A couple of weekends ago I picked up an abandoned 1947 Chevy Business Coupe project. Not sure of the direction it was going, which was maybe the reason for abandonment. Their is not much of the original '47 left. The engine and drive train are gone. The engine sitting on the frame is currently a 450hp LS2 mated to a turbo 400 transmission. I don't plan on changing that. I'm not sure what the front or rear are and haven't looked. It does have a coil over in the rear and four wheel discs. I plan on leaving all of that as is. My only previous build was a 1972 Chevy 4x4 pickup but I didn't do any of the body or paint. I intend on doing this one on my own with some simple, best I can do body work and a single stage paint. Most likely Blitz Black or Rustoluem (insert troll posts below). It came with a late model chevy pickup steering column and some leather seats from a modern Lincoln car. Neither of which I plan on using/keeping, so if you're in Wisconsin and in need of either, let me know. The original steering column, wheel and turn signal are also included which I would like to use if I can figure out how to get it all hooked in to a more modern steering box. I'll be searching the threads here for assistance on that. The body has been hacked up a little. The rear fenders have been widened about 1.5-2" with a strip welded in to accommodate a 10" rear wheel. The front fenders look stock but I'm not familiar enough with a 47 Chevy to know if that's for certain or not. The rear deck lid has been shaved of the trunk handle and filled. I began stripping it first just to see what was underneath. The answer came back as 2 coats of primer and two coats of paint. The original color looked to be a baby blue. There was minimal filler other than the shaved handle. I actually wish the handle hadn't been shaved. Now I need to figure out what to do to open the trunk, not a big fan of the actuators and really don't want to re-engineer what's already been removed. My next step is to remove the body and either start grinding or possibly taking it to someone for blasting. I can also start stripping the front fenders and the hood. The hood has been de-trimmed and de-badged and all the holes have been filled by the previous owners. So there's some work to be done there as well. The car came with two different '47 grilles, both in similar condition.
Figured that, but too nice to dump. Not sure I'm going to love it either from the how do I make this thing run perspective.
It's a bit hard to see, but it appears that the car received a Camaro or Nova front suspension graft. Without a close up shot it's hard to say, but it doesn't look like the stock '47 frame from the firewall forward. From what I can see, your steering box is probably inside the frame rails and behind the spindles. If that's the case, depending upon what steering column you plan to use, once you mount it, you can use Borgeson u-joints to connect the column to the box.
I appreciate that advice. The steering box is between the frame rails. I'm pretty sure it's a Nova front end. Any way to tell for sure?
Gonna be a nice one ! I have a 47 project also, just coming along slowly. IMG_20141225_132639266 by triker ox posted Jul 22, 2015 at 10:39 AM IMG_20141225_133637933 by triker ox posted Jul 22, 2015 at 10:39 AM
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