My 60 Series Project: It Moves!

This past weekend I had some help. I am never the one to turn down good help, but this time was my buddy from high school - dare I say my oldest and best friend and yes, I am sadly old enough to use those two words in succession (oldest and best). I have had some much welcomed help in the past - Rob (x2) and Denny and each one was extremely fun and helpful, but it was this weekend that I've been thinking about for months. (Rob I think about your visits for months too, but usually for other reasons...)

I had my frame all painted - heavy duty anti-rush (that was later mostly removed b/c I messed it up), 2 coats of rubberized undercoating, and 2 coats of rust encapsulate (internal and external x2). My frame was ready to receive the axles yet again.

Prepping the rear axle - following rust converter. The garage was still clean...

I got the front axle all rubberized. The rear got done with Jarred's help. Once the axles were all cleaned and painted it was time to move them back into place and put the $2k in suspension parts to work - and Jarred. Thank you Old Man Emu for your Medium Duty Lift Kit - thank you, I say after I had to pay you a ton of money, but thank you anyway.

We first tackled the front suspension. Thank you Jarred for reading the instruction for the greasable front shackle assemblies. Ah, yea, they're not that bad I thought. I'll admit my shame when Jarred immediately grabbed the instructions while I just looked at the box of parts. I would've gotten to the instructions after about an hour or two, but Jarred grabbed them right away and read through. Didn't I just do a blog about the importance of reading instructions? Geez.

We rolled the front axle out and secured the spring to the rear perch. The plan was to roll the
suspension back in and then secure the spring to the front perch - good plan and it worked.
Note the blue tape on Jarred's shoes - genius.

We look so professional with the nitrile gloves. The toughest part was getting all the
packing/shipping tape off my brand new springs.

Good thing we started the day with a healthy breakfast - donuts!

The front suspension went on without a hitch - pretty much. We had some trouble aligning the front shackles, but with a little pushing and pulling we got the bolts to line up right. Again - Read Your Directions! Thanks Jarred for the reminder.

Whoo-freakin-Hoo! The front suspension is in place! No busted hands or fingers!

The bushing in the shock was the toughest part of the front or rear suspension.

Still working on inserting the bushing into the shock. Why can't they insert them from the factory?!

My hands still hurt.

Finally! One down, three to go!

I think we were flying by the time we finished the front. It didn't take too long. I was learning suspension geometry from Jarred. Things were good, but the day was getting long after the side-tracking from painting the rear axle. We trugged along though and I am so thankful.

I needed to run out for some bolts, so Jarred kept busy assembling the rear greasable shackles. Again, first things first - read the directions thank you very much. I get back from my bolt run and we're ready for the rear!

Well, by this time our little 4hr work session was quickly turning into a good solid 6hrs, so I'm feeling the pressure. I don't want to keep Jarred working on my truck all day when he and his wife flew out to see us. I wanted to make sure that we could still show them a good time. Jarred and his wife were more than willing to chill at the house. I guess a house without their kids is something of a vacation in itself, so no need to fuss - awesome! Jarred and I kept working. My pants are quickly becoming dirty and my professional looking blue nitrile gloves have long since been abandoned - ungloved hands always work faster right?

We got the rear suspension in place - good, moving along. We did have considerable trouble with the shackles this time. The directions, however often they were referenced, were not clear for the rear. I'd already called my parts guy for help once, so I didn't want to call him again and I know the forums are ripe with incorrectly installed shackles. After installing them twice incorrectly we finally got it figured.

So glad the body was off for the rear install!

Sooo, how does this shackle go? Ah, we'll figure it out eventually.

The shocks only extend so far which wasn't far enough. I guess Old Man Emu didn't expect
that someone would install their shocks without the added weight of a body. Once the
body gets installed the suspension will settle, but in the mean time - I had to do some
jumping on the rear to compress the suspension to get the shocks to mount.

I think we started around 10am and had it rolling by 4pm - not too bad. My having to run for some bolts set us back a good 45mins and those damn rear shackles added at least an hour to the job, but not bad overall.

I honestly wanted to cry I was so happy. It would've easily taken me a good 2-3 weeks with the rate that I work to have done all that alone. I was happy to get it rolling, but I think I was more happy that I finally got to turn some wrenches with my oldest and best friend. The wives were happy spending time together at the house - they didn't rush us and in fact they often told me to stop worrying about me commandeering our day with my truck. What an amazing display of support from our wives. I am so thankful and so blessed. I only wish we could do it more often. Everything just seemed to fall into place. We had the tools we needed (mostly). We had the parts we needed (mostly). We had some wonderful photographers (thanks Babe) and we had the support we needed to get the job done. I couldn't be happier.