1978 Truckin Magazine Lowering article

[Lon]

I have an article from the 1978 Truckin showing how 73-up Chevy truck was lowered. They used a kit from Specialty Cars that used upper control arm spacers, longer bolts, shorter shocks and weld on axle saddles. To lower the front they suggest cutting 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 coils off of the factory springs.

The magazine is very dry and brittle so I only took pics of the article.

[g2bird]

I rebuilt the front suspension in my truck over the past couple weekends and that is almost exactly what my truck has.  Pics are a little hard to get bigger.  Previous owner said it was a drop spindle but when I got in there it was not.  I'm glad you found this because I was really hot over being lied to and thought they just rigged up this cut spring system, and had never seen any alignment spacers like what the truck has.  Any way I replaced the springs with some 1 inch lowering springs instead of the cut springs.  After the suspension settles some I will have a better idea of if it looks right.  could I get you to email me some high res photos of that article.  I'm really curious now.

[Lon]

My sister has a scanner that she says wont mess up the magazine, but I wont see her until Friday. I'll send you the images then.

As far as cutting springs, I havent had any problems. I had cut factory springs and lowered spindles on my 84 before the airride and I liked it better than the dropped springs. My current daily driver (90 Silverado) has cut 2" BellTech springs and lowered spindles.

If I can figure out the thickness of those spacers (the article doenst tell) I'm thinking of making a few.

[g2bird]

Thanks for taking the time to scan those, a picture that could zoom in on would be enough if you don't want to chance scanning it.

I mostly replaced the springs because the front passenger side of the truck sagged about an inch and I want to rule out worn springs as the cause.

I think the spacers are about 1 inch thick, mine appear to be made out of stainless but I would imagine aluminum would work well.  I will measure them tonight and post back.

[g2bird]

The spacers are 1/2 inch thick.

[Captkaos]

Back in the late 80's when I started doing this (where there was no spindles and control arms) this is how I lowered them.  You wouldn't want to go over 1.5 coils though, and you NEVER want to heat them.

Shortly after that, we were modding the control arms, much like some people are doing now to get them even lower.

[Lon]

My sister has the mag, and will email the pics when she gets them scanned.

I have a rolling frame with a good stepside bed, I plan on building a 70's era custom with it. I will be lowering it the same way, I may section the crossmember rather than mod the control arms, I want it to look like a time warp, with 15x10 TruSpokes, tube grill and other relics of cutom past. I just need to find a clean 73 or 74 cab.