Projects Needing some help in reversing a "Body Drop"

Hey everyone, been a member for a little while now but haven't posted til now. I recently acquired a 51 Chevy Bel-air project that is a liiiittle bit of a Frankenstein. It's a 51 Bel-air body sitting atop a 1978 Pontiac Catalina frame with a 350ci and 350TH trans. The previous owner mounted the body to the frame so that the front end sits about 2 to 3 inches lower than the rear. It has a pretty tough stance to it because of the rake that it now has, but unfortunately it looks like there will be some clearance issues with the fender opening when I install the wheel and tire set up that I want to go with. The PO put 14 inch rims out front to ensure no tire to fender lip interference. I am swapping out to 15 inch wheels up front but I don't want to have to try and find a lower profile whitewall tire to mount on them to ensure clearance so I'd like to lift the front end enough to give me room.

My task that I need some guidance on is raising the front of the body to get it where I need it without distorting the front end etc. I'm not sure about where I can lift from and how to raise it enough to get spacers and bushings into place. Any thoughts or input would be much appreciated!!

~JP

 

Lift it at the body mounts starting in the front and shimming it toward the rear until you get it the way that you want it. Think mud truck with a body lift.

 

Yep, beaner wouldn't steer you wrong and thinking like a mud truck body lift is the easiest way. Un bolt the existing body mounts and Just put the lift blocks in with longer bolts. Of course it will be easier of every mount got the same size block. Now if you want to go 3" up in front and zero in the back you'll have some calculations to work out.

 

Another suggestion, use a jack on each side, with a piece of 2X4 to spread the load, just inboard of the rocker panel.

 

I say get wheels and tires that fit hat you have. I looked at a 50 Chevy once with a clip. it was too low so the lifted the body. what a giant piece of shit it was.

 

So how did it end up lookingnlike a piece of shit?

 

Here is the car as she currently sits in my garage

 

I have seen a 53 chevy that had the front wheel wells raised a couple inches. that might be an easier solution.

 

Maybe theres a forum for that kind of car and they could help you?

 

Looks nice. If everything else is good raise the front wheel openings.
Bruce

 

Track width is too wide.
Different offset front wheels
Maybe raise the wheel openings too

 

Well, I'd like to try and maintain as much of the original vehicle as possible and not chop away at her, plus I dont want to raise the front wheel well opening and disrupt the natural lines of the vehicle

 

I was also thinking that the track up front is a bit wider than stock and that a different offset on the wheels could be helpful

 

I agree the track is too wide, but changing the wheel offset also changes front end geometry. That is the "quick and dirty" method of dealing with track issues on conversions, but treats only the symptoms, not the cause. However, narrowing the front cross member opens up a whole other can of worms.

As others have suggested, changing the wheel openings may be the way to go. Pontiacs of that era had round top wheel openings and they looked pretty good to my eyes. Overall, I think the car looks surprisingly good after having read your description of how it was built.

Ray

 

Bless the little Hardtops heart. One of the prettiest of the chevies

 

It's hard to say a change in offset will always cause troubles, you really need to see where your at now and how far away the "where you need to be" is.

Those fronts also look kinda deep, but I can't measure them.


All the dropped axles with disk brakes and aftermarket wheels just disregard the whole concept of scrub radius anyway. If they worried about it or if it was a problem, you wouldn't see that set up or there would be fixes To safely run that set up. There's no need to invent a fix I guess.

 

what's a body drop? sounds like a wrestling move.

remember baron von raschke? the claw was something to be feared.

 

you could see the frame hanging down, and with the hood opened you could see the spacers. it was one of those cars with nice paint (my friend painted it) and everything else was kind of hacked

 

those wheels look too wide and too deep. get some 5" wide rims which is what they came with. and maybe don't get the super tall whitewalls. also so0me companies make tubular a-arms that will narrow the track of certain front ends, FATMAN makes then for Camaro clips, there may be others to fit your suspension.

 

Hash tag body drop, it's really pound sign CHANNELING ! Where's the old HAMB that would have jumped on that right away ???

 

A W E S O M E !

 

Before I retired, I worked at a plant where we built refrigerated semi trailers and we had fixturing that was called a body drop, they assembled the side walls, nose and roof and then lifted the body from the body drop and set it in place and attached it on the floor assembly.

 

Offset rims will get you out of the fender lips, but they look bad, or they look like a car with a frame swap and too wide a track width. Hubcaps can hide a lot of it, finding hubcaps that look good and fit a 15 inch wheel may be challenging.

Fixing the channeled body, I'd cut out the existing mounts in the rear and level the body then make new mounts. You may be able to do this with the body blocked up on the frame, won't be much room to work though. Can you post pics of how the frame is mounted to the body now.

I like the stance in the pics you posted, not sure if that's before or after you made changes