Now I have this picture of dogs in heat in my head- thanks. Anyway, the string method that I intend to use will account for that offset, front to back. I'm still a ways off from that, but I'll show you when the time comes in pictures.

 

I'm on the east side in Wylie. Thanks for the offer! I may take you up on a couple of things. I'm getting ready to head down the body panel road. About 7 years ago, my beautiful truck was beat up really badly by a hailstorm. I don't think there's a single straight body panel anymore.

 

Have fun getting those rivets out of the front ball joints if you have RWD. I just did mine. I guess my '97 went down a lot of country roads. Nothing left in the ball joints. Now that I have all new parts, the wheels splay out in front. 4X4 aren't too bad.

 

The ball joints were already replaced several years ago and are still good. When I decide to change them, they are already bolt-on, thank goodness. I am concerned about getting the rubber bushings out. I've watched plenty of videos showing how to heat them up and push them out so I'm prepared.

 

Yea, i got lucky that my fronts had been changed as well. But getting the rivets out of the rear section of frame (when i halfway backhalved it this winter) made up for it.

 

Mine look a bit iffy back there but they can wait. They look fairly easy to access. The front ones were at an odd angle the way I was doing them. I expected to burn a drill out drilling them so I could torch them inside. I bought a new drill at Harbor Freight. My old battery drill did okay but I was going through batteries fast and got tired of fighting it so I got a plug in drill. It started eating drill bits fast. The shaft the chuck is on was bent out of the box. Either that or the chuck was on crooked. I had the pilot holes drilled so I went ahead and enlarged them with the new drill. I could smell it burning up so when I finally had a large enough hole to smoke them out. I ended up returning the drill. They gave me my money back no problem. I had the receipt and had bought it the day before so HF did me right. No complaints there.

My hands should finish healing in a few days.

 

The rivets for ball joints are usually a fairly soft steel..... I generally just use an air hammer with a chisel bit, blow the heads off, then use a punch bit to knock 'em out. I can do four of 'em in about ten minutes. (granted, it's LOUD.... wear hearing protection. )

 

That's what I did on the drivers side. The passenger side was more problematic. The truck is from north of here up into the rust belt and even though it only has 96K on it, I think they were HARD miles. When I got the rivets out, they had rusted into the holes. The ball joints on both sides were completely empty. When I got everything back together, the front wheels splay outward. I know you're up in Michigan so you know what the tinworms can do underneath. My frame and cab mounts are solid. The body and brake lines, not so much.