I thought I'd share what I did to my panel over the last summer and why. The panel was my first build I did and in my ignorance did a frame swap thinking I was going to save money ( laugh ). Made sense to me at the time ,the suspension of the 1972 C10 had coil springs front and rear and was a proven suspension, frame was the same width. What could go wrong..? I shortened the frame because it was obvious the wheel base was too long. Anyways once it came to installing my front fenders that's when I realized I had a problem, tires were contacting my fenders. So now what do I do.?? I did some research and found a place in Texas that made narrowed control arms, they said they would solve my problem and bring the track width to within the Ford track width which they did but I ran into problems with the sway bar end links contacting the inside of my tires close to full turn wearing a nice groove to the sidewall . That cost me 2 new tires, forget about the argument I had over that. I drove the panel several years and had it in for alignments trying to correct a scrubbing issue that was more noticeable in tight turns. The panel rode nice and steered good on the highway and town streets. Couldn't get anywhere talking with the out fit that built the arms. But I was wearing tires to the core on the outside. So this past summer I decided to park the panel and correct the problem for good. I found that Scott's Hot Rods and Customs built a bolt in cross member with custom widths.
I contacted them explaining what I had and how I built the 56 panel on a 1972 C10 chassis that had only 2 inch drop spindles up front and 4 inch lowered springs on the back. I found that the ride height was a little low so when they were to build the cross member I wanted stock height spindles. They said not a problem they could do it and I'd be very happy with the way it handled I was very happy.
I had them deliver them to a border box and went there to pick up the 6 packages



I then unpacked the boxes and laid it all out on the floor



After it was all out I noticed there were no brake calipers , this was on a Saturday but called them right away and left them a message .They swore up and down that they were packed but eventually got that all straightened out and in a couple weeks they arrived.

SO I started dissembling the front sheet metal from the panel










sway bar removed






It was recommended to remove the motor to make the install easier but I decided I didn't want to go that route, far too much to disconnect
so made some supports for the motor before dropping the cross member..






Dropped and rolled out of place



Then it was prepping the parts for epoxy primer and a top coat of black paint





Then onto assembling












Going from a steering box to a rack and pinion the steering column needed to be moved to where you see it now..


Continued assembling it all, forgot to take the pictures of my inner fenders where I had to cut out an area to allow room for the coil over shocks


Now all together you can see it doesn't look like it got raised the 2 inches I had asked for



I had 6 inches to the bottom of my roll pan before the cross member swap, now 4 1/2"



Here's a 2x4 to show my clearance



front of my running boards



and my exhaust , only 3 inch clearance here


How it looked on the street. I drove it a couple miles down the highway and around town and it steered wonderfully and had a great smooth ride but was mad as hell after spending so much time and money so back on the phone..

 

John , can you lift it by adjusting the shocks ?

 

The phone calls weren't going well and the owner of the shop Justin Scott Padfield showed his true colors. He wanted me to put longer coil over shocks to bring up the height a couple inches,I told him doing that I'd be back to wearing out my tires again. He said the cross member was a stock height member and I had lots of clearance there. He said I needed to raise my exhaust at which point I said what would that do considering it was 1/4 " higher than my running board brackets. After half a dozen phone calls and emails I just gave up and started pulling it all apart a second time.
I ended up making some blocks out of 2 1/2" square tubing 3/16" thick and bolted it between the frame and cross member cradle and now have the clearance of 7 1/2 inches under the front roll pan. Unfortunately winter arrived very early this year and didn't get the chance to take it in for an alignment so first thing in the spring that will be the first thing on my list of to do's

 

That's what they wanted me to do but I was already where they said the lower control arms were designed to be level with the cross member. The more the shocks are raised the more comfort you loose in ride. I have it all sorted out now as maddening as it was..
Somehow I lost all the pictures I took of the blocks I put in to raise it..

 

Not the greatest picture but can see the 2 1/2 block installed to lift the frame.


Patches I had to do to repair the fenders after i had cut them out to clearance the coil overs. This could have been avoided if I had taken the panel off the jack stands and tested the ride height. That fault lays on me..



Patches complete



and repainted

 

Looks good John..

 

Many people, especially at car shows and other similar events, are never able to comprehend the amount of work put into a beautiful ride like yours.
As for me and those joining you here, we do understand. All I want now, is to see the latest ride pics. I guess I'll have to wait until spring.

 

Before I started the cross member change over I couldn't roll my floor jack under the front roll pan unless I drove it up on wooden blocks, now I have now problem at all other than many pump on the handle until it's jacked up a little..

 

Nice work, John. Thanks for sharing.

 

I lost a bunch of pics somehow, not sure if I accidentally deleted a file or what so will have to wait until it's out from under the covers in the spring to take more..