Projects Turning a lemon into lemonade - Very rusty 55' Chevy onto a Caprice frame...

very cool.

keep up the good work.

I am rooting for you.

 

Updates - I did this on another board.

I was busy this weekend. So busy I forgot to take pics of the car on the caprice frame!

The 55' body is now mounted to the caprice frame with some temp cross members. Its channeled roughly 4" in the front and 2" in the rear right now. It fits gooood.

I am going to swap the rims/tires around to the sizes I want to run and see how the stance is, and put the front sheet metal on. Then its measure everything again to make sure it all is straight and true, make any adjustments and make the final crossmembers. Hopefully all this will be done this coming weekend.

I still need to take the DA and some 40 grit to the caprice frame to clean it up and paint it after I box it. I will buy the metal this week. I need a couple of sheets of 20 guage and a bead roller for the floors.

Here are some pics.

Cowl Rust...yuck.


Tailgate rust. I might try to repair this, keeping with the budget theme, unless I can find a better one.


Body off the frame.






There is no floor in the car at all right now.




Here's whats left of the old frame and floor. I took it out in one piece.

 

Wow, that thing is hammered. Good luck with the swap, those cars are super cool

 

Damn man, good for you, I get tired and depressed just looking at the pictures!

 

I don't know why you didn't just use the old frame, a little bondo would fill them holes right up!

Seriously though, good work so far

 

In recent years the way everyone with a rust bucket sitting on the road for sale, thinking the rust is gold, your left over parts would make you a millionaire.

 

It's like proof of an afterlife.

 

Wow... you're doing it right and saving a cool car!! nice job!!

 

WOW. . .I hadn't read this thread before... As I was reading through and got the the part where you were going to give up I was thinking it couldn't be THAT bad. But, IT IS. Holy shit that car is strait wore out.

Good on you for giving it a go. Whats the worst that could happen? You already paid for that body, and its already fucked, so you're not going to make it any worse. Get it together, brace everything up and drive it. Might as well have some fun with it. Then fix it right piece by piece if thats what you want. . . or you could just leave the floors out and sell it as a rat rod...

 

Holy shit.

JH

 

Good on ya' for bringing one back from the dead!!!! I can't wait to see more project pics.

 

GO man Go!

Jeff

 

This is the first car that I have owned where being turned into a rat rod is an improvement!

Anyone need anything off of the front of the frame. Its bent, but pretty solid from the firewall forward. Good thing the old 235 was a leaker.

I actually still have the car up for sale. I have my eye on a 62' Ford that is in MUCH better shape, but everybody thinks the car is too rusty! lol

 

i didnt read the whole thing. Are you using the caprice floor also? I like what your doing, cant get any worse.

 

No caprice floors. They would sit too high in the car with the channeling I am going to do. I don't want to be able to see the frame under the car like a lot of these caprice frame conversions.

 

Keep on, keepin on dont bail out, your on your way to getting what you wanted when you first bought this beast.

 

I would keep working on it, eventually you'll turn the corner and it will begin to look like something, Keep it low buck and if you change your mind you'll get a better dollar for it in a semi finished project than a hulk noboby would buy.

 

Might be worth trying to re-use that spare tire tub in your new floors, unless you want to make one instead, looks like there might be enough to recycle it yet.

That car is just plain rotted wierd, though, usually they like to rot big holes in front of the forward spring perch. I wonder if it sat in water someplace, or got water into the frame?

 

Would it still sit to high if you channeld it onto the caprice floor pan. It seems alot easier to do and youll have all the clearences for the caprice frame allready. I would drop the body down on the the floor and cut out your pattern and slide it down and then weld it. Does it make sence. hahaha.

 

Then the caprice floor ends up 6" up in the door opening. I checked out the caprice floor and it won't work for what I am doing.

 

It looks like it sat on top of grass or dirt for a very long time and rotted from the bottom up.

I have cut out the spare tire well and am going to reuse it. The gas tank was rotted bad, so I tossed it, but might buy a new one to use since it fits around the spare tire well.

 

Did ya end up selling it Rick??

 

wow. i have a parts 60' elcamino that is so rusty the "A" pillar pops out of place when you open the door. what a huge job. sure their is enough beer in canada to last the length of the project?

 

Still have it. I have out of town the last few weekends and haven't had a chance to work on it.

This weekend I am taking a DA to the frame to clean it all up, then boxing it. After that, a little paint.

I did buy a rotty 55' chevy frame and running gear for parts, complete with 265 and cast iron PG last weekend. We will see what I can salvage from it.

 

Maybe you can mate the rear 55 frame clip to the donor, using the spare tire well, gas tank. It will also give you stock 55 frame horns for bumper mounting.
Same goes for the front 55 frame horns.

I'd look for a solid replacement tailgate if you can find one cheap, it'll be one less piece to have to bring back from the dead!

Nice work so far-keep us posted.

 

My favorite part of this is how beer re-invigorated the project. Seriously - go, man, go. I love it!

 

This frame is almost as bad as the one I took out. I got it mostly for the rear end and engine.

The rear has some old school traction bars, and it looks like the car it came out of was an old drag car. Big battery box in the trunk, tow bar brackets on the front of the frame, poorly swapped in four speed pedals, couple of different holes in the hump for different transmissions. I am hoping the rear has some good parts in it like a posi or decent gear. The engine looks like its a stock 55' 265 and is just sitting in the frame.

I am looking for a better tailgate. They are hard to find however.

And just remember...good beer fixes all. At least for a little while.

 

There's Hope! After looking over your shots, my 46 Ford Delivery should be a breeze. It's not rotted anywhere near as bad, & I have most of the replacement panels and an extra frame to start. Thanks, and keep us posted. Rick

 

Wow. I just found this thread, Rick you are one patient SOB. I'd have alredy been serving time after the beating I'd have given the previous owner. I hate liars. Even more when it cost me my hard earned cash.
That being said, i like your Caprice swap idea. I have always liked the idea of old bodies on top of modern, good handling, good stopping frames. You can do all that stuff to the old frames, true, but the cost factor usually makes it a no-go. What you are doing is the right way to do it. A small cash investment for a chassis that would cost 10k or so to build out of a stocker. Screw the naysayers, it is your car, and with the wagon as rough as it is you needed to have it off the chassis anyway to rebuild it from underneath. Not to mention you get a bead roller out of it, too.
I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.
Ed

 

I was on vacation with family for the last week and a half, so I didn't get a lot done. Anyways, here are some teaser pictures.












The caprice frame fits really well. I am going for more of a gasser look and will radius the rear wheel wells, so i left the car a little higher. It will still go down an inch or two when the all the weight is back into the car. The rear axle is located in exactly the same spot as stock, but the front wheels are about 3/4 of an inch forward of stock.

I have about half of the cross members in, and will have the rest done by the end of this weekend. I am using 2x1" tubing for the crossmembers, and the car will have six of them, and I am reusing the stock firewall mounted body mounts. They line up perfectly on the caprice frame. I think 14 body mounts will be enough.

I am going to reuse the spare tire well, and need to buy a new wagon gas tank. I mocked it all up and it is going to fit nicely. Exhaust will be tight, but should be doable.

I also tack'd in a couple of crappy patch panels on the passenger side (rocker and in front of rear quarte)r to see how the frame sits. Its completely hidden behind the rockers. The fenders are just sitting there so I can get an idea of the stance. The tire diameters are pretty much the same as the final ones will be.

The frame has been stripped to bare metal everywhere except the front 4 feet of it - I have to pull the engine to get around there. I also boxed it in. That made a big improvement in strength! The engine sits perfect. There is about an inch and a half from the HEI distributor to the firewall. I have to trim the front frame horns off the current frame and will weld on the 55's originals, so I can mount a spreader bar in the front and keep the stock look.