GoFastBroncos.com

I have to preface this by saying that I am and will continue to be a little embarrassed by the picture of the build that I will be posting. Some of the build threads that I have seen are amazing and some of you guys are truly artists with a welder. I can make 2 pieces of metal stick together with a tenacity that I trust but it usually isn't extremely pretty. Maybe I will be able to coerce some other beginners to try their hand at it.

Alright guys, someone asked for it in the introduction so here is the start with a little background.

I grew up in Pennsylvania and have a solid drag racing background. After my first stint in college (I'm actually still in school, more on that later) I took a job with Eaton Supercharger and met a new group of friends. One of my very good friends has a 2wd F150 with a host of Camburg suspension parts and a natural driving talent. After many late nights caging the truck properly and a ride or two at the dunes, I was hooked and needed to have something of my own. When the project plan was simple, he graciously offered some of his own garage space. Then my mind ran away and scope creep took over. So I built a garage of my own before ever purchasing the project truck.
When the garage was enclosed; I started looking for a truck to start with and shortly after found this Minimal Michigan rust, the 351w / auto trans / auto t-case option. 35-13.50-18's on Mickey Thompson faux beadlocks, and a 4 in Superlift kit installed.

I took it to the dunes for a weekend with some friends and the auto t-case decided to restrict us to high range; this coupled with the stock 3.55 gears, basically required me to take the truck apart immediately and start on the suspension.

The plan is to have 20+ in (hopefully) at both ends of the truck while retaining stock track width so I can play at places other than the dunes. TTB front, 4 link rear, 550 - 600 hp supercharged small block ford with an Eaton TVS R1900 supercharger, was thinking turbos at first as the twin turbo motor already exists, but the power response of the positive displacement blower, as well as decreased under hood temps, seemed like a better plan.

Be forewarned; this is going to be a long term build, financial and time constraints have been killing me already as I am still in school trying to finish up my bachelors degree.

Welcome to the site! That's a heck of a play room you built!

I just gotta say though, 20"s up front is going to be a pretty tall order. Even with extended beams.

Welcome!

Welcome

Welcome!! Good luck on your build.

Now that the history is over; on to current state (don't want anyone to think that I have been sitting around doing nothing).

Here is the current state: Radius arm mounts fab'ed and tacked in place: Plates to attach the Radius arms to the beams. Thanks to jkrell for the dimensions that I forgot to measure because I was in a big stupid hurry: I stumbled across the King C/O's on race desert and they were never used and had a spring rate that I was happy to use; 400/450. When they showed up there were actually 250/300 and I figured that was way too soft. I called King and they were more than happy to exchange the springs for 350/500's as long as I paid shipping. I thought that was some impressive customer service considering I wasn't technically a customer of theirs. I am hoping to get the radius arms bent up and tacked together next week so I can cycle the suspension and get the fenders off. I marked the center of the hub with a plumb to the inner fender. It looks like I'm not going to be able to get the 2" forward move that I wanted. The pass side beam looks like it is going to hit the drivers side mount. Do you guys have any input on that?

Nick wrote:Welcome to the site! That's a heck of a play room you built!

I just gotta say though, 20"s up front is going to be a pretty tall order. Even with extended beams.

Well... As of right now, I'm not planning on extending the beams. So, I'll settle for whatever I can get. What is the most that you guys have seen from stock length beams?

So it has been a whole year since I have posted anything here. School and work really kept me busy as well as a timing chain tensioner failure in my 07' Avalanche... It took 12 teeth off the cam gear and let the crankshaft go about 90° out of phase from the cam, it bent every intake valve and associated pushrod in the engine. Spent a little time on the snowmobile over the winter and now that school is over for the summer, I can get back to it again. Hoping to get it rolling and maybe to the dunes once this year with just the front suspension done, don't want to get too burned out. I have Radius arms loosely tacked together as well and thought I had a picture of those but will have to take one when I get home tonight.

So I talked about the tacked together radius arms, pics are below. The intent is to put a plate that would cap the two tubes near the axle end and butt a gusset to this plate that would extend back to where the limiter strap is attached. There would be another gusset near the frame mount end but the arms will not be boxed. It seems like the only reason for boxing is to support against a twisting moment, I can't figure out where a twisting moment along the length would be generated from as long as there is no binding at the frame mounted heim joint. If someone knows or feels otherwise; please reply, any and all input is appreciated !

For all you Cali guys; the bubbles in the paint in the above picture is rust. I know you guys don't deal with it much but we hate it here in the midwest.

funny - I just looked at that & almost commented but I let it go. Figured it wasn't nice to bring it up & rub it in. You do know fiberglass doesn't rust - right?!?!

ChaseTruck754 wrote:funny - I just looked at that & almost commented but I let it go. Figured it wasn't nice to bring it up & rub it in. You do know fiberglass doesn't rust - right?!?!

That will help the body someday but the frame and axles don't work as well in fiberglass

So I said it was going to be forever for me to finish this and I was serious...

But there has been some progress recently. The radius arms are finished from a structural standpoint, lower shock mounts are tacked on and temporary shock hoops are in place for cycling purposes. It cycled 21 inches as a system but when each wheel was pushed through the full 21 inches independent of the other, problems arose. Particularly when the drivers side was at full droop and the passenger side was cycled toward full bump; the axle shaft would bind on the beam housing. I'm sure most of you guys already know this but I opened the window more and more and eventually decided to bump and strap the suspension travel to 18 inches.

See pictures below and please provide whatever input/criticism you have. Looking to get this as close to good as I can the first time!

Here are some Pics

And some more of the suspension with the temporary shock hoops