I hate to ask

Alright, I've read through a dozen topics or so, but I still have questions.

For one, I want to lower my truck, inexpensively but still with a smooth ride. I understand re-indexing the torsion bars. I'm not understanding completely about bump stops. My truck is sitting at my friends place waiting to be moved to the shop for the engine swap (13b turbo and 5-speed to replace stock engine with 4-speed automatic), so I can't really go look underneath at the moment. I've read about people removing the bottom bump stop in front, all of them, shortening them down, etc. Really, for a simple 4 to 5 inch drop in front, what is the best option with bump stops. I'm already planning on buying the Isuzu P'up shocks for the front (or something comparable for a similar price).

The second was about the rear. I don't understand what I keep reading about leaf springs, main, overload, and whatever other springs I've seen mentioned. I was just planning on 3 inch lowering blocks. My other question with the rear is, should I really buy new shocks for the back? Especially when I keep reading to use the stock ones? Or am I just missing something and the new ones are just the same size as the stock, but better quality. Is it that they're just newer so they can handle a little more?

Honestly, I just want to lower it 4 to 5 inches without having to cut out or roll fenders. While on the topic, what is rolling the fender? I might change out rims eventually when I get the extra money, but they'd probably stay stock size, just nicer looking (I'm in Texas, too much dirt everywhere to bother with extra fancy tires) and I will not be bagging the truck.

Ok, here's some simple answers.

Leaf springs. Go look at a set of leaf springs and you'll see that it should have 3 or 4 leafs in a stock spring pack.

The biggest leaf, which is bolted to the shackles attached to the frame is obviously your "main" leaf. The shortest leaf on the very bottom that rests on your shock plate is the "overload" leaf. The 1 or 2 leafs in the middle are just the 'middle' or I guess intermediate leafs or something....dunno...I just call em middle leafs. Anyways, when you're lowering your truck, you just want to remove the middle leaves and keep the main and overload leafs so you basically only have 2 leafs. One big one, and the tiny one, and pop your blocks inbetween the main leaf and your axle. Simple stuff.

For the bumpstops in the front, the rubber bumpstop is bolted to a steel mounting plate. Unbolt the rubber part, and then completely cut out the metal part. When your truck is lowered, your lower control arm with hit the metal bracket, thus bottoming out. You can leave the upper bumpstop in, as it doesn't seem to affect much.

Back to the rear, installing a small C notch in the frame would also be a good idea because you will have maybe an inch of travel between your axle and frame and you get pretty used to hearing bang bang bang as you drive along without a notch.

For shocks, front and rear, you want to use a shorter shock with stiffer damping. You can use the stock shocks all you want, but they are always compressed when the truck is lowered because they are longer. Because they are compressed, they are more prone to be bouncy as they are basically always pre-loaded. Think of yourself if you're biking or skateboarding and when you preload your body to make a jump. That's basically how you'd be driving around the whole time.

Getting shocks with a shorter stroke and stiffer dampening will smooth out the ride. I highly recommend Procomp Toxic shocks, Belltechs or Isuzu pup or Plymouth Fury shocks.

Hope that helped

couldnt of said it better my self

haha. See, I'm not as look as I dumb!

Okay, so looking at the Isuzu pickup shocks the rear shocks are larger with a higher stroke than the stock Mazda? Should I go with the forward Isuzu shocks all around?

And where exactly would the C-notch be installed?

Whatever you do, you want shorter shocks than what the Mazda has. The Toxic shocks I used to have were significantly shorter than the stock ones.

As for the C notch, that would be cut out of your frame right above the axle to allow more travel for the axle.

Basically cut a sideways C out of your frame and buy a 4" of piece of pipe and cut it in half so that you get to "C" Sections...haha I said c-section...anyways...so you have 2 halfs, and weld the pipe into the notch you cut in the frame. You have to weld the pieces of pipe into the frame to get it's structural integrity back, otherwise over time and with abuse, your frame would stress and crack above the notches you cut out and would eventually the back quarter of your frame would fall off if the bed wasn't bolted to it.

He speaks the truth...

Well, since I don't have tools to weld or cut out the metal portion of the bumpstop, I'm having a shop do it after I take care of the rest of it. It shouldn't be too bad, since my place and tools for the engine swap I'm doing just got nixed, so I've got a time slot for a performance shop here to do it, but it won't be until October 12th. So, I'll have before and after pics at the end of next month.

where are you located, maybe someone here can assist you

Fort Hood, Texas. The truck also isn't running right now because somehow I killed the Weber carb trying to start it too many times while I was trying to fix a problem with the ignition system.