Hey all, I’m a new member and I just got a 1980 f150 2wd stepside. I’ve been searching for ways that are budget friendly to improve the stance of my truck. I’ve searched around and seen some people using axle flip kits, shackle kits, removing a few leafs for the back and then in the front I’ve seen lowering springs, drop beams, cutting the coils, running explorer springs and so on.. just wondering what some have done and how their trucks have turned out. If you’d like to share I’d greatly appreciate the help and input. Thanks! Here are a few pictures of my truck.

 

Welcome to FTE
I fixed it for you as Fords are Flare Side but when looking for parts use both flare and step as the un-knowing call them stepsides.

First nice looking truck and love the Key Stone Classic wheels they fit the year of the truck in my book.
What dose it have for a motor and trans? What are the plans weekend cruiser, DD, ?

As for lowering you are going to have a little problem up front as the 80 to 82 trucks used kingpins and they come in 2 different sizes.
https://djmsuspension.com/ only makes lowering beams for the smaller kingpins from what I see, do you know what size pins the truck has?
I have found trucks with power brakes and small wheel bolt pattern has the smaller pins but check to make sure on yours.

Little back ground on lowering the Twin Beam front suspension and why 1 way works over the other.
Jack up your truck in the front center and see what happens to the wheels, They move in at the bottom and out at the top when looking from the front.
This is camber, the wheel swings in a arc as it moves up & down. If you lower the truck you are changing the center pivot and changing the camber.
If you use springs to lower you are lowering the center pivot and changing camber.
Because you have kingpins there is no way to get the camber back to factory spec short of bending the beams and good luck finding a shop that can do that.
A large truck repair might be able to bend them but again good luck finding one.

What DJM dose is make beams with the spindles higher up from the center of the beams to lower trucks, in my book this is the right way to lower something.
Because the spindles lower the car / truck you keep the factory wheel travel limits. Springs is shorting this and you can bottom out on the bump stops sooner over bumps.
Shorter springs also give a harder ride as they are stiffer so you dont bottom out. See why springs are not good for lowering?

Dont give up just yet. Depending on the wheel bolt pattern the later trucks (large pattern) use ball joints in place of kingpins.
Get a set of spindles from ball joints out, you dont need the beams but might be easier to take beams on out from the junk yard just for the spindles?
Get the DJM lowering beams and put the later spindles on and you are now lowered up front.
Also with ball joints you can get adjusting bushings to "dial in" camber & caster back to factory if it is off some.
It is a plus plus going with the later ball joint beams if you can.

Out back the DJM is also the way to go as it is all bolt in.
Yes you are making the travel less but dose not seem to be as big a issue out back unless you have a load in the bed or pull a trailer and the back drops some.
Then you can "C notch" the frame with kits if you find the rear bottoms out.

Also with the DJM set up you can get the shocks to match the how much it was lowered.
You could also measure what you have for shock travel and look on line for shocks that will work and hope they dont bottom out before the suspension dose.
Oh you say you have the small pattern wheel I am pretty sure the DJM kingpin kit fits but if you have the large then junk yard beams with ball joints is the only way I see going.

Yes I looked into this for my 81 F100 flare side as I knew I needed new kingpins and figured dropping when I did the pins would be the way to go.
At the time they did not make any kits for the 80's kingpin trucks. So I figured to use the full good front suspension from my parts truck and that is when I found out about the 2 different size pins.
BTW bot truck were 81 F100,300 six and manual trans with a 4700 GVW. The small pin parts truck had power brakes and mine did not.
I had to use the large wheel pattern wheels as I did not have any that would fit my truck and no money for others and I liked the wheels.

Shortly after a 4 year cab off frame rebuild of the truck that I did all the work, did not farm any out.

Hope this helps
Dave ----

 

Thanks for all the information! I definitely have a lot more to check now before I decide on lowering the truck as I was unaware of a lot of things you mentioned. I want to keep the keystone classics but they are in rough shape so I’m considering having them blasted and powder coated gloss black. I’d like to run 275/60/15’s on back and maybe 245-255/60/15’s out front. The keystones will need center caps for sure as the ones on there are rusty. The truck has a 351w in it and I’m not sure if that is original or not. I believe the guy said it has a c6 in it for a trans. I want to use it for a summer driver and cruise nights. It needs a bunch of odds and ends so it will probably take me most of winter to get it squared away and drivable. Again thanks for the info, I’m gonna check the truck this evening or tomorrow to see if I’m going shopping for a parts truck or a djm kit.

 

I have an '80 Flare Side as well. I did all of the research on lowering the truck, like you, and decided against it (too much work & money - that's just me). My F-150 has a ball joint front suspension. However, I've discovered that it's from an '85 F-150. I do recall having a conversation with Dave G and thought that the F-100s got king pins while the F-150s got ball joints. My '81 F-100 parts truck had king pins. My memory might be bad tho...

My truck came with a 351M and C6 (it now has a 302 & SROD). So, double check that you actually have a 351 Windsor and not the 351M (and I'm not sure if the 351W was offered in 1980).

Your truck looks good with the black on black scheme. I have a sliding rear window that'll fit, if you're interested.

 

I do remember now talking about the 100 having kingpins and the 150 ball joints but dont remember if we called that 100% true or not?
If you are right then his 150 may have ball joints and he would be set to go with the DJM beams.

Well I just checked DJM site and they list 80-81 F100 only and the beams they list the kingpin size.
They dont list any drop beams for the 80-82 F150 trucks so that tells me the F150 uses the larger kingpins that DJM dose not make beams for.
83 they list beams for the F150 only, the F100 was dropped by Ford, and it is a ball joint beam.

So the best option I see to lower a 80 - 82 F100/F150 that have the large kingpins it to swap in 83> spindles to the DJM ball joint beams and you can use the adjuster bushings to get back to factory spec. Small kingpins you can get DJM beams for.
I did not look but wonder if the <79 beams would work if they have the large size kingpins??
Dave ----

 

ok so I finally had a moment to get back in the barn and this is what I have in the front of my truck.

 

Good luck finding drop beams with king pins. We were able to get a company pull off the shelf their mold for a '82-'86 F150 I beam with ball joints to make a drop beam for a customer that wanted to lower his '82 F150. They told us that no even they dont have a drop beam for king pins and no one does. Would have to upgrade to a '82-'86 balljoint suspension.

 

Yes that is a kingpin set up.
It has a cap top & bottom with grease fittings and that nut thru the center of the pin, It is a wedge that the nut pulls into place to hold the pin from moving.

The only way I know for sure of the pin size is to remove the pin and measure it.
But I have found if you have power brakes and small wheel pattern it would have the small pins.
If non-power brakes and large wheel pattern it has large pins.
You can not go by GVW as both of my 81 F100's were 4700 GVW

Now another reason you have to measure is you can get some smart azz like me that installed power brakes on a non-power brake truck but left the large wheel pattern and large kingpins in place.
I say if you want to lower the truck to get a set of 83 up beams on out so you have the spindles brakes etc. and get the DJM beams.
Junk yard would be undo the pivot on the beam, undo the radius arms from frame, shock & spring from the spring bucket and cut the rubber line and it is out.
Dave ----

 

One weird thing I experienced at work was an '82/'83 F100 came in all original, one owner ordered parts for it for the brakes nothing was right. Come to find out they had a F100 and a F100 HD which was a F100 with F150 brakes, I dont think the suspension was changed cause if so then that would make it a F150 and there would be no reason for a F100.

 

I bet if you were to look it did not have power brakes and had large wheel bolt pattern like my flare side.
The parts truck was also a 81 same size motor (300) and manual trans be it mine a T18 the parts a SROD. and both had the same 4700 GVW yet the parts truck had power brakes, small wheel pattern and small kingpins.

Yes the calipers & pads where also different. So the beams on out was different between the 2 trucks and did not find this out till I went to put my big pattern hubs on the small kingpin beams and it was a no go. That is when I started looking into why being both trucks had the same 4700 GVW.
So on the outside it was the wheels and power brakes was the only way I / we could tell large or small kingpins.

So I guess you would be calling the F100 HD the large kingpin and non-power brakes truck.
Dave ----

 

I don't recall if we ever came to a conclusion. But, at the time, I thought I had the original '80 TIBs in the truck. Turns out, I don't.
A quick check of Rock Auto shows ball joints for an '80 F-150 4x4. The 4x2 is not listed. So, that must indicate that early Bull Nose 4x2 trucks were kingpin.

This is how I would approach it, if it were me. Also, good to know I have that option since I have '85 beams.