Does anybody have insight (pics or words) on how they channeled their customs? Would you do it again and is it worth it? I originally planned to run a MII front end on my 1954 Chevy but now I am thinking that the reworked stock front suspension will be a better choice. With that being said, I don't want to hack the coils within an inch of their life to get the proper stance. I was thinking that perhaps a 1/2"-1" channel will get the car sitting more appropriately and won't sacrifice the ride quality. I have to that replace floor boards anyways so I thought this may be an option even though it's probably a **** load of work. Share any info or pics that you might have. Thanks
It is a ****load of work, but if you're doing the whole floor board anyway... That being said, it will change your motor to hood clearance, your radiator to hood clearance, you'll have to modify the radiator mount, etc., etc. And it cuts down on your headroom. 1/2 inch is definitely NOT worth all the h***le. An inch or two? Maybe. IF you aren't too tall to begin with. I have seen some deeply-channeled cars (probably 4 inches or more) that no full-grown man such as myself could ever drive comfortably. It also lowers the steering wheel relative to the seat. Back in the day they used to sometimes channel the rear of the car, and/or z the frame. Maybe those would be better options? Dropped uprights for your suspension would sure be a lot less work for almost the same exact result. And you're working the floor boards anyway you could always just raise the tunnel and rear floor a bit to clear the rear end for a c-notch. That way you keep your headroom and you get to ride low.
Mr. James.......your work is cut out for you..really...cut out. I only brought over one pic from our 51 fleetline. There are about 20 pics in my album on my profile of what we did....just not HAMB friendly tailights. We hacked everything out of the car...floor, seat structure, trunk floor and all metal inside the sheetmetal. we built the floor from 1x1, 1x3, 1x4. The body was lowered over the ch***is 4 inches. we had stops that kept it form going any deeper. Once the structure was there, we build the body mounts. Our suspension is still at full stock height ride. The rocker panels are about 8 inches off the ground. Do it again? yeah probably. hard to do? no. this is what it looked like
I've heard of people taking the body mounts to lower it about 1/2" but I don't think you'd wanna do that.
Just doing it in the back may be an option. I had planned on c-notching the frame back there so I know I have some work to do there anyways. I never thought about the engine, radiator, etc being located higher after it was done. That doesn't seem cool and seems like a pain in the ****. But if it were only 1/2"-1" (which as you said is a great deal of work) it may not seem so bad.
A guy over here in Charlotte did that from what I have been told. I wonder what else would be messed with in the process.
B*** Z'd the '49 Fastback that he was working on a while ago. He said that he did that because of a lack of an Ultra low crossmember. Seems scary to do but I am glad that you brought that up. It may be an idea to keep in mind if I channel just the back or even if I don't.
i dont see it as being that big of a deal. Z the front frame horns the same ammount you want the channel to be, so your whole front end lines back up, and cut it like you would "bodydrop" a minitruck. not nearly as complicated as you may think. Nate Hale did this with his gold and black 54 chevy.
I channeled my 52 custom about 2". It wasnt to bad , but I was changing /swapping the entire floorpan from a 78 malibu g body which presented a whole different bunch of problems , but in the end it was worth it.
Channeling is more something for a floorpan and frame swap situation. I started and didn't finish a '51 Chevy coupe over a '79 Buick frame/floors - basically combined $300 worth of POS's and learned from it. One mistake I discovered was I should have kept the Buick wheelhouses in the back and cut out the Chevy ones. Lowering the body with the '51 wheelhouses intact would have had it bottoming out in the wheelwells pretty quickly the way I had it tacked together. Of course, I also learned the Buick front end was too wide even after compensating for the wheelbase difference with a Pontiac front clip, but that's another story. A '54 Chevy has plenty of headroom, so you can get away with moving the floors up a few inches if you want, but it's going to be obvious inside the doors when you open them. Z'ing the frame might be more trick since it won't be as obvious the frame's been raised. Plus it opens the option of using something like a Camaro front clip if you want - normally I don't favor cutting the frame on these cars, but if you're going to go to the trouble to Z it you may as well clip it too. If nothing else it's going to be cheaper than a Mustang-II kit will be. For that matter you could splice in a trailing arm/coil spring rear clip too, if you wanted, and make your life easier if you wanted to install an air ride setup.
I channeled the nash bout 10 inches , and z'd the frame 9 inches in the front. Sounds extream, but it came out looking natural.
Seems like channeling it would be alot of work since there are much easier ways to get it lower. You could do dropped uprights, steering arms, and step the lower A-arms in a day. If I remember correctly that alone gives you 4 1/2" of drop and you could still lop off a coil or 2.
Many years ago there was a local guy here that put a 49 Merc on a 66 Skylark frame and floor pan. It looked really good, (except for the pink paint.) You couldn't tell it wasn't born there. I guess it's all skill level, he had skills.
to me, the best reason to channel would be to make the rockers even with the bottom of the frame. on a 54 with the factory k member removed, its not too much to go
What if you just reduced the height of your frame rails? I have been thinking about going lower with my 53 and it looks like i could run 2X4 in place of the stock rails...
Hey guys, I have a 64 Impala looking to bodydrop...anyone with experience on X frames? I like to eliminate the 4 inch gap from the frame to the ground. The frame already lays flat. Anyone?
I did a 51 chevy coupe awhile back and I pulled the frame out and cut about 2" off the bottom of the frame and capped it with 3/16" plate. For the front end I had to z the rails to get the mustang2 crossmember to be level with the new frame bottoms... saved the car floor from bein cut up from a channel.
Replying to a very old post, but hopefully someone can find it useful and may be able to provide some guidance in case Im missing something. I plan on channeling/body dropping my 1940 Desoto coupe. I notched the rear and installed dropped uprights in the front with airbags all around. when the car is lowered all the way the center X section sits about 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" lower than the side rails of the frame and this not allowing the car to sit (appear to sit) any lower. Initially I was thinking of notching the frame around the X area to allow the frame to sit lower, but the next issue is that the engine oil pan and transmission is hitting the flloor at the exact same time the X section does. Instead of modifying and raising the motor, transmission and chopping the frame, and since I'm replacing all my floorpans Ive decided to channel the body/body drop 1 1/2 inches instead. Fortunately the body mounts sit about 1 1/2 in above the top of the frame itself which means I only have to raise the flloor about an inch or so. Has anyone done something similar on an X frame car? Now I need to figure out what front clip sections of the body touch the frame and will need modification. The only thing I can tell as of now is the radiator support that mount to the frame and appears that all other front clip sheet metal attaches to the radiator support.
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