Thoughts on a chassis swap for a 40 ford coupe

This build will need something modern for a chassis....modern meaning perimiter frame without an x member. It's gonna get chopped channelled and sectioned, so a sunken floor is what is needed for some headroom. Along the lines of an olds chassis under a 50 merc. I havent seen a swap like this done on a 40 ford, but there must be someone that has an idea. Anybody have any ideas, or memory of something they have seen done? thanks!!

 

That's a thought, but you are right about the cost. The plan is to use the floorpans also from the donor car. Lowbuck build, that hopefully becomes a long haul custom....spending hours building it, instead of wads of cash.

 

I hope you are starting with junk, hate to see a good 40 screwed up.

 

LWB s-10. have seen several of these done. works nicely. the frame can be telescoped to adjust wheelbase (this the lWB and not SWB truck) plus they can be picked up cheap and you can buy mount kits drop an SBC in easy peasy (and droppes spindles,bag kits etc).

 

My dads just in the process of putting a new chassis under his 40 coupe from memory he brought it from chassis engineering

 

Do you really want my Thoughts on fucking up a 40 Ford

 

I can tell you that even though my 38' ford truck shares a frame with your 40' i tried to use a S-10 chassis and the forward steering made me go with the stock frame. good luck if you do use a different frame.

 

Do you live under a rock or something? You can buy a complete repro '40 frame with IFS and whatever sort of rear suspension you want that fits it just like the stock one. Pick up I don't know, any damn hot rod magazine and look at the ads in them.

The reason you haven't seen an Olds frame swap is because they're all too long and too wide, I don't understand how someone can concieve of something like this when they have apparently never looked under the donor car and have no clue what the frame even looks like. Having seen real ones and built enough models I can tell you the stock frame already pretty well follows the perimeter of the body.

Even a damn S10 gets a bunch wider right at the cowl, someone want to explain how you drop a '40 Ford cowl over that crap? It's not much different than G-body or full-size frames except for the width. It's sure not going to follow the body perimeter without some new frame rails made to run from just ahead of the cowl to just about the rear spring mounts, either, and by then why don't you just make the whole frame from scratch?

Which is probably what is really needed to make the changes you want.


I mean I sometimes wonder if these things are just bored people here to stir up shit, the questions are so ridiculous and so easily answered if someone picked up a magazine or spent a few minutes searching with Google instead of expecting the answers to all be handed to them on a silver platter. There's nothing wrong with asking for help, but come on, this isn't how to take apart some obscure thing or a headscratcher of a mechanical problem. This thing is so basic any kid with a decent collection of model kits could turn two of them upside down and see that's not going to work on that.


And if you think I'm harsh wait until the rest of the traditional police show up. In fact, let's save them some work - have a look at how Bill Cushenberry built the El Matador - a chopped, sectioned, lowered, custom '40 Ford coupe. With an original frame, because it was built in 1960, before this frame swap stuff was everywhere.

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Bill_Cushenbery's_1940_Ford

http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/1/el_matador_40_ford/ (photo C36 is from a 1994-ish Street Rodder feature on the restoration and notes the frame details)

 

Use the stock side rails and build the crossmembers how you need them. Now that wasn't so hard , was it?

 

You realy should look at someone else fucked up mess, every one has a dream.
And s10 would be about 15 inches up in back.Best repair old one.

 

I had the same dilema starting the `36 pickup and I looked into the much hated S10 chassis as an alternative to the x frame(much less expensive) but decided on an original `40 frame with upgrades.
It`s about 5 times as much money and double the work time but I think it`ll be better in the long run.

Chassis Engneering rear spring kit & center support/Speedway bolt in IFS & brake pedal assy.

I have a `35 Slantback done exactly like this and it rides & drives well.

Pics enclosed:

 

Having built cars and motorcycles for 45 years, "traditional" means this to me.....low dollar, garage built, nothing farmed out. That's the plan for this car. When I was young the restorers HATED hotrodders, and it' still that way today, except now we have "traditional police" as a replacement for the restorers......hating anyone or anything done which breaks their rules for building.
I asked a simple question about possibilities for this build.....I didn't ask for opinions on whether or not rules were being broken.
For those answering the question...thank you.....and the others??? You know what you can do.

 

leave the stock frame. just modify it.

but if you do want to get rid of it i got a guy asking about one.

 

Chop, channel & section? It is usually either/or - not all three. Do you even have a '40 Ford?

 

I'll see if I can get pics but a guy at work has a 40 on a much modified 60's olds chassis his dad built in the late 70's. Fwiw he says it was a huge pain for him and his dad to get to fit in the first place, and wasn't worth the slightly extra floor space in the first place. He has to run goofy offset wheels and super small tires to fit. His chassis will be for sale complete with its floor pan this writer of you want it. He is building a new chassis based on chassis engineering pieces now...


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Hey runstyn'y, I get that way when my morning coffee gets fucked up too

That aside, and all the misplaced reverence out by the curb, I'm in the mod the stock rails camp too. Floors, drops, cross members, all pretty basic in the big picture. You're not a novice so I think you can grasp the concept with relative ease, but here's something else to consider. Front and rear suspension is already there, body and front sheet metal already engineered around it, proven mods for decades whether it's a 2 leaf conversion or the beloved buggy spring. And yes, while I may have a certain level of disdain for IFS, that's been pulled off for decades too, also on the cheap. The other unspoken consideration is the amount you'll finally end up taking out of each mod. On paper, in one's mind, even with photochop, a bunch of each has the best of us thinking if some's good more's better. When reality sets in and it just doesn't "feel" right, your mods will get conservative. It's a fact of life that it doesn't take much to alter the proportions of an already stellar design. Some end up really shitty cuz of too much, some (like 50 Fraud's gig) make us say "fuckin eh" because it's just right. Just sharing your dream a bit, and my coffee was ok this mornin...

 

it's actually a 39 deluxe...but I said 40 because EVERYBODY knows what a 40 is.

 

Thanks for the answer....This is a good friends project, and he has built others with the same technique...and fantastic success with it. (both styling and function) He thought about doing the same thing with the coupe, so we have been kicking around other options.
We both feel the same way about cars and motorcycles.....it's ALL just raw material.....and taking the hard way isn't a problem. I only talked about the 50/olds swap as a good example, hoping to find something similar for this one. We don't particularly care for the mustII ifs (either stock or aftermarket.) Also, using the stock frame without the x member means alot of boxing of the rails. This isn't something that will end up unfinished....it will get done.

 

90's Toyota mini-truck might be a decent starting point. If I remember correctly, the chassis has a pretty shape that should match up with the body pretty good.

 

FWIW, a friend of mine put a shortened '63 Riviera frame under a '36 Ford. The Riv frame is an X-frame, so it had a transmission tunnel, but with no perimeter on the Riv frame, one could add outside rails to fit the channel job.

He eventually got rid of the Riv frame and went to an original frame with CE components, and he said he liked that a lot better.

 

I believe i saw a convertable done like you suggest, i remember a discussion of how the rear fender had to be raised (the 'section' was removed above the fender, sorta) and that blended it into the trunk area. The hood was sectioned in the front. Very interesting technique.
If you are good enough to manage all that then a frame should be a piece of cake.
Just getting a bone stock '40ish to look right is very, very difficult because of how the sheetmetal stacks up in the front. That is why many of the '40's you see don't have a hood.
Good luck.

 

I can't see any chassis off a later model working right under that without hacking up the frontend sheet metal and even then a front steer GM style chassis won't fit right with too much sticking out in front.

What would work would be a MII style crossmember with a hand built tube perimeter frame that hugged the inside of the outer body panels with a drop panel floor and tall hump. That setup wouldn't break the bank unless you went nuts on expensive suspension pieces. Build the framework for the hump down the middle as part of the frame structure and build it so you can run the exhaust pipe (s) through it so there are no hangdowns under the car. A 4 link rear suspension and you have the chassis squared away.

 

Lets hope not

 

I'm sorry- I just have to laugh.

Before you bashers/nay-sayers get all holier-than-thou, why don't y'all take a look at Hatch's join date there under his avatar. Pretty safe assumption that he has a fair idea on what the HAMB is all about.

I can't think of any chassis that would work better than a modified original, but you might look into an older Isuzu truck. Torsion bar front suspension, fully boxed, & fairly narrow. I have one at a buddy's place if you need some measurements.

 

Well Hell why did you not say a 39 to start with that makes all the dif.go and fuck it up why would anyone care

 

I'll waste some valuable time here....you haven't got a clue.

 

I did (the sheet metal work) a 40 convt back in 93 that was chopped (and folding) top, sectioned quarters, doors, and hood. It was a Ridler contender. We may raise the front fenders and section the hood on this one instead of sectioning the cowl. It will be a long haul driver....radical custom that is comfortable.

 

Well Hell why did you not say a 39 to start with that makes all the dif.go and fuck it up why would anyone care

I care!---Actually I don't. It's your car. Play with it anyway you want.
But last time I looked under a 39 Ford coupe the frame looked fine to me. A few chassis changes and it's good to go.

 

Good old Hatch...

I thought you were dead

Rich

 

I've seen 40 pickups on S10 frames and they looked pretty darned good.

A car can't be that much different.

PM Gator.

Rich