Couple s10 frame questions and opinions needed

Ground the welds, 10 minutes per side, popped it apart, cut 5" off, slid it back together, 13 year old son welded it. 1 afternoon and an X cab became a long bed. $150, 2 cut off wheels, and a grinding disc invested. Have since bought 2 more frames, one under the 48 SD, one at Steelrat's house for now...

 

I've heard as much as 8" but I'm not sure on that yet. It is more of a 'till you like it' thing because of the clearance. I've only got the body where I want it on the pickup truck as it has a higher priority than the SD.

 

thats why your going to want to have a body around to take measurments off from. measure fromthe center of the front wheels to the firewall (on the stock car frame) and see how much room you have. then measure from the center of the wheels on teh S10 frame and mark where the firewall is gonna end up on the frame. thats a good place to start.

 

hmm maybe it would save headaches and be a lot more simple to start with a stock frame, and i don't mean that with a hard*** at***ude but i think since this would be my first real hotrod or whatever maybe that would be easier for me to deal with without having to worry about a lot of the advice yuo guys are dishing out.

 

It looks like you are as hard headed as the rest of us, when you make up your mind.let me tell you from someone that has done it.DON'T use the S10 frame.I know ,I know everyone uses them.yeap I did too.it is a pain in the ****.the car will sit really low in the front with just the stock stuff.which is cool.the back is a pain.you need to do alot of cutting.the frame isn't much count on the terms of engine swaps if you use anything other than a sbc.put in a big block with headers ,you are in trouble.I don't understand why you want to keep the gas tank in the stock spot.it won't work anyway.by the time you do all the fab work, you could make your own frame.get a stock frame and work on it or make your own frame.I have had more V8 S10 than I care to say and have done this frame swap on a car and at this time I'm working on a 36 truck.I can tell you that this will be the LAST time I ever use a S10 frame on anything.to have the frame and work on it first sounds easy but you will run into problems when you get the car, so all the fancy stuff you just spent money on has to be cut up and done over.sorry I guess I needed to rant over my problems with my swap.I feel much better now

 

Yeah I see exactly what your getting into, what i wanna do is buy the frame and build a rolling ch***is for a car and make it clean and nice and exactly what i want, but i see your point and im beginning to think, if i want to build a 50s chevy, why not start with a 50s chevy frame right? i put my frame for sale on an s10 forum then i guess i'll start looking for a 50s 2 door chevy.

 

Get a fast back, they are cool! Check the For Sale list here because Dvanicheck had his 50 on the S10 frame for sale for a while. You could kill 2 birds!

 

haha first i gotta get rid of the frame i have, and in my opinion fast backs arent that cool.

 

Another thing you need to think about. The air setup will not be as visable in a car as in a minitruck. The notch and bridge will be covered and all you will really have is the tanks and comps. And I have even seen those hid in the quarters.

 

just my opionion a 50;s chevy car weill look like **** with the rockers cut off.ALL 50's cars ford and chevy have rear wheel clearamce problems (at the top) with 15'' tires cutting the rockers off whould make this worse

 

i dont mean cut it to the doors, i mean maybe a little like a quarter of an inch if any at all.

 

Don't tell anybody you don't like fastbacks, it might give you a bad name...

 

its not that i dont like them or anything, its just not what id rather own. anyone know of any 2 doors for sale in the midwest? preferrably not too far from MN.

 

My 49' car sits perfect on the S10 frame with a 6" channel. This is with the suspension from the S10 at stock height. Its low, but not too low that its undrivable. If I bagged it, I could lay the rockers on the ground easy. I have just under 5" at the front of the rocker to the ground, and lots of clearance in the wheel wells still.

If you are going to drop it super low, the only way to do it is with the stock frame or an S10 frame since he others are too wide. The stock frame with a MII front end can go low and ride nice.

The only reason I did the S10 to mine was the fact that it was VERY rusty and had no floors, or frame left basically.

 

All the time. There are several really nice 50-52s in KC recently. I know of a "survivor" for sale in a parking lot. Its sunday driver clean, you couldn't ask for a better foundation. I can get the number for it, if its not too far for ya. I made it to Minneapolis from here in under 7 hours going about the speed limit, its not that far.

 

Yeah let me know, thatd be great. i dont know how much theyre asking but i can't afford to spend all my money on a project.

 

I'm new at all this, and I hate sounding stupid, but.... What's a 2 link or a 5 link? I'm just lost in the terminology here.

 

its basically how many bars or links in a suspension, a 4 link would be your typical 4 bar design whether it be parallel bars or triangulated, 2 link its two bars for the suspension, usually uses a panhard bar or watts link also, 5 links and 6 links are a 3/4 forward link setup with two added bars to help with ride quality and lift. i didnt explain that well but if you go to www.bagginit.com you'll learn all about it

 

yer startin to come around . it's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement but believe me there is ALOT of boring tedious work to do when building a car. don't get yourself burned out too fast or jump in over your head.

i think it is a good idea to start with a stock frame and go from there. a MII is a super way to go and if you shop around (like i'm doing) you can find some reasonable prices on all new parts. typicaly buying a complete "kit" is the way to go on the MII suspensions.

my old chopped 50 Chevy had whide white bias plys on 15" rims. i forget the tire size but the tire topped out in the rear fenderwell before the axle hit the frame so you realy don't even need to C-notch the frame, just cut a hole in the floor for the pumpkin cause it will hit the floor and hard. just raise the floor up in that small section.
mine was just bagged in the rear and it was 'bag over leaf' cause i had so many customer cars at the time i did'nt have 10 minutes to work on my own stuff. it worked OK but was not ideal. i sold the car before i got around to making it "right". the bag over leaf deal only took me an afternoon to fab up and install. it already had lowering blocks and dearched springs to make it low and before i got it and put the bags in it had air shocks just to get it up off the tires so it could roll.

a friend of mine has done them both ways (for customers) and swears that the Mustang II front end is the way to go and the S10 frame is'nt worth the effort. i may still talk my friend into going that route rather than the S10 frame route but who knows. that one is on the back burner for a while anyways.

 

Yeah i put my frame for sale so if it sells soon i'll find myself a decent chevy. you're right, i got very excited and didn't think about all the little detail work and it wouldn't make much sense to go with an s10 frame at least with this being my first one ya know. thanks go to all of you for the advice and opinions!

 

thats what most of us are here for... that and to occasionaly heckle folks .

good luck with your search. let us know what you find.

 

Unless the car needs a new frame and floor anyways, I wouldn't swap to an S10 frame. Its a lot of work.

If the car has a rotten frame and floors or you are planning a channel job, might as well. You will be replacing everything there anyways and might as well get a better suspension and brakes all in one go.

My car had a real rotten frame, no floors left, and was going to get channelled anyways...

 

It is all good. Some will swear by stock, others MII, others S10, and some will just create their own.

I'm not as experienced as Kustombuilder and don't have as many tools, but I'm working on it. I'm using the S10 because they are CHEAP for a foundation and the 48 Sedan Delivery I have needs a new floor and the frame was hacked up to make it a 'g***er.' The springs were broken in the rear and the front was a cluster bomb of broken this welded to s**** that. Now I get to learn to channel. I think I need a ride to RacerRick's place because he's got it worked out and I'm all for learning from others!

 

i'm still keeping an eye out for one but i'm just kinda trying to be more patient and i'm gonna wait to buy one because i don't want to buy a car thats completely rotted away. thanks again guys

 

They are out there. Keep an eye on craigslist.org as well. You never know what might pop up. There are always Dakota bound ones on Ebay but who knows what you'll get.

 

THANK YOU! alot of questions have been answered in this thread! im putting together a 54 for my wife to drive, and im looking to do a couple things to it, the s10 frame was one of them. i have a PERFECT stock frame and i was thinking of subframing it with the s10 clip. anyone had any experience with that? we are not looking to spend the money on the mustangII but i want to put disk brakes, power steering, and ball joints up front. (for her peace of mind)

 

I think the s10 front clip would be a great idea because theres a lot more suspension options if you wanna put it on air, if thats what you want. it seems a lot less costly than a MII also

 

i was just wondering if anyone can give me any pointers? is this a dumb idea? i know that a s10 clip will fit a shoebox, how does it fit a 54 chevy?

 

it'll fit the 54 just fine. real nice fit in fact but you'll find it will be MUCH less work to go with an MII. i had a friend do one with an S10 clip and one with a MII and he said the MII was so much easier it was worth the money. he talked me into going the MII route in my 47 coupe. my stock frame is real solid so i think it realy was the smarter way to go. now i just have to sell something to buy the MII.

 

s10forum??? what the hell is that... i got a 53 chevy 2 door for sale if you are interested. no motor or trans. pretty solid. $1,000 i gotta s10 frame under my 51 chevy truck. yep, i tore apart a bagged and bodydropped v8 s-10 to build it..