OK, so as I am tearing everything off the 37 Sedan, and as I get closer and closer to pulling the major parts off, I'm always thinking in the back of my head about putting all of this stuff together. So, I'm looking at the naked floorboard and thinking...how in the heck do you channel this thing? Since I am a visual person, I drew a little example of what I was thinking. Going from left to right, first is the stock set up, second is what I understand to be the traditional channel method, but last is what I'm wondering if anyone does. It looks like it would be easier to fit driveshafts, exhast and crossmembers under there, and the only thing you're messing up is the interior height of the cab, which, if you are going from the stock bench seat to a late model bucket seat, will probably end up being ok on head room. Thoughts on this? I haven't ever done any of this, so any adjustments to my way of thinking would be GREATLY appreciated!
The easiest way would be your very right drawing, cut the floor out on the perimeter, drop the body down and fill in the rest with sheetmetal... Then adjust all the front sheetmetal (fenders/hood)....
Before channeling make up your mind whether you're going to want to use the fenders, runningboards on the finished product.
Why are you planning on channeling it? Because that's what you've heard is the thing to do or you have no other ideas on how to get it low? Don't jump on the channeling band wagon unless you're really sure why you're doing it. I've seen ALOT of good bodies over the past 25-30 years that have been junked because of channeling. You can get a '37 Sedan plenty low other ways. Get a deep dropped front axle (like 5"). On the rear use a dearched rear spring and flattened crossmember, or coilovers setup to be low, or air bags, or...... And as Pasadena was mentioning, mounting fenders and such is gonna be even more work.
I agree with corn fed, Heck I wasn't evening thinking about what kind of car it was.... Doing what CF said would be alot easier and easily reversible....
Awesome replies guys. Thanks! CF, excellent question. Hearing about it every time you turn around certainly keeps me thinking about the "if I was going to do this, how would I do it". I went to the NSRA show in Richmond and the Shadows of the Past show in TN, for the sole purpose of finding 37 chevy sedans that have been channeled...couldn't find a single one, so I would think that there is a reason for that. I guess the channeling route is something I am keeping in reserve in case I am not satisfied with how low I can get. Planning on Chassis Engineering IFS and parallel leaf setups...think that will get me low enough that I shouldn't be pondering this????
I think that your new suspension setup will get you low enough. Mount your leafs on the inside or outside of the frame and not under it and you will be able to slam it to the ground. we moved the rear springs in a 56 chevy to the inside of the rail, used 4" lowered leafs for an s10 and a set of blocks and it sits real nice
You mounted your springs on the INSIDE of your frame? That's a new one on me. Did you have to z the frame so your axle wouldn't bottom out on the frame?
If you actually get it so low that the top of the rear axle is gonna hit the bottom of the frame, you can just "C" notch the frame. But be sure to add to the top of the frame too. But in all reality, I bet if you got it that low, you'd end up hitting the tops of the fenders with your tires before the axle bottomed on the frame.
Don't channel it, a customer of ours channled his '38 sedan and ruined it, it was a beautiful car before he did it. couldn't get the front clip lined up, tires rubbed on the rear fenders, it was bad. I'd go with de arched springs and some lowering blocks, something you can easily change if you don't like it.
a 37 chevy chassis is remarkably similar to a 49 - 54. c-notch with a 4 link... or even rework the leaves. MII up front. FATMAN makes an ultra low crossmember for these as stated you are limited by the tire size and the tops of the fenders. channelling a 37 would be an incredible waste of time unless you were building some sort of fenderless car or maybe a radical custom where the fenders would be moved up in the body like a poor mans section job. I've seen lowrider "bomb" style late 30's chevies on the ground. I garantee they were not channelled