49-54 Chevy Frame Question

****, that's not a bad idea! I have a 3 bedroom house... and I would take time off work to help.........

I could buy a decent used welder and sell it after I'm sure right?

 

When it comes to used welders .....it's hit or miss. As long as you buy a good used welder of a good name....like Lincoln or miller.....yeah reselling when done is easy. Might even make some $. Other lesser known brands like something from tractor supply you might get stuck with.

 

Like my $100 Amazon welder? While it's actually a pretty decent welder I'll likely be stuck with it lol

 

@The Chevy Pope Are you willing to go help?
Work out a deal. Free room and board plus expenses. You know you love to do that stuff.

 

I would love to get my hands on it lol. Would have to see if wife was up for it lol

 

If we were to go we'd likely drive. I don't trust my wife on a plane. Plus there'd be getting tools through airport security lol

 

She’d like San Diego I’m sure

 

Eh. I probably would. She's a hillbilly though lol. There is a beach there right?

 

Also I actually rebuilt a prerunner for someone from sf that was stationed at whiteman AFB. Good kid. Dad was a horrible mechanic lol

 

Apparently Mom and Dad drove through LA when I was a baby. And said I was memorized by the lights. Said thats when they knew I was going to be a city boy. I wasn't scared like a lot of babies around the lights and noise lol

 

I suspect southern CA is a bit different now, then it was when you were a kid, but a month of paid expenses and free travel, while working on a car, might be OK.

Sounds like a pretty good deal for both of you, to me. The Chevy Pope gets a paid vacation and gets to spend someone else's money while doing the thing he loves and knows, and SDrocker gets his car road ready from someone that has the experience and knows the job. Might cost as much as it would to get it done locally, but imaging the experience of being able to work hand to hand with someone that knows the ropes, is willing to help you learn, and won't rip you off.
There has to be a few local HAMBers that would be thrilled to give a hand, just to participate in the process.

Perfect solution, when are you guys going to get started?
The HAMB at its finest!

Of course, we expect to see daily updates on the progress, as you two 'get r done!'

 

This could be fun. Thus far we’re worried about the frame and dealing with that but we’re ***uming the chop is good.. from the photos you can see the flow is good at least the proportions but what about door gap imperfections I’m seeing, how the panels on the inside were welded, etc? Im afraid to post more photos if we conclude this entire car is no good! I think we would need to make sure the chop and body is usable though as if we got the frame fixed there’s still dealing with that and maybe it’s better to get rid of this now at a loss.

 

Can't help you much on the quality of the chop, but if there is no headliner, maybe you can look the inside of the roof over real good and look for places that may have very thick body filler to smooth out a big dip in the welded seams. I would think that how well the doors opened and closed and how well the gl*** fits would be pretty important. The door gaps would be important if they look really strange and stand out as being way wrong for a custom. To me door function was important, door gaps, not so much. The chop and custom body work is your game and has to meet your standards. The chop was the reason you told us you bought the car...

 

You could also learn to weld at the same time so you don’t have to sell the machine. And you could fix other things as they come up.

 

I liked the look and flow of it... proportion wise but I clearly missed the frame issue... wondering if the chop is not as good as I think it is. I think once I fix the steering column linkage and get the motor idling fine, I'll pull it out and get some more photos and a video and post here again for some opinions. I looked inside and I can't tell how good or bad of a job was done but I took a video from inside and sent to the custom car metal fab guy in LA for his opinion (still haven't heard back). He had said he was looking at this car as well and the chop looked good at least in the photos but he didn't see any closeups or inside either. He had also said he thinks the g-frame and z-notch could be reworked/saved for $2k to $3k but to also consider at some point its better to go the stock frame route depending on the goals of this car.

 

Yeah I personally wouldn't save that frame after seeing the z regardless of how things go on the car. And I was an avid supporter of saving that frame till seeing that. I cut my hot rod teeth on a trio of 81-86 Cutl*** two doors in the Ozark mountains. Basically pretended to be Robert mitchum in thunder road without a huge load of booze. So I found all the weak points. And as mentioned the rear section of the frames are the weakest area stock. That z made it really weak and even un z'ing it would take a lot of work just to get it back to stock weak levels. So regardless it'd need a frame whether a stock frame or another g body frame properly modified. And honestly if replacement g body frame I could do one of those properly too. Issue with that is it would take longer. On top of shortening it would need to be fully rewelded as that is what you want to do on any serious g body build. Wasn't exaggerating on earlier replies about the **** welds on factory frames

 

Thanks! Yea the only way forward is stock frame.. period. I'm convinced of that now.

The question is now whether the rest of this car is worth redoing the frame or not? I liked the look of the chop but was it chopped decently (I mean the welds and imperfections, etc). I think that's the next thing to answer. If the chop is going to need a lot of rework too I may as well sell this thing now for a loss and come out of it having learned something rather than spending thousands more only to lose a whole lot more.

 

Honestly if the profile is good and front and rear gl*** fits decent chop issues would be relatively easily fixable. And like said without a headliner if you aren't seeing m***ive amounts of Bondo bleeding through id say it's ok. At that point you could fix any issues yourself as practice

 

Yep there's no headliner.. I'm convinced it's going to be bad news haha.. I will take some photos in a little bit and return back..

 

Thanks, yep the profile to me looked nice... that's what caught my eye.. I figure it could be worked with but I'll take some photos and circle back shortly.

 

Main areas to be concerned with are all the posts. The type of welding Moriarty was talking about there could take an otherwise usable chop and turn it dangerous. Though it can still be fixed by a hobbyist welder. But must be fixed if not fully welded

 

@fastcar1953 knows his way around a chop on a 54 Chevy. Not a big fan of chop tops in general but his 54 looks good.

 

As I'm reading the latest developments in this process, I have to ask:
If the chop was properly welded, and an original frame updated with the MM2 front suspension, without the notched rear frame, but had a decent interior (not the best of the best), that would make it a great driver, and it all could be done for say 5-7G more money, is this a car you could find yourself cruising around in for a few years? Could it be a great driving custom in primer and still check of enough boxes for you to have fun with it?
My reasoning is, 'they' say it takes 3-4 tries before most guys really understand how or what they really want a car to be, when its done. This is your first go around. After a few years of driving it, there may be things you would really want to be done differently. You could then build the next ride closer to what you have figured out you really want your car to be. A few years of actually driving time may make this one much more valuable then it is now, as a big question mark. You could drive it, enjoy it, learn from it, and build the new ride. Then after the new ride is road worthy, you sell this one to recoup your money.

 

Yeah that's why I always get itchy when guys talk about a whole bunch of modifications all at once. My own 53 build has evolved quite a bit since original intent

 

Realistically, I think my last build (completed in 2022), my 49 Dodge pickup, is probably my 12th build, most of them from a pile of s**** to a daily driver! Some were built based of the material I had access to, the skill level I had, and the purpose or need I had for the vehicle at that given time.
Each ride I built showed me something I liked, or didn't like about my then current project for what ever came along next. A few of those rides were driven for several years with lots of miles, others were only driven for a short time, or very short number of miles. One ride took 2 years to build, and 2 months of driving before I determined it had to go, where one of the others took 9 months to build that hung around for more then 13 years and was driven 100,000 miles! My current truck has been driven over 30,000 miles since July 2022.

Each new ride is a learning curve.

 

Yeah if you've seen my Monte Carlo in this forum I had no idea I'd get sentimentally attached to a front wheel drive car lol. But I've had it 14 years and despite being parked 7 years I put over 150k on it lol

 

So back to the idea of me coming to help. Would depend on a few variables and willing to wait a bit. Would have to be after school let out and if my 16 year old went to visit family in Arkansas. Another if is if I stay at my current job. Last if is if wife is willing. That would give time to collect parts. And realistically as the 54 would be the main thing I'd be focusing on id be able to get it to something workable and safe to drive in under a week

 

I’m super flexible and not in a rush if we ***ume this car is worthy.. pics of the chop coming momentarily.

 

Also have you made sure the ***le goes to the actual vin on the car? Sounds like a silly question but often they were registered to the Engine. And it's common in frame swaps to register to the frame