How did you mount the front sheet metal? I still have some other stuff to work on before but I'm just looking for ideas before I start. I was thinking of mounting the hood first and lining that up perfect and then pushing the fenders up to the hood, and making something like the old fender braces, only a bit more solid. Has anyone done anthing like this before? I'm curious how the fender braces were made, or how the old ones were adapted, and of course the order it was all done in.
Whe I sub franed my fars we had welded braces on everything to tie it together. Then set it where it needed to be and made brackets from the frame to the sheet metal. My 53 was already apart though and we just stuck it all were it needed to be...it was a nightmare.
I would suggest you bolt everything together onto the original radiator cradle, bolt the hood & ***embly (fenders?) on the car, line it all up & make brakets to mount the cradle. Most guys use the forward peices of the original frame rails so that they can also bolt up the original bumpers. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Remember 1/2 of the population is below average.
One of the best reasons for using an aftermarket Mustang II based crossmember. I have a friend that builds cars and charges $40 hour for labor. He can put in an aftermarket crossmember, parts and labor, cheaper than doing a subframe swap. He does four of five installations a year. Takes the fabricator 6 to 8 hours to do the job with the front sheet metal off. Folks think clips swaps are cheap. But you have to figure on replacing every wear part and brings the price of the job up more than you would expect. And then you have all that time getting the sheet metal and bumpers to fit. Do what you want, but give the alternative some consideration.
Rusty1 here... ...like Bill said I've done a few dozen clip jobs, so now, for me anyway, it's not a big deal. From what I've heard from lots of guys, they prefer the ride that a clip gives over a Must II, but in the end it's all a matter of personal preference. I still think I can do a clip job cheaper , but I have always had more time than money, and most of the ones I've done didn't need a complete rebuild. For newbies or guys that don't have fabricating skills or tools; the Mustang II fronts work real well as lots of em now are bolt-in deals. ...as far as mounting front sheet-metal goes; usually on a rear-steer Nova/Camaro clip; you can weld a bracket off the front crossmember to accept the core support. On a front-steer clip I usually just weld a 2x2 -1/4 inch thick angle iron from one frame horn to the other to accept the core support. ... for bumper brackets I weld pieces of the same angle iron off the frame horns w/ good gussets for the bumper mounting. ...as far as finding out where to put the core mounts goes you can bolt the fenders to the core support, bolt this to the cab, line it up and weld a bracket from the clip to under the core support. If anything make the core bracket low, you can always shim it up. ...hpoe this helps out some; if anyone needs more info , they are welcome to PM me. Thanks
you said it right , its a lot cheaper, also the thing you git with a clip is a ride thats un real its great, you cant git that out of a stang ...
I put a '74 camaro clip under my '37 truck. There may have been better choices, but the Camaro clip was FREE. AS far as being CHEAP that's hard to beat!! Matter of fact I didn't rebuild it at all - it was in good shape to begin with so I just ran it as is - been great, but just last year I finally ponied up some fresh rotors and pads. AS for installing it - I did like the guys said above.....I made a temporary fixture (conduit) that went from the firewall to the core support. It was a 3 legged thing for stability. Once I made it I hid it in the attic for safe keeping. After I wacked the frame and had it all tacked in I retrieved my "fixture" and bolted it back in place - the front hung there in space. I then built brackets to go UNDER the fixture - duplicating the origional location of the core support. Worked like a charm and saved a ton of work aligning things all up.
Another approach is to use the original front frame sections and fab those into the sub frame. Doesn't work for everything but looks a little better in the end. Kinda turns the subframe into an "insert" so to speak.
Before I cut the original frame, I make a jig that locates the core support mount and bumper bracket location. This jig attaches to the original frame far enough back so that it can be reattached later. After the clip I put the jig back on the frame and build to these locations. I usually build the core support mount lower than its original location and inset the frame horns a little. You can always shim up or in and that is better than cutting the piece off and rewelding.
I added a small 1/2" by 2" rectangular cross member in the fron and welded the tabs needed for mounting t that. I then had to cut, move and reweld the inner fenders to fit perfectly. The last step was to modify a rear support for the rear of the fron fenders since they lost 1 mounting point with my inner fender change. This was a small bracket I welded to the camaro clip. I will dig thru my project photos and see if I can find any. -Sobastrace
Thanks for the replies, lots of valuable info here. I've got the camaro clip on my frame, it's been narrowed 2.5 inches in the middle (along with the center link). I don't have the rad core mounts in it yet (and it's too late for a jig since the clip is in). I do have another frame from the middle of the cab to the front bumper that I can use to figure out where the mount should be. For the F1 the fender brackets mount to the rad core (with the inner fender in between the two) so I think I can figure it out. Thanks
I need some info on a Camaro front clip as well if possible. I have one on my 48 Chevy but it's a 79 Z28 front end. Some people said it's too wide and others said they have a 79 front end and it's fine with a skinnier tire up there. But here is my problem. I bought the car with the clip on it already and I have NO CLUE how I can put it back together since I wasn't able to tear the old one down and tear the car down so I have no clue on what goes where... Anyone here use a clip on a similar car with pics or info on what to do? I don't know how fenders mount on this car or nothing, heck I don't even have a SINGLE bolt for this car for the fenders or nothing, I am starting from scratch... Sorry I am not trying to take over the thread here but maybe this can help others out at the same time. Thanks!
I think you can get a factory ***embly manual from Chevys of the 40's. Check there web site. I know someone sells them.
I did a 48 sedan delivery with a camaro sub, originally I yanked the nose as a complete unit and left the hood on. I made a tubular front "cage" that bolted onto the sub frame (top of the rails ahead of the steering) and to the clips comming off the sides of the firewall. I mounted them with rubber spacers to kill the vibrations into the body (noise). off of this cage i attached clips to pick up the attachment points for the nose and mounted a cross flow radiator to eliminate the high riser latch piece. I had to go this route because the 76 f body sub frame has the steering box ahead of the crossmember and my rad U chanel hit it. Now you should be able to ***emble loosely your nose; attach the inners to the rad U then the fenders to the set-up. then the nose to the cowl ears (I found doing all this was much easier with the door bubbles off but the doors on. use a jack under the rad U and bolt everthing together, mount the hood and allign everything to eachother a real PITA especially if your alone like I was.. hey, it was my first car and I was 17 (quite a while ago). then fab brackets to attach to the cage, tack and bolt them on. I made an "ear" to support the middle of the U that extended forward from the crossmember. If you want i can probably dig around and find the pic's or make a sketch. Jon
Yeah man a pic or scetch (pic would be best) would be awesome. I dont quite get everything your trying to explain here but do understand half of it. :d I appreciate the help.
Any help on the part of putting the body back on this thing, etc would be GREAT! Any info at all like pictures, drawings, measurements, and whatever else that could be of help to me when putting it back together. I am still hoping that the thing isn't too wide for my 48 Chevy coupe because I don't have the money for narrowed control arms AT ALL!
V8. V6 are too light for the heavy hot rods. Well that all depends on what you put it under so nevermind that.
...V8 or 6 cyl. springs will work, usually you will mount the engine further back on the sub and this will take some weight off the suspension. On some of my projects I end up cutting a coil off the spring to get the ride heigth I want, this never seemed to be a problem with either 6 or 8 cyl. springs.
My buddy put a 79 Camaro clip in my 54 Chev last year, it wasn't that bad and drives great. The good thing is how the frame rails kick up, instant lowering without spindles or cut springs. The only thing is the track is about 1 3/4" wider, so I have to run the stock rims (which I wanted to do anyways). I will probably change the control arms one day when I have more money so I can lower it some more. I might have some pics of the install if you are interested?
The Jalopy Journal
