S-10 Frame Under 49-52 Chevy Car

HAS ANYONE DONE THIS ??? I KNOW YOU CAN WELD IN THE CLIP. I WILL BE DOING THAT UNLESS SOMEONE TALKS ME INTO THIS WHOLE FRAME SWAP... IF IT IS JUST SOME BODY MOUNTS, IT SURE WOULD BE FASTER... THANKS, LLOYD

 

RacerRick here on these boards did one recently, you might PM him.

 

i have a 50 poncho on an s dime frame and the wheels fit like factory

 

A standard cab longbox or extended cab short box is what you want. From memory it is a 117" wheelbase. Within a 1/4" of a 49-54 Chebby.

 

I'm building a 50 chevy truck on the extended cab short bed s-10 frame, move a few mounts and walla, there it is.

Tuner

 

can ya tell me more about the 50 ponch on the s-10

 

A 49 -52 chevy has a 115" wheelbase. The closest S10 is a standard cab long box with a 117.9" wheelbase. Those three inches of wheelbase really make the car look funny, so you have to cut the frame about 3" to make it look right. The frame fits nicely under the car at stock ride height, with only some trimming under the rear seat for the kickup of frame. The track is the same and it fits ok. Hanging the front sheetmetal is a pain though because of the front steer. The steering colume requires a bunch of work to mate up with the S10 box also, since stock, its part of the steering box.

 

Just FYI-A short bed s-10 wheel base is 108.3. A standard cab long bed is 117.9. And the extended cab, short bed is 122.9.

 

So, has anyone tried the Save-A-Collumn from RB's? I read about it on Webrodder. Just wondering, as I expect pops will want a power sttering 'box on our GMC, and I expect it to be a similar problem to the one described here (hooking the orriginal collumn to another box). I am asking because I expect I might have to move the box some, which might require a u joint. Otherwise, I would likely do an adapter like the gentleman from Germany did (can't find his post right now) where you use the factory mast jacket and it looks almost stock.

 

I just got creative and cut the column off of the box, cut it to length, added a bearing to the end to support it, and a column support on the firewall. Looks great and works great.

The inner shaft is 3/4" round on the column which is common in industrial equipment. Even the outer sleeve is about 2" and a common bearing fit perfectly. I used a industrial u-joint (greaseable, very strong also), and a cut down octagon crowbarfor the shaft that I ground into the D shape needed for the stock S10 rag joint.

So if you look in the car it has the stock column still. I even modified the column shift to work the automatic. Worked perfectly.

 

I'm going to be putting an s10 frame under my 53 chevy in a few weeks, apparently this one is of the type that is 60"x108" or round about there. I forget the year and sub-model of the s10, but that is the wheelbase.

 

You are going to have to lengthen the frame in the middle...you are 7" short in wheelbase. I would get another frame and shorten it since its easy to shorten it, much harder to make it longer.

 

i have seen some 49-54 chevys cars on top of 78-86 regal, monte, cutlass, frame and floor boards and the frames and floors were streached

 

I used an s-10 front clip and built the rest.

 

what year frame is the one to use???...80's or 90's...,,craig

 

They're pretty much all the same. If you're not using the drivetrain, it shouldn't matter, just get a long box short cab. All you have to do to shorten it is grind the welds and slide it in further, and weld it back again.

 

these frames were designed to fit all models. if you look at them in the middle you will see that the front and rear sections slide into each other. so buy grinding out the welds you can set your wheel base at what ever you like. I had a short box regular cab that i just used the front clip off of. but i paid special attention to this feature for future use. I am pretty sure i could have stretched that frame 12''.

 

good stuff,,thanks guys!!

 

on of the guys here in town used a Malibu frame on a 52 hard top....said everything fit like a glove ....had to flip body mounts to the out side of the frame or the other way around....can't remember....I have a really good memory...it's just very short spanned.

 

When I did my Monte Carlo Clip on my 50 Pontiac I remember that the wheelbase was 120" - and most of the chassis stuff is different on the Chevy and Pontiac.

 

I thought of doing an s-10 frame swap on my '54 210. I already have an '99 S-10 that has a full air ride set up on it. I bought it as a daily driver then I just started adding stuff to if here and there. Anyways I thought of swapping it's frame to the '54 but I think that it would lose some of it's charactor as an old car. But now after this post who knows? I think I am still going to save up for the Mustang II front end and leave the s-10 alone but it is cool to see that the option is there.

 

I have done the swap and one other guy here on the HAMB did it, but he sold the car before finishing it.

Its not a bad swap, but the front steer gets i nthe way of the front sheetmetal so there is a bunch of trimming to do. I channelled mine a bunch since the floors where rusted to pieces but it doesn't fit to bad at stock ride height.

 

Any pics of yours?

 

RacerRick,...couldn't you move the rear axle ahead on the springs to adjust the wheelbase by a few inches or would that cause problems?

 

How the rear axle kicks up, you may be able to, but you would also have to move the shock mounts forward, and the rear springs mounts are also part of the rear crossmember. You also have to chop the rear of the frame rails off even with the rear crossmember and the front rails off even with the steering box.




Is much easier to just grind the welds off, and slide the side rails 3 inches more into the front rails and reweld.

 

I'm gonna give this a whirl. Good to know about the frame 'sliding' trick. I'm putting a 1950 Chev that sat for 25 years on an s10. If I IFS it and everything it's not stock anyway. Should be easy to put in the s10, get disc brake etc and should be easy to get dropped. I'll post pics of progress. Back to the 50's '08 is the goal!

 

Anyone have any experience or photos of G Body frame swaps onto the 49 - 54 Chevy cars? How do they differ from the S10?

 

Wider front suspension, coil springs in the back, C-channel side rails, big ugly frame horns to take the shocks from the impact bumpers, and they're about as flimsy as a piece of paper off the car. Also most G-body cars are 108" wheelbase, so they need to be stretched to work.

 

Been measuring S-10 fronts to start a clip project on my '50 coupe...this is intrigueing though (spelling-Godbless our youth, I am a High School teacher)...anyway, yes the G-bodies are too wide.
My first concern with the whole frame swap is how to get it low?..or can it be dropped w/out bags...If the rear is leaf springs, I got that figured out, what about front...dropped spindles?...How low can I get with those?

 

you can get 2 inch drop spindles and/ or dropped springs.