowering blocks I won't need a large one.

Here is the bushing kit I needed, go figure its $68 opposed to the $45 ones I have.
ENS-3-2142R
Bushings, Leaf Spring, Polyurethane, 2.5 in. main eye, Red, Rear, Chevy, GMC, Pickup, SUV, RWD, 4WD, Kit