Good morning and Merry Christmas everyone. Yesterday I took advantage of the nice weather and did some tear down on my 52 Chevy. After removing the inner fender wells, I discovered my driver's side frame rail looks like Swiss cheese. I originally wanted to go the kustom route with the car, but now I'm thinking differently I've been wanting to go drag racing for awhile, and am considering the Gasser route with it. What have people used for front suspension for these? I've been doing some research, and I think cutting off and redoing the frame is best, maybe a Nova II, like the complete Speedway bolt on kit? I know it's not a direct fit. Sent from my Pixel 3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
With a frame like those cars have, the easy way to bolt on a straight axle is to unbolt the original suspension crossmember, and add leaf springs to the original frame. You still have to fix the frame. The Chevy II setup with the replacement bolt on subframe works quite differently..the Chevy II is a unibody car, no frame. the original front suspension and inner fenders unbolt from the body shell, with just 14 bolts. This is not what you want, for your 52...it won't bolt on.
I pretty much figured if I got the Nova II fronted end I would cut it to fit, I knew it wouldn't be a direct replacement. Wasn't sure the 52 frame would've needed to heavily modified (other than the rust repair). I just saw the kit for it, and wondered if I would be better off Sent from my Pixel 3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
With that degree of rust I would pull the body and sandblast the frame. Once that's done you can plan your project accordingly. Frame rust can be repaired and frames can be build from scratch but you need to find out what you have first.....
Agree with oldiron here. Inspect the rest of your Frame before you head any direction. If your going Gasser and your chassis has more of the same think about just building a total square tube frame front to back. Often times much easier than tons of repair. Also better results.
Where are you located? I would look for another frame. 48 thru 54 chevy truck frames have the straight axle and only 1 inch longer wheelbase. Sit your car on the truck frame. Adjust the wheels so the back tire is centered. Make new body mounts.
I'm in Wisconsin, so I might not have the best luck finding a good frame Sent from my Pixel 3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's what I was thinking, looking at the license plate on the car. I don't really have any good suggestions, what to do with that car. I'd sure rather start with something better, but they're hard to find up there.
Those truck frames are really a simple ladder frame. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-Chevy...333400476282?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10 https://www.ebay.com/itm/1947-48-49...263610846608?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10
Didn,t look at lic plate. Yes the trucks are ladder frame and pretty flat.. I put one under a 50 chevy coupe once. Back mounts were about 6 in ch tall just past the rear wheels. Other mounts were pretty close. A v8 fits nice and plenty of aftermarket parts. If you put rearend above the springs gives even more weight transfer. Alternate way to go is unbolt front end , raise up and put i beam in and rebolt front end back on.
Here's some reading. Different year but still apllies. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1953-54-chevy-gassers.980992/
if he can find a truck frame in Wisconsin he can find a car frame. truck frame is just a bad idea. you could build a complete frame from rectangular tubing with less effort
$ 200 bucks worth of tubing built this frame for my Morris Minor. Your wheelbase is a little longer so you will need a little more steel. It's not that hard . just measure twice cut once . Make sure you have a level place to work. Took me about 2 weeks to do. Not counting the cage. Instant Gasser.
It really does depend on the rest of your frame. If the rest is as bad as the front you likely would be better off going with something else. If it was good you can even simply cut the front off and build a tube frame from there. That's what I did. (mine was bent from a previous accident). Mid 50's truck axles and springs can be found inexpensively. There are always people replacing them.
Thanks for all the input, this has been on my mind all day. I think my best course of action is to build a frame. It's a big challenge for me, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. Sent from my Pixel 3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
My car was a uni body .Jack your car up and take your old frame out and measure everything. Make sure you are not using a bent frame for your measurements. Get your body mount points . I have training in mechanical drawing. I make a blueprint for my chassis. Then start cutting up metal. If you don't have a steel table , a good place get some nice steel beams is find an old single wide mobile home and get the frame . It has some nice beams. You can find them cheap. When I was down in Florida I got paid to tear down a mobile home and get rid of it.Plus I sold all of the wiring appliances, windows , window a/c units and cut up the frame and sold what I didn't need and kept two 20 foot beams. Plus enough to make legs . Made a great chassis table. I made mine bolt together so I could store it when I wasn't using it. I have drawn it out on the floor and welded it on the floor making sure the steel didn't move around from welding and then transfer it to jack stands.
To an Old Silver Back that just sounds like a Krazzy amount of work for around 2-3 hundred dollars of Brand New steel that is flat and has nothing to cut and grind off to get two sections 12 feet long of good clean surface.
Pist-n-Broke you must have missed the part of being PAID to cut it up. Besides that hard work is good for your soul.
L.O.L. No I didn't miss it and when I read it I thought "you couldn't pay me to scrap a Mobil Home". I'd rather do a few hours of Over Time on a real job. Maybe scraping Mobil Homes is your real job and I know enough about what's involved there to know it's just Not for me. I'm glad someone will do that but not me.
Not my full time gig ,but when the county says it has to be gone by a certain date. You can name your price and they take it or not and start paying the fines. Which are assessed daily.
The Jalopy Journal
