Skid-Tech Sonoma

I bought this truck, a 1996 GMC Sonoma SLS with a 4.3/5spd in summer 2025.  It was a very nice bone stock truck with around 125k miles.  I bought with the intention of building this into my daily drifter.  I have had drift beaters, and I really wanted something that was nice enough to daily but capable enough to drift.

People often ask why I didn't start with a rougher truck to ruin.  I wanted to choose a truck that was nice enough to be shown off as a business asset, without needing major body and mechanical work.  I want to focus on chassis and suspension for this truck.  I also plan that anything I do to this truck will just be bolt in, so it has the ability to be turned back to stock.  I appreciate the Old Man who loved this truck before me, and want to respect the hard work he took to keep it nice.

After some baselines on a local road (Tail of the Dragon), a few things became apparent.  While I primarily want to focus on drift oriented mods, many will crossover into the handling/autocross world, and I would like to support that where needed.

-Brakes are a weak point - quickly get faded

-Body roll not as bad as expected

-Predictable plow in front end, no oversteer

-Open diff doesn't allow power to get down

-4.3 enough power on the tight turns

This truck has a 3.08 ratio rear end in it.  Next step is dropping this welded 3.42 in (welded using the Skid-Tech 7.5 weld plate).  This will allow it to predictably skid, get the power down, and the better gear will help with acceleration.  I really want this truck to primarily drift in 2nd, which I hope the mid range torque of the 4.3 will allow.

At this same time it will get a cheap 4/3 drop (blocks in rear and springs in back), as well as wheels with low profile tires.  At this point I will reevaluate the handling and plan out the next mods (rear end anti-hop bars, angle mods, hydro-e brake).

MORE UPDATES TO COME!