Detailed S10 5-link

Okay here's the whole thing from the start.

My Friend Gary was looking to buy one of those bolt on 6-link kits, and he was asking me my opinion. I'm not really a fan of the one he wanted, and I said I would build him a custom one for not much more. It caught his interest, and he came up with a lot of questions. He's rather picky, anal even, as am I. And I was able to talk him into letting me TIG weld most of the components and do some kind of cool stuff along the way. He's going to do the front himself, I am only in charge of the rear suspension.

So he brought the truck up yesterday around 3 or 4, and we put it in the shop and pulled the bed off. Today I began disassembly, and started the notches. Hoping to have it notched by the end of tomorrow.

Heres a picture he took when it arrived.


And today.




And I will be building a 5-link based around this.


Got the notches installed.




Boxed the rear frame and built a rear cross member for the lift bars and air tank.

Air tank will fit under the bed, and there is enough room to run the fittings behind the bumper or a roll pan and still work on them with the bed on.

I built some lower link mounts today.




I finished boxing the frame and built lower link bars.

Doing an offset wishbone on this one to clear the stock gas tank.




Built a truss style mount with full wrap tabs to mount the wishbone.







Some 'bag mounts, and a crown logo gusset on the wishbone.

Lower shock mounts.




I pulled the axle out to do the final welding.

Put it back together and built my now standard link bar brake line.




I moved the stock muffler forward 6 inches, and made a new mount to bolt to the factory hanger.



Finished mounting the gas tank, and relocating the evap system, then cut out the bed floor.








Here it is aired up, relatively stock looking.

And with the bumper on the ground.




He drove it home today, and he said he will be plumbing the air system tomorrow and hopefully putting his bags and control arms on the front soon after.

And here are some pictures his friend took from when they plumbed it, and then drove it 1200 miles to New Mexico 3 days after I bagged it.

that is an awesome build seth ,keep posting more builds

Nice work man!

Glad you threw this up here! Always good to see something like this to gain some perspective...

nice truck man

Very, Very nice work indeed.

I really like how the lower link bars fit up against the frame when it's laid out! Very nice work Seth. It would be cool to see pics of it again with the front done. Hopefully your friend sends some your way.

looks great...why didnt they paint the frame work b4 plumbing it