Old body on later model floor running gear

Who has done this? I know its probably not traditional but it could mean the diffrence between a car/truck never being on the road again or being at the next cruise in,Im thinking of doing it to my 55 chevy wagon,(that nobody wants except me) I remember the guy that draped the 56 wagon over the fuel injected caprice in hot rod mag. a few years ago but dont remember any detail of how he done it or if they even showed it,
Has anybody else done this to any car/truck and have pics or? I was thinking complete running mid to late 90s 4.3, 2 wheel drive 4 door s10 blazer if it was same wheel base??? What did you do?

 

I would give the car away before I would switch frames.
What's wrong with frame under it now?
You do know that you can buy lots of new parts for old cars, don't you?

 

Hmm? if you dont want to buy new parts for a ragedy 55 wagon then just give it away?now theres a good idea.........anyway I found some pictures of the 56,..........It might not be something to brag about to some but he drove it and that is cool to me as long as its safe.

 

It's a lot of work and you run the risk of tweaking the body during the swap. I can see doing it if you have a rust belt car that has no floors and a shot frame, or a unibody car in bad shape, but a 5-6-7 Chevy about all they don't reproduce is the upper cowl, roof posts and top skin. There should be no reason to reframe the car other than building an all out race car or installing a 500+HP engine. Unless it has the usual holes they get ahead of the rear axle.

The only late model GM that would work for your car is a full size RWD Caprice/Impala anyhow, as they had a 115" wheelbase. The S10 blazer is shorter wheelbase and you'd have to lower it to make it not sit like a truck. I'd bet the floors are too narrow, too. Those full size Chevys ride like a marshmallow and the frames flex like rubber - it's not an improvement, but it would fit fairly easily.

 

Far easier to do an engine swap than a frame swap. A 4.3L v6 will bolt into that car with V8 mounts. Far easier to fab a trans mount for whatever trans you want.

 

I have a 1956 chevy 210 2dr hardtop that a friend and I put on a 1977 Monte Carlo chassis. The wheel base was really, really close. This swap went pretty well. I did this because the 56 had been in the dirt/mud up to the bottoms of the doors for 20+ years, and drove on Minnesota roads for 25 years before that. My 56 chassis is restorable, but I wanted to drive the car, and I didn't have the time or money to fix up the 56 chassis. On the Monte chassis I got disk brakes, power steering, sway bars, and a rear end I can get gears for uptown. The only thing I wish we could have done a little different is get the car a little lower on the frame. The Monte frame also has a long nose that you need to cut some off of to get it behind the grille. Shoot me a PM with your email, and I can send you a few pics if you would like to see it. Good luck with what ever you decide to do.

 

i gotta ask the same question that has already been posed... whats WRONG with the chassis as is?

looks to me like the cars been bagged already, has a late motor and brakes

man, a chassis swap on a car like that is a complete waste of time in my opinion... prove me wrong and lets hear whats so bad with it?

 

LOW, check this site, the owner of the 56 is a moderator there. Also, some of the old custom books have an article on doing this to a Merc. Might also check with Dick Dean, he had quite a few articles using 70's GM frames under mercs.-MIKE

http://www.carjunkieforums.com/

 

The '56 wagon pictured has already been frame swapped...thats why he wants to do it to his '55....

 

nothing to see here...

 

I know the traditional police dont like it,but it can be a viable alternative to save an old car from the scrap heap. We dont all live in temperate climates with solid rust free components to work with.I have been in the frame business for 38 years,in the heart of the rust belt,it is not unusual to see vehicles 10 years old with serious frame rust.I have even seen holes rusted in rear end housings. I know it is quite a bit of extra work to do a floorpan and frame graft but it should certainly be safer that a cobbled up patch job on floor and frame.plus you get later brakes and suspension.

 

I'm in the process of doing this with my '47 Plymouth right now. When I started pricing out the parts for what I wanted to do, I realized a parts car of some sort would be cheaper. After some digging, I realized the early '70's Monte Carlos had a wheelbase that was 1 1/2 inches shorter and were the same width. I found one for a steal (it ran out of gas when I was test driving it) and now have a V-8, power steering, power brakes, disc brakes in the front, coil over rear suspension, and a chassis that will handle far better than the original ever would. On top of that, I can drop an OD tranny in it, and getting parts is much, much easier. I had to cut out the floorpan in the trunk, the lower half of the fender skirts, and all the body mounts. All told, it's been a pretty easy swap, although I've been really, really lucky and have had some exceptionally talented help.

I went this route because the car isn't worth a lot, so it won't lose value, parts were not easy to come by, and I'm working on a pretty tight budget. If it were my car, with all the stuff out there for 50's Chevys, I would work with the existing chassis or ordering one from a catalog rather than cutting to fit.

Good luck!

 

A fellow I know set a rotted out 40's Ford convertible down onto an 80's Monte Carlo frame.
He welded cross-bracing into the body to square it and welded the Monte floor into the Ford body.
When you open the door the sills still have the Body by Fisher tags on them.
Turned out to be a really easy,good-loking swap.

 

I have thought about this for some time. I drive an Impala and thought it would be nice to drop a '55 Chevy body on the chassis. Or a '53-'54 if it would work.

The tri-9 chevy's (impala/caprice) have lots of performance part available and can be made to handle very well. I have road raced my modified Impala SS a few times with great sucess. (yes, I had just passed this guy in the picture)

 

Thanks lost angel but I couldnt figure out how to contact the owner of the 56??

 

Fuck that Post em here so we can all see them!!

 

I have no problem with frame swaps if thought through and done right. Just one word of caution , Measure a half-a-dozen times and cut once.
Cooter

 

second for "fuck that" post em!

if ya have a hard time getting pics onto the board, email them to me, and i can take care of that for you... just make sure you mention this thread when you send em, i get a LOT of emails with car pics and projects in progress stuff

fiddyfour@gmail.com

 

I went to my cousins salvage yard today and done some measuring on s10s but the frame would have to be cut and shortened or lenghthened depending on blazer or truck etc. on those,(as mentioned) but he did have a caprice or two that had the same wheel base and a close match on a few more quick measurements but they had over 200,000 miles on them, but I could see why Chad used one under his 56, looks like you can buy a driver on the bay for cheap so I should be able to find one localy for cheap, it may be my chance to do something with my wagon.

 

s-10 frames are a two piece deal so i'm told, never looked myself but they did it so they could have one frame for all the different trucks... reg cab, ext cab... one rail slips inside the other... cut the stock weld and shorten or lengthen to match your wheelbase and re-weld

 

I did not know that,Thanks

 

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Ok, we don't have photos of what you are starting with as far as chassis and floor boards go but I would somewhat assume that the floor is pretty well gone and the frame has issues.
I'm with some of the others who say that if the frame and floor are in good shape, keep them. Chassis parts = bushings, ball joints and the rest are readily available for the tri 5 Chevs. Rear ends can be swapped.
Most any mid 70's/mid 80's car that you would be able to get cheaply will need some suspension rebuild. The cost will be pretty close to what you would spend rebuilding the suspension on the 56.

When Dick Dean was doing the chassis swaps on the Mercs he used early 80's Olds 88 4 door chassis. Pretty much the same as the Caprice the same years. He cut the body off the floor out as far as he could go and cut the firewall pretty high. He then trimmed the floor out of the Merc and trimmed the firewall out so that it and the firewall out of the Olds mated up. There have been several articles written on it an one of the magazines did a pretty intensive one a number of years back.
If you do it, measure, measure and measure some more.

 

You may want to look here:
http://landyachts.homestead.com/

It's Hamber: MercMan1951's project.

 

And I would never do it again!

 

I also would like to say I done it once, even if I have to say never again later

 

pussy

 

Wow, MercMan1951, that's impressive. I'm kicking myself for not documenting more of my project.

 

That's good to know. I thought it was a good plan but way out my tech range. Still really good work going on there.

 

I switched my 53 chevy onto a 84 olds cutlass frame ,had to add 7 inches to
the frame ,but no big deal...now it has all the updated items.
Most people here don't seem to like the idea !
Worked fine for me !