Both bikes are for sale right now. Can't deal with them and never get to ride them anymore anyways. So I guess that just leaves hauling the mountain bike to races...
yup its only the tranny hump. mounting it straight to the frame gets them really low as well with stock suspension
This first half of this weekend was spent trying to get the body line up where I wanted it on the frame. Once I felt like I had the front wheel centered in the front fender, I marked a few things. I then started to cut the crossmember and trailing arm assembly out of the '66 frame. Took a lot longer than I thought but it is free from its original home. After getting the '66 suspension cut free I decided to go ahead and remove the leaf springs and shocks from the s10 frame. Got all that removed and this is how it sits right now... Frame on jackstands with the rearend free to be moved back however far I think it needs to be moved back.
that trailing arm set up should work out pretty nice. my buddy just did that in his 54 Ford truck and i am nearly done with a custom fabbed setup similar to the factory setup for my neighbor's 83 Chevy truck. BTW. let me know when you ready to buy the bag kit. i think you'll like my price... good to see progress. keep at it.
Is that the factory wheelbase for a '54 chevy truck? Because I think the s10 is 108" and that would give me the 8" that I've heard I need to move it back. I will definitely hit you up when its time to buy bags. Still trying to decide what kind of tank/valve/compressor combo to go with. I'm thinking york engine driven compressor. Then I should be able to get away with a smaller air tank.
Good luck on your project. I have mine mounted on an s10 frame. The body mounts about 1 inch above the frame to get the maximum drop. I raised the bed up about 3 inches to gain some bed depth. The bed will only be about an inch shallower than the stock bed after I install the bed floor. I have a stock 230 inch six in mine and it drives really well. Only mods are pertronix ignitor and different advance weights in the distributor to wake it up a bit. Running a 81 Camaro rear axle with a 3.42 gear and a turbo 350 with a shift kit. The Camaro rear is the perfect width for these trucks. I had to build a small transmission hump, but I had to replace the cab floors anyways. I did have to cut the bottom of the radiator support and I then used a 65 mustang radiator, made some simple brackets to kick the bottom forward just a tad and it works like a dream. Click on my avatar to go to my profile page for a few pics of my truck.
dt50chev, Did you use spacers on your front wheels? Updates, I've been working on the floorboard, but I've just about decide to stop trying to repair all the holes, and just cut the whole floor out and build a new one since I'll have to build a transmission hump later anyways. Found a killer deal on a chevy 250 with 68k original miles on it and I've got a line on a 700r4 transmission... so I think that'll be my powertrain, and I should have it here soon.
I am not running spacers on my front wheels. They look like they sit out further because of the hub caps. If you run a dished wheel, it will look like the wheels sit in further.
Check out the AD truck group here on the HAMB. This is a great group with tons of knowledgeable folks about these trucks. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=132
Cab was a little worse than I thought... More rot After some cutting and making small patch panels I finally decided that I would be working on the floorboard forever if I kept trying to patch piece by piece. I decided to go ahead and cut most of the worst part of the floor/toeboard out and I'm going to build a subframe with 1x1 square tubing and use that to create body mounts. I'll build the rest of the floor after I get a motor and transmission mounted so that I'll know how big the hump will need to be. Going to pick up a motor and transmission this weekend hopefully
My dad just picked up a 4 bolt main 350 for me! Complete with 4bbl carb, water pump, manifolds, power steering pump, etc. It'll be next weekend before I can get down there and pick it up, but I'll be sure to post pics when I get it. Also, ordered an under-floor brake assembly that should be coming next week.... A lot of work should get done in the next 2 weeks!
Ok, I know that there hasn't been a lot of cool fab work or handmade firewalls going on here, but I am doing work and I am trying to keep the thread updated. This came in the other day... as soon as I get the cab mounted up, I'll get this brake assembly installed. Picked up my 4wd s10 rearend from the local junkyard yesterday... It's not a positrac version, and from the numbers I have no idea what it is. But it is wider than my stock s10 rear end and it is 5x4.75 with the same brakes, which is good because I think they dropped it and bent the drum brake backing plate. So, I'll have to pull apart both rear ends and take a backing plate off the original s10 rear end. Anything look odd in this picture? I didn't notice before that one of my trailing arms is bent. Well, after seeing this I started to re-think my suspension strategy. I'd rather not spend 4-500 on a 4-link and another 1000+ on an airbag kit, so I'm just gonna settle for a static drop for now...
Probably not a bad idea to do a static drop, I'm glad I went with trailing arms in my '50 but there is no room for anything back there now. If I had a cleaner original frame I would have just gone static on the leaf springs. Where does that brake booster mount? I have a frame mount version but it looks a bit different than yours. It takes too much room under the cab so I'm relocating to the firewall. Just curious, thanks.
It's a frame mount version. I wondered about how much room I'd have under the cab, but since I'm mounting the cab almost directly to the frame (instead of spacing it up a few inches) I think it will fit up under the truck nicely and be hidden/protected by running boards/frame. Also, I'm going to build a floor for the truck since it was pretty bad off and the body is going to sit so low on the frame.
Not much in updates for you since I was gone for the 4 day weekend to see my family. Before I left, I did manage to make one hanger for a leafspring. I picked up the motor from my parents house this weekend, and when I got back I set it in the frame. The motor still had one side of the motor mounts on it, and the frame still had the original motor mounts on it, so I decided to set it on the motor mounts... Definitely going to have to make custom mounts.
Didn't get anything done last night due to tornadoes attacking nearby trailer parks... I would just like to make an announcement about my goals for this project: I want to drive this truck to the round up this year... 120 days until I would leave for the Lonestar Roundup. Let the countdown begin.
Cut the rear part of the frame at 11" from the end to flip around and move the axle back 8". Also cut out some blanks for the front spring mounts.
Just an FYI before you get too carried away on the suspension - the stock '54 wheelbase is 116", but you will want to make your wheelbase end up around 117.5-118", otherwise your rear wheel will sit too far forward in the fender. Looks like its coming along great!
Hell yeah go Dawgs! I'm originally from Columbus and my grandparents still live in Steens (just outside of Columbus). I'm coming down the day after Christmas.
Thanks for the info, I'll have to take some more measurements to make sure I'm where I want to be. Well if you're going to be down for a few days, you're more than welcome to stop by and check out the mess haha.
Cut off the ends of the frame... 11 in from the end Flipped around the pieces and used a piece of angle to clamp the frame rails together and keep them aligned After it's welded up. Still have to finish grinding the outside flush and make a plate to strengthen it up a little. Mocked up with a leaf spring and measured what the wheelbase would be. Came up with 117" and I'm happy with that until I can get a measurement with the rear end and wheels on.
Got a ton of work done today! Picked up a bandsaw at dirt cheap for $110! After that I headed home and used it to cut up some plate to box part of the frame. After that I welded some plates I had made for the front leaf spring mount and put the rear end back in with 3" blocks. Here is a picture of the frame with the longer wheelbase and lower ride height. And finally I pulled the motor out and put the cab back on because tomorrow I'll be trying to get cab mounts built. Should have more updates tomorrow!
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