Frame Damage Diagnosis Questions?

[silvrbreez]

I recently dropped my truck with the 4.5/6 McGaughy's kit (springs/spindles/flip/notch) and in the mix I obviously paid alot more attention to my suspension and chassis.  I bought the truck back in Sept. '08 and the previous owner said it had never been wrecked.  Looking at things closer, hindsight is 20/20, I've realized that both passanger side wheels seems to be set back 1/2" to 1" toward the rear of the truck.  On top of that, the front bumper seems a tad closer to the body on the passenger side, the rear bumper seems a tad farther from the cab on the passenger side, and the bed is slightly farther from the cab on the passenger side.  Are these tell tale signs that something is racked in my frame?  Any thoughts?

I've already brought it to one body shop and they said it seem straight, but I take it they never pulled the diamond pattern cross check cause this shift seems like it would have been obvious.

[Captkaos]

These trucks weren't perfect from the factory, as for the 1" back info, you know the tires weren't centered from the factory and lowering one makes them worse.

[HAULIN IT]

My advice would be to take the truck to a place that has a good, newer wheel alignment machine. Advise them you would like to have the placement of all four wheels checked & would like the print-out of the specs & the pictures of the condition (if available). With this information you will know what you have. If the front has a bunch of set-back, then your on the right track in your thinking. The rear specs will tell you if the thrust angle is off (the rear in the truck farther back on one side), you will see toe in on one side & toe out on the other.
 As Capt. mentioned, these trucks were never perfect, but if it's truly off an inch...It should be fixed. Lorne     

[silvrbreez]

I plan to try and call around in the coming days.

Some shops have told me they don't have the specs for vehicles this old (older than '90).  Any truth to that?

[Captkaos]

If they are saying that, find a competant alignment shop.
BTW, Since you lowered the truck, you cannot "fix" the setback because it is a circumstance of lowering.  The spindle moves up and back during compression and you have essentially put it in the compressed position permanently when lowering.

[silvrbreez]

I'll be calling to find a shop that can do all that was mentioned.  There are several around, I just need to do some searching.

So I take it that the setback is something that all of us lowered square bodies will just have to suck it up and deal with.  No way to account for that?

[Captkaos]

There is a way to account for it, but it is pretty extensive and you have to modify the whole front crossmember and the lower control arms.

[silvrbreez]

So I take it that using the Porterbuilt crossmember and AirRide strong arms might fix it?

[Captkaos]

Porterbuilt I think builds it into his setup..  Strong arms won't change anything as they only modify the balljoint geometry and you are still using the stock locations.