49-54 Chevy Frame Question

Are the brackets still on the frame for the cross member? If not same companies that sell the cross member sell weld on extension brackets for earlier g bodies 1978-1982 or 83 only had one cross member position. When later g bodies got 2004rs they added a second location

 

Id do one each side just ahead of rear wheels. And one each side mid door

 

I'm a bit of a g body guru lol. Know a lot of factory upgrades for that ch***is

 

It appears your frame is a 78 to 83. I can see the bracket for the factory cross member. Getting the cross member and extension brackets I mentioned would still fix your issue

 

Nevermind it's later g body. Sorry just woke up. But you can still add the extension brackets. Current cross member was out of something else. If you can get to a picknpull and find a 92-96 f series Ford the frame brackets for radiator core support mounts are easy-ish to drill out and then use for body mounts on your frame. It not lmc truck sells them fairly cheap. And they'd be easy to stick weld to the frame with one of the cheap Amazon welders I mentioned.

 

Some suspension upgrades. Can get 98+ S10 front springs to raise the front up a bit. Get them for a 2000 blazer Xtreme with zq8 package. They'd lower a g body about 2" so I would imagine 3" on a 54. And are basically the same as f41 police. Steering box from same blazer with quicken the steering. And knuckles and brakes from any 98-03 2wd S10 blazer will give you beefier rotors and two piston calipers

 

Sorry man, we tried to warn you.

If this is still available, you would probably be money ahead going this direction. You can use your current motor and transmission, and the frame would fit in your car.

As is, you only have the 4 of the original 8-10 body mounts the original G frame would have had holding the body on to the frame, and the trans crossmember is welded to the existing frame. It still appears that most of the original car's body to frame mounting points are still present. I'm not highly impressed with the condition your G frame looks to be in, up here in the rust belt those frames had some issues because of the salted winter roads. You don't have salted roads where you are, but a few trips to the ocean beach could cause the same damage, or worse.

Your work space looks pretty tight, that could present a problem. A dissembled car takes up a lot of space, so lets get a better picture of what you actually have.

It looks like you have the front up high enough to get under the car pretty easy. If you take your floor jack under the car with you, you should be able to lift the back of the car by putting the jack under the center of the rear end and jacking it up from under the car. Once the jack is in position, and is ready to left the car, you should be able to slide out from under the car, and jack it up from the side. You only need to get high enough to put a pair of jack stands under the rear end. If you want to go higher, then you can just jack it up normal and adjust the jack stands to a higher notch.

With the car on 4 jack stands, you can get a better idea where you are, and you can take pictures showing a bit wider view. Before you take more pictures, s****e off any loose undercoating or dirt ac***ulation that may be there. In some of the pictures its hard to tell if something was old undercoating, or near metal failure, or an old metal patch.
While the jack is under the car (with it sitting securely on 4 jack stands), move the jack forward to the transmission pan, and jack up the end of the trans enough to be able to slide the piece of wood out that is between the crossmember and the trans mount. It would be helpful to actually see what needs to be done there.

The original G body frame has 4 body mounts behind the rear axle, one on each side of the frame at the very rear, near the bumper, and one on each side, just behind the rear axle (those two usually went up through the frame). Then there is one mount on each side of the frame just forward of the rear axle. There is a body mount at the front kick out on each side. There is also a body mount at about mid point of the side frame rail, on the upper cl*** cars, that body mount connected the body to the frame, but the lower cost cars simply had a rubber bushing between the body and the frame there.

 

The LMC truck bracket might work better than me trying to hunt this stuff down.

Thanks, hmmmm, so you think I could learn to weld quick enough that I can make a mount for the body that I would be safe? I'm willing to try I suppose. My back neighbor has a TIG welder and he might help me in a pinch if its small stuff and not more than like 30 min or so or he might loan me his welder even (he helped me with a marine outboard just last week for a broken stud that he welded a nut to)

 

I think if I'm going to take the springs out I may as well bag the car... I'm afraid to kill myself taking the springs out though...

 

If the right width should work. As for removing front springs tie the spring to the frame and release the floor jack slowly. It'll pop out without going crazy

 

Yeah body mount isn't quite as critical as say cutting down a frame. With as many as you need total id put it dead center in structural importance between welding a frame and welding in a sheet metal patch. On the original application the replacement brackets attach with two supplied 5/16" bolts if anything

 

Thanks, what about the rear springs? I'm worried those could be really hard to work with. hmmm

 

You don't need a bunch of guys to help lift the body off the frame, you just need to use these jack stands under the body at the correct location, a couple 8' long pieces of 2' x 10' lumber, a few lengths of chain, and an engine hoist. It would be easier if the front of the car was facing the garage door.
The body only has to come up high enough for the wood under the body to clear the rear tires as the frame is rolled out from under it. You do need to pull the front sheet metal off, and pull the motor & trans, disconnect the steering, and the brake lines.
Then disconnect the body mounts connect the chain to secure location on the rear part of the body and lift it up with the hoist until the lumber can fit between the body and the frame. Do the same with the front. The body sits on the lumber, the lumber sits on the jack stands with them screwed up high enough so the frame can be rolled out from under it. I've done this stuff myself a lot, its easier with a helper. The operation takes up a lot of space. Maybe there is a neighbor, or a buddy you can recruit to help a couple of hours for some beer money.

 

I looked at the chop and gl*** and said good enough. literally. I thought for $10,500 I should be able to resell it for what I paid if I don't proceed and someone with better metal working skills can take this car to the next level. In San Diego, a chop and gl*** will run $14k (I asked) at one of the local shops.. the other shop that does this in the region probably even more.

I could barely see anything underneath the car sits so damn low and that frame was low. I couldn't get a floor jack under it from the sides. I had to get a scissor jack and jack the front corner of the frame and put my floorjack under the front crossmember once I got it down here inside my 2 car garage.

I can take more photos of the chop but I think the chop was not done by the person who welded anything to the frame.

 

Not sure why your last reply came in blank

 

Just Jack up the rear without shocks and they calmly fall out. Did it multiple times on two different 86 Cutl*** supremes

 

Thanks, the guy that sold me the car said he built those stands for the car.. I wonder if he's the one who put this car on the frame or not.. he told me he got it from Phoenix and made it seem like he got it this way. hmmm.
I could reverse the car in I suppose.

Hmmm finding a person to help me is possible... I've done car work for some friends.. but getting more than 1 other person at a time would be tricky. I think the issue is the space in my garage is tight... perhaps with the car reverse in and the front door open I can do a lot of work that way (and my C-10 pulled outside for a day or so).

The other thing is if I want to airbag then the stock 53/54 frame would need to be c-notched and I have no business doing that... I'd have to have this done by some shop, ideally before swapping.

 

I'm not sure if the previous owner or owners tried to weld someone on to it (the one photo showing the ugly welds) but it didn't affect the frame integrity there? It doesn't look like those ugly welds are what are holding the frame together.

 

I know opinions are like.....uhhhhh...navals...everybody has one, but....being a welder from another lifetime , it's MUCH EZ'er to learn how to MIG weld (with CO2/Argon gas coverage) than stick weld.
I did both for years and stick welding is VERY frustrating when just learning. (that's why they call it 'stick welding'). Let alone welding overhead or vertical positions with very limited space to work in. The machine is cheaper but...it would be harder to re-sell IF you give up trying to learn...
Harbor Freight/Tractor Supply etc. have entry level MIG machines WITH CO2/Ag gas coverage pretty reasonable. Garggle or Youtube how to set one up....
CLEAN the area to be welded...95% of the work is done! (IF you give up on it....you can get most of your $$ back on a re-sale.)
The higher you can get the car...the better off you'll be..
Take more pictures and CIRCLE the areas you are talking about. (I was lost on your above pictures)
GOOD LUCK pal !
6sally6

 

BTW....'sometimes'...Gorilla-welds(big&ugly) hold just fine.
Steel and welds are amazingly strong things.
A solid 1" fillet weld has THOUSANDS of pounds of strength.
US guys have a tendency to OVER weld things(for some reason)!
Jus Say'in
6sally6

 

Thanks! I'm in San Diego though, the road conditions and potholes are at times just unbelievable due to the city administration mismanaging the budget.. so welds will be put to the test here!

 

I don't know what that is and looks sketchy... I'll go back and get more photos.

 

Hmmm, ***uming I could figure out how to get the body off (maybe with help from one other person), I'd have to do that for the donor car, then the same for this car. I'd need to get the stock frame c-notched so I could bag it (the ultimate goal). The floor pan on this car was supposedly modified to be a blend of g-body floor pan and the stock floor pan according to what the previous owner told me.. so that's going to take some work (I suppose I could take photos to help verify that).

I imagine with a frame swap, a 4-link setup, fix the floors back to stock, reuse the g-body differential if possible (or find something else that can handle the 350/700r4), airbag cups/plates, and c-notch the frame and body, I'm going to be dumping another $7-10k since that will require some shop work that I can't do myself right?

I could also just bail now and try to resell this for $10,500 as is and disclosure what I found and maybe the next owner is someone with metal working skills that can fix/swap the frame and is after this car because of the chop/gl*** work already done.

 

On the bright side exhaust looks decent.

 

The last two pictures are of the G frame, at the notch where the original transmission crossmember sat on the ledge (the bottom wide part) and had bolts p***ing through the crossmember and the ledge. On the original frame, there was never any kind of factory seam there. What you are looking at was someone's attempt at modification, for some unknown reason.

I have some doubts about the condition of the G body frame. These doubts have nothing to do with whatever you might do with the car once its on the road, but it is do to what has happened to it before it came to you. All indications leave me to believe it have have had a few salt water baths in its time. Those frames rot out form the inside outward. The fact that the bottom section has been deformed from being jacked up makes me question the G frame's structural condition, not even venturing into any welding that has been done to it.

I addressed the frame swap earlier.
Hopefully this is the correct picture. See where that side frame rail is flattened out just behind the kick out? That flattened frame section is a sign of a structurally weakened frame, rotting from the inside.

Again, hopefully the correct picture.
In the lower parts of the picture you can see one of the G frame original crush holes in the frame. These holes are either for access to something, or they are design weak points that are suppose to collapse in a crash. Either function depends on the structural ability of the surrounding material to perform as designed.
Look at the pile of debris inside of that hole, the pile of junk is the material on the inside of the frame deteriorating. and flaking off the top and side sections of the frame tube. It is a sure sign of a weakened frame. The ac***ulation has been on the inside of every frame patch or repair I have ever done on a car or truck frame, and I did it for the last 25 years of my working life.

So you bought the car body because it was less costly then you could get the chop and gl*** done local to you. I understand that, good job! Now, buy an already completed ch***is that has the upgrades you want that actually fits under your car. Given your stated budget, you should even have enough money to get most of the other stuff you want for your car. You will have a firm foundation to build from.
If you keep the current frame, you will be patching it up until it can no longer be patched. Buy the shown frame (if its what it says it is) or have one built from scratch that fits your car, put forth the effort to change the frame out yourself, be part of your car.