So I had a chance to hit her pretty hard this weekend! On Thursday the big brown truck showed up with the new TCI rear leaf kit so I had plenty to keep me busy this weekend. First up was spending all day Saturday taking all the old leaf hangers off. Wasn't as simple as it sounds because the previous owner painted over all the bolts and nuts thus not allowing me to get wrenches on them, but after a lot of hammering, grinding, and busted knuckles I had the frame all cleaned up.
I was somewhat hesitant about ordering the leaf kit because some sites had it listed as fitting 37-54 trucks and others had it only fitting 47-54..go figure. But I remember Justin telling me that all the frames are the same from the firewall back so I figured I would trust his knowledge and pop on the $550. It only made sense to buy the new kit as I was getting prices of $175 to get each spring rebuilt, and that was without new hangers, pads hardware, shocks etc. etc.
Once I started bolting the new hangers on the frame I was pleasantly suprised that everything bolted right into the existing holes just like TCI advertised!! Other then having to file a few holes to get the bolts to pass through it was a pretty straight forward job.
On Sunday I spent the better half of the day cutting and grinding the old pads and shock hangers off the rear. I got to tell ya if ya ever have absolutely nothing better to do on a Sunday I highly recommend grinding mounts of a 60 year old year end.
And yes I did cover the diff while grinding
After wrestling the rear back in place by myself this is what I ende up with at the end of 2 looong days.
The TCI kit was advertised as a 3 inch lowering kit so I wasn't sure if I was going to need additional blocks under the rear but it looks pretty close to how it was sitting with the old springs.
I guess if I want, I could make a call out to Justin and get some 2" drop spindles and then throw some 2" lowering blocks under the rear
The last thing I got done was make a new rear cross member. I still need to weld it in place for good, then I can remove the stock cross member to make room for the new fuel tank.
Next on the to do list is weld up the cross member, fill in all the holes in the frame and get the new shock cross member bolted in place. Then onto the new tank, probably a late 60's mustang tank.