Front Suspension and Rolling Chassis | 1968 C10 Build Episode 3
After cleaning up our project ’68 C10’s chassis and treating it to a fresh coat of paint and trick G-Comp rear suspension, we’re ready to move on to the front. There are lots of wild suspension setups for these trucks, but we’re keeping it simple with our Complete Front Suspension Kit for 1963-70 Chevy C10. This will get the truck down in the weeds without being so aggressive that we can’t actually drive it without knocking the exhaust off at the first speed bump. This kit also gets us front disc brakes and a five-lug bolt circle to match the upgraded rear. We also splurged on some tubular upper and lower control arms.
We can’t skip over a little warning here. Be very careful when you remove the original front spring. Even worn out and saggy old coil springs will still have a ton of tension on them. Be sure the spring is contained before you break any ball joints. Since we knew we would be replacing ours with the lowering springs that come in the kit, we cut the originals with a torch. Regardless of what method you choose, be very careful during this step.
As you’ll see in the above video, installation is straightforward and everything necessary to complete the job is included. We also chose to upgrade to our C10 Power Steering Gear Box. Be sure to grab a Power Steering Pitman Arm as well. Though they look similar, the arm is different on a manual box. While we were upgrading the steering, we also chose to install a Chevy Pickup Front End Rebuild Kit to freshen up the tie rods and idler arm.
With the front and rear suspensions assembled, we were stoked to bolt on our wheels and tires and see our rolling chassis on the ground. We may choose to upgrade our rolling stock at some point, but we started simple with the time-tested formula of Chevy Rally Wheels and those cool, flat “Highway Patrol” caps. These are sized right for a C10 and have the correct 5 on 5” bolt pattern. For tires, we’re running redline radials in the front to drive home the 60’s vibe, with some bigger 255/70’s in the rear for a little rubber rake. You’ll notice the rears don’t have a redline. That’s an issue we’ll try to solve before the truck hits the road. It’s also possible that those rears won’t last very long, if you catch our drift, so we may not worry about it.
There are no 14” brake rotors here or drastically altered geometry allowing our truck to lay frame. Instead, this rebuild was intended to upgrade the stance and handling of our truck with a few bolt-ons that were ready to go right off the shelf. The more we work on this old truck, the more excited we get to drive it. But to do that, we’re going to need an engine. Stay tuned next time to see what’s going to power our little hot rod C10!
