Dan Babb

It's actually the shorter springs that add the stiffness to them. Think about how you can more easily bend a 2ft long piece of flat steel...but you can't easily bend a 6" piece of the same size steel as far. On my truck, I removed the 2nd shortest spring from all 4 corners and it made a nice difference in the ride.

If anyone needs new springs, I found the guys at St Louis Spring to be very helpful and fairly priced. They were way less expensive than Eaton. I told them which leaf to leave out and they made them just how I wanted them.

Sorry to hear of your Dad. 31 hours sounds crazy, but I do guess it's better than a long painful battle. I've never seen a truck like that...really cool.

Wheels look cool on the truck. What rear axle do you have on it? Swapping in one with 3.55 gears will really help make it highway friendly. I used a 96 Jeep Cherokee rear on my 52 project.

When I installed an electric fan, I use a low profile pusher fan. That allowed me to put it in front of the radiator so I could hide it from view. I thought it would look lame to have a modern fan in plain view in the vintage engine compartment. I also got an adjustable thermostat so it would automatically turn on & off. This is the one I used...not sure if this will go between the fins in your stock radiator though. http://www.amazon.com/Hayden-Automotive-3647-Adjustable-Thermostatic/dp/B000C3BB6M/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1399936556&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=hayen+electric+fan+switch

Great to see you so inspired to get it done quickly. So many people (myself included) would probably be too down in the dumps to jump right in.

That looks good...better than the original factory brackets. How much were they? What bumper is that?

Adding more. http://www.rareparts.com/ Good source for spring hangers and bushings. https://www.vintagepowerwagons.com/ Some of the power wagon stuff is a good fit for our trucks. http://rustyhope.com/site/ Front disc brake conversion for our trucks.

When I went to Napa, they were getting the shackles from Rare Parts...so probably not much of a price difference. I think I paid a couple dollars more to get them direct from Rare Parts...but they shipped directly to me, so I got them faster.

This guy says he's getting about 200hp out of a 230cu.in. I think I've seen his posts over at the hamb. It sounds great in this video.

Sorry for your loss. Hope you guys are all ok. What caused it?

I'm putting my truck in an auction in early March. I currently have a pretty tame muffler in the truck...I think it barely sounds like there's a V8 in the truck. This isn't really a "what would you like in your truck" question...it's a "what will help it sell at the auction" question. Should I spend the dough and get a muffler that makes the truck sound like it has a hemi in it...or leave it as is? You can kinda hear how it sounds in this video I posted a while back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCcR1M8iAuo

Awesome looking project. If I were doing another one, I would go the direction you are with it. The modern EFI and better front suspension will be great and and make the truck a lot more fun to drive.

Good luck with the swap Hank.

Great looking truck. Jealous about the visor...the visors alone go for around $700+ in good shape...lucky score.