79 SWB Father/Son Project

[jones9j]

Well we have had the truck for bout a month now, so i figure its time to go ahead and start our build thread.

First a little background, my father brought me up into classics and street rods as a kid, so when i heard my son tell me that he would like to have a 73-80 square body to fix up, i was thrilled to start looking for one. We searched all over and all over the internet. We looked for over a yr and most all of the ones we found were junk and priced as if they were in great shape. We finally found a 79 bout 2 1/2 hrs from the house. It was a little more then what we wanted to spend, but decided to go ahead and get it, since it was a clean 2 owner.

This is how the truck was the day we brought it home, we have big plans (or I should say dreams) for this truck.

[jones9j]

First order of business is getting the height adjusted. lol. We are wanting a street Rod rake to it, 1" or maybe 2" higher in the rear. I want to throw a shout out to a good friend of mine Rodney AKA Rodsgreen10 that hooked us up with the right lowering kit. Im pretty sure most everyone on here knows his truck, but if you dont, you need to check it out. In my opinion it is one of the nicest trucks on this fourm, and it is motivation for us to make ours worth of being mentioned in the same breath.

[jones9j]

here are some more pictures of the truck before i did anything to it.

[jones9j]

We didnt care to much for the Eagle Bullet Hole wheels that were on the truck, Was kinda disappointed when I found out that the previous owner didnt have the rally wheels anymore. Original plans were for us to use a set of 15" Weld Rodlites until we could afford a nice set of 20" billet wheels.

[jones9j]

After posting the Eagles for sale, got real lucky and sound a guy that traded me some really clean rallys and a little cash to boot. Would have probably swapped even but he made it even sweeter. We feel like we came out really good on that deal. lol

[jones9j]

This past weekend, finally found the time to install the lowering kit, that I got from RodsGreen10. it is 3" spindles, 2" coils and a flip kit with bell tech shocks. Got the front down really nice, and then realized that we only had a 3" rake. So the 6" flip kit wasnt gonna work. Previous owner pulled a leaf and the overload out before we got the truck. All is good thou, cause im going to just get a set of extended shackles for the rear and lower it 2" so we have our desired 1" rake.











'

[tinydb84]

I like that rake. I say keep it that way!

[RodsGreen10]

Originally Posted by jones9j

First order of business is getting the height adjusted. lol. We are wanting a street Rod rake to it, 1" or maybe 2" higher in the rear. I want to throw a shout out to a good friend of mine Rodney AKA Rodsgreen10 that hooked us up with the right lowering kit. Im pretty sure most everyone on here knows his truck, but if you dont, you need to check it out. In my opinion it is one of the nicest trucks on this fourm, and it is motivation for us to make ours worth of being mentioned in the same breath.

Wow man! Well thank you for speaking so highly of me and my truck. I appreciate that. It has been my pleasure to get to speak and get to know you over the last month or so. Happy to see you showing the father/son build to the forum. Truck is coming along nicely you all keep up be good work. Please keep us posted as it progresses. As you know it's one thing after another.

[jones9j]

The rake is a little bit more then what it looks in the pics. It definitely needs to cone down 1 inch or 2.
Posted via Mobile Device

[jones9j]

Yep, it's always something, after getting it dropped, it's 1/2 inch lower on the right front, then the left. So know I have to tackle that and figure out how to get it level.
Posted via Mobile Device

[OutlawDrifter]

great looking pickup! and a bonanza to boot! my first vehicle was a '79 K10 bonanza. i've been looking for a clean '79 2wd swb to build. great find and good luck!

[Hunyoc]

Nice to see

[jones9j]

Got the bell tech shackles in friday, so the holiday weekend looks like a perfect time to get the rear down a little bit more.

[jones9j]

Thanks outlaw drifter, it's a clean start. And good luck finding a good one, where I live finding the 73-80 is getting nearly impossible to find a good one.

[jones9j]

Well, got the shackles installed. It didn't lower it as much as I thought it would, but it looks pretty good so we're gonna roll with it like this for a little while. If or when we decide to go lower, we're just gonna put all the leafs back in and slap the flip kit on it.

[jones9j]

Next step now is to get the front level, the right front is bout 1/2" lower then the left. I'm gonna get the bell tech shocks installed, and hoping that's gonna help. But we're probably not that lucky. Lol

[TrailerTrash]

looks good man im a huge fan of a nice rake on C10s

[jones9j]

Thanks, its a work in progress, and probably will always be. lol. One of the hardest things so far, for me and my son has been deciding on paint. As everyone knows, it dont matter what color these trucks are, if there done right they all look really good. But thanks to the paperwork i got back from gm heritage it helped make our decision for us.

[jones9j]

does anyone know where I can get some 10 inch wide rally wheels? We want to put 10's on the rear and fill up the wheel well some more.

[OutlawDrifter]

wheel vintiques makes them.

[80streetcoupe]

Does your truck bottom out on the frontend with the 2" lowered springs?
I like the look of your truck just the way it is now. Stock looking w/all of the trim and the rallies. And of course the drop!!

Here's my '80. Previous owner cut down the coils and I think they pulled out some rear springs. It bottoms out on the front when I hit a bump or dip in the road. I plan on putting a set of stock coils back in and a set of 3" spindles. I had the rear rally's widened to 10", 30yrs ago at a welding shop. BTW, sleeper is off now...lol!!



I'm not trying to hijack your thread, just showing my drop and rims.

[jones9j]

No, it dont bottom out at all, rides really nice. I even have some pretty high speed bumps going into my apartment complex, and ive never had an issue. Are your tires bottoming out? or your shocks?

And i really like your color combo, we considered painting ours silver and charcoal like yours.

[80streetcoupe]

The more I look at your truck, the more I like it...Just the way it is...LOL!!
I bought mine as you see it. But I added the rims/tires and sleeper, then took it off.

Not sure what is bottoming out. I haven't checked it out yet. Just drive it slow on the rough crap in town.

[jones9j]

Yes it is looking pretty good the way it is rite now, but our vison for this trucks requires us to put alot more work into it.

[jones9j]

Spent the weekend going over it with some rubbing compound then following it up with some polish. Brought a little bit of the shine back out of it.