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Ok guys so I picked myself up another DD, so I've had some chance to dig into this truck a bit more. I've always wanted to do a shock relocation, so I grabbed a couple of VAS' upper shock brackets for stock crossmembers and went to town. I used a QA1 bracket kit for the rear end, and some QA1 DA's. I must say that the results were expected. Suspension articulation is much improved. I know many guys all over the world are going 1.3x, 1.4x on stock shock locations, but I got a herniated disc and the only way to get the rear of these trucks riding right in my opinion is with the shock relocation. I was also tired of slumping my **** in a 150k mile driver's seat, so I had the local upholstery shop redo the seat bottom with a new cushion, extra foam and a new seat spring. He showed me how to pull off the seat bottom by itself, which I brought to him. Pretty stoked on that minor mod/ fix. That being said I'm headed to the dyno shortly to turn the boost up, then grabbing some Hoosiers and plan to head to the track in early Feb. I'd love to run 10s on street tires, but I'll have Hoosiers with me just in case.
Anyways, a few pics.
The cushion lifts up by removing the two 13mm nuts towards the front of the cushion (you can kinda see how the cover is soft because the foam has relaxed):
Cushion removed:
The seat cushion flipped upside down. You can actually remove the cover easily if you want to replace the foam from online places like "Seat Source"
New cushion (notice how full the cover is, the upholstery shop created a completely new cushion):
New lining underneath:
When I removed the seat cover and cushion from the frame, there was a small crack that I had to fix. Maybe the previous owner was a hefty fella?
Seat half reinstalled. My back appreciates it:
For the shock relocation, I started by raising the bed and cutting off all the shock mounts (minus the passenger side upper). What a pita. I used a combination of a sawzall, and then my angle grinder, followed by the tried and true flapper disc. This is easily the worse part of the job.
I ended up moving the tailpipe hanger inboard by about an inch, the one that's welded on the rear shock crossmember on the passenger side. This allowed me to weld the shock brackets as far outwards as possible, making it easier for the new tailpipe to be routed:
I wanted the shock brackets mounted as high as possible, they came out pretty good!
Any chance you have the part numbers for the relocation brackets?
Just hit up VA Specialties on Facebook I don't think he has a part # but he'll know which ones they are.
I'm running stock leafs with overload removed for Caltracs, Belltech hangers, stock shackles. Considering I was 4WD, total rear drop from stock was about 4-4.5"
01-26-2017, 10:44 PM
