Chevy S10 Body Drop - Totally Hammered Pt. 2

Once the frontend was finished, it was time to move underneath the truck. Here is a shot of the stock carrier bearing crossmember: Note the distance between the top of the bearing mount and the floor. A new crossmember will be fabricated to raise this crossmember above the framerails.

Here you can see the new crossmember installed. It effectively raises the carrier bearing closer to the floor while keeping the crossmember from dragging on the ground and holding the truck up.

The interior of the truck must be disassembled next. The seats are removed first.

In the extended-cab portion of the truck, the rear plastic paneling must be removed.

The sill plates that cover the edge of the carpet near the door are removed by popping them out of the clips. The carpet is also removed at this time.

The bottom of the dash is held in with 7mm bolts. These are removed along with the panel.

This module is mounted to the floor with 7mm bolts. It will be relocated behind the dash.

Before any cutting can be done, the floor must be prepped by removing the paint. The reason for removing the paint before cutting is because it's easier to do now than later. The paint must also be removed so that the floor can easily weld back together after the body drop.

In this photo, the back cab wall is prepped and ready for cutting. The paint can be removed using a wire wheel, a dual action sander, or an aircraft paint stripper. The shiny area is the bare metal outline of where the cab will be cut.

The plasma cutter is an extremely handy tool. Before it was used to cut the motor mounts; now it's being used to cut the floor loose from the cab.

A Sawzall can also be used for cutting the floor. The Sawzall is nice, because in the hands of a professional, it will make nice, straight, exact cuts. In this photo, the floor is being cut along the sides. The cut will run from the firewall all the way back to the rear cab wall on both sides of the truck. Next, the back wall will be cut horizontally, connecting both cuts that were made along the floor. The firewall will also be cut horizontally. When all the cuts have been made, the floor will be loose from the cab and can be raised and reattached.

Here is one side of the floor after it was cut and raised 4 inches.

This is the firewall after it was cut and raised. You can see the large gap between it and the floor. The gap will be closed by bending lengths of sheetmetal and welding them in place.

This photo illustrates the idea behind a body drop. Try to imagine the floor staying in place on the framerails while the cab is lowered downward. The upper arrow indicates the lower portion of the cab wall that was bent outward, and the lower arrow indicates where the upper portion of the cab wall slid downward 4 inches inside of the truck due to the body drop. The markings above the lower arrow are the weld marks where the upper and lower portions of the wall were welded back together.

You may have noticed that on the outside of the cab wall the overlapping metal was not welded. It is not necessary to weld this portion. Instead, it is screwed together and seam-sealed using self-tapping screws and flexible seam sealer. You can pick up the seam sealer from any body shop supplier. The seam sealer is first squeezed into the gap from the inside of the truck, and then the cab wall is screwed together.

Then the seam sealer is applied to the outside of the wall until the cut is completely watertight.

The rear cab wall and floor are fairly straight, square surfaces that can be cut and welded back together without any problems. The sides of the floor and the firewall, however, are not. They require the filler panels to be welded into place to fill in the 4-inch gaps from the body drop. In this photo, the extended-cab portion of the truck is being patched after the floor was raised.

Once the rear portion of the cab was body dropped, the front had to be tackled. Again, filler panels were constructed and welded into place to fill the gaps. This is the side of the floor after it is cut, raised, and patched.

When the entire cab is body dropped, it is laid back down on the cab mounts. This photo illustrates the dramatic difference the body drop makes. The stock bed is now 4 inches higher on the frame than the body-dropped cab.