Question to the 60-66 drag trucks

[TEXAS 65]

I have a 65 GMC swb step that I have back halfed with ladder bars and coil overs and taken all crossmember out and replaced with tube, wud love to post pics but all I have is iPhone and can't figure it out. Anyways I'm ready to start wrenching on front end and was wondering what y'all are doing up front to help your trucks, I don't have a lot of money, all parts so far are donations from older cars I made to fit and tube I had laying around so I can't afford those nice bolt in replacements I've seen for sale, but do have a lot of junk yards around to scrounge for parts. Thanks in advance!

[Super73]

My current set up:
Home built cross member retaining factory geometry for lower control arms (20lb savings)
Stock upper / lower control arms
Rancho 9000 adjustable shock, I had to add a little ear at the top of the frame to mount it
Front coils from a late 80's/early 90's V8 Grand Cherokee (17 3/4" long and roughly 200lb rate)
CCP drop spindle
Stock front disks from a 67-72 pick up


I am however in the process of putting a MII spindle in the truck utilizing QA1 ball joints. I will be updating the thread I have here next week once I have parts in. But this should save 75+ lbs

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by Super73

My current set up:
Home built cross member retaining factory geometry for lower control arms (20lb savings)
Stock upper / lower control arms
Rancho 9000 adjustable shock, I had to add a little ear at the top of the frame to mount it
Front coils from a late 80's/early 90's V8 Grand Cherokee (17 3/4" long and roughly 200lb rate)
CCP drop spindle
Stock front disks from a 67-72 pick up


I am however in the process of putting a MII spindle in the truck utilizing QA1 ball joints. I will be updating the thread I have here next week once I have parts in. But this should save 75+ lbs

I'm interested too. You have a similar setup to me. Same brakes (with d52s), spindles, springs. I've got adjustable qa1s and love the difference they made. I'm super interested in your crossmember setup, as I feel like the stock one is heavy and bulky for no reason.

[TEXAS 65]

Awesome, thanx super73!

[Marv D]

I didn't do much to my 66, I hung a stock 1972 1/2 ton manual disk brake truck front end under it. Wasnt that much different than the 66 except for the taper for the spindles and I could get 2" drop spindles for the GM disk brake and 5lug pattern. Then relocated the shock mounts so I could use a set of cheepie CE drag shocks (set at 60-40) Put a sway bar under it to help control the body roll when lifting on the top end.

A more drag truck worthy suspension would probably be a bit quicker than the 10.6's it ran at 3650 pounds,, but the 60' was fairly consistant 1.44 so I figured,, what the heck. But I got a LOT of tire and years in getting the 4link where it worked on this pig. Now it doesn't care if it's got a 450HP motor or 650,, it dead hooks and tries it's best to tear things up.

[TEXAS 65]

Thanks Marv D , like to hear mostly stock swap works great! My kinda budget. I do have my highschool 79 trans am yet, wuts left of it anyway, wut y'all think about choping the existing rails in front of cab and fabing the t/a front in there?

[TEXAS 65]

Super 73 I wud really like to see sum pics of your crossmember as well!

[Super73]

Let's see if this works, first time uploading from my phone.

2x4 .180 wall. I built a jig to the old cross member while in the truck and no suspension on it. I plated where all the seems were for the square tube and gusseed the play that the lower control arm mounts to. Not pretty but it works.

[TEXAS 65]

I like it! Thanx