Cool pics of both trucks. That is good to know about needing 16 inch wheels to clear the brakes. I am getting 3 sets of wheels with the truck, stock, centerlines, and 16 inch wheels. I plan on going with the centerlines until I do the suspension swap.

 

Got some pics today to give an idea of scale. I am 5'11" tall.

 

If I recall correctly you are looking for steel wheels in a 16" size? Just ran across a company that makes just the thing you are looking for and I thought of you right away. You may allready know about them and I don't know what their prices are like but here they are; www.thewheelsmith.net. They have some real neat stuff, even the Spider Caps that were mentioned above.
David.

 

Thanks. I was not aware of them. I will be getting some measurements from my truck and contact them about wheels. They may be far less expensive than 17"

 

Ain't she got a sexy butt?





Still need to get the parking brake connected.

 

I don't know why I did not realize this earlier, but is there any reason why you used the CV IFS instead of the T-bird? I was planning on buying a T-bird donor car and using both front and rear, but I just noticed you used the front from a CV.

 

[/QUOTE]
The blue "68 belonged to a friend of mine & is all stock. These pics are before the dropped springs. Have more pics coming of the fender scoops and the drop springs. We also got rid of the wipers. Welded in a portion of the factory grate. I took 2 leaves out of the rear which dropped it 3". Poor thing had a 7 1/2" rake. Hopefully the rear suspension will go in soon. Heart attack slowed me down a bit.[/QUOTE]



which leaves did you pull from the rear springs or doesn't it matter, fantastic build will be following this thread

 

The TBird has struts and would require building an upper strut mount. In other words the inner fender is part is the front suspension on the TBird. I have seen a thread somewhere where someone did use the TBird front suspension but don't remember where. It was quite awhile ago. I would probably say amount of fab work. The CV just makes for a cleaner install IMHO.

As to a Tbird donor car. Unless you are getting the car dirt cheap or are using way more than I did from a Tbird it is more cost effective just to buy the IRS. I paid $125 for the IRS I used. With it I got the set of wheels and the pwr rack. I was originally planning a MII IFS until I learned about the CV swap. With the MII swap you can use the TBird rack. The same goes for a CV. I paid $250 for the IFS. I wasn't using anything else from a CV so to me just buying the IFS already out of the car was by far most cost effective.

I would bet if you did a search for TBird IFS swap you might find that thread. I can't remember what type of truck it was but I am thinking it was a bump. I may go a looking. If I find it I will send you the link.

 

The blue "68 belonged to a friend of mine & is all stock. These pics are before the dropped springs. Have more pics coming of the fender scoops and the drop springs. We also got rid of the wipers. Welded in a portion of the factory grate. I took 2 leaves out of the rear which dropped it 3". Poor thing had a 7 1/2" rake. Hopefully the rear suspension will go in soon. Heart attack slowed me down a bit.[/quote]



which leaves did you pull from the rear springs or doesn't it matter, fantastic build will be following this thread [/quote]

I pulled #2 and #4 from a 5 leaf pack. Have no idea what it will do to your payload capacity as I haul nothing more than a case of beer or groceries in this truck. I have a '90 4x4 that I use as my truck.

 

I wont be hauling much more than camping gear for shows, I've got 7 leaves with some sort of assister's on top, the assister's will be the first to go. the ride is a bit harsh at the moment. also how hard is it to dismantle them and did you have to modify the central pin?

 

Thanks for the info. I didn't think about just buying the IFS/IRS by themselves. The only thing I would have used from the T-bird other than the suspensions, was the front leather seats. But to pay for a whole car just for seats and suspensions, doesn't sound cost effective.

 

You will need to jack up the whole back of the truck to do this easily. Don't ask me how I know that. Anyway as to the center bolt I did not have to modify mine but if I would have taken any more out I would have had to make a new bolt. No big deal just get a bolt the length you want and grind the head down to a circle. Anyway with the truck up on stands support one side of the rear axle with a jack. Remove the u bolts and lower the rear axle. Now you can pull the center pin. If you use a C clamp on the springs you will have more control. Once the bolt is out remove the leafs you want to remove and replace the bolt. Jack the axle up and put the U bolts back in.

If your truck is all rusty underneath you will probably want to replace the U Bolts. You will need to add some washers for spacers to your U Bolts as you won't have enough thread to run the nuts all the way down. New U bolts would cure this as well providing you bought custom from a spring shop. The U bolts are 9/16".

Do the other side and you are done. No idea on your extra leaves.

 

In my case it wasn't cost effective. I didn't want to hassle of selling the hulk after I took the IRS. If you had someone interested in TBird parts it might be worth it but I always include my time as well. The two suspension pieces I used were just flat inexpensive as single units IMHO. If I was doing a 4.6 swap I would have taken that from a CV not the TBird. In that case buying a CV might be worth it. IFS, engine, trans, wiring harness, etc.

 

I have toyed with the idea of doing a 4.6 swap, but decided it is more work/expense than I want to get into right now. I am already looking at 5-6k worth of mods to this truck, and that does not include swapping the flareside bed for a styleside.

 

I know what you mean. I think we are just over $4000 in our truck to date. We are budgeting $5000 for additional body mods & paint. Then of course we have the wiring harness, wheels/tires and engine/trans build. We are hoping to come in between $15K - $20K total which I don't think is bad at all for what we will have when finished.