05/26/2024
I never did share photos of my 1991 Squarebody Crewcab. I figured I should put the info out there to Facebook land so if anyone else wants to achieve the same results or just are curious what I came up with here it is.
I wanted to run 33x12.50 tires with 16x12 wheels up front and duals in the rear. Since no one makes a Squarebody lift spindle anymore I went with 88-98 c3500 lift spindles.
To make the 88-98 spindles work you need to use 88-98 balljoints. The 88-98 balljoints do work in the squarebody control arms with only minor modifications.
Since the spindle is 88-98 you need to use everything 88-98 from the spindle out - wheel bearings, brake rotor, calipers, pads, brake hoses, so everything is 88-98.
The 88-98 spindles have the tie rod end going from the bottom up, but squarebody tie rod ends go top down. So I machined the spindle for the tie rod end with a taper reamer to accept the squarebody tie rod end from the top down. A guy could probably use a 88-98 tie rod end and go from bottom up but it would make the tie rods at a downward angle and it might be fine but I wanted tie rods parallel and flat so I went the route I did.
After getting it together and back on the wheels camber was majorly F**ked up. Camber was wayyyyyyy positive. So I ended up sectioning 3/4 of an inch out of the upper control arm. Then I was able to get alignment into spec.
Get all of this done truck is sitting at the height I want and has the stance I want but the wide wheels up front don't clear and I can't turn. A 10 inch wide wheel would have cleared but that's not the look I wanted.
So after probably 80 hours of cutting/welding and sectioning a pair of front fenders I ended up with a stock appearing pair of fenders, but with a wheel opening 3 inches larger then factory with plenty of tire clearence.
And that's it. I've had a few people ask my lift/ wheel tire setup so I figured I'd share. It's nothing that's really just bolt on, takes a little effort to make work. But it is possible and it's what I wanted. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I'll help out if I can.
