Definitive S-10 Frame Swap Vehicle List

heres a few pics from yesterday, i was going stir crazy not working on the truck so went ou tinthe cold and sat the cab and bed back on the frame, again i did a 9" step cut to shorten it. will get better pics asap

 

In my opinion, and it's shared by quite a few here, the S10 is to narrow for the 55 2nd series-59 trucks. You 'll have to widen the a-arms or use wheel spacers to get the wheels even close. A Camaro front clip is a much better choice for those trucks. Visit Lux's Camaro Clip in a day thread.

 

in the process of sectioning in a frame front section of s-10 to my 54 chevy, and I have heard people complain about this because of wheel spacers, but when your pockets are shallow and s-10 parts cost next to nothing, is's good with me

 

zman thats one reason i went with the 4x frame cuz it has alittle wider track on it. i have no spacers on those z-28 wheels

 

Absolutely correct on the wider track from WMS to WMS...but the 4x4 uses a deeply inset wheel like a FWD car so the effective track width between 2x4 and 4x4 doesn't change all that much.
They ARE rugged little trucks...I've owned a couple of S10 Blazer 4x4's (Winter driving a 4x4 now actually!)and worked on many...but I wonder how long the front wheel bearing unit will last with the extra leverage applied to it from the outset wheels? They are a bit expensive and unserviceable except as a total replacement part. Ball joints are a bit of a sore spot too...although frequent greasing seems to keep that in check.

Also there MAY be a slight concern (I'm not sure if the 4x4 uses negative scrub) with increased road feel thru a normally offset rim compared to what GM offered as original on the 4x4 version.

NOT a slam on the idea of using a 4x4 frame at all...just some thoughts that might be worthy of discussion considering this is THE thread for S10 tech...

Oh...one other thing! IF anyone is using a 4x4 frame/suspension with the 4x4 axles and diff etc removed...MAKE SURE you use a cut down outer CV joint spline section to retain your bearing inside its carrier!
If you don't, the only thing holding your wheel from coming off is the grease seals, friction and if your lucky...your caliper! That might keep you semi-safe in the garage...but if you try to drive you won't get far....

 

I understand your concern about the front end components on the 4wd with the standard offset wheels. However, in my experience with 4wd s10's both personal and from talking to other s10 junkies the wheel bearings are a lot more rugged than one might think for a mini truck. My truck is currently lifted with larger tires on it and I have not had one problem with the bearing and I know people who have standard offset wheels with 31's or even 33's on the stock spindle/bearing assembly and the bearings hold up just fine. The balljoints however are a much more sore subject as I have replaced 8 balljoints total in the last 16 months or so...yeah each one once or twice, and one 3 times. that is solely because of the excessive angles due to the t.b.lift that I have in it, and not from bigger tires or offset of the wheels. I also like the availability of products for s10 v8 swaps available making it that much easier to upgrade the engine from the 4.3 or 2.2. I'm surprised that no one has taken a frame and drivetrain from a Tornado or Huricane to get the turbo all wheel drive in a classic truck. I think that would be a great idea if you could find one with a trashed body, but they are so rare. And, at the risk of sounding a bit ADD the track width on a standard 4wd s10 is about 2.5 or 3" wider than its 2wd counter part and another 2" wider for the ZR2 track widths.

 

I think you mean Typhoon or Syclone, and that's where the QuadraDeuce AWD setup came from. Of course that's just a little to Street Rod for this board...

 

~Jason

 

Yup...I'd say your right on the money with comparative track widths between the 2 wheeler and the 4x4.
Once you replace the negative offset wheels with ones that match the offset of the 2 wheeler though it will increase a good bit beyond that!
I've never checked the actual increase myself but I have seen a few stock 4x4's with aftermarket "regular" wheels and it looked excessive.
Now...they MIGHT have been offset MORE than stock...I have no idea!!!
Have you made any comparisons with your frame as your building it?

Those wheel bearings are big and don't often give trouble, agreed! I was just thinking its something to get some realworld experience on. But if wheelers are finding them reliable with big tires/offsets I doubt they would be a problem on the street!
Biggest I've ever run on them is a 235 snow tire!

For the joints we use a high quality waterproof wheelbearing grease and regrease the entire front end and shafts 3 or 4 times every winter. Seems to work well as even with some extra lift dialed into the torsion bars for snow clearance we don't have too many problems.
My rig is running the same replacement ball joints approx 5 years!!!
Other people I know sometimes replace 1 or 2 every season.
Lowers are a pain in the butt...
(Gotta keep the idler arm well greased too. They love to tear out of the frame if the arm gets tight on the pivot!)

I think the 4x4's are great little rigs myself.
Like all vehicles they have a few iffy points about them but nothing that worries me.
I did a V8 4x4 swap several years ago for my Cousin. (91ish 4 door)
He loves it.
Runs a 7 1/2 foot blade on it all winter!!! NOTHING in the driveline has broken in 3 or more years of pushing snow.
Mind you, he realizes it isn't a tractor and he IS anal about maintainance.
It PAYS to be!

 

Hacker I definitely agree with everything you said, and I run 31" BFG All Terrains and have no problem with the front end except for the previously mentioned balljoints, but I knew that going into the lift. The standard 2wd wheels are a standard offset (0 offset) which is a 4 3/4" backspacing which is 1 1/4" more than the 6" backspacing on the 4wd which would give you an addition 2 1/2" or just about the track width of the ZR2 package. I have also had problems with the idler arm, but fixed that by spending a few extra bucks on a better quality part, and greasing it regularly. Yeah a little t-bar crank is fine, but I'm running new t-bar keys which are giving it about 2 1/2" of lift over stock (i sit about an inch higher than a ZR2). I think that a slightly lifted 4wd classic chevy would not only be rare, but would look good! and I have also considered throwing jeep axled under to give a solid front axle suspension as the parts for that swap are also available and there is a lot of experience from other s10'ers that would help. i know it would be a frankenstien, but I like being different, but not destroying the way the truck looks.

 

yeah that is what i meant...sorry i was at work and freaking exhausted...and not enough time to look up what they were called, i just know that its a pretty cool setup

 

I have a 38 CHEVY COUPE I was going to try putting a S-10 frame. What do you think?

 

the front will be ok,but the rear will kick up too much.you may want to think about subbing it with the s10 front.

 

i finally got my frame weled up. need to do alittle grinding to smooth it out but will get pics tomorrow if possible if my camera works

 

we are talking a lot of times about v8 but what about this!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/chev...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

 

Not a bad motor for a daily driver. Thought of one for my '40 Deluxe a while back.

 

yeah why not a vortec v6 its a good solid engine

 

A few folks are running the stock Vortec in AD / S-10 frame swaps. 190hp in stock is a far cry above the 90 original ponies from the 216

 

yeah im starting a new project and thinking of a vortec in a stock frame...

 

well i had to go buy a new camera to take some pics. today i got alitle done on the frame. cleaned up the welds and got over half of it painted

 

couple pics of the cab mounts, on the front i used what was the rad support and for the rear i cut into the frame and welded in a piece of 2x4 retangler tubing (reason for the tubing is cuz the rear cab mount hole were right onthe edge of the frame. hope to cleanup around the front frame horns and finish painting by the afternoon. lets see how you others are making out on your swap

 

Picture of the stock S-10 firewall spliced into the '54 Ford cab. It has some gaps. Its a roadster, so it'll be loud, windy, and leaky anyway. Not too ugly once the heater box is gone. And yes, I'm definetly running a hood.

 

I need help/direction. I am going to start my first project a 1950 Studebaker Champion 2 door sedan. I am in love with my Stude but I want to do it right the first time andI want to update it. So parts will be a hell of alot easier to find. I think doing this swap would be the best solution. It would give me a sturdy frame, updated braking and steering, not to mention the parts hunt again. I just need to know where do I start as I am "green" if you will. I'm not looking for a show piece by any means. the way I look at it is if someone would think it is say 75% finished, thats done to me. I just want to drive it and work on it. First I need to drive it! So any help and direction with this would be much appreciated. I have seen one done on an s10 frame, so I know its possible. Thanks, sorry for the long winded entry. Jack

 

For those of you needing a motor mount solution, check out these mounts. Thirty7slammed on here made a set of his for me. For a little extra dough than what they get in the catalogs and online... they are WAY better than anything you can order and WAY stronger. No messing around, bolted right in. PM him if you are interested in a set. 3" setback is what I had on my 50 Chevy 3100 on the s10 frame.

Here they are, right out of the box.






Painted and installed:


A perfect Fit:

 

Does it run & drive now? What's wrong with your current frame?

You know, folks like http://www.scarebird.com/ (a HAMBer) can fix you up with disc brake kits that use factory spindles - he sells brackets, and gives you a list of off-the-shelf parts to get to complete it. And you can bag that Stude as-is to get it in the weeds...

An S-10 frame swap isn't for everyone, and sometimes, isn't as easy as it looks... especially for a car swap.

~Jason

 

Damm that conversion kits frome scarebird looks good only i cant find any for 3100 pickups...

 

Scarebird's a good guy, and he does love a challenge. PM or email him and see if he has anything for you.

The 3100 kits may be more common - Scarebird tends to dabble in things for folks that take the path less traveled.

~Jason

 

Those mounts are BEEF NOODLE HEARTY!!!



~Jason

 

Hi, There is nothing wrong with the frame at all. The car is 100% solid. Only has 72K miles on it. I actually wanted to keep it as original as possible, as it is a great "All Amercian" car. I figured if I was able to do a swap i could update the components easier and a lil faster than changing out the steering/suspension and drive train. I actually already started rebuiling the straight 6, but I have visions of say 79 horspower not being quite enough if I want to merge onto the highway Besides I'd like a hot rod that goes well ... fast! I was looking at the cross member motor mounts at Speedway motors, but I think those will only work on cars straight front axle.

 

Hi again. So know I have thinking that you are right. There is really no need to ditch a perfectly good frame. And the pros to keeping are starting to out weigh the cons the more I think about it. Its IFS so I definitely could drop it easily for nice stance, all I would really be concerned abuot was the powertrain swap. I know that there are bolt in 350 mounts for 51s out there. Anyone know if they have them for 50's? or how difficult a transplant would be? For putting up with me. And if I should start my rants in a different thread now, let me know.