Good Evening, been a long time fan of H.A.M.B., now I need some help from the custom experts regarding putting a 53-54 Chevy car suspension into my 38 Sedan Master Deluxe. any help will be appreciated .Primarily, Im looking for adjusting the 53 frame to fit the right trajectory, having things set at the right angles. I know someone has put one into there 38 on here but I cannot find the pics of info.
put your radiator support portion of the orig front crossmember back in' I don't know why it's not sitting down in the 53 crossmember. trim the side flanges off the frame?
Mr. Chevrolet ty, I just pulled the original radiator mount off of the old 38 crossmember today lol I had to try and make sure everything lines back up and that was the only way I decided. What do you mean by not sitting down into the 53 crossmember? cut into the 53 and mold it in? trim the flanges off the 38 frame? hmmm but getting the right kingpin angles it was leaning back when I put in to test fit. So basically, I need to trim the flanges off the 38 frame....Im doing this for the first time and have never attempted anything like this. ha ha ha
Make sure you reinforce the frame if you cut the flanges. That is where the strength of the top hat style frame has a lot of contribution. The vertical part is pretty thin material. Which will complicate the splicing. I think it can be done, the 49-54 car suspension is basically a decent design. Fix the funky steering and good to go.
I’m watching. I have the same knee action front end, but am thinking off putting a 39 dropped axle on. Haven’t torn it apart yet. This may be another option.
@MARLAND STEEPLES Consider this. First, figure out the ride height and angle/rake of chassis (if any) that you want when finished with your build. Put the the front and rear of the chassis on jack stands or secure blocks at that angle. Make sure the chassis is level side to side. Next, remove the coil springs from your front suspension assembly so that the control arms can be moved through their full travel. Put the suspension crossmember under the front of your chassis and support the crossmember on ‘blocks’ with the lower A arms supported near level (very slight droop is okay) and the spindle/hub the correct height from the floor for the wheel/tire you plan to use. You also want to get the crossmember at the angle it needs to be for correct caster. Now, one of two or three things will have happened. Either the crossmember bumped up against the bottom of your chassis rails BEFORE you could get it to the desired spindle height……or……you got the crossmember where you wanted it but the crossmember was lower than the bottom of the frame rails……or the crossmember met the frame rails just about right. If the latter, you need to figure out what modifications you need to make to the mounting plate on the crossmember to bolt to your frame rails along the flanges. If the crossmember is some distance away from meeting the bottom of the frame, see above….. If the crossmember CANNOT be raised into correct position because it prematurely hits the bottom of the frame rail…….either rethink your desired ride height and raise the chassis a bit and/or modify the crossmember mounting area enough to get the crossmember up to where it needs to be. I would NOT want to start carving on the bottom of frame rails. If at all possible, avoid that. Now, in the interest of providing more vertical working space if you NEED it….hopefully this will not be confusing…..Once you have established the ride height as described in the first paragraph, you CAN raise the chassis some amount …6”….8”…12”…pick one, and add that to the jack stands or blocks exactly the same at all supporting points. You also have to add that to the desired spindle height measurement to maintain the correct parts relationship. Hope you find this useful. If not, well it didn’t cost much either. Ray
yes I saw that too, I have an old vega steering box and some 3/4 DD stuff so Im planning on doing a switch...speedway gave me a idea .
Thank you so very much, I just got the schematics and angles from the Gm Heritage center and with all this great advice, which I truly do want to thank everyone for providing! I will be taking my time and just getting it safe and done right little by little and not taking any unsafe short cuts. My Son loves when we ride so It has to be done right. Thanks everyone, be blessed and stay safe!
How do the frame rail widths compare between the original '38 frame, and the later '53-'54 frame? Looking at your pictures, it appears the later front crossmember is for a narrower frame rail, but also has an angle to the mounting brackets on each side? If I were doing this I would not trim anything off the frame rails of the '38. Instead I'd carefully remove the mounting plates from the donor crossmember, and then cut and trim the crossmember until it has the proper clearances, and the same flat angles as the frame. I'd test fit the crossmember under the frame once the material was removed, and mock up the donor to achieve the proper kingpin angles. Once it's determined where those proper angles are, then you can do final trimming or grinding and make up new mounting plates to fit the donor. Bolt the plates to your frame, and raise the donor up in place and double check the angles, and all measurements. Tack the plates into the donor while in place, and then once it's tacked, weld it everywhere you can get at. Then you can remove the bolts and roll it out to finish welding it. A dropped solid axle would be way easier, but also tougher to get lower. So if you're doing this swap to get better suspension, and get lower it's probably a good choice. If going for stock height, or close, a drop axle would save tons of work. I went drop axle on my '39 when removing the control arm suspension, but I wasn't worried about getting the frontend down lower.
Thank you so much I do appreciate your info and advice! yeah I thought about a dropped axle but It doesn't give me what I want to do with the 53 chevy front end. I will post pic once it is started and all along this journey.
Thank you that looks like a truck Hmmmm nice looks simple, Between all the responses I think I have a general idea and Im going to just take it slow. Thank you Mr. Chevy for your responses everyone. maybe someone will post some pics if this thread last a little while lol But overall I have amore of a general idea and some solid advice! very glad I posted it here!
I know this swap will work fine . My Buddy has a ‘39 Coupe , with this style front suspension , BOLTED into it . It worked fine , but the ride height was not low enough for him . We unbolted it rolled it out in one piece .
Well I sure as hell hope that is an optical delusion and you didn't bend the shit out of that crossmember and destroy it. From the looks of it you made scrap iron out of that What you should have done is either cut the mounts off the crossmember and fit them to the frame or fit the frame to the crossmember, now you are looking for another 54 crossmember. .
I think it was a wide angle lens. just noticed the slots cut into the towers, have you trial fitted it yet? let us know how its going. thanks
The Jalopy Journal
