hey guys I've been looking into doing a frame swap on my 1955.2 chevy pu. and before everyone starts asking why the whole frame swap it is because i would like to lower in and get a complete diff. suspension as well as a bigger motor instead of the old 235. here is my pic of my baby I've been reading up on the 73-87 chevy pickups are ideal for the swap and i have found kits for these as well. the downside about this is that i am only 19 and working a job and saving up for school and am trying to find the cheapest way on doing this without slacking in the job quality of the swap. my main question is that I've been researching on pickups like the 69-72 pickups (no one sells a kit for a swap) and i found that the frame with and wheel base is basically the exact same as the 55. i was wondering if any of those frames would work for a swap? as well as the suburbans and blazers they sell kits for 73-91 suburbans and blazers i am just wondering if anyone has done a frame swap with strictly just the frame swap and not a ifs or front subframe and mixing and matching frames together. if anyone has done a swap or has info about a frame swap on a 55.2 chevy pickup please reply i would greatly appreciate it thank you in advance. Kujo
I think you could set the cab lower on the 72 an older frame .The frame steps up under the cab on 73 an up.But both should work with a little fabrication. get a complete donor as you can use alot of parts .
On my 55.2 Chevy truck, I lowered it, put in a different suspension, and a bigger motor (350 SBC), and I used the stock frame. Not seeing any benefit to opting for a frame swap.
The newer stuff is wider. Hard to lower it if the tires stick out the fenders, unless you want to run wheels off like an Olds Toronado.
The first thing you will run into as a problem is that the later truck has a much wider hub to hub measurement than the early truck, so there goes any extreme lowering. We see questions like this everyday here on the board, and the answer is always the same - the best frame for the truck is the one that came under it. I know it sounds easy to just plop your early cab onto the late frame then buy suspension kits and motor on down the road... It just flat aint that easy. What ya gonna do for a core support? What ya gonna do for steering hook up, cab mounts, master cylinder, brake lines, parking brake, How about when the engione isn't in the right place? Then after the lowering when you find with a normal off set wheel and tire you can't turn it... Heck, spend more on semi-custom narrowed arms! 'Course, nbody ever bothers to stop and think about what that does to roll center and a couple of other goemetric things. Honestly, lots of us have been through the trenches on this deal for years. I know it sounds tough to weld a front suspension in, or change engine mounts, or flip a rear end on it's springs, but I guarentee you i is a bunch easier than figuring out the whole pleathora of crap that comes with changing out the chassis. Did you know that a jag XJ6 front end is just about perfect for one of these trucks, and with very little fab it will fit easily with rack and pinion, disc brakes, Chevy bolt pattern... Oh, and about 125.00 at U-Pullit's half price day! How 'bout that speedway and several other companies sell mount kits for a small block for this truck. Or maybe that an S-10 four wheel drive rear end is almost the perfect width and you can use the springs you have if they are in good shape. I'm just suggesting that you hang out a bit, look at what some of the guys are doing with their trucks here, and maybe buddy up with someone locally that has some welding skills before you make too many unreversable decisions.
i would like to keep the original frame on the side in case i decide to make it original i would rather not mess with the original frame
But to go with a frame swap, you're likely goung to have to cut up the body to make it work. Personally, I'd rather modify the original frame. Replacements are plentiful out there if you ever want to restore it.
thank you for the feed back and input guys -need louvers ?- for the brake booster and steering linkage the kit provides info for using s10 van and caprice linkage and etc. but thank you for the info to be honest guys i am not sure what way i should go with this but again thank you for the info and input it is greatly appreciated!!!
Absolutely what VooDoo Twin just said! I have built lots of cars and trucks over the last 30 years, and some i was very careful not to modify this or that too much so it could go back to stock... I have yet to go back to stock!
I agree that working with the original frame is the best way to go. You can keep so much of the original underpinnings and swap them out or change them later as your budget allows and as you are driving it. If you do a frame swap and then can't afford something or lose patience with it, you'll never drive it. It's totally possible to lower that truck with what already exists in your garage. And as for putting it back to stock...once you drive it after its been worked over, you won't want it stock again. And like voodootwin said, you'll have to cut the body up any way to make it fit a different frame.
Depending on how low you want to go it is much better to just use the original frame. A freind of mine was doing this same thing on a 57 using an 87 frame and by the time we made everything look right there was no floor left in the bottom of the cab or bed. With the multiple :humps' in the newer frames his bed is only going to be about 6 inches deep now if he makes in flat. And he lost about 8 inches of height in the cab. I would not advise it. it always seems like a good idea from the outside looking in.
i def. agree with not modifying the body at all because i have the cab fenders and doors already painted i was thinking of trying to find another 55 frame as a "test frame" if i could find one cheap enough to try doing a rear axle flip and nova or comaro sub frame or the caprice sub frame. the kit I've been looking at says that the suburban frames run more flat through out the whole frame
here is what i found on a 88 chevy frame swap http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=398361&page=16
I put a 56 GMC cab onto a 68 short frame. I think if I were to do it again I would have used the stock frame and cut the clip from a 73-87 frame. If I remember correctly the fame width near the firewall on the original frame and the 73-87 frame is close enough to make work.
As Freddy Mercury once said "" ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST "" Why do People do this ? Once you start NOTHING fits, Just use the Original frame & Adapt to it. I went the other way & adapted everything to the STOCK '55 F-350 Ford rails. Guess what ? I have Disk Brakes, Later suspension, & my body FITS !!
We do this for one it is a challenge and it is the reason I go in the garage everyday it's doing the thing I love getting dirty cutting metal and making something work when others say it won't fit been in the garage doing this for 6 years now I'm 20 and probably doing this for the rest of my life and this is why I'm doing this and this is why others are doing this we write post to get help not to be judged Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
I have a 59' on a 91' frame. It sits pretty high, and I am going to do a suspension drop on it after I get the bed mounted correctly. I bought it this way and its done decently, just needs finishing. I would keep the stock frame, or clip the stock frame if you want a project. I understand there are several GM clips that all will work well and there are several threads documenting clipping a 55-59 chevs on the HAMB.
Notice all the guys who've done these swaps wouldn't do it again? NITROHONKEY and Bigblock69n? I think the best move would be to get another 55 frame, modify that, then when it's ready, swap everything over. Minimum down time, and a frame that fits.
All it takes is patience it's not impossible just have to look at it and think how to fix it Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Dude, I more than understand a challenge. I have tilted at some of the stupidest windmills there are to tilt at, as some of my good friends can attest! But, there isn't one person here saying "it can't be done". We have all seen it done! Some have done it, and they are the guys saying the loudest "don't do it"! I know it sounds incredibly hard to modify an original frame with things like front suspensions and axle flips. It isn't, trust me, this stuff is easy in comparison to transplanting a complete chassis that is way too wide to work well under an early truck. I find alot of newer guys that think chassis swap don't weld, and they think, "well hell, this just gonna bolt together"... Aint gonna happen! I get it I get it, younger generation, instant gratification. But, as a semi gray beard that has been building cars lots longer than you have walked the planet, let me lay a bit advice on ya... Learn to weld NOW! Take a night course, get a well versed friend to teach you, anyway you can do it, do it. There nothing more pittiful that some of the stuff people cobble together in the name of not being able to take 5 minutes with a welder to do it right. It's a basic skill that should be in every guy's arsenel of skills, period. 'Specially if you really want to be a car guy. With that said, if you were to say put a Camaro clip under your stock frame (I'd still many times over go for the Jag... Cheaper, easier, better handling, and much more plentiful without searching for "collector car" stuff) it would be easy enough to do all the layout, cutting, and fitting of stuff and have a mobil welder come over and spend an hour or two welding it all together. In either case you would have a clip under the front of your truck that you could drop as low as you'd like without purchasing more "kits" and it would actually fit under your truck without weird one-off bizaro offset wheels that look like they belong holding up a mid sixties Toronado or a circus wagon. The same can't be said for the later truck stuff. Like I said earlier, I more than understand a challenge. This isn't breaking new ground if you pull it off, and there is a fine demarcation line between "can be done" and "should be done". If you do it and pull it off, twenty years from now you can be in my possistion and say "Ya, I did that, but it always sat too high, and it never had the right front wheels and tires, and it just never quite looked right" to the next young guy that thinks this a great idea. If you get ground down by all of the niggling little details needed to pull this off, (and, unfortunately most do) it leaves one more partially disassembled '55 Chevy truck out in the world for sale that COULD be saved if you could only find a clean, usable frame...
I have done a few frame swaps over the years and i will tell you they are a whole lot more work then just adapting the later suspension to you old frame. The later chevy truck track width is way to wide for your 1955-59 truck to get it low most likely fine it you want it sitting and near stock ride height. I would look into the Jag XJ6 suspension swap into your existing stock frame, doing this currently to a 1955 International. If you are looking for something in kit form you can buy MII front end kits that bolt in and same with rear suspension kits for that year GM truck.
Number one I did not buy this kit so I could bolt it on I've been welding with mig for 6 years and I am goin to college for welding I do know how to weld and pretty good arc tig mig oxy fuel I've welded with all of them I bought the kit because the geometry was done thus having less chances of throwing things off when ever I get the chance I do take advice from the older generations and I'm doing this to keep the older cars going so they don't die out I get that I could spend a couple hours if cutting and welding and putting a front clip on the original but at the same time I do not have money to buy a new or used clip and I would rather sell an original short bed 55 frame then chopping it up Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Guys, give up this young know it all has made up his mind to be the next great car fabricator who will give troy ladd and those types a run for the big bucks. Let him screw up a good body cause he is too hard headed to listen to advice. When he burns out there will be a 55 truck going to the crusher cause it wont fit on any frame including the original one.
No bud jus trying to make it a driver and yup since I'm exactly like very other young guy I'm Gona say I know it all no bud the only reason I joined this is to get advice from the older crowd Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Ask old guys and you'll get old guy opinions.... If no available frame suits your needs then build one.
You asked for advice and then don't like it because it isn't what you wanted to here. Those that have done it have told you what works. Listen and learn or go find another board that will give you the advice that you want. You would help yourself some by loosing that chip that sets on your shoulder. I was your age back many moons ago and was no different. But I did learn that when I stopped being defensive, I learned a lot more. Wish I would have learned quicker that I wasn't so smart. Disclaimer, I have never done a frame swap or upgraded the suspension on these Chevy's but I do own a couple. Neal
You are right evdryone has there day's and yesterday was one of mine Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
You may have seen this thread. I have been watching it and is the direction that I may go with mine. It is titled "TECH: Camaro Clip in your 58 chevy-in one day!*new pics*FINISHED!" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148978&highlight=camaro+clip+in+your+58+chevy Just another option. Neal
Got a Camaro clip in mine .Rides good, motor mounts in,power steering done, sets NICE! Only thing I don't like is that the motor sits so low, but a 6 71 would fit wonderfully!