Bagging a Bow Tie Installing Porterbuilt Fab’s Complete C10 Kit

INSTALLING PORTERBUILT FAB’S COMPLETE C10 KIT

SO, YOU WANNA ’BAG YOUR CLASSIC BUT NOT SURE IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE TASK ON YOUR OWN? Let us help you build some much-needed confidence by giving you an overview of the complete process. Gone are the days of welding in rear notches and front control arm bag brackets. Intelligent engineers developed a kit that you can simply order and bolt in. Yes, you read that right—bolt in! With the help of Diego Rodriguez and his crew at Resurrected Fab, we quickly documented the process to go from factory to framed. Note: This is not a step-by-step technical install; this is more of a simple comprehension story for the guys who just don’t quite understand the process.

All Porterbuilt products are hand built in America by a staff of professional fabricators in their Arizona facility using state-of-the-art welding and precision fabrication equipment. If you are looking for the best possible kit to convert your truck to air suspension while maintaining your factory front crossmember, this is the kit for you. The company’s products are built with quality and performance in mind.

Porterbuilt designed the front air-ride kit to replace your factory control arms and coil springs, lowering your truck and improving handling, without replacing the factory front crossmember. The company’s Stage 2 Rear “Deluxe” Kit for your ’63-’72 C10 is an engineered bolt-in suspension system designed to lower your truck as low as possible while maintaining the factory bed floor. They developed this kit to replace all the factory crossmembers, from the trailing arm crossmember back, with tubular versions that bolt right in. It also includes a fully adjustable track bar for improved handling and performance. If you are looking for the best possible kit to lower your C10 and keep the bed-floor intact, this is the one!

01 The front of this 1964 Chevy C10 has a long way to go if we want the frame rails to touch the ground. Luckily, Porterbuilt makes a kit specifically for this truck that’s simple to install.

04 Porterbuilt’s Tubular trailing arm crossmember is built from thick-wall 1.5-inch tubing and 3/16-inch steel. This crossmember simply bolts on the factory frame rails and is designed for a single piece driveshaft.

03 The Porterbuilt Stage 2 Rear “Deluxe” Kit for 63-72 C10 is an engineered bolt-in suspension system designed to lower your truck as low as possible while maintaining the factory bed floor. The Stage 2 “Deluxe” is just that—it replaces all the factory crossmembers (from the trailing arm crossmember back) with tubular versions that are designed to bolt right in! It also includes a fully adjustable track bar for improved handling and performance.

02 The Porterbuilt Stage 2 Deluxe Front Kit for ‘63-’87 Chevy Trucks replaces your factory control arms and coil springs, lowering your truck and improving handling without replacing the factory front crossmember.

05 You can see here how the crossmember is installed to the frame. Hardware is included and no welding is required. You won’t even have to cut the exhaust!

06 The rear C-notch kit is a bolt-on unit and includes the bag-mount brackets. After powdercoating and notching the frame rails for clearance, the brackets can be bolted on and the airbag can be mounted.

07 Also being sent to powdercoat is the front control arms, the rear trailing arms, panhard bar and crossmembers.

09 Tubular panhard bar crossmember built using thick-wall 1.5-inch tubing and 3/16-inch steel as well as the tubular rear-frame crossmember. Now that the back is complete, they can put the bed on and move to the front.

08 These parts all bolt on with no welding required. The Porterbuilt Fully Adjustable Trac-bar has an overall length of just over 34 inches. The longer the bar, the less side-to-side shift the differential will experience through suspension travel. The new mounting brackets also relocate the bar, lowering the rear roll-center, and the bar length can be tuned while still mounted on the truck.

10 First thing to do on the front end is to remove all the factory hardware. Upper and lower control arms have to go along with the shocks and springs. Once again, no welding will be required to ’bag the front of this C10.

11 The upper control arms are back from powdercoating and ready to install. You know it’s a quality part when you see the PB logo cut into the metal!

12 Before the guys can start bolting in the new hardware, they need to clean and coat the frame. They will use the factory crossmember, so now is the time to clean and paint it. They also have to drill a few holes for the upper ’bag mount brackets.

15 After all the bolts were double checked and the air management was installed, it was time to pull the truck out of the bay and let all the air out. What an impact!

14 BELOW. Two upper and two lower performance ball-joints were also installed and provided by Porterbuilt. This will make one of the biggest impacts on your steering and suspension.

13 ABOVE. Here you can see the complete setup. The installation went smooth and simple just like Porterbuilt said it would. The ’bag mounts to the lower control arm and the upper spring perch.