54' ford truck front clip swap..Can I do it Cheap?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<font color="red"> </font> I just picked up this big ole heap of 54 ford farm truck, the greaseball before me ripped out the six and tossed in a s/b 400. It still has the shitty I-beam/leaf front suspension, which now at speeds over 40 is risking life and death, which aint bad, but just annoying, when I know this thing wants to do a 100, so...can I swap in a Junk yard front clip for cheap? Can I use any front clip if it measures up right? What factors to I need to consider?

thanks Dickie Flicks

[ramrod]

Plymouth Volare\Dodge Aspen front ends are the right width and you dont have to cut the trucks frame off&gt;They go right under.Also camaro clips work nicely.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

There is no cheap way to upgrade the front end of these trucks unless you are good at aligning front ends and are a good welder. A poorly done clip will drive worse and be more unsafe the stock I-beam. The Volare clip is popular because it goes under the frame after cutting the right size notch. The Camaro clip actually cuts the frame in two. From the firewall forward is Camaro frame. Fatman makes a good kit for adapting Mustang II components. The engineering is already done, just follow the directions. There are MANY F-100's out there with Mustang II front ends so they hold up well. I would recommend the Fatman Mustang II kit.

I own a '56 panel with a Volare clip. I haven't driven it yet so I can't answer any questions about it. A friend installed it.

(I think this forum is for HAMB questions and such. Tech stuff is in the HAMB forum)

Tracy

[bigron]

read an article a while back about putting a volare/aspen clip under a ford truck. the shop doing it was in calif. and they sell templet's to install them. here is their info. Bob's F 100 Parts
9372 Mission Boulevard, Riverside, CA 92509
(909) 681-1956

i have clipped a 54 chevy pickup with a nova clip. the hard part was making up radiator and bumper mount brackets. also had to cut the fenderwells to fit around the upper control arms. i geuss i'm just saying i think it would be alot easier to use the volare since you just notch the frame from the bottom instead of actually cutting it off at the firewall. i have a few freinds that have done this and are extremely pleased with it. i think the next one i do i'm gonna use a mustang 2 clip just to do something different. good luck with it.

[greg1937]

My dad and i just did a complete dodge dakota clip on a 56 . It looks good,but we have not driven it yet .
The only problem we are having ,is figuring out the steering pump . We have purchased 3 from the parts store and everyone of them has a diff shim in the valve for pressure .
Guess we will have to just switch them around to find the right one . Total cost so far has been 300 dollars . One of Dads other trucks has a straight axle and drives well all the way to 100 mph.
It does not ride like a IFS . I think its all in the alignment and spring stack .

[OGNC]

Dakota works well. One of the guys on the board has a shop called Industrial Chassis that specializes in this swap. Good stuff.

[30roadster]

really you might come out ahead getting a mustang2 kit from rbsobsolete.com - time vs. drivabilityvs. cost - I think you would come out ahead skipping the clip...

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hey guys, just passing through reading some posts and saw this one. RB's actually doesn't offer a Mustang II frontend for these trucks. We do however offer a front clip that uses 78-88 GM G-body suspension parts. The problem with
M-II for these trucks is the truck is too wide to retain factory M-II geometry, also they are too frontend heavy for the M-II, where as the GM cars are the correct width and can handle the heavy truck better.They are fairly straight forward and have original looking front frame horns for bumper mounting as well as radiator support crossmember for mounting original radiator support. Check it out on our site rbsauto.com or give us a call for more info or a catalog.