just another 60 series with an 80 series frame ..

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My driveway isn't level, in any direction .. so I leveled the body with the four camper jacks, then positioned the frame (on dollies) underneath the body .. after removing springs and shocks I put wooden blocks between the frame and the axles at ride height (approximated by level panhard bars) and ratched strapped them together tightly .. then raised the lot until it looked alright? I don't know what I'm doing .. if you are reading this and it's all wrong, please help a feller out ..

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The million dollar question is this however .. how much do you cut off the 60 body to lower it closer to the 80's frame? Seems to be one of those details that everybody who's done this and documented it glosses over. Here is what I am assuming:
- inner fender cut as much as needed to bring them closer together but leave a lip before reaching the floor of the 60 (like 1/2in?)
- the spring buckets of the 80 .. how close should the be to the body? as close as possible? do people cut access holes into the floor of the 60 to get to the upper shock bolt nuts?
- seems like the rear frame rails are sticking quite a bit below the rear quarter panels .. do you guys cut the last couple of feet off and weld them back on without the "dip" they usually take? as in, straighten out the rear end of the frame rails?

well in over my head but keeping trucking ..

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I cant speak to the 80 frame on the 60 body, but when i did the trail tailor kit, i used a hole saw for the upper shock bolt on the front coil buckets. it made life MUCH easier. I also hammered and formed my inner fender wells a good bit too so i didnt have to cut anything for the shock towers to fit, but i think hes since changed the design. Really hope you dont have to hammer form any sheet metal because that paint already looks amazing
 
thanks for the reply dbbowen .. that's good advise re. the hole saw for the front .. I'll deal with that once the back is in place and not precariously perched .. hahah .. I would still love to hear from someone who's done this:
- how much of the inner fender needs trimming
- how close should the spring buckets be to the underside of the floor
- did you make access holes for the shock bolt nuts through the floor

any help greatly appreciated .. thanks!
 
I've done this a few times. Build your body mounts then trim to suit. You want some clearance so there's no contact with the rear buckets. No need for access to the top bolt on the rear shock. The whole bracket comes out for assembly - picture stolen from the webs

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Swissmat said:
how much do you cut off the 60 body to lower it closer to the 80's frame? Seems to be one of those details that everybody who's done this and documented it glosses over. Here is what I am assuming:
- inner fender cut as much as needed to bring them closer together but leave a lip before reaching the floor of the 60 (like 1/2in?)
- the spring buckets of the 80 .. how close should the be to the body? as close as possible? do people cut access holes into the floor of the 60 to get to the upper shock bolt nuts?
- seems like the rear frame rails are sticking quite a bit below the rear quarter panels .. do you guys cut the last couple of feet off and weld them back on without the "dip" they usually take? as in, straighten out the rear end of the frame rails?
Click to expand...
Im not sure if I understand this: "inner fender cut as much as needed to bring them closer together but leave a lip before reaching the floor of the 60 (like 1/2in?)"
I didn't do any cutting or trimming on the body.. instead what i did was center the body onto the frame and lowered it with two toyota jacks until the fram was about 1/8" from the frame.... from there I welded my body mounts and accounted for the how much if any compression was going to happen from the body mounts....
once i did this it pretty much took care of this: "the spring buckets of the 80 .. how close should the be to the body? as close as possible? do people cut access holes into the floor of the 60 to get to the upper shock bolt nuts?"
Im thinking you are talking about the rear springs buckets, right ?
On this : "do you guys cut the last couple of feet off and weld them back on without the "dip" they usually take?"
I only added the 5" or 6" i cut from the middle to the rear......but I think i went a little longer as i member adding some steel to the rear bumper so as to make it wider from front to rear for a more top surface whenever i have to step on the rear bumper... what I did to support the rear of the body was to build my body mounts as high as needed to support the body (same thing for the front body mounts......my goal was to get the body as close and level to the frame as possible.... as i did not was the truck to look as if it was sagging or have the rear higher than the front.
you gots to member that i did this with what i had and was going half ass blind and figuring things out as i moved forward.....
hope this helps answer your questions.....

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Hey Manu,

thanks for the lengthy write up! I can't wait to have my frame all cleaned up and motorized .. I'll share the same picture! :)

So you were bang on interpreting my cryptic questions .. I too had lowered the frame as low as possible with the body level and the frame level underneath .. On the rear fenders I cut off a small lip (between .5 and .75in) to lower it even further .. the front wasn't a concern, there's tons of space there .. the rear spring buckets are now about 1-1.25 from the underside of the body ... and as was pointed out by @samc2447 the top nut of the shock doesn't actually need to be accessible as the mounting bracket can be removed ..

I used tape and a compass type thing to measure out 20mm from the top of the frame rail, marked it on the tape, connected the dots and used an angle grinder to cut it off. Then I transferred the tape over to the other side, checked measurements and cut that off. The two offcuts are similar enough in my books. I'll be grinding to the line and smoothing out once I have the body off and back in the rotisserie. Now I could lower the body another 20mm closer to the frame.

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This is what I meant when talking about cutting the last two feet off and raising the rear frame rails .. Currently, with my body sitting on the frame after the mods, the rear 12in or so of the frame rails still hang out below bottom end of the quarter panels .. if I were to cut them off and raise them by 2-3 in (there seems to be lots of space up in that area) it would be less visible (or not at all) .. something to ponder ..


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The number 4's are giving me some grief and I'm hoping for some input .. since I cut the fenders down about 20mm, the frame rail is now so close to the 60 series body mount hole, there isn't much space for the 80 series bushing ..

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This is the upper portion of the bushing set that should go in this location, the rounded bottom would sit in the little metal bucket ..


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This is the bottom portion of the pair .. as you can see there isn't enough space for either of them.

Do you guys know of a rubber bushing I could use in this space that attaches with a top bolt and bottom washer and nut (like the original stuff)?
 
Last but not least, with reference to the above mentioned rear frame modification ..

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Worth it? What do you think?
 
not sure what Frenching the body mount means - do elaborate!

Yeah, the "cut and flip" has been suggested .. I'm more wondering whether it would be worth all that work for the 1.5in that is protrudes .. figured between a fuel cell and mudflaps it may not be an issue worth the work ..
 
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