I know its not traditional but you guys inspire me so im working with what i have but i do see in the future I'm going to build a traditional ride here's what i have did so far oh i am not a professional my project im building to start i took a 85 Chevy Monte Carlo luxury sport and removed the complete wiring harness, i cut the spots on the firewall where the master cylinder, fuse block, steering column mount so that when im ready to mount onto the 47 firewall i have the template of the orig i cut out the pedal assembly and steering mount to transfer to 47 the brakes are intact and chassis was running mint the 47 orig chassis is longer than the monte chassis so i cut the monte chassis and extended it to match the wheelbase the black plymouth is an extra body i purchased to cut measure and mess with without destroying my green one im currently rebuilding rocker from scratch and floor pans then i have to modify the trunk area to fit the new chassis rear shock/spring tower moving body to new chassis isn't the hard part for me i think the hard part is rebuilding all this rusted metal holy crap difference in length of chassis
first comes measuring the chassis to figure how much i have to extend and mock up with the test body to check what has to clear
Doing a complete chassis swap was one of the options I considered when building my '48 Plymouth coupe. I'm anxious to see how this project turns out. Good luck!
so far test body sits where i want it i added an extra 1"1/2 to the stretch because the factory 47 rear wheels sit a little to forward in the wheelwel i want the rear wheel more center yeah i know i bent the chassis rails ii have holding it in place by pushing it into the garage and slamming into the work bench i think i pushed to hard if the work bench wasn't there i would have went thru the wall that's an easy fix
ok now to start the hard part of fabricating rocker panels and floors on my orig 47 which will be put onto the new chasssis once its painted and redone
As you mentioned, it's absolutely none of my business but the car won't look "right" with an altered wheelbase. I think you'll come to regret this change in the future. Just my $.02
first was mock up of rocker support going in i welded a 2"x2" inside the {B} pillars and {A} pillars as there is nothing to attach to as the rockers are long gone sample 2x2 for mock up of {b} pillar i welded a 1"x1" inside the {C} pillar to connect to the rocker as you can see there isn't allot left of the rocker area i cut inside the inner fender well to get to inner structure metal now the {A} pillar i did the same with a 2"x2" welded inside to the solid hing support and inner body
if you look at my green 47 the rear wheel is pushed forward so when you see it behind the fender it looks like i went in reverse at a 100mph and jambed the brakes the front of the wheel is kinda hidden in a sense i mocked it up both ways and i like the wheel centered to the fender opening i had atleast 30 people look at it both ways and everyone saw what i saw its hard to see it here cuase its at an angle but it drove me nuts there a gap behind the wheel and the front is behind the fender with skirts none will notice if i put them
rocker beam is welded in place and i started to fix the floor supports that are missing now i made a rocker skin which will cover my support beam this is a mock up so i can make a finished product to weld in place
I agree, those old mopars seemed to have the rear wheels slightly forward in the opening. My 49 Plymouth is the same way and I wish I would have set it back when the new rear suspension was added. With the mustang gas tank mounted now, there is no room to change it, so I will just live with it. I think what you did is a good move. just my 2 cents
im sorry missysdad1 and fellow hambers i didn't mean to sound like that when i posted that its just guys who comment on the stupid things like wow you weld looks like crap or those rims are ugly that's what i was talking about stuff like that just adds extra post to a project post that when its full of comments that just take up space it takes away from the interest of the project your kinda of input is worth more then 2 cents to me and i appreciate it i just would like to see a project post that dosn't have to people arguing like little kids and just let the project, comments and ideas flow thats my 2 cents and forget about oh this newb and such i have been reading on the hamb for as long a s i could remember it being on the net i am mainly from p15-d24.com forum and thought you guys would like to see another project i hope you like
Gettin it done! Thanks for the pictures! There is a company that makes rocker repair parts, but from the looks of it, you didn't have much to attach to and your solid tubing will be stronger. Better to fix it than scrap it, so more power to you. How much change are you going to have up front where the radiator is? It looks like that may require hogging out a lot of the inner fenders and original radiator support. Since that mounts all the front sheetmetal, it may be an issue. BTW, this pic shows the rear wheel centering mentioned. Often the designers did this to make the car appear to be in tension, or moving. It can detract from the looks though.
i forgot its on that pic thanks i thought about radiator issues tell me what you think this is what i thought : my orig 47 motor is a flat 6 my new motor is a v6 1985 i forget. how much of a difference is it to cool both motors ??? v6 is not being hotrodded out its factory factory factory how much was the water pump flowing on both and could i reuse the flat six radiator maybe have it re cored maybe with a little bit bigger cooling lines if need be sort of like getting a ron davis radiator i will be using an electric fan for cooling mounted on the front of radiator for finished product what do you think?? damn i love this site
Joel, I'm putting together a 40 with a 318. The radiator guy told me that the flatty motors run hotter, and that the old radiators are darn good (honeycomb). He checked it out and told me that even though the new motor puts out more HP, the cooling needs were the same or a bit less. What I was asking about was the inner fenders (no biggie), the radiator and the way the frame is higher at the front on the MC chassis. I hope you can make it all work! If you have a good stock radiator, you just need to build a mount for the radiator support so it's in the same spot so all the sheetmetal will hang right. Here's the picture I'm talking about. The stock radiator is going to end up very close to the water pump and crank pulley. The Pink lines look good, the Blue ones show the tight stuff.
Repo Early Mustang rads are dirt cheap,small and the outlets are correct for a Chevy V8 I think your 6 would be the same? The last one I bought was under $100 on egay. Cool project , keep posting your progress please!
thats why i lined up the chassis that day to refrence that whith the shroud inplace it blocks the view it will be close but i wont be using stock fan il put electric infront BUT i didn't think of mount old rad to new chassis when the time comes i will have to scratch my head but i know it can be figured out and i have this thread to ask you guys for help right now im stuck on another spot its not major i have several ideas but here it goes i have to move the rear hump wall a couple of inches forward to clear the hump of the chassis i also have to lay a reinforced strip of flat bar i guess across for strength i would like to pie cut it the right way thank god i have an extra body which isn't junk i might do this body the exact way i dont mind having two street rods his & hers lol in the pics i replace the black car where its supposed to sit it kinda shifted when i pushed into the garage i cut her to lay her down in place i kinda did it like an asshole which i regret better her then my green one i wish someone was local who new this type of work i think cookie cut this section in the middle and move it forward reweld it down the fill the gap in and reinforce where the cross bars go and rubber will touch body sounds easier then it looks so far ready for more pics cut along dotted line recess wheelwel in by overlaping metal and reweld in place instant tub i dont need alot remember i do this bymyself so my method my look cavemanish here im putting body in its place i will weld a new body front mounting bracket here and here here is the trouble area inner rear floor deck i guess greens floor ok to compare black and green floor im going back out to do more work be back later coffee break man my boss is a slave driver oh wait thats me
ok i went back to the drawing board well my cars floor that is i figured it out man this shit is fun i will weld some braces across for extra support i will cut out the rear hump as one part i will cut sides and bend them up flat creating a sort of shelf i will weld hump back at the new height (the flat part) i will bend trunk metal up at an angle to match new height and fill in the rest i think i still have the floor problem which i can notch out pull back and weld back in i think i figure that out next ready for more pics this is the area where the shock tower is going to land removed spare tire mount clearing out my path yellow gives you idea of the cut WHAT DO YOU THINK ?? and a view from the bottom kinda this is the black body to give me an idea of whats going to hit
Don't get me wrong I admire the effort but why a frame swap ? the old frame looked good and you seem you to know what you are doing. Why not just sub frame and r/end swap and do the rocker and floor deal? Its seems like alot of work not to mention paperwork stuff, just asking...Btw did Jr. make the roar sound wearing the helmet? mine did I do too sometimes
Looks like you're cookin' right along, Joel. At this rate you'll have 'er wrapped up by tomorrow afternoon!
Gotta give you credit for ambition and working with what you've got. It's a challenging project, but looks like you've got a handle on it.
i have owned the car 15+ years now and figured if i cut sub frame front and rear that involves removing body or front clip for the front buy front end clip $$$$$$ or do a front disk brake kit $600 rear sub frame remove body and cookie cut for new sub rear or do a four link $$$$ and then a 12 conversion harness$$$$ and a motor swap with new motor mounts weld in place $$$$ dont forget fab new transmission bar and a trans to put in $$$$ oh upgrade the rear to a newer rear $$$$$ plus another reason for doing a chassis swap was if i do a rear swap and a disc brake kit and a diferent motor and trans if i goto an auto parts store i buy stuff for multiple cars when now im shopping for one car a monte which i can get parts for anywhere in the u.s. i can drive where ever when ever and if i need something its easy as 123 my monte carlo all i had to cut was two spot on the frame get the drive shaft extend {new one} and the whole car cost me $600 and my wife drove the monte for a year to get some use out of it ( i kept looking at it for the year like yosamitty sam looked at the skinny guy when they where stranded on the island without food mmmmm LUNCH!!!! thats why i went with a chassis swap its so easy compare to the rest the body was rotten anyways so i would still be cutting and welding my butt off so why not do it a little modified and slap her on a new set a rails i recommend my way to everyone
When the brakes went out on my '47 Plymouth business coupe I realized it was much cheaper to spend $700 on a running '74 Monte Carlo and do the chassis swap than even think about dealing with the brakes. I love the fact that you are stretching the frame to center the wheels in the back. It's something I should have done, and may do eventually, but not anytime soon. I'm running the stock radiator in mine with a SBC 350 behind it and an electric pusher fan. There wasn't enough room for a manual fan. Haven't noticed any cooling problems. On the bright side, I didn't need to cut the firewall for any of it to fit. Looking forward to more pictures!
ok i figured how the floor will move up do you guys think i can make these cut without extra bracing cause i wanna do it before dinner ??????
bedpimp please share a link to your photos i wanna see please does any one know if i could make these cuts without bracing this body has never been removed and is still bolted to orig chassis
Looks like what you are running into is the same thing that happens on channelled cars and those with air bags. When you get tired tonight, stroll down to the local news stand and look through lowrider mags, truckin and mini truckin mags, and see what they do.
im almost done with diner then il got back out and start cutting i guess i have the angle iron to do the bracing but its allot of extra work and im not lifting it so i dont think it will twist up on me i have the doors close and ear plugs on so i should be ok it would be nice if some one thru another two cents in the cup il have money to buy another classic im eating slow just to wait for some thoughts
The stock plymouth radiator will cool your V8 no problem. I have swapped Chevy motors into a 50 Plymouth with the stock radiator. Never a problem. I used another 50 Plymouth radiator when I swapped a 350 Chevy into a 48 Willys station wagon. Again, no problem and that car went 100K miles and 20 years including NYC stop and go traffic. The Plymouth radiator is a much better unit. Holds more water and strong design. If you decide to keep it you will not be disappointed.
The Jalopy Journal
