1969 C10 Front End Suspension Upgrade

By Rob Fortier – Photography by the Author

When initially purchased, our 1969 C10 seemed, for all intents and purposes, as if all it needed to become roadworthy was tightening up a few nuts and bolts here and there. Well, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. We show you how to update your 1967-1972 Chevy 1/2-Ton truck’s front suspension, correctly!

002 Upper control arm and coilover converison kit for a 1969 C10 — For the first installment of our C10 Frontal Rehab with Jimenez Bros. Air Ride & Rod Shop, we’re going to replace the worn-out, hacked-up, poorly airbagged, and backward-mounted upper control armed front suspension with Classic Performance Products’ complete Totally Tubular Coil-Over Conversion Kit. (Ironically, for those eagle-eyed readers, you may have noticed the lower control arms are placed backward in the photo—don’t worry, we installed them correctly!)

Upon attempting to tighten said nuts and bolts, we discovered a myriad (plethora, abundance, multitude—you pick your adjective!) of problematic issues: from severely compromised motor mounts (trimmed beyond reason for header clearance) to an airbag-equipped/hacked OE suspension that we’d planned on converting to a static drop coilovers configuration from the onset.

While we’ve already addressed the rear accordingly with the Strange Engineering bolt-in 9-inch and Classic Performance Products (CPP) Totally Tubular c10 trailing arms setup, the frontend had us puzzled, with the wheels being 2 inches further back in the wheelwell than they should be.

003 Old OE factory suspension of the 1969 C10 — What had originally puzzled us since the purchase of the 1969 C10 regarding the front wheels being significantly rearward in the wheelwells was literally right under our noses the entire time. Once again, the eagle eyes ought to catch this right away: the upper control arms are mounted on the wrong sides, which moves the upper balljoint back and consequently the spindle and wheel as well. (Note: the curved/doglegged side of the upper arm goes toward the cab!)

Check out: Suspension Upgrade: Installing a Swaybar on a ‘72 Chevy C10

After tossing around a number of possible options to remedy the front suspension situation—including completely swapping out the front crossmember and utilizing a whole new suspension setup—what we initially assumed was an issue with said stock crossmember placement turned out to be the simplest problem to cure: the upper control arms were on backward!

That realization led us right back to our first option of upgrading the front suspension using CPP’s Totally Tubular coilover conversion kit upper and lower control arms … with the correct upper control arm placement, of course!

004 Pickle fork removing the old steering linkage from the C10 — Though we’re saving the steering upgrade portion for next month, we still have to address the removal of the tie rods in preparation for removing the spindles! If you’re not replacing any steering components, leave everything from the outer tie rods inward intact.

If you’re not familiar with CPP’s 1967-up C10 front coilover conversion kit, let’s take a minute to fill you in. First off, it’s the only of its kind on the market that retains the factory crossmember that provides the user with an “inboard” coilover—one with a full-travel shock absorber rather than an extremely compromised short-throw damper.

To accomplish this, not only does the riveted factory upper control arm mount require removal, the upper coil hat portion of the underlying crossmember (beneath where the old control arm mount was riveted) must be relieved of 4-1/2 inches in diameter for the new coilover kit. Typically, this can be achieved with a bi-metal holesaw of that size, however the use of a decent-powered plasma cutter (as we will show) greatly eases and speeds up the process.

005 1969 C10 front end suspension removal, completely redone front suspension — Having an extra set of hands is always highly recommended, and in this case you’ll also need the assistance of a good floor jack if you’re removing coil-sprung lower control arms—and no matter what, safely secure the truck on jackstands! We’d since pulled out and subsequently trashed the worn-out airbags, and because it was kind of late at night, Jobe decided to remove the entire front suspension in one fell swoop … or bang!

Check Out: Borgeson C10 Quick Ratio Steering Box Upgrade

To address the worn-out factory steering components, we once again relied on CPP—this time for their 500 Series power steering box and complete steering linkage kit. Leading up into the cab, we’ll be using a non-shift tilt flaming river steering column along with their repop Corvette-style flat three-spoke steering wheel. Since the front suspension portion of this rehab treatment is rather lengthy and involved, we’re going to save that for next month so as not to skimp out on any important aspects! For now, let’s get this 1969 C10 back down on all fours appropriately!

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