[RobinHood]

As far as the rear end, the 3/4 ton rear end with 4.57 something gears just wasnt going to work out. I found a narrow 10 bolt Chevy rear end complete from drum to drum that I decided was perfect. The seller said it had been gone through, and the price was so low even if I didnt end up using it there was no reason to pass it up. I inspected it briefly and the ring gear set appeared to be okay as well as the oil and the bearings on the axles.

I think bagged trucks look pretty good, but I dont think that the impracticality of an airbag setup is something I would want on my own truck. I decided to go for a static drop created by taking out some of the leaves from ths spring pack along with a lowering block in the rear. I decided to create a step notch from some 3x6 frame tubing.

Before I started the entire frame teardown, I knew that my frame had a slight curve in it in ths middle section of about .5-1" from tip to tip. I wasnt sure whether this was out of the realm of normality for these trucks, and how it would affect the step notch I was making. I certainly didnt want the truck to dog track down the road later on.

To make the step notch, I welded in a support, cut the frame section on top, welded in each step notch, then cut out the remainder of the original frame section. I added 2 2x2 steel tubes for crossmembers on the top of the step. Overall, I think that it is plenty strong and it lets the rear end be about as low as I want it statically without having to worry about an air setup.