COE 41_46. Chevy Coe frame and Engine Ideas

I am trying to decide if I should use a van frame Do to the steering .box angle or pickup frame. I saw several coe trucks over the years where the steering colum is between gas and brake pedals which is not legal under PA inspection.I may want to tow something so I thought a s10 frame may not strong enough. I even thought of using the original frame because it is in very good shape no rust or scale. The engine at this point could be gas or diesel. I have a ***mins 5.9 with 53000 miles that has been in my garage a couple years but the adaptors and brackets that you would need to get can be expensive and that’s why I did not use it on my last project. Since this forum is for coe s I thought that there is more experience on what works and what doesn’t. Thanks for any replies

 

while I certainly defer to the Chevy guys on specifics, the general idea is finding a donor that fits the desired wheelbase and track width. I'm using a Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 ch***is which I thought the track would be pretty close for the front fenders, but ended up widening the fenders 2.5". Check my build thread for my steering trials and tribulations and my Rube Goldberg solution. Good luck!

 

Check out Chevy's commercial step van, it has the identical frame rails that is under your truck. Chevy used the same P30 frame rails up into the 90s or so. I was told that Peter-built has the rights to the P30 frame now. It is identical to your frame. I have a 1980 2 ton step van under my 1939 & if I had wanted to keep my cab on the original 10" pedestal in sat on, everything would had been a direct hookup, the van's power steering, the van's hydro boost power brakes, everything. The frame even had holes in the right place for the pedestal my cab sat on.
In the step van, driver sat over the left axle so it had a short extension from the steering box, bring it to the left to align with the column. You will lean that same extension to the right & it will align with a column in your cab. The step van had hydro boost power brake master cylinder mounted to the firewall, you can put it exactly were you want your brake pedal to be in your truck & it will fit perfectly under your short hood just like in the step van. Only difference is that you will than have independent front suspension, power steering & hydro boost power disc brakes in front. Hydro boost is better than air-***ist power brakes.
Save allot of money, time, headaches & aftermarket parts. Find a running driving step van as a doner. This all makes sense when you can see how it fit the step van, & there are brackets & other parts that makes it all work like Chevy made it to work.

Now if you go my rout, all bets are off, LOL.
It all works the same, but my cab tilts forward, so I have to change the master cylinder to a remote master cylinder & put the fluid canister through the firewall & mount it under the dash. (Can't check the fluid with the cab tilted). I also had to change the steering column shaft to a two piece extendable shaft to follow the cab as it tilts. Also, not using the cab pedestal, I moved my motor back just behind the suspension cross over & lowered it way low in the frame, so it is still a true COE & I still have the original floor in front of the original seat. It is still a 2 ton dually truck, but it sits on air ride & 4 link suspension with 4 bags in the rear end. It sits 2" off the ground, just for safety. I'm still working on it, right now I'm building a tilt bed & installing 4" straight exhaust stacks.
What ever running gear you decide, find a complete (running or not) doner truck to start with... Good luck with your build

 

thanks for the reply

 

what size and what lug wheels are on your truck and did you modify the front axle? do you have any pics of the inside and where the engine sits I was looking at your album and the red 51 chevy coe with yellow flames on bed is my other coe and its had a ton of work since that picture

 

I am looking for bigger wheels right now. The only thing I changed on the front axle is the springs. I now have Firestone air bags all around, no springs. 4 bags under the rear suspension. I have 8 lug 16" duallys , but I want bigger then 16". Problem with bigger wheels means smaller tires, so I think I want 17s all around. My 1 ton dually rear-end has 355 Highway gears. I may need to have two sets of wheel/tires, one set to keep the low profile look, & a separate set if I want to carry a heavy load. I want to be able to haul a goose neck trailer. I need to take more photos of my project, I finely got a radiator in it that fit, it lays in front of the motor under the floor. I also just got started on my bed, got the frame work done, still looking for hydraulic cylinders so it will tilt, but the frame work/hinge is done. Also just got my exhaust stacks in. Still designing brackets for my 4" straight stacks.

 

I have been looking for a step van around hear for years but they are gone in the junk yards and every other 1 is 8000 dollars.Your coe is really cool .

 

I know what you mean $, I once spoke to a COE builder in LA Cal. he uses Isuzu trucks for doners, he builds COE's professionally so he should know what works?
I started my project blind not knowing what I wanted to do, or how to do it. So-far everything is working & I feel confident everything will work safely, but I am running out of space, LOL. That's why cab & bed must tilt or I would need a car lift just to build it. Another big issue will be the wiring & hydraulic brake lines that go from the frame up to to the firewall & follow the cab as it tilts. Running out of room & they need extra, LOL. See the photo of the cab sub frame, it is inside the frame rails, not on top. That takes up radiator room, & the cab tilts over the radiator. See the photo of the wheel tucked in the fender. With 16" wheels the tire balloons out leaving just over 1 " clearance. With taller wheels I can use narrower tires giving more room. But It will never be driven that low, Tires clear the fender once airbags goes up. Good thing I have plenty of time with this project, bad thing is I'm getting to old & don't have many more years to do this, LOL...
I am making my project harder than normal, I'm forcing a size 12 foot in-to a size 11 shoe. It's going in but it will hurt till it's done. The tilt hinges are even with the bottom of the fenders. The steering box is 1/2" behind the fender. The front of my frame rail is also under an 1" behind the hood. Everything is so tight that clearances are under an inch most every were on this truck. I still need room for cab jack, air ride pump & air tank, gas tank battery & more. All this stuff needs to be excess-able. Motor is computerized, LOL there is no end to what I need to find room for. My wheel base is only 101". There is 21" from the back of the trans to the front of the rear-end for a drive-line / U joints, & my air suspension goes up / down over 8". It's going to work & all will be heavy 1 ton but it ant easy
Don't be afraid to look for something from the 60s 70s or 80s. P30 frame rails are all the same & all the suspensions parts are interchangeable & should be replaced / rebuilt anyways. You could use your original frame rails? only thing to watch for would be aged metal & stress cracks. But these are 7.1/2"x 3" rails which is very stout & you can box it if you wish. But there is were the extra bucks & time starts comes in, finding & up grading the suspension/steering.
What are you wanting to build? A low buck rat rod/hot rod, high end street rod, work truck/car hauler or what?

 

wanted to build a hot rod pickup about 100 inch wheel base with a/c. I am an older guy and this is the 3rd coe I owed I liked coes before they were cool. And everyone has improvements over the last 1.I put a/c in the second 1 but it was very time consuming to have to make and remake some brackets due to minimal room. So I know what you mean. COEs are hot inside.I would like to keep engine about where you have yours due to room for pedals and feet.I was looking on facebook and someone was on there also looking for a p30 ch***is. If i do find a p30 its useally to far away.I think they would probably be to heavy for car trailer. Any Idea of how much a 2 ton P30 van would wieght?

 

Hi, 2 ton/1 ton same truck. Same front suspension, but with heavier wheel bearings & probably heavier springs. Maybe maybe rear-end & more springs & probably bigger motor/trans. My donner had 5.000 lb front bearings a ***ming diesel & Allison trans. I don't know what the front springs were, I taus them. It didn't come with rear suspension either. P30 frames are all the same. I'm calling my truck a 2 ton because I'm putting the heavy 5G barrings & two 2,600lb=5G bags up front & four 2,600=10,000lb bags in the rear. My rear-end is 1 ton, not sure if there is a difference? But I wanted it because it has 355 gears. It's hard to find a 1 ton rear-end with anything taller than 411 gears.
If you want 100" wheel base, remember that you will have a 20" drive line if you move your motor back behind the front axle. Also, when you lower the motor, all mounts will need to be lowered, motor, trans, rear-end, you still need to keep the same drive-line angles/pitch. It gets complicated. My home made motor mounts are lower than the bottom of the frame, I had to point them downward from the bottom of the frame. My truck was originally a 108" WB tow truck, being a tow truck the rear-end was @ the back of the frame with wheel covers, not truck fenders. The reason for the 101" WB was because I had to move the rear-end forward because 1939 Chevy truck fenders are 7" longer behind the wheel. My bed is already 7'5" long & my goal is to make everything about this truck to be as short & as low as possible & still be a safe heavy hauler.
You probably need to look for a semi truck bone yard, some one that only deals with big trucks. You may find a complete truck that is being parted out?
this photo probably looks scary if I get a flat? But going down the road the truck will be aprox. 8" higher. So if I get a flat it won't go down any farther than this. Also if I blow a bag, as you can see, It's bottomed out right now & this is as low as it goes. 2" off the ground.
That's my story & I'm sticking to it, LOL...

 

I'm into 1939 Chevy's, back around 2005 I found an article stating that 1939 was Chevy's first COE. Always wanting something different than the crowd, I had to have Chevy's first one. It took 2 years to find this one. It was on Ebay auction starting @ $900. No one bid on it, but the seller had a PH# so I called on it, then I checked the shipping cost & it was only $1,100 to come to Oregon from Arkansas. It was all original & complete except no front bumper & no tow boom.
I had never seen a cool low-riding COE & I expected to build it back to original with a 261 Chevy 6 cylinder & lower it? When it got home, it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen & the bottom step was almost 2ft off the ground. So I sat on it for two years trying to find another build that I liked. Here is my truck when it got home, the secant photo is the truck when it was on eBay. The cool COE I likes is a green 1940 Chevy COE on the internet. It's very cool...