Had to buy - '77 Suburban

[lolife99]

If it was mine, I would remove the bumpstop and the metal bracket that it's attached to and trim 1/2 coil up front.
That should drop it another inch up front.
Just MY 2 cents,...

[Willowrun]

Originally Posted by lolife99

If it was mine, I would remove the bumpstop and the metal bracket that it's attached to and trim 1/2 coil up front.
That should drop it another inch up front.
Just MY 2 cents,...

Exactly what I needed to hear....an experienced opinion. Thank you for the advice, I now have my marching orders for tomorrow. So another 1/2 coil?

[Willowrun]

Had a couple hours this afternoon so I took Lolife's advise and dropped the front another inch. After getting the lower spindle out of the way by removing the lower ball joint nut I cut what I felt I didn't need out with a cut off wheel. I left the steering stop.

[Willowrun]

After cutting 1/2 coil out it is sitting where it needs to be. I feel 1 1/2 coils is about max of what I would do because there is just enough tension to hold the now shorter spring in the pockets with the suspension at full droop. Doubtful a shorter spring would fall out, but for me this is short enough.

I measured all 4 corners at the top of the wheel well and they are all within 1/8 inch. Very happy about that as I'm always concerned about a lean one way or the other.

Hope to get shocks and front sway bar installed next but will have to wait as I'm heading on a business trip to MX until Thurs. Hoping the snow is gone when I get back.

[Willowrun]

In the last month or so I was able to finish up the suspension, swap in some different door hinges on the drivers side, and most painfully, I finished the bodywork except for the dent in the lower drivers door....I've had enough bodywork for a while. I also cleaned up the center caps and rings and stuck them on. Finally, I fixed all of the tranny leaks. Oil fill seal, servo seal, new speedometer cable bullet, and the shift shaft seal were all replaced. The Jimmy no longer leaks.

While I was doing all of the work to this thing over the winter I was always a little worried because the drivetrain in this thing is unproven. The most I had ever driven was to the end of the road and back which was barely enough to tell if it was even getting into third gear. Now that it was finally at the point of needing an alignment I had a choice to make: Trailer it or drive it to get aligned.

I ended up setting the toe with a tape measure and decided to take it on a shakedown run to the gas station. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it ran and drove so I drove it to get aligned once the wife was home to follow me there. It rides and drives great

[Willowrun]

Things I'd still like to do in the coming weeks:
- New window seals and get the interior cleaned up.
- Someone had the seats recovered pretty poorly years ago and those need to be redone.
- I also need to get a headliner I have covered and installed.
- I'd like to get some kind of red plaid material to use for inserts on the seats.
- I had to cut the tailpipe behind the muffler when doing the flip so some exhaust work is in the its future.
- I need to throw a different instrument bezel in and also figure out something with the chalky door panels.
- Lastly, it could use a radio that works better at some point but that's not really a priority.

I drove it quite a bit this weekend on short trips and it's been reliable and fun to drive. My goal for the last couple months has been to have the Jimmy able to drive to a swap meet about an hour away the third weekend in April. At times it seemed like I wasn't going to make it, but I think it may be ready after I take it on a few longer drives.