Howdy from a newby from NE Pa. I have done a couple of resorations and am ready to try my hand at a MILD street driver. Have just purchased a 28 Chevy 2 door sedan and want to do what is right with the frame. Is there someone who makes a tube frame for that old a car or should I just figure on doing it myself. Will put a 350, auto IFS setup in it. No excessive HP. Would like to save the time(and probably aggravation). Have checked a couple places that have the 32 frame but no luck. Any chevy guys out there that can help? Thanks Jim www.jandcawards.com
Most guys here building early chevy rods are using the chevy frame and converting the front to ford or Building it the way the general planned it. Not to many people here to my knowledge use IFS. I may be mistaking. So if you build a tube ch***is what will you do with the original ch***is?
My suggestion would be to redo the stock ch***is. Are you going to use the fenders, it might help hide the IFS if that is what you really want. In my opinion as well as many others the stock front beam would be the way to go. I have a '23 Dodge coupe that I going to build using the stock frame(beefed up) and suspension(updated rear), with a mild V8. It all depends on personal taste though.
Sorry I should have said I will be doing something with the front. I'm not stuck on anything and will be taking any and all suggestions! I don't have the car home yet. It's in Fla and my dad will be bringing it home to PA in a couple of weeks. Bought it on ebay(after he inspected it). I was just trying to get an idea about the best way to go about the frame. I will be leaving the body as it is. Any and all advice is REALLY appreciated. Thanks Jim
not sure on 28's but the early 30's chevys were really strong frames, no need to box them. Build off the stock frame unless you are doing some major channeling to it.
I have a 32 coupe, that I boxed the frame and put a ford 4" drop axle. I replaced every cross member except for the rear one over the gas tank.
I have a 28 chevy frame as well and I am going to put front and rear "ford" cross members in with buggy spring style axles instead of the parrallel leafs because they are hard to get loww down into the weeds!28 frames are not as strong as the 30's and up so bow em'!! just my 2 cents JG
Using a 27 Oakland frame (GM car) had parallel front leaf springs that I ditched for a ford style dropped super bell axle and hairpin radius rods. Had a machine shop fab me a u-channel for the crossmember and I cut out part of the original crossmember while still leaving the part with the radiator mount. This allowed me to move the crossmember up in the frame so it lowered the car a couple of inches along with the dropped axle which put it in the weeds all while retaining the stock radiator mount. Just prefer the look of a ford style front end on an open wheel car. Also boxed the frame from the front crossmember to the rear crossmember. Although the frame is quite beefy being about 5 1/2'' tall along most of it's length. But the nailhead I'm running is putting out 350+ hp. Better safe than sorry.
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