I just brought it home about a week ago, my father in law gave it to me. my question is about lowering it cheap I already backed off the torsion bars as much as I can but I want to go lower and as for the rear can I just heat up the coils a bit, I know its not the best way. my plan is to lower it and paint the rims gloss black and put some narrow whites, What do you think?
Heating up the rear coils?? Are you crazy?? Just yank those out and cut out complete coil on each spring with a cut off wheel.. Mount them back in and see how it sits... If it's still to tall, repeat the process..
do not do that the rear springs are pig tailed. if you cut that off you wont be able to bolt them back in. find some jeep springs, and it will lower it a couple of inches. your front should be torsion bar. just loosen. good luck.
You have a couple options, Without taking out a mortgage. You can get a complete spring lowering kit from CPP That's 3" drop front, 4" drop back, And new shocks. About $250 -300 Or, You can cut the front springs, Start with a half loop. And use pillow blocks between the trailing arms, And the rear end. I've heard of using the jeep coils for the back, But getting the spring cups to fit, May be a problem. Another item, Is dropped spindles for the front, 1" to 2 1/2". But stock rims would be out of the question. Also, When you drop it. You will have to modify, Or replace the track bar. Because it will push your rear end to the passenger side. I just did the spring drop on a 68 C10 stepside Spike
Get a '63-'66 front clip to lose the torsion bars, or a whole frame and save the welding. You can get lowered spindles and springs from a good number of parts houses. This will let you put disc brakes up front way cheaper and convert to five lug wheels. Get a 12 bolt out of a '69-'72 pickup, same deal, five lug. There are 80's mid-size car 10 bolts that will fit as well. You can use 80's P/U and Astro van wheels which look great. As stated earlier stated you can't cut the rear coils. IMHO, forget the pinner whites. Get some chrome poverty caps and paint the wheels gloss white and have blackwall tires. I had a '62 SWB and I was doing all of that to it, sold it when I got transferred to India. You need to go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108866
That's a nice truck you got and the price was right. I hope you plan on doing more to it than lowering and painting wheels. Looks like it needs some bodywork done to it. I assume you do plan on doing that as well. I don't think anyone here wants to see another r*t rod pickup truck on the road...
I used a pair of stock Jeep Wrangler rear springs, on my 65 and it came down about three inches on the rear! If you know someone doing a lift kit on a Wrangler, they won't use the old ones, and you can pick them up really cheap! (I dug mine out of a scrap metal dumpster, for free!)
You know they're not springs anymore after you torch em right? So what happens when you ride round on thin rigid coils?