major issue...what should i do?

Edited: 10/27/2006 3:01:04 PM by draggingtb

you have to love finding out stuff that ruins a good thing. my girl was all excited about buying our sonoma cause it gave her something to drive and still gave us a project. so we get it home, and i never got time to really check it out. other than some minor pulling, like a minor alignment issue, it seemed like a great truck. i noticed the bed sat kind of angled, but only the back, today when doing the exhaust work. the cab and front of the bed still sat even. i go to swap the differential bracket and notice the axle wasn't centered. it's about 1/4" or so to the left, and the truck pulls to the right. the lower link bars look like they're tweaked to the left too. and the frame, looks like from the notch back to be way off. measured the best i could with the body on in my driveway, and it seems alright for the most part, except behind the notch. i'm still worried it might be off, but the cab and everything sits straight. so i'm thinking backhalf would solve this. problem being, my girl needs something to drive and we can't afford a lot of down time at the moment. although knowing this is unavoidable, but i'm tring to limit to as little as needed. if i end up needing a full frame, then it's completely out of the question. so i'm left with a couple options. should I attempt a backhalf since I want to do this is the goal with the truck anyway? although risking the rest of the frame still being off and wasting the money and time spent on the backhalf. or, my buddy has a 94(same year) S-10 complete truck i can get for 300 bucks, mostly torn apart. problem is, it's a long bed, and i do NOT want a long bed. So i was thinking use his front half, get a backhalf built to fit a short bed, modify body mouts, etc., and transfer frames maybe? basically building a new frame out of another stock one. this being the only way i might be able to work in a new frame. but that's a shit load of work, and would really hurt the unavoidable down time issue, but would garuntee me a straight frame. or should i just sell the truck for whatever someone will pay for it, and take a loss on the money we just spent?

just buy the $300 truck use its frame and build it like u want it,meanwhile drive the already bagged truck u just bought until it falls apart. make sure its safe of course. when u get done with the frame just swap em out.

well, the thing is, i don't feel safe with bent lower arms. especially since my girl, although 18, still doesn't even have her license yet so she barely drives. and if i used my buddy's frame, i'd want to swap the good stuff from the front over to that one to save as much money as i can. i know it's a bad time to be tight on money, but what can you do.

well piss, i dont know what to tell ya buddy! that sucks! i guess u could go ahead and get some tubular arms for now and throw them on and when u get done with your frame just swap em out.

easiest way to measure for bent frame is to x measure it to make sure its square.

well, we've already checked that, and it squares out within 1/16" so i'm guessing i'm pretty good there. but it's the rail heights. the right side rail sits like 1/2" or more higher than the left. it's the small piece behind the notch that seems the most screwed. so that's why i'm thinking jumping ahead on the backhalf will fix it. i'm just kinda being negative on the sitaution and thinking worst case scenario about the whole frame being off. if it's just rail height...can't i just redo crossmembers to level it back out?.

sounds as tho u just need to backhalf it and redo some suspension..no big deal..

yeah, now that i'm over the exageration/disappointment of finding this out, i calmed down and realized i'm building a custom truck anyway. so i just backhalf. if the front is off at all, it's not enough to notice.

I know that on every s-10 I have ever delt with, before and after the notch was installed that one side was always lower than the other. Im not sure by how much but it always seems like they sag in one of the rear corners. I figured it was just a weird s-10 thing. The fact that your rearend isnt centered I would guess it was just installed half ass. I would say just back half it and get it over with cause it sounds like its a project truck anyways and it shouldnt take that long to do one. As far as the front it probably just needs an alignment.

Alot of s10 notch jobs end up making the back sag down. Mine used to be down 1/2" at the back on one side too. And i found out that my truck was wrecked when i started noticing little things like 1 new headlight, shimmed fenders, bent right side body mounts... I would just get the truck safe and drivable and drive it until it quits. Building a new frame will be a pain in the ass because all you have is inaccurate measurements to make the new frame straight. That was a big obstacle for me. I would def. consider swapping for the other frame down the road and use the better body before you get too far in the build. Good luck