i have a 49 chevy truck i know guys use s10 frames.i have axcess to a 66 roling chassis would a 66 chevy truck frame work with out altering my cab?
I seen a 54 on a 60s chassis but do not know what was done to do the swap but the tires stuck out too far.
The question to ask is if you would be happy with the track width of the '66 under your '49. You could mount the cab without modifying it, but the wheels will stick out too far, and you may not be able to get the truck as low as you wanted.
your truck would have the front wheels sticking out like dumbos ears! get you tape measure out and start comparing track width's of different cars. i looked at one that had a 85' caprice frame under it. they modified the "perimeter frame" by running new frame rails where they needed them. until i crawled under it i thought they fucked it up,nice swap. their is tons of possible choices.
Might be a bit hard to find over there. Iv'e a complete Jaguar XJS front clip under mine, no alteration, perfect track, big discs, power steering and 18" x 7" wheels. Sits low too.
The Panel has been built about 10 years by someone else. I've owne'd for 4 years and done quite a few alterations on it. Driven it all over Europe and Norway on the European Street Rod Nationals. Last winter was putting this in.
I'd love to see some detail pics. If you don't have construction photos any chance you could shoot some shots that show the mounting and how the various pieces fit together? Jag suspension isn't sitting on every street corner around here, but those cars can be found cheap if you are patient.
I'll be pulling the engine out soon for some update of the bottom end. I'll take some detail photo's of the Jag set up amd E-mail them to you.
I'm with Kurt on this one. What's wrong with the original Chassis that you cannot use it? There are plenty of options for front suspensions out there for stock frames. There is so much work involved with a frame swap, like cab mounting points, bed mounting points, radiator core support (which locates and mounts the front sheetmetal). Motor mounts will have to be fabricated and located. I know that hot rodding and customizing is about doing it yourself, but there are easier ways. Track width is a huge issue with the 47-55 1st series trucks. So many are out there wit camaro type clips and the wheels stick out funny and the truck can't sit as low as low because of this. The Jag suspension on Lim34's looks great, but not only the availability of the clip, but the availability (and cost) of repair and maintenance parts must be considered for us here in the US. You can get a complete Mustang II IFS for around $2000 that is made for your truck. This is a lot of money to spend up front but think about all the parts are new and you'd have to pay for rebuild parts on a frame swap. Not to mention all of your time to figure everything out. Sorry for the long post but I guess I had a lot to say on this one
replacement/repair parts for the jag clip are about the same as the other common clips. everyone seems to think they are high but they really aren't. i've missed two different donors for my 56 dodge truck project because i don't have a tow rig to go get them right now. both less than $400. one with no motor/tranny(had 350/350). one with a blown motor. i'm looking at possibly using the irs out of it to but if not you can usually sell those for a coupla hundred bucks easy. then the other scraps can net you $100 or more pretty easy. leaving you with maybe $100-200 in the donor clip. i priced everything out at one time and to fully rebuild it was less than a grand including rebuilt calipers. can't remeber exactly but it seems as if it was something like $730 for all of it. i keep going back and forth between doing that and doing an s10 swap. mostly because i can buy a driver s10 longbed local EASY for $500-700. all the jag donors i seem to find are an hour or more away. theres a local yard with 3 but he wants twice for a clip as the otehr cars are but his prices are always that way. ...ken.....
I don't know the answer in this particular case, but I've seen several of these trucks where the frame was rusty enough that I'd consider it junk. The crossmember under the back of the cab is one problem area and sometimes the lower portions will look like a dirty orange swiss cheese. The rails under the bed are sometimes real bad and deeply pitted. The possible advantages of a suspension upgrades aside, and ignoring the cost and time required to install them or replace the entire frame, if you really want to drive the truck you want to make sure you have a solid frame under it. If getting there requires replacing frame then I'm all for it.
old sub has a good point about rust and were building hot rods aren't we? donor cars are everywhere cheap and many times they were running but couldn't pass emissions so the scraped it and that doesn't affect the frame and suspension. the 3 s-10's i have were free with titles and i was offered 2 more but didn't have the time to pick them up. one of those 3 runs.
so the camaro front clip the tires stick out also? the only reason im thinking of changing from the original frame is i want to air bag it
The S-10 is narrow enough most use spacers. The g-body cars, '87 to '96 or something like that, are real close in the front (too narrow in the rear). The '66 C10 IFS is too wide. Early Camaro, like '67 to '69 might work well, but the later ones are all on the wide side. Measure the wheel mounting distance on anything you are thinking of using and compare it to stock, and remember while doing so that there are a number of issues that complicate clipping, and you need to have them all thought out if you want a successful clip job.
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