It is a great looking truck, but I still can't help but wonder why you bought it over a nice stocker/restoration. The way you are going: "This truck has been tubbed. Even though they did a nice job, I plan on reversing it before I have it painted (repainting too???). I don't plan to put that wide rear tires on it, and there's no sense in having it tubbed if you're not got to use it." sure is the hard/expensive way to do things. Good luck with the "untubbing", getting the bed sides smooth and flat will require an extremely skilled body man or a replacement bed. Did they narrow the rear end or pinch in the frame to accomidate the wide tires as well?
Jim, my brother had two of the twin I beam pickups he bought new and used as daily drivers. He never could keep a set of tires on either one even tho the dealer supposedly bent in the correct alignment. (with the first one they even sent in a factory guy to align it) Defintely not one of Ford's "better ideas". He always bought Fords up to those two, but those were the last Fords he has owned since.

 

It's been while since I posted to this thread, so I thought I'd give an update. Just to recap, the previous owner had installed the front clip from a '79 Monte Carlo to get power steering and disc brakes. This naturally lowered the front of the truck to the height of a Monte Carlo (surprise!). He then removed every other leaf from the rear leaf springs to bring the truck down even with the front. Although the truck looked and rode reasonably well, I did notice that the rear springs had been compromised to the point that they were allowing the axle to roll more than normal on take-off.



In any case, I really didn't wan't the lowered look, so I immediately set out looking for the best way to raise the truck back to it's normal ride height.

I followed the advice of several people on this forum and took the rear leaf springs to a local spring shop. Instead of adding back the missing leafs, they suggested replacing the top spring to get the right ride height. Of course, we also discovered that all of the pins and bushings were worn-out so we replaced those as well (we also reworked the rear-end, but I won't go into that here).

For the front, I researched several options and decided to replace the front coil springs with heavier big-block springs. As with the rear, all pins, bushings, ball-joints, and shocks were replaced. We also replaced the power steering pump and steering box to make sure that everything was up-to-snuff.



These modifications gave me the ride height that I was after, but have introduced several negative side effects that I don't think I can live with:

• As you might have guessed, the ride is now stiff as a board... front and rear. I also have a '51 F3 with stock springs, and it's even stiffer than the stock set-up.
  
• The steering is somewhat "darty". After we installed the new springs, I took it to the alignment shop and the guy said that he removed all the shims and still couldn't get the camber where it needs to be. He said that it was close, but not 100% right.

So now I'm pondering my next move. On the front, I'm thinking of going back to the stock coil springs and just use spacers to raise it. As far as the camber goes, I think Moog makes an offset upper A arm pin that can give you more positive or negative camber (depending on how you install it.). That's assuming that the camber is the cause of the "dartiness" of the steering.

On the rear I don't have many options other than taking the leaf springs back off and seeing if the spring shop will work with me to try to get them a little softer without lowering the ride height.

I would appreciate any input that any of you can offer.

Peace,
-DV

 

Nice job on the ride height, bummer about being too stiff to enjoy.

I think it might be worthwile to contact a spring and suspension place and bend their ear a bit about what you are after. It would think that its possible to get front coil springs at the height you want with a decent srping rate. Look at all the coil spring suspensions out there, there are bound to be something that would work.
As for the rear, first of all you probably don't need the full pack of springs as the original had. Again, I would talk to the guys who reworked your leaf springs and let them know what exactly you are after. I bet they can tailer them to fityour application.

Here's a good link for springs that I stumbled into the other day while looking for springs for my Jeepster Commando;
General Spring offers leaf springs, coil springs, lift kits, leveling kits
this will give you some kind of idea of what the stock spring specs were for your camaro clip, etc

I think I would wait until you got the ride height and spring issues to where you want them before spending anymore time and energy on the alignment and "dartiness".

Good luck
Bobby

 

Thanks Bobby. By the way, I went back and spoke to the guy who did the front-end alignment. He said that he could only get it to about -1.3 deg camber. Some people like to run about -1.0 deg, some prefer 0 deg camber. He said that if the offset upper A arm pin would gain me 1 deg of positive camber, I should be in good shape. He also said that he didn't think the camber was off enough to cause the dartiness. He said that he noticed that the steering box was awfully tight and asked if I had adjusted it. I said no, that it was a new steering box, and he said that I might want to try adjusting it.

-DV

 

First, -1.3* camber should be adequate for street use, but I'd check what the alignment specs were for the donor vehicle, and shoot for those specs. Same with the caster and toe. Camber really has little affect on "dartyness" but caster and especially toe does. Are the wheels to MC offset or are they offset to reduce the tread width to tuck them under the fenders? This can also cause dartyness. Finally the new PS pump may be putting out more pressure than desirable, you might try an inline pressure adjustment valve.
As far as ride stiffness, you might be able to find or have made coils that are the softer stiffness, but are taller than the set you took out. With the popularity of "Dubs" on earlier Monte carlos there might even be raised spindles available for your front end.

 

Chuck,

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't know what the specs are for the Monte Carlo front end alignment, but I did tell the alignment guy that it was a '79 Monte Carlo. I've used the same guys a lot over the years, so I have pretty high confidence in them. The new wheels are 4" backspace on an 8" wheel, so I guess that would be 0 offset. I did install 1" spacers on front to give me a little clearance, so I guess that would be the same as a 1" offset?

Good suggestion on the power steering pump. I switched from a Ford to a GM pump because the GM pumps can be easily revalved. I wouldn't mind having a slightly firmer feel anyway.

Also a good suggestion on the "dubs". I thought about flagging down one of the guys with 23"rims on a G Body and asking him how he did it.

-DV

 

If you like lowered trucks that is good, but I like original ride height. I had to cut about 1 coil out of my front springs to get it down to original height. Looks good to me like it is now. Front view doesn't quite show as good as a side view but this is all I have for now.

 

I saw from your gallery that you installed a T Bird IFS? That's the first one of those that I've seen. Looks like a very nice job!

-DV

 

Bobby, The only spring shop that I could find here in Atlanta only did leaf springs. I noticed that they mainly worked with big trucks, which in hindsight should have been a big warning that my truck would wind-up too stiff.

I was pretty much left on my own for the front coils. I ordered those big block springs online in hopes that they would raise me up to where I want to be (and they did), but of course they're too stiff.

I wish that I could find a spring and suspension shop that I could take the truck to and explain what I want.

-DV

 

I hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it I think most of the spring shops are geared towards large trucks these days. I know there are places that deal with custom coil springs. I just did a Google search for coil springs and I found this (among others)

Coil Spring Specialties | Classic Cars

Maybe try searching for "custom suspension" or something like that. I know that there has to be a way to get the springs you need without having to go through the trial and error method of guessing at applictions until you get it right.

Bobby

 

Eaton Springs (Detroit) who have shown up on this forum lately, make both leaf and coil springs, understand our needs, and are eager to help. I'd suggest talking with them.

 

I highly recommend Coil Spring Specialties. After trying two sets of name brand springs, I had them make a pair of springs for my '67 Chevelle wagon. I wanted a stock ride height which their springs provided. Call them and talk to Kevin Crane.

Tim

 

Thanks for all the info. I have contacted Eaton Detroit Springs and am waiting to hear back from them. I also looked at Coil Spring Specialties website. I'd like to find someone who can look at the truck as a whole (coil and leaf springs). If I wind-up dealing with the coil springs separately I'll give them a call.

-DV

 

A decent spring and suspension place ought to be able to help with both the coils and the leafs. Since your poor ol beat up truck (lol) is no longer being used as a truck there is no need to have the original leaf spring packs. Just like with the coils you should be able to get a spring pack that will give you the same ride height but without the stiffness.

Compare the ride of a new 3/4 or 1 ton truck compared to a 40 to 50 year old truck....they are each rated to haul the same weight but you don't need a kidney belt with the new trucks.

Bobby

 

Hi again,
Doraville did contact us, I won't copy the entire exchange here, it'd be long. He can come back and post all of it if he wants. We can indeed help with both the coil and leaf springs.
Our answer to him was:

First off, your truck is mighty darn good looking. Now lets see if we can not improve the ride.
Lets start with the front. The most lift you can get with coils is about 2-inches, and BB springs are not the answer. As you have found out, go too high and the steering becomes a b...... . So another change of coils is in order. Our part number MC1412+2 is the spring set you need. 189.95 plus shipping.
Now for the rear. I think something else must have been done to the springs for just going with a heavier main plate would not provide much lift and it sure would not have over stiffened the ride. Now with that being said, you have 2 choices -
1) send us the springs and let us do our magic to improve the ride.
2) a new set of springs.
Cost either way is pretty much the same, 475.00 for the pair plus shipping. But I honestly think new springs is your best option. - Mike
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