Picked up this truck a year ago while on leave from the Army, its a 1972 D100 shortbed that had a running 400 big block with a 727 behind it. My plans for its since day one was to slam it down to the ground with a turbo'd powerplant to move it down the road.
I started off the frame work by raising the front frame section so that the rest of the frame could lay out flat on the ground.
Next on the list was getting the rear suspension in order. I purchased a triangulated bag on bar 4 link kit, air lift 2600lb bags, two Viar 444 compressors, a 5 gallon air tank, SMC 3/8ths valves, and a 20 gallon fuel cell. The truck is currently running 22x9.5 wheels but plan to get a wider 12 or 14" width wheel for the rear to handle the extra power. I got rid of the original 8 3/4 rear and installed a Corporate 9.25" with a 3.55 posi diff out of a 2002 Ram in order to take advantage of the factory large disk brakes.
With the rear suspension tied up, I moved on to fitting the bed. I raised the floor up about 7" to clear the step notch in the frame. I like the stealth appearance of everything hidden under the bedfloor. The rear axle will have to be narrowed to fit the wheels, so Im having the axle narrowed a little extra so that when i get the wider wheels later on I wont have to redo it.
[URL=http://s138.photobucket.com/user/kotajoe/media/IMG_20140910_201911.jpg.html]
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So this is where the truck is at now, I dropped the truck off last weekend at Nfamus Air Suspension where they will be designing control arms to work with the 2002 Ram spindles that I will be running on this truck. Once again I was looking for a cheap big disk brake setup and there were no options available for these old trucks. Once the truck returns from Nfamus I will begin the fun of installing the Viper powertrain and getting this thing back on the road.
I started off the frame work by raising the front frame section so that the rest of the frame could lay out flat on the ground.
Next on the list was getting the rear suspension in order. I purchased a triangulated bag on bar 4 link kit, air lift 2600lb bags, two Viar 444 compressors, a 5 gallon air tank, SMC 3/8ths valves, and a 20 gallon fuel cell. The truck is currently running 22x9.5 wheels but plan to get a wider 12 or 14" width wheel for the rear to handle the extra power. I got rid of the original 8 3/4 rear and installed a Corporate 9.25" with a 3.55 posi diff out of a 2002 Ram in order to take advantage of the factory large disk brakes.
With the rear suspension tied up, I moved on to fitting the bed. I raised the floor up about 7" to clear the step notch in the frame. I like the stealth appearance of everything hidden under the bedfloor. The rear axle will have to be narrowed to fit the wheels, so Im having the axle narrowed a little extra so that when i get the wider wheels later on I wont have to redo it.
[URL=http://s138.photobucket.com/user/kotajoe/media/IMG_20140910_201911.jpg.html]
So this is where the truck is at now, I dropped the truck off last weekend at Nfamus Air Suspension where they will be designing control arms to work with the 2002 Ram spindles that I will be running on this truck. Once again I was looking for a cheap big disk brake setup and there were no options available for these old trucks. Once the truck returns from Nfamus I will begin the fun of installing the Viper powertrain and getting this thing back on the road.
