Has anyone done any modifing to the impala/belair frame ? I was thinking of taking out the x and squaring it like a normal car frame .. Thanks for the input.
Why would you do that is there an advantage? X frames are very strong and have little flex to them. Just curious...
their good if you get hit from front or rear ,but not from the side,also regular driveshaft can be a lot less of a headache to deal with,than a 2 piece with steady bearing.that would be my guess why,but instead of modifying it i'd just run a frame fron a different year impala,like a later one!just my 2 cents!
If it is not rusted leave it alone,the design is fine. I have a 61 Chevrolet wagon same type of frame with a 468, TH400 and lots of Nitrous. Heavy car,heavy foot no problems yet! But the weak link is the driveshaft,stock they **** bad.
Inland Empire Driveline 502 kit. Its beefy and pricey at 750.00 but thats better than picking up the **** off the road when it blows.
The frame is fine. About the drive shaft thing... If the driveshaft angles, the carrier bearing angles, and the pinion angles are correct, the \two piece shaft is good. Troubles develop when folks try to align the shafts strait with the frame tunnel Check out your tech section at the local library for info on how to set the correct angles. And the two shafts have to be in faze when ***embling u joints. Other than that, you can use a 61 Pontiac Catalina box frame if you modify the Impala or Bel Aire floors to fit. Than you get the effect of a channeled and lowered car without giving up any ground cleareance.
I see... maybe a late 70s 2 piece truck driveshaft would fit in there? they're a lot stronger than the 58-64 car design. but that hole in the frame is pretty small too. Just thinking ahead for when I finally get round to doing something with my 61 belair ht. It'll most likely have a 454 in it too.
I like my 58 with the stock frame- I just added heavy GAS SHOCKS and lowered it- Was it [Jethro here on the HAMB] that is building the wagon[1960] using a 1970 caprice ch***is and bigblock [in the stock mounts]? It fits under the rocker panels and only had to cut the rear20" or so of floor [because he was using the caprice tank] I believe....????
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