Lowering A 1973-1987 Chevrolet Truck - A Drop In The Bucket

While the IFS kit is a true bolt-in, the owner of the truck asked us to box a section of the front framerails so that he could fab a set of custom motor mounts at a later date. This required some welding, something that Fat Man says is not required with their bolt-in kit.

With the boxing plates and crossmember installed, it’s time to start bolting up the suspension components.

All Fat Man IFS hub-to-hub kits come with polished tubular stainless steel control arms. A very nice upgrade (and free at that!) that looks great, performs great, and will outlast the surrounding steel parts of the truck. Fat Man’s lower control arms come equipped with interchangeable plates designed to swap out depending on the type of suspension used. We’re going to run coilover shocks, so the plate will need to be flipped over shortly.

Here’s the steering arm and 2-inch dropped spindles for the ’73-’87 Chevy kit.

Before installing the spindle on the ball joints, both the upper and lower get a decent coat of antiseize, just like all the hardware throughout our install.

The spindle is first installed on the lower ball joint before the assembly is raised to meet the upper. The nuts are then tightened and cotter pins installed to complete the spindle assembly.

Ridetech just released a line of coilover shocks and we figured what better project to give ’em a whirl on. We’ll be using their single adjustable shock body with 600-pound coil springs at each wheel up front.

The Ridetech shock is slid into place and the upper eye is bolted to the incorporated shock bracket on the crossmember. The lower eye mounts off the plate that has been flipped on the lower control arm.

To add to the performance aspect of the install, Josh opted to use a Wilwood 13-inch disc brake kit. Each side is assembled using three separate pieces: the rotor, the rotor hat, and the hub. First, the bearings are packed with hi-temp bearing grease and installed in the hub, followed by the rear seal.