Hey guys i was just wondering what you guys think about my little dilema. I am building a 50 Chevy 3100 and want to put IFS on it. Now my question is do I do a frame swap to an S-10 frame or do I put in a Fatman or Heidt's kit. The cost of them is about the same. What are some pro's and con's????
frame swap gives you all of your sus. but you have the work of all body mounts ,plus correcting for wheel base, front clip makes for just front body mts but you also have front fender mounts plus core support for radiator. a new heidts or fatman crossmember is easy to install just make sure wheel base is correct so your centered in ft. wheel opening. chassis eng. has a bolt in cross member for your truck. i have put several in, my choice is the mustang 2. im installing one in my 48 ford pickup. that is as long as the frame your using is in good shape.
I'm nobody special, and haven't palyed with these model truck. But I wonder how you'd figure the cost of putting a scrapyard nose or whole frame underneath to equal the price of an IFS kit? Then there's the reliability issues I keep reading. Haven't read any about S-10's... ok then, remartin replied same time... guess you hafta decide if you have more time on yer hands, or money.
The price for an S-10 is about give or take $500 plus body mount kit $1200 so $1700 plus install. IFS kit (Heidt's) found one for $1350 shipped plus install. Ya I have heard of some reliability issues with the IFS kit but it's mixed some say they had problems some said they had none at all. The one things I worry about is all the space that is left between the cab and frame when you use the S-10 frame.
What's the worry about the space? And i'm not being sarcastic, i'm serious.. If you build the body mount's strong enough nothing will move.. Clark on here did a tech post a while back showing how he did his, and he spaced his about 3 or 4" off the frame. It's a good piece. I did mine this summer with some tip's from his post and spaced mine 1.5" off the frame.. Granted, mine's pretty low like that but the space is limited.. The biggest issue's i had with mine was building the core support/fender braces up front, which you'll have to do no matter where you place it,, and getting the bed floor situated to where i actually had some real bed space.. That happened because i left it so low in the frame.. BUT, if you have welding skill's and can do relatively easy fab work, the swap to an S-10 frame shouldn't cost more than a few hundred bux....and of course the donor vehicle..but those can be had for a few hundred as well. I say that because i just did it..and the cost's were nothing more than steel, welding wire, argon and cutting supplies.. best of luck no matter which way you choose. Tony
I haven't done the S-10 swap, but I've installed 3 Fatman's front-ends and 2 Heidt's and there's no comparing them, the Heidt's units I've used are much better in quality and fit. As for reliability, no probs on either one, tho'. I also installed an RB's front-end in a '54 Chevy and it was really quick and painless, but I believe I heard they might be outta business.
I clip all of mine,(GM front clips) can't beat the ride, but Chassis Eng. has a bolt in front that''d be a piece of cake, save a lot of time and headaches if you haven't done this before. With S-10's you seem to lose a lot of bed hauling space if you channel the cab over the frame.
Just clip it with an S-10 frontend if you don't wanna do the whole frame swap? Or a Volare clip is nice too! A lot cheaper and you can get all the bushings at your local parts store. Should be able to get a front clip for about $150-250.
Are YOU doing the work? Are you a good enough welder to pull it off? how are your fabrication skills? When I do a job for a customer, it usually involves using a pre-made kit. They might cost more in the beginning, but in the long run, after my labor, it comes out cheaper. Why? There is SO much less fabrication work to deal with. If I am doing a car for myself, often I go the subframe route. I save money in the beginning, and doing the fab work myself,it comes out cheaper for me in the long run as well. It just takes a ton more time to work out the details. These include body mounts, fabricating a radiator support, or much modifications to the stock one, radiator mounting problems in some cases (front steer subs), bumper mounting issues (can be a BIG problem!), etc. Costs, even with rebuilding the subframe, are lower, as the price of the later model replacement parts are usually lower than the "antique car" parts. The aftermarket crossmember kits also look much better. The GM subs are pretty damn ugly. So in a custom where none of that is seen, I;m OK, but in a car where more of the front frame shows, you might want the crossmember kit.
One thing that's been mentioned about the S10 swap was bed space.. I said i had issue's because of how low i mounted my body on the frame.. It is very true, and if having a full bed floor is important it's something to consider, but there are way's around it as well. On mine, my cab is 1.5" off the frame as i mentioned, the bed however isn't the same.. I set the bed so the original floor was even with the S-10 frame kick up above the rear end, which was about 1.5" higher than the cab making the bed 3" above where it should have been... So, i moved the rear fender's down on the bed 1.5" to meet up with the boards so the fender's and boards would all still line up... That move allowed me to put a bed floor in stock location.. I plan to USE the truck as a truck so it was very important to me to have the depth of a stock bed. Side view it's very hard to tell it's been changed..unless it's sitting next to one on a stock frame then you can visually see the space between the bed rail and fender is bigger on mine. I have no pics of it together yet because i'm still finishing it, i only have a few mock up pics of the bed and floor mounted on the frame.. Just thought i'd toss that out there in case the bed floor thing was an issue. Tony
I see your figuring the cost of the S-10 frame ($500.) and an installation kit ($1200.) for a total of $1700.00 vs an IFS for ($1350.) plus the installation cost. So, I assuming here that you are not going to do the actual work. If that's the case, I would suggest you go the weld in IFS route. This would most likely be cheaper for you in the long run (labor wise) by having a shop spend a couple hours welding a crossmember in place versus having them spending many hours or days ($$$$) switching your truck over onto a S-10 frame using a kit. If you're doing the S-10 swap yourself, then I would suggest you do a search for Clark's post (and many others), on how easy these can be done without spending $1200, for a kit. I myself, being a cheap bastard, went the S-10 route and don't regret it for a moment. I got a rolling frame for $100.00, and a couple feet of square tubing to make all the mounts for another $125.00. Spent my time, in my garage, measuring, cutting and welding everything myself. That left me with some money for all the rest of the stuff that I needed to get it this far. Which ever way you go, have fun doing it.
Arent all those chevy frames about the same width for years? If so why not pull just the supension and steering off an early 70's truck. They bolt in completely and if width is right would be as thrifty as swap as can be found.
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