what other bodies will bolt to a 78 malibu ch***is? I was told tri five's will any others? I found a great deal on a race car with no miles on it and was thinking it might be worth it for a body swap. I cant get over the looks of anything in the seventies for obvious reasons.
We suggest you forget about your dream car and staying on focus with that goal in mind, and instead devote all of your available time, energy, and money on this overweight, poor-handling, ugly, $200 ch***is, by shortening it, and sliding it under a chopped Comet. - LORDZ OF KOMETZ
This "seems" interesting, although I'm not sure of the benefit. A mid-'70s GM car is METRIC, and a drive train that was about as weak as they have produced in as many years. What was the reason?
My 78 Malibu had metric on the body, standard on the ch***is and motor. I had a 79 that had more metric on it, but still a lot of standard bolt and nuts. GM was rather stupid at the time. I think the ch***is has a lot of benefits... there's a ton of factory parts to make it handle, and even more aftermarket stuff. Hell, my Grandma Edition 1979 Malibu Cl***ic went from a sick handling, wishy washy POS, to something that would out-handle a good camaro. That was just new poly bushings, heavy front springs, and boxed rear control arms. The potential is there...
I have a '78 Monte Carlo ch***is sitting in my yard. I got it because the front track is correct for subframing my '54 Chevy pickup. Some of the car was metric, some of it wasn't. This ch***is is called 'metric' and is commonly used in racing. I've never decided if it was because they are readily available cheap or if there could be some performance advantage to it. I'd trade it in a heartbeat for an S-10 extended wheelbase pickup frame because it looks like that would be a better fit for my pickup project. The front suspensions are basically the same, but the S-10 has basically straight rails, while the metric is a perimeter type. You might want to think about the S-10 instead of the mid-size GM.
Old Sub is right on the front suspensions...alot of parts even interchange between certain year S10s and G-body cars...brakes and such. But, the S10 frame itself IS narrower and probably easier to retrofit to different body styles, especially early pickups. The car's perimeter frame works okay under 'fat fendered' cars and the like. Using factory mounts, just about ANY GM engine can be installed in the G-body ch***is, various examples came with 305 Chevy, 301 Pontiac, 260-307 Oldsmobile, and ***orted sixes...meaning that small block Chevy, Pontiac V8, Olds V8, Buick motors and many others are fair game and bolt-in affairs! The oddly shaped trans crossmember makes running true duals a little bit trickier on most models with the G-body ch***is, but it can be done. Some early G-body cars were even offered with manual transmissions, so four speed set-ups as well as any GM automatic can be bolted in as well! Overall, not a bad frame/ch***is to mess with in the name of upgrading some older iron!
I have no idea what roadsters.com is trying to tell me except it sounds negative. I didnt know about all this metric jive, just tossing an idea around but I'm not gonna act on it I got enough projects, if anybody wants it this car it will run 11's on the motor and is all new drivetrain. I know how much he put in it an for less than 3 grand it would be worth it to make a cool older car go fast. I cant stay in the 15's with my fairlane forever but I wont put a chevy in it.
Here's some interesting info for ya: The current aluminum bodied mail delivery trucks around here are built on S-10s. No ****. So if your local post office is ready to cycle them out soon (they've about 5 years to go around here, but it might be dif. by you), you might be able to score one for yourself at an auction or something.
Our local Post Office branches have pretty much phased out those little, boxy S10 based things...should be plenty of them available in the Detroit area now or soon. (I worked at a Chevy dealer back when those were new...they were on an S10 ch***is with 2.5 litre four bangers in 'em. The ones I drove were all automatics.)
This thread explains what I meant: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=371479
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