S-10 Frame Under 49-52 Chevy Car

You can easily drop an S10 4" in the front and 6" in the back.

I was cheap and just channelled mine. Lots more work however, but a totally stock suspension. Make sure you use the S10 4x4 rear end. Its the properwidth for the rear and is a bolt it. The 2x4 rear is too narrow.

 

Is the 4X4 rear a 10 bolt? 8.5" maybe?

 

We did the S 10 clip on the front of our 51. The mid 80's clip is 4" narrower on each side, bearing cap to bearing cap compared to the original 51 front suspension. We are going to have to run wide ass wheels on the front so it doesn't look like a funny car.

 

So my only question with this is, are you talking about the track width? I measure my 54 wider over all (outside of tire to outside of tire) compared to the 78 cutlass sitting on the side of my house. Am I missing something? (My tires still tuck the fenders on the 54 pretty well) May be a difference in tire size?
Anyone else have good 1953-1954 front dimensions I can compare mine too? Backing plate to backing plate / hub mount to hub mount?
Can anyone confirm the 78 cutlass salon chassis type? Does it fall under the older "A" body family or up with the "G" body cars? I have read both scenarios. I just want to make sure my comparisons are correct.

 

If a '78 is the downsized small car it's a G body. Which I am pretty sure it is, someone tried to sell me one about 18 months ago, but it only had the little 265-ish Olds motor so I passed. It is possible some body styles used up the older platform (sedans? wagons?) but the difference in the two is obvious - one looks like the 73-77 and one looks like the 79-88.

It may not be an issue in Nevada but the frames on these, especially the early ones, are rot prone; a friend in high school had a '79 that the rear bumper - and both ends of the frame rails - just plain fell off from as he drove down the road one day. The car was only like 12 years old at the time.

The G-body frames widen out behind the rear axle a little, too. To get it low may require narrowing the A-arms, or the tires will scrub the fenders on turns. They will with a Firebird subframe for sure.


By the time you change all the things you need to do to make the Cutlass work you could have changed out the entire front and rear suspension on a stock frame and have done less work - even if you don't use kits and just adapt other parts to it. The stock front suspension unbolts from the frame; the rear leafs, if you don't want to buy a $500-ish kit to replace them, are about the same size/length as some 70's Dodge Darts.

 

For what it's worth, I saw this on another site.............don't know anything about them, but might be worth some research........www.ad-engineering.com

 

"Bearing cap to bearing cap" is a LOUSY way to measure the front end. The bearing caps stick out WAY farther on a '49-54 Chevy than they do on any newer car! Before you go buying wheels for your car, measure again from where the wheel actually seats on the drum and the disc, and you will see that the difference is much smaller than you think. (I'm guessing 1 inch or so per side)

 

Stock track width for a 49' Chev is 59 9/16" inches, and tread width measures up at exactly 60" with stock 15x6" rims. They basically have zero offset.

Stock track width for the 89 S10 2wd frame I used was 57" With modern disk brake style wheels, the front tread width was identical at 60" because of the offset of the factory 15x6" rims. This is a very common offset and places the tires perfectly in the wheel well, and looks good.

Most other front subframes are too wide and have to use funky offset rims to get the wheels in the wells properly which ruins the look of the car.

When it was all together with a set of ET V's, it all fit together very nice and didn't rub at all. The tire was centered in the well with common offset wheels.

I am actually thinking of doing another one since I found a 53 Sedan Delivery with a rotten frame for cheap. No channel this time since this one has floors still.

I have figured out how to use the stock steering column also, including the 3 speed shifter for a column shifted automatic Modern style columns look wrong in these cars in my opinion.

 

We just stuck a set of rally wheels on it a couple of weeks ago so we can push it around a little. We have approximately 8 inches between the buldge in the tire and the inner edge of the fender. We couldn't think of another place to measure that meant anything.
Where should we have measured from?

 

Wow - 8" on either side? Mine was nowhere near that far.

Here is a pic of when I was building it. The front wheel is a 15x6ish and has a 205 width tire on it. Its a stock 15" S10 steel rallye wheel.


Here is a pic when it had the smaller 14x6 with a 195 series tire on it.



This car has a complete S10 frame under with with an all stock suspension. It has been channelled however.

 

I'm going to the garage tonight to work on the 51. I'll take some pics so you can see how it turned out. Our's used only the mid 80's clip. The rest of the car frame is part of the original frame where the body mounts were and a total custom rear clip to move the springs inside the frame rails to give us a bigger rear tire capabilities. Most of the photos I have posted before are of the back of the car with the custom tail lights.

 

Still talking car, this should be the same up to 54 correct?
Anybody know what the front hub to hub (wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface) measurement is for a 1954 210? I have not had the chance to take my wheels of & measure.
RacerRick is this what you are quoting?

 

EIGHT inches? I can't figure out how, unless you have 4-wheel drive or front-wheel drive wheels on there?? The S-10 track width just isn't that different from a '49-54 Chevy, and I've seen a '49 Pontiac Coupe with an S-10 front clip and the front wheels were not tucked in that much, either.
If you have standard-offset wheels on there, then either it's not an S-10 clip, or it's been narrowed?? (I'm not arguing with you, I'm trying to figure out why you're coming up so narrow compared to others with the same swap!)
As far as where to measure, if there are no wheels on the front suspension the best place to measure would be the flat area on the drum and/or disc where the wheel actually bottoms when you put it on the lugs.

 

Well the house went through the flu thing and I didn't get to the garage until last night. Here are the pics . The first shot is straight through the headlight opening just to show the room inside the fender.
The next shot is of the opening using a tape measure showing a little over 3 inches in between the tire and the wheel lip. Remember, these are 8 inch Rally wheels on the front
The next shot is in the back against 8" Rally Wheels showing and additional (skinny)5" between the tire and the wheel lip

The other shots just show how deep the 8" wheels are in the fender opening. The Clip we used came from an early / mid 80's S-10. I don't know if the things got bigger or smaller, but this is what it is.

I'm not trying to be a smart ass about this but it is what it is...reagardless of what can be said..the pics don't lie!

I have added one addtional shot showing the original front end on the car when we started

 

Sorry Dave, that should have been 8" total narrower width, not each side.

 

I am really interested in this as I have an S10 frame ready to go under my 50 Dodge Business Coupe. I dont have the frame local, its at my mother's in Pa. I would like to see as many pictures as possible.

 

Big Nick, there used to be a '50 dodge from western Washington that had an s-10 clip on it. It fit very well on the frame. We were considering it, but went with the fatman mustang II stub.

 

One of the main reasons I made this decision was the frame under the car now is wasted, the front cross member is gone and the rear of the frame actually cracked on the trailer ride back to NY. Also there are no floors in the car so I will channel it and and also putting bags on it. I am hoping to get to it this spring, I have 4 bikes that have to be built this winter so the money will help in this project.

 

This is great information! I have been looking at an S-10 swap for my '49 Suburban and now I see it will be relatively "easy" to do the same to my '49 Fleetline 4 door.

A couple of questions though: Is the 4 door wheelbase still 115"? I know 4doors is two too many, but I like it!
My other question, which may seem like a no brainer up front is this; are the newer S-10's the way to go? Sometimes newer is not always better.

I'm presently making my junk yard shopping list, since its too gosh darned cold here in Minnesoota to go out in the garage and do anything but shiver. I've been spending a fair amount of time on several sites that are talking about this topic.

Hey Striped Limey, maybe we can meet at BTTF's and compare notes?

Keven

 

Hey guys, how long does it take to get rid of the FNG subtitle?

Keven

 

Till you post enough times to earn 'newbie' status. I asked lots of questions. Don't do it frivolously though, if you have a Q use the search feature first, then ask if you don't find what your looking for, make sure to note in your post that you did search.

Or you can spend $50 and join the HAMB alliance, it's for a good cause (supports the HAMB) and the discounts are handy, if you plan on buying anything in the next year (from your date of purchase) that the vendors supply.

 

I've heard about the S10 route. Instead I stuck a Jaguar IFS under the front of mine, fitted perfectly and took less then a weekend.

Alex